Routine Care for Depression
When you have symptoms of depression, or maybe even a prior diagnosis of depression, we understand that you are in a period of your life when you need extra care. Sometimes depression makes it difficult to care for ourselves properly and we need support.
We have a routine of care planned for many diagnoses including depression. When we meet you, we ask many questions to understand your symptoms and how they affect your life. We offer clinical assessments including the PHQ-9 for depression. If you have seen other providers, we can reach out for more information from them, with your consent.
Most importantly, we listen deeply. Often, clients have tried different interventions that may not have worked for them, or they may have had results from others. This is important for us because we do not want to cause frustration or delay your feeling better. We will ask further questions about what you want your life to feel like, to help you build interventions that work well for you. When we listen, we take brief notes that will help us keep your values as top priority from session to session.
It may take a few sessions to get to know you, understand your symptoms, and create a treatment plan with you. When we get to your plan, we will help you decide on two goals that seem manageable. Usually, we will help you define one goal to decrease symptoms and another goal to increase your ability to cope.
This is when the plan and process become uniquely yours. I take special care with artists to further explore how the symptoms and goals have been impacting your creativity. We integrate therapeutic expressive art experiences as frequently as you desire.
Other modalities we use to help you meet the goals will vary based on your personal needs. With me, I often integrate some degree of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy in this process. I do this for a few reasons: first, I want to teach you skills to quantify your goals and be able to check in on your own as to how your progress is going. Second, I find that it can help in times of depression if you are having trouble coming up with new thoughts. Depression can leave us feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or void of motivation to move forward. I can adjust this modality to address small or large issues, and move it at a pace that feels most supportive for you at this time.
Finally, another reason I use Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is that it looks for exceptions to patterns. I always believe you can find exceptions in your life story, and with them, you can find hope. Hope can be hard to come by during an episode of depression, especially if you have not yet found relief.
Your care is always the exception for me. While I follow a routine practice of establishing care for you, I am always deeply listening for what makes your life journey unique from anyone else in this world. I hold a belief that you are irreplaceable and the only one of a kind. I keep this at the core of our interactions because I value you and this healing process above all in the work I do. This is why I help you look through your life’s events and feelings to identify potential for change, and I then help you name that change and outline the steps you can take to begin the change process.
Routines and exceptions are concepts we may discuss as you heal. Having an established routine can provide you reassurance and knowledge of how a process can go. Following the routine can give you both comfort and momentum to move forward, even if at times it may be slow moving. Exceptions to the routine are expected and we work together in a nonjudgmental way to use these to your advantage. In this way, our treatment process models a way to be gentle and care for ourselves in life outside the sessions.
