Depression
Depression Counselling in Clayfield, Brisbane
Far more than a passing mood, depression can impact every area of a person’s life. When depressed you may lose your appetite and concentration, become numb, or angry and irritable. You may also feel flat, pessimistic, and sleep or eat much more or much less than you normally would. Moments in which you feel hopeful can become outnumbered by those in which you feel hopeless, worthless, and that there is no point in life.
If this describes you, you are not alone. One in five Australians will experience some form of depression each year, making it a situation that our team are quite familiar with, and something we have helped others navigate their way through.
We are the local psychologists and counsellors for you if you are a resident of Clayfield, New Farm, Teneriffe, Kangaroo Point, Fortitude Valley, East Brisbane, and Brisbane CBD. We’re also within reach (10 - 15 mins by car) from those in Bowen Hills, Spring Hill, Herston, Petrie Terrace, Highgate Hill, West End, Kelvin Grove, Norman Park, Kelvin Grove, Hawthorne, Windsor, Wilston, and Balmoral.
Signs and Symptoms of Depression
There are a number of signs and symptoms of depression. Depression can be shown by changes to your emotions or feelings, such as feeling sad, unhappy, numbness, emptiness, guilt, irritability - or simply feeling that everything is too hard.
Depression can also be seen by changes in your thoughts, such as having overly negative thoughts, finding it difficult to concentrate, or experiencing thoughts of suicide or self harm.
Physical changes may characterise an experience of depression, such as feeling tired for much of the time, having difficulty with sleep, having changes in appetite or even otherwise unexplained aches or pains.
Finally, signs of depression can show as behaviour changes, which are often the signs most visible to friends, co-workers or family. These can include withdrawal from family or friends, not getting the usual things done or using more alcohol and other drugs than normal.
Remember, though, depression is treatable. In fact, most of those who experience depression, especially those who seek help, do recover and move forward with their lives with the energy and positivity they enjoyed previously.
How Can Counselling Help?
Once again, people who experience depression can and do recover. However, a common feature of depression is that it can feel hard to find the energy and motivation to make changes. That’s why recovery is often made easier when you have support from people around you, and to access help from a counsellor or psychologist.
Counselling can assist you in finding effective strategies to overcome depression. When treating depression (and some conditions with similar features, such as anxiety), we assess each client’s needs and use an appropriate selection the treatments below :
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an approach which helps clients to disentangle themselves from unhelpful thoughts and behaviour, to identify values, hopes and goals for the future, and further, to gradually moving towards those goals.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) focuses on seeking patterns of helpful and unhelpful thoughts - those that are supporting the depression and those which might help act against depression and instead support a more balanced picture of the future.
Mindfulness and relaxation techniques bring your awareness to the present moment, in order to to give your body and mind a break from exhausting negativity and worry. These strategies can also help train the mind in directing your attention towards those things you want to focus on, and can help with feelings of being ‘stuck’.
Solution Focused Therapy helps you to identify goals that are meaningful to you, measure where you currently sit in relation to those gaols, and identify a range of options to help you navigate the gap.
Emotion Focused Therapy and Schema Therapy are also both effective and powerful methods of understanding patterns of thoughts and emotions - with the resulting insight helping you to no longer act out the same patterns.
Book an appointment or give us a call
Appointments are available 8am - 8.30pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 8am - 5.30pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Medicare and Private Health rebates can be processed for your session.
If depression is affecting your motivation, joy and interest, let us help.
Lighthouse Relationships works with clients based locally in Clayfield, Fortitude Valley, Teneriffe, Kangaroo Point, East Brisbane, and Brisbane City. We’re easily accessible to those coming from Albion, Bowen Hills, Spring Hill, Herston, West End, Kelvin Grove, Petrie Terrace, Highgate Hill, Norman Park, Kelvin Grove, Hawthorne, Wooloowin, Windsor, Wilston, Nundah, and Balmoral - and we’re also available for Telehealth or zoom sessions from anywhere in the world.