Therapy for Depression in Pennsylvania

There is more to you and more to life than you know.

Does this sound familiar?

  • The simple pleasures that are supposed to sustain you don’t do it for you

  • Self-maintenance is a chore — you’ve lost the energy to eat, do a bit of tidying, or even move

  • You feel paralyzed between mentally running through all your responsibilities and weighing them against the strength it takes to carry them out

  • You can accomplish things, but at the cost of physical pain and of an inevitable energy crash

  • You feel the crushing judgment of your family, coworkers, and friends on your shoulders

  • You take your difficulties out on yourself and wonder, “why can’t I just get it together?”

You can find a way to keep going…

where you’re nourished from the inside out.

While depression may look like a problem that can be solved with a change of tangible action, the inner experience for each person with depression proves it’s not that simple.

I don’t give you behavioral fixes or suggestions – you’ve probably gotten a lot of unhelpful advice from others, anyway.

Instead, I look past what’s visible and straight towards the complex web of strong emotions, experiences, and beliefs that attack you from within. And I will face it with you.

I use an integration of Relationally Focused Psychodynamic Therapy, Somatic Internal Family Systems, and EMDR to help you break through the persistent negative emotions and beliefs that fuel and sustain your depression.

In session with me…

You’ll be invited into a curious and exploratory headspace.

You’ll get compassion and challenge in the right places.

You’ll receive understanding and nonjudgment for the things that are hard for you.

And I’ll help you push your own edge of dysfunction — in a gentler way than you might expect.

We will dig deeply into the logic of your depression, find and feel into your stuck points, and

break through them together.

Therapy for depression can help you…

Finally feel like you matter without faking it

Come out on top of — and break — cycles of self-hatred

Believe that you are worthy of being here

Take care of yourself without cringing or procrastinating

Enjoy the pleasures of food, connection, and sleep

Learn how to refill your own cup when it runs low

Give your time and energy to those you care about

Find your joy and love for life again

Approaches

  • Somatic Internal Family Systems

    Somatic Internal Family Systems helps you heal your relationship with challenging and wounded parts of yourself.

  • EMDR

    Bilateral stimulation can help you process through beliefs and sensations that were formed out of disturbing and overwhelming events in your past.

  • Relationally Focused Psychodynamic Therapy

    Our focus is on facilitating authentic emotional expression, avoided thoughts and feelings, and recurring themes and patterns in your relationships and in the therapeutic relationship.

  • Therapy Intensives

    Extended sessions for a deep and focused working through of depressive patterns.

You are born with your own inherent life force.

Let’s uncover that together.

FAQs about Therapy for Depression

  • Consistency is needed to build the awareness, momentum, and trust in the process that is necessary to break through your patterns. I recommend meeting weekly or biweekly.

    If you have the motivation, insight, and the trust in your own readiness to overcome depression, I recommend meeting for an intensive to make significant progress fast. Read more about EMDR Intensives and Somatic IFS Intensives here.

  • If working through depression with a previous therapist came to no benefit, it might have been the wrong therapist or the wrong timing in your life.

    You can certainly try again with another therapist – with three key considerations.

    1. First, the therapeutic fit between you and your mental health provider is the personal foundation for you truly benefitting from therapy. If you feel that we’re a good fit, follow that feeling. And throughout therapy, if there are fluctuations in that feeling, voice that.

    2. The therapeutic approach for depression is your technical foundation for improving depression. I use relational, body-based, and bottom-up approaches in depression treatment. These are different from behavioral or cognitive approaches. Read more about EMDR and Somatic Internal Family Systems here.

    3. It takes your honest effort. It gets easier to invest your honest effort into therapy when you feel solid in both of the above factors.

  • There is no universal timeline for when you will no longer need therapy for depression.

    Particularly for folks with persistent depression, committing to the process, having patience for the process, moving slower, and focusing on the subtle things often helps you get where you need to go.

  • Email or call me to schedule a consultation to discuss your current goals with me. If we’re a good fit, we’ll set up a first session.