Depression
treatment in Yakima, WA
Depression
Depression can weigh so heavily on so many people. It goes way beyond just feeling “sad.” Depression impacts our sleep, our energy, appetite, our relationships, jobs, hobbies and so many other things. It can be hard to know how to navigate through depression and I want to help you through that, not by telling you what to do, but by sitting in the muck together and figuring it out.
Depression Treatment
I have experience in several different treatment modalities, CBT, DBT, EMDR, CETA, IRT… well you get my point, we love our acronyms; but what I aim to do is create a new “therapy” with each person I meet. You are the expert on you and I won’t pretend to say I have all the answers or “the cure.” What I can say is that depression can be treated, that having a space to feel heard, validated and understood can change and sometimes even save lives. I want to be able to provide that space for you.
Here are some approaches we can pull from:
EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
While initially aimed at treating trauma EMDR has been shown to be successful in treating several different mental health conditions including depression. It’s also worth noting that many mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety have their roots in trauma which gives this approach and the client flexibility. I talk more about this whole process on this page.
CETA (common ElemEnts Treatment Approach)
The core concept of CETA is that we have found that certain symptoms tend to overlap and therefore certain treatments synergize well together. If you have depression and anxiety for example there are certain “flows” where we can pull from skills that are effective for both.
IRT (Individual REsiliency TRaining)
One of the main things we are lacking in this day and age is resiliency. I want a drone to deliver my energy drink in 30 seconds or I’m gonna lose it! IRT is designed to help us get in touch with our strengths, to develop our resiliency and weather challenges. While developed to help young people experiencing first episode psychosis it has many valuable tools for building self esteem, increasing enjoyment, gratitude and much more.
DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)
DBT is all about the balance, the synthesis of what may seem to be opposites particularly around the assumption that we are doing the best that we can AND we need to change. DBT offers emotional regulation skills, interpersonal skills, mindfulness skills and well honestly skills (and acronyms) for just about anything. Above all else you can expect validation and empathy without judgement. This is nowhere near an adequate explanation so please reach out so we can talk more about it.
CBT (Cognitive behavioral therapy)
CBT is based around the idea that our thoughts, feelings and behaviors are all connected and when we change one of those things it impacts the rest. Have you ever skipped breakfast and lunch? how good does a cheeseburger (or veggie burger, I guess, if you’re vegan) look to you? Now imagine you just had a buffet 5 minutes ago? how good is it now? Your behavior, influenced your thoughts and feelings. That burger isn’t magically a different entity depending on what you did, your PERCEPTION of it has changed. That’s kind of how CBT works. By increasing awareness around our patterns, where they came from and what they’re doing for us; we can learn to make changes in our thoughts, behaviors or feelings (though the latter tends to be dependent on the former) and gain a healthier, happier and more accurate perception.
MI (Motivational interviewing)
“Yeah I do but I don’t!” have you ever said that before? I know I have. We all have that inner stuggle for change and unfortunately depression can make us feel a lot more inclined towards the “nope” side of things. MI is designed to help us get in touch with our reasons to change, our past successes, our future goals, our strengths, and you guessed it, our motivation. Now this is not cheerleading, this is not me telling you what to do or how to do it, that’s not my job and it honestly wouldn’t work anyway. How do we usually react to someone telling us what to do or how to change? Usually not so great. Change comes from within and I’m here as a guide, nothing more, nothing less.