Depression Counseling

• Do you struggle to feel productive or content because you feel alone, irritable, exhausted, low, out of balance, ungrounded, ashamed, and afraid to tell someone?  
• Do you find it is hard to want to brush your teeth in the morning or even take a shower? 
• Are you confused by or feeling stuck about everything you need to get done?

• Do you want guidance on how to open up to friends, family, and loved ones about painful emotions and thoughts? Are you suffering in silence, feeling lost, and spread thin?
• Do you feel really tired, struggle to prioritize things or want to cry a lot?
• Are you worried you’re starting to feel depressed again?

Sufferers of depression can also face struggles with food and alcohol consumption, and can feel a loss of confidence about the direction of their life and the capacity to be successful. It is very common to feel helpless or hopeless in the face of depression.

When you are feeling down, you may start your day feeling really tired and overwhelmed. You may fantasize about a better or different life, and it is likely difficult to maintain a solid focus throughout the day. You may feel as though you don’t have enough time in the day to get what you need to get done.

In feeling stuck and tired, it’s very easy to want to numb or distract from emotional pain. Depression leads us to struggle to feel excited about or grateful for the good things in our life. So many people that experience depression talk about feeling as though they are sinking into a hole, and feel afraid that they can’t get out of it.

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According to the WHO, over 264 million people across all ages worldwide experience some form of depression. It is extremely common and impacts people from all walks of life. Healthine.com reports that depression even affects young families and not just young mothers:

“One in five new mothers experience minor depressive episodes, and as many as 10 percent of new fathers may experience this condition, too.”

Depression comes in various forms and subcategories, often as a result of circumstances, biochemical imbalances, loss, major life transitions, relationship struggles or a mindset and focus that is amplifying negative thought spirals and a loss of gratitude for simple, beautiful and sacred things.

The accumulation of stress from facing a pandemic, overwhelming uncertainty in the US, and losing a loved one are all reasons why people feel loneliness, hopelessness and/or sadness. Mild to moderate depression is most common.

If you have ever watched the local evening news and paid attention to the commercials, you’re aware that most of those ads feature antidepressant drugs. According to Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute, 66 percent of adults in the US use prescription medication. This is a clear signal that people are looking for a way to feel better.

In other words, it’s a very common issue. If you are feeling alone, isolated and afraid, it is very important to seek professional support. There are ways to feel better and more successful in many areas of your life with the right help. Additionally, any approach that supports anyone with mild to moderate depression will be a multilayered healing approach, with recommendations that often extend beyond the therapy process.

Everyone is distinct and Lynn aims to honor each person’s unique needs so they can start improving and feeling more whole, hopeful and balanced. Lynn honors relationships, hobbies, and rituals as well as spiritual/religious practices that support one’s total well being.

Depression operates within a narrow range of feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Lynn meets you where you are in your life and will learn about your family, relationships, and overall personal history. She fosters a judgement-free space where you can feel free to experience your emotions fully, without holding back.

This allowance and grace is very important: being in a safe place that allows you to acknowledge and express a broad range of emotions is part of the healing journey. As a result, you will learn how to identify negative thought patterns, transform “stucked-ness” and sadness, and feel alive again.

The first step Lynn takes is determining whether depression is new for you or something you’ve experienced before. If it’s new to you, with compassion and understanding, Lynn will help shed light on why you’re experiencing painful states and she will show you how you can move towards acceptance and shift pain and suffering.

Lynn has uncanny sleuthing skills. You may be unaware of the fact that a recent or past event/s in your life may be strongly influencing your present state of unease or distress. Lynn can identify these events and shed light on why you’re feeling what you’re feeling as a result. As mentioned, certain thought patterns influence depression. Lynn will help target the ‘messages’ and beliefs that negatively impact you. She will ensure you learn more realistic, balanced and kind ways to attend to yourself. 

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Depression is not always due to a biochemical imbalance but can be triggered by past traumas and life experiences, major ones and some more subtle and less obvious. Many people feel relief, even gratitude, when they’re able to finally identify the events that have caused them to feel lonely, disconnected, or ‘different’ than others.

