DEPRESSION TREATMENT
WITH COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY IN SUWANEE, GEORGIA
Empowering Change Is Essential To Mental Health!
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You may have limited control over external circumstances that are feeding depression, but you have a great deal of control over how you respond to those circumstances, specifically, thinking patterns and behaviors.
Break free from stagnant patterns and embark on a journey to discover new ways to navigate life’s obstacles.
Why Do I Feel Depressed?
There are countless debates that attempt to understand the causes of depression.
Young people might be particularly prone to depression because of the influence of technology, social media, and gaming addictions.
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Elderly people face challenges such as declining health concerns or the loss of friends and partners.
Lifestyle choices, personality traits, and family-of-origin dynamics are also all likely to be influencing our mood, regardless of our age.
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Depression is recognized as an "emotional disorder" marked by intense and prolonged feelings of sadness. However, depression also impacts what we do and how we think so it also "disorders" thoughts and behaviors.
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Lack of interest and motivation results in long periods of time with nothing getting done.
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Basic self-care such as eating or sleep patterns may be affected.
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Even the desire to engage in pleasurable activities that once put a smile on the face is uninteresting.
Thoughts and beliefs, as well as cognitive patterns, are also greatly impacted. In extreme cases, the negative thinking might result in feelings of hopelessness.
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Want to better understand your level of depression? Click here to use this Depression Screening Tool from Mental Health America.
How Can Authentic Life Counseling Help You With Depression?
Our moods are heavily influenced by how we think and what we do. A standard treatment for depression that I use is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This type of therapy strives to identify negative thinking patterns and replace them with positive patterns.
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I also utilize treatment modalities influenced by Buddhist Psychology, mindfulness, and meditation, which take CBT a step further.
Through mindfulness and meditation training we learn to make a distinction between:
1) the thought, which is constantly changing; and
2) the awareness, which never changes.
When the space between the thought and the thing that can observe the thought becomes distinct, we learn to take our thoughts less seriously. The negative thinking becomes less “true”, and we begin to understand that just because the mind thinks a negative thought does not mean the thought reflects reality. In fact, you can be quite sure, that at best, your thoughts reflect only a small aspect of reality.
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I assist people in Suwanee, Duluth, Lawrenceville and Sugar Hill, GA, and the surrounding communities to understand their depression so that they can create new patterns that support a healthier and happier lifestyle.