Depression Counselling is available from any of our Perth and WA offices.
Our therapists have extensive experience in treating depression and can offer a range of therapies to find relief from depression and anxiety.
The methods of treatment for depression and anxiety can vary from case to case but working with a professional to find the right treatment can help you to discover new coping tools and can help to minimise your symptoms.
Going through depression can be a scary and debilitating experience in your life but with an estimated 6% of the population going through some form of depression it is important to understand that you are not alone.
There is accessible depression counselling and treatment available.
What is Depression?
Depression is a type of mood disorder. It can be best explained as a feeling of sadness, loss or anger that obstructs an individual’s everyday activities.
As a result leads to lower to unfavourable outcomes such as lower productivity at work, impaired relationships, lack of control over one’s emotions and even other chronic health issues.
Some of the most common symptoms of depression include:
- Feeling sad, hopeless or empty all the time.
- Irritability, restlessness and aggressive
- Frequent crying spells
- Feeling worthless, pessimistic or “not good enough.”
- Lack of interest in the things or activities you once enjoyed
- Difficulty in sleeping or oversleeping
- Lethargy or exhaustion
- Decreased energy
- Changes in appetite
- Difficulty in concentrating or making important decisions
- Unexplainable chronic physical pain
- Feelings and thoughts of self-harm, suicide or even death
Symptoms of depression can manifest differently in everyone, but common indicators can include not wanting to be around other people.
If you have recurring feelings of sadness, feeling overwhelmed or miserable, these may be an indication that you require treatment for depression.
Counselling for Depression: When is it necessary?
Did you know that depression has rapidly become one of the most common mental health disorders worldwide?
Thus, it limits one’s ability to carry on with daily activities. In fact, 21 million Americans suffer from depression annually, while the rate of depression has slowly escalated to 17% in Australia, thus becoming the third highest burden of all diseases.
Given how quickly the prevalence of depression seems to spread, it becomes imperative to understand what depression is and how counselling plays a pivotal role in battling depression.
Counselling for Depression – What is it really?
Being human, we all get the blues from time to time. From feeling low or anxious to experiencing sadness and hopelessness, our emotions can sometimes run havoc.
However, if this feeling lasts for more than two weeks, it’s ok to reach out to an experienced professional. After all, depression counselling is proven to be an effective tool and is there to help you shall the need arise.
From losing a loved one to witnessing or experiencing a tragic event or even losing a job, counselling for depression is especially effective when depression stems from adverse life events.
Apart from helping you get through your existing problem, a counsellor or a therapist may speak to you about several topics. Some of these include:
- Educating you about the main causes of depression reduces the chances of future episodes
- Identify and help you understand what a depressive thinking pattern looks like so that you can counter such negative thoughts in the future and steer clear from them
- How to handle negative thoughts, emotions and daily stressors
- Remind you of all the good things in your life that you should be grateful for to ignite positivity in you
- Encourage you to engage in healthy activities, so you don’t jump on the negative bandwagon again
- Teach you tips and techniques to help you avoid unhealthy habits like isolating yourself or indulging in misuse of alcohol
- Help you learn and recognize the warning signs of depression so that as soon as you experience them in the future, you can create an action plan to deal with them
Therapies Used in Treating Depression
There is no magical cure in treating depression. Depending on your personal situation, the treatment recommended by your healthcare professional may include therapies such as:
- Cognitive behavioural therapy
- Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy
- Talk therapy
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing
- Clinical hypnotherapy
The goals in treating depression are to help you identify thoughts and behaviours that are negative and unhelpful. We aim to provide you with positive problem-solving abilities, recognise and change unhelpful thought processes, and find the skills you need to help you address relationship, life, work, and other life issues that may be impacting depression in your life.
Depression Treatment Options
Despite the rapid escalation in the prevalence of depression, there are ways to control it and take back charge of your life.
As a result of increased awareness, more and more people are acknowledging the signs of depression and looking into ways to treat it.
Amongst the various treatment options, one of the safest and most widely preferred means of battling depression is through counselling.
Treatment for Resistant Depression
If you are experiencing depression that is not responding to counselling, your GP may look at alternative treatment options for the treatment resistant depression including anti-depressant medication.
Anti-depressants are commonly used to treat moderate to severe depression. The type of medication that you are prescribed will depend on your symptoms, how long you have been experiencing the depression, your doctor and the way that your body responds to the medication.
Depression can respond well to combination of anti-depressant medication, psychotherapy and counselling, a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise. In Australia, medication is prescribed by GPs and not counsellors or psychologists.
There are many different kinds of anti-depressants available. The Beyond Blue website lists the different kinds of anti-depressant medications for depression.
Depression Counsellor Near Me
Whether you opt for short-term counselling for mild