Awareness is the key to beginning the journey of true transformation. Lynn ensures that she supports you to find the best behaviors and strategies to genuinely improve your emotional, physical and spiritual well-being.

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If you have been depressed before, Lynn will talk to you about your history, using special care to understand your family story and life experiences and how these have impacted you. She will also help you identify your core values. This process is extremely important, as it helps you live in genuine alignment with your soul’s gifts, creating an opportunity for you to truly live the life that you want.

Lynn will be thorough in getting to know you. She will seek to learn how you create meaning and purpose in your life. By understanding your dreams and desires, Lynn will help you regain confidence and esteem to meet them. Most importantly, she will make sure you feel at home, safe, and free to express yourself in your most authentic way.

Following a deep dive into your experiences, Lynn will help you identify resources, habits, and practices that you can integrate into your daily life to feel more alive, focused and purposeful.  Lynn will teach you practices such as breath work, meditation strategies, and gratitude journaling, all of which inspire greater balance and intentionality in one’s day to day life. She will help you unravel unconscious and even conscious beliefs that are weighing you down and dissolving your self and soul esteem.

Lynn uses a unique breath work practice, in addition to other learned practices, to help you find various ways to move through complex emotions arising from difficult life situations. She is very influenced by Brené Brown, Tara Brach, Kristen Neff, and other teachers and experts that inspire a heart-centered, compassionate and radically honest approach to healing.

We all face adversity at one point or another in varying degrees and having tools such as breath work, helps calm your nervous system, oxygenate your blood, and helps you be more present and “here- and-now” focused, which is essential for amplifying a more peaceful future. By keeping present, you begin to break the thought patterns that focus on the past – a key contributor to depression.

With Lynn, you will always have a plan of action in managing depression and maintaining a fulfilling outlook on life. She has over 20 years of experience working with people who have experienced various forms of depression. She worked at a Veterans Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, and an outpatient psychiatric setting alongside teaching physicians in East Los Angeles in the early years of her career.

Lynn also worked at a clinic in Washington state prior to moving into private practice. She has extensive experience working with people of all backgrounds and cultures for many years.

Depression counseling is not just, “let’s just talk about how you’re feeling.” Lynn empowers you with exercises and habits between sessions to hone your skills and to be proactive and more accountable for your learnings. One way you will be able to gauge your progress is through your gratitude journaling, and other writing practices.

Through the journaling practice, you will come away with an understanding of what depression is as it relates to you and how your day-to-day intentions and focus influence your mood considerably. It’s wise to shed light on what isn’t really serving you in order to find the brilliance in that which can serve you best. In working with Lynn, you will explore humility, honesty, courage and bravery. You will find yourself feeling truly strong, more resilient and powerful.

Additionally, Lynn will provide you with ways to experience a broader range of emotions and feel more alive in the world. In conjunction with breath work practices (Somato Respiratory Integration), you will learn how to experience a wider range of emotions which will help you feel differently about how you move through the world. Lynn will provide you with strategies to move through difficult thoughts and feelings confidently. In essence, you’ll feel more like your true, authentic self in the world and you will walk with more joy because you know who you really are beyond pain, hurt, and self-loathing. You will WANT to contribute to others more too.

Depression is a type of energy that signals that the mind and body need to be realigned, or ‘awakened.’ When we acknowledge states of depression as signals that we are called to change some aspect of how we are moving and living in the world, we feel less threatened.  You can then open yourself up to new experiences and find constructive, gentle ways to overcome grief, sadness, anger/rage and other painful emotions.

It takes great courage to even be here reading this page. Asking for help is a brave first step and you should know that you’re taking a step in the right direction. Depression therapy with Lynn will help you shorten your existing depression cycle, stop harmful thought patterns, and inhibit experiencing it the same way in the future.

With new tools at your disposal (breath work and mindfulness practices, new habits/learnings) that help reframe your thoughts & enhance your emotional range, you’ll feel motivated to stick with changes that are transforming your life. You will stop the cycle of feeling stuck, lonely, disempowered, unmotivated.

Lynn offers free 15 minute consultations.
Call (704) 345-3777 or click the button below to get started and see if Depression Counseling with Lynn is right for you.