03 Aug Struggling with depression?

How therapy and counselling can help you understand and manage your feelings

 “In most forms of depressive disorder,…the principal issue about which a person feels helpless is his ability to make and maintain affectional relationships. The feeling of being helpless…can be attributed, I believe, to the experiences he has had in his family of origin” (John Bowlby, Father of Attachment Theory, 1980, p. 247).

Depression can emerge at any age or stage of life. Often it is at times of crisis or trauma, or periods of great change, that  triggers feeling blue. For some people, depression feels just like a fact of life – it always been there to some degree, even when to the observer things are “ok”. Whatever the trigger, depression can feel like a weighty cloud, pushing down on you, sucking away energy and sapping any joy you could feel. The feelings can be so overwhelming that everyday tasks like getting dressed or going to work feel too huge to bear. Everything, when you are feeling depressed,, seems hopeless.

Its hard to imagine when going through a depression that things can be different – that things actually can get better. And it is at those times that friends and loving family members can be called on to hold on to the hope for you, that, yes one day at a time, things can improve.

John Bowlby understood depression and a depressive style, like many other forms of emotional distress, as being rooted in our early formative relationships. In an attachment-based therapy, our work is to gently get a sense of how your early relationships may have led to a way of relating that impacts on the way you feel in the now. Part of our work is to grieve for the painful bits, the places of sadness and loss and to start to process some of the anger that may have been tucked away for many years.

To find out more about getting help for depression, you can call me on 07939 643 382, or click here to email me to schedule an appointment in a safe and confidential setting.