Have You Lost Your Spark?
- Despite putting on a brave face each day, are you inwardly filled with despair?
- After taking care of more pressing obligations at work and home, have personal goals fallen to the bottom of your priority list?
- Are you uninspired by how things currently are but feel too unfocused or unmotivated to determine what direction your life should be heading?
Perhaps from the outside, nothing looks amiss: you get up every morning and go about your day like nothing is wrong. But in truth, everything you do feels like a struggle. You may feel unmotivated at work, underappreciated at home, and sad for no apparent reason.
Goals you set for yourself might never get reached. Even time you carve out for yourself—like going to the gym or focusing on a hobby—gets skipped because you lack the energy.
Because self-doubt and existential questions about your life loom in quiet moments, you may choose to keep plodding along rather than allow the emptiness you feel to swallow you whole.
You May Feel Bad For Feeling Bad
Taking stock of your life, you should be happy, but instead, all you feel is guilt for not being happy. People around you may consider your life to be “perfect,” and you don’t have the heart to tell them otherwise. Knowing how you’re perceived makes it all the more vexing to feel so hopeless.
It may be hard to remember the last time you felt carefree and optimistic. Maybe it was before a life event—such as a divorce or death in the family—seemingly blew everything up. If only you could get back to that version of yourself who didn’t feel lost or constantly doubt yourself.
Fortunately, depression therapy can help you rediscover your spark. With counseling, you can shed the heavy coat of depression that’s keeping you stuck.
At Its Root, Depression Is A Survival Mechanism
As isolating as depression can feel, it’s a common mental health issue. It is estimated that 1 in 15 adults experience depression in an average year, and 1 in 6 adults experience depression at least once in their lifetime. In terms of evolutionary biology, depression was an adaptive response that developed when we lived as tribes to withstand stressful circumstances.
After suffering defeat in a physical fight or social altercation, withdrawal allowed us to maintain our status in the group. Accepting submission by retreating from others to reflect inwardly protected us from further injury. Although this survival mechanism has stuck around for a reason, in modern life, depression causes psychological harm. We often become hypercritical of ourselves, focusing solely on our failures and overlooking our successes.
When depression clouds your perception, it can be difficult to fight back because negativity is all you hear. The benefit of working with a therapist is that they will have the objectivity and expertise to recognize your strengths even when you don’t see them yourself, giving you the much-needed perspective to lift the fog of depression.
Therapy Can Help You Reclaim Your Life From Depression
If you’ve been feeling sad, listless, and unmotivated lately, it’s time to reevaluate everything. Although it’s understandable for you to push away uncomfortable feelings and try to keep moving forward, hoping that one morning you’ll wake up and feel differently isn’t a strategy. Things won’t change unless you change.
In depression therapy, we will unpack your thoughts, feelings, and life circumstances to determine where you excel and what areas could use improvement. I create a supportive, non-judgmental space that allows you to take stock of your life and clarify what your non-negotiables are. Once you better understand what fulfills you and allow yourself to prioritize your needs, you can set about crafting the life you’ve always desired.
What To Expect In Sessions
No matter what’s brought you to therapy, I’ll meet you where you are. My holistic approach looks at all facets of your lifestyle to determine areas for improvement.
This includes everything from diet, exercise, and sleep habits to friends, family, work, and intimate relationships. We will identify and acknowledge unhealed emotional wounds as well as determine if you’re reaching your full potential, both personally and professionally.
What To Expect In Sessions
No matter what’s brought you to therapy, I’ll meet you where you are. My holistic approach looks at all facets of your lifestyle to determine areas for improvement.
This includes everything from diet, exercise, and sleep habits to friends, family, work, and intimate relationships. We will identify and acknowledge unhealed emotional wounds as well as determine if you’re reaching your full potential, both personally and professionally.
Once we understand what’s holding you back, we can focus on making changes in those areas. For example, perhaps you’re too nice and rarely stand up for yourself or bottle difficult emotions inside because you’re afraid of burdening others.
Maybe you need to pivot out of your current career or geographic location and find a better fit. And If you’ve ignored your body for a while, perhaps you feel uncomfortable and disconnected. No matter what you struggle with, I can help you develop helpful strategies for change.
The Modalities I Incorporate Into Depression Counseling
The interventions I draw from identify and build upon your unique strengths, accentuating talents and abilities. As you progress, you will soon feel better both in body and mind.
After we take a deep dive into what you want your life to look like, we will create an action plan to move toward these goals week by week. We will start with shorter-term goals that pave the way for achieving long-term goals. Therapy will also include personality testing to help pinpoint your preferences and supplemental reading to ensure you remain actively engaged in forward progress in between sessions.
We typically begin with behavioral interventions to help you move away from thought patterns that fuel depression. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) quiets your inner critic and reframes negative thoughts, leading to a more well-balanced perception of yourself and the world around you. Somatic therapy can help you locate where you hold depression in your body and get you moving. Emotional Focused Therapy (EFT) will encourage you to create phrases you can repeat each day to counteract any negative thoughts while encouraging a more secure, nurturing connection with yourself.
If your pain has become too much to bear alone and you’re ready for some outside guidance, depression therapy offers relief. Counseling can help you discover what makes you tick and live more authentically in your own skin. Accepting your strengths and weaknesses without judgment provides valuable insight that can empower you to make meaningful changes in your life.
But Maybe You’re Not Sure If Depression Therapy Is Right For You…
I doubt depression therapy will help me.

I know it can be hard to believe anything will change when you’re feeling down, and you’ve seemingly tried everything already. However, my approach to depression treatment meets you exactly where you are.
As a therapist who truly understands the nature of depression, I will be on this journey with you. My role will be more like a coach than a school teacher—although I create a safe, judgment-free environment, I will nudge you forward to discover the life you truly want.
Will talking about my depression in counseling make things worse?
It makes sense to be nervous that discussing your issues could make things worse. And you’re right to feel this way—some therapists keep clients stuck in the past, blaming life experiences for everything that is wrong. But instead of dwelling on the past, we’ll focus on the present and be solution-oriented so you’ll experience immediate changes. My goal is for you to feel stronger and self-assured each time you finish a session.
How much experience do you have as a counselor working with depression?
Since beginning my work as a therapist in 2000, I’ve had a lot of experience with depression and feel certain I can help you, too. In addition to relying on tried-and-true methods, I also keep up with the latest interventions and evidence-based approaches for depression therapy.
Even though I’ve worked in this field for a long time, the work I do is never cookie-cutter. I approach each new client as a unique individual and it’s my passion to equip them with the tools they need to live more authentically.
Together We Can Reimagine How You Want Your Life To Look
The first step to living a happier, more purposeful life starts here. To find out more about depression therapy with me, either in person in Pacific Beach or online, please contact me.
Depression Therapy in San Diego, CA
1767 Grand Ave, San Diego, CA 92109