Therapy for Depression

You can feel alive again

Therapy for Women and HSPs in Wisconsin and Massachusetts

Depression is so much more than sad and hopeless

Depression is also not having any energy, feeling really off, not yourself. Feeling tired all the time, never getting enough sleep. Your brain feels foggy and fuzzy. Sometimes it’s even hard to move, like you’re walking through water or your arms have weights on them.

Craving deep connection, not surface-level chit-chat.

Waves of feeling isolated, empty, alone. That sense of being underwater, echoey and disconnected.

Blue butterfly on small white flowers representing the feelings of wanting connection. Therapy for depression in Madison WI can help build connection.

You’re the helper. Depression can also mean feeling resentful and irritable after being let down so many times. Feeling depleted after saying yes to everyone else. When you feel pressure to put other people first and responsible for making them feel better, there’s no room for what you want, or even what you need. This is a recipe for feeling taken advantage of. 

And then there’s the self-doubt. The never good enough part of depression. The not being able to shake off criticism, constantly apologizing and wishing the you who is “fixed” would be just around the corner. Beating yourself up over the littlest things, blaming yourself for what’s wrong. Second-guessing every decision, asking other people to decide because it feels more reliable. Maddeningly, this just ends up in frustration since, as it turns out, no one else really knows what is best for you. 

It feels like depression finds you everywhere

Being around close friends used to be comforting. Now you avoid being around anyone, avoid the shock of feeling so alone next to people you love. But depression finds you when you’re alone too - alone used to mean solace, but now it leaves you feeling empty and flat. 

The dishes aren’t getting done, phone calls go unanswered. You’re late to work and can’t get out of bed even though you have three alarms set in different places in your bedroom. You begin to feel resigned, defeated, powerless. 

Therapy for depression can help you can feel alive again

White woman standing with Asian woman under a flowering cherry tree and laughing representing the potential to feel alive again after depression. Working with a depression therapist in Madison WI can help bring back your joy.

Just because you
feel powerless
doesn’t mean you are.

Just because you feel defeated doesn’t mean you are. Just because you feel alone doesn’t mean you are.

 Right now it feels impossible not to listen to that voice of self-blame, the inner critic that is so ingrained you don’t even notice it anymore. And yet it is entirely possible to both see it and know it for what it is, a part of you trying to protect yourself from being hurt or rejected. It is entirely possible to tell that voice to hush, and to get down to finding out what it is that you actually need. (A hot bath, some soothing music, a solo dance party, smelling your favorite lotion, maybe just a glass of orange juice.)

It doesn’t feel like it right now, but it is entirely possible to create a life worth getting up for. Even if feeling helpless is as familiar as breathing, it is absolutely possible to uncover the deep well of strength inside you. Healing ourselves is itself an act of power. 

Connection is within reach.

two light brown hands reaching for each other in front of blue water representing that even though you may feel depressed, it is possible to feel connected. Therapy for depression in Madison WI can help you feel more connected.

If depression is making you feel disconnected, it means that at some point you have experienced genuine connection.

You know what to look for, which means you can get it. 

The other thing about finding that elusive connection is that it’s nearly impossible if we aren’t connected to ourselves. Our work together in therapy for depression will move you out of the quicksand of other people’s needs. We will pay attention to what it is that you need, what you want. Although it feels like this will make you mean, in fact, it will get you connected. 

Getting connected with yourself will also work against that pesky resentment and self-doubt. If you know what you need, then you can work toward getting it. And at that point, there’s less need to be resentful or doubt yourself.

You don’t have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders.

In fact, doing so doesn’t help the world. (Now there’s a motivator if there ever was one!) And for Highly Sensitive people, depression on top of the weight of the world just amplifies feeling helpless.

Right now it feels impossible to imagine not feeling responsible for everyone. It feels impossible to say to your friend who asked you last-minute for help: “I can’t tonight, I’m too exhausted.” Right now it feels impossible not to curl up in a ball after reading the news, hearing about another person traumatized or taken advantage of, rage and powerlessness flooding your body. It feels impossible to imagine that you could feel all these Big Feelings and then still be able to to feel grounded.

It feels impossible to be able to offer your only responsibility: what is uniquely you.

And yet that is entirely possible too.

Depression therapy helps uncover this truth:
You are already strong

No one who feels so deeply and cares so much for other people cannot be strong. It’s just hard to see it and claim it. Claiming your brilliance might feel scary, like you will lose the people around you (“Who do they think they are?!”). Yet, in reality, it gives other people permission and courage to do the same. 

There are plenty of things in your life that are really hard to look at, and it might seem easier to avoid them. (Yet maddeningly, they keep coming back.) The dishes keep piling up. It still takes a year to get over your ex. An apology is still the first thing out of your mouth when anything goes wrong. People still ask you to do things you absolutely don’t want to do and you can’t find a way out.

silhouette of woman dancing in sunlight in grass field representing the freedom that you can feel after experiencing depression. Therapy for depression in Madison WI can help you feel more free.

All these pieces fit together in a puzzle, and our job in depression therapy is to air them out, let in some light, see what they might be telling us.

Working with a depression therapist builds evidence for things that are hard to see

Our work together in therapy will look at things from every angle, build up evidence of whether something is true all the time. We will open doors to possibilities that seem impossible now. (For starters, it’s possible to get the dishes done. And later we can think about tackling that job that is sucking the life out of you.)

Together, we will keep eagle eyes out for the things that get buried, the things that are too hard to see right now. We will build a case that is the other side of the story, the one you haven’t been able to see or acknowledge. We will shine light on the side that shows your ability to connect, your deep well of empathic strength, and the resilience that has gotten you this far.

I can’t wait to see your brilliance.

I love being a depression therapist.

Why? Because I love seeing transformation. Coping with depression is not an easy process. When someone who was feeling hopeless, isolated, and alone begins to find hope and build connection, my heart soars. It’s life-changing.

It’s why I opened my office for psychotherapy in Madison, WI. In addition to working with women struggling with depression, I love providing counseling for anxiety and therapy for Highly Sensitive People.

Longing to make some room in your life for transformation? Reach out to begin therapy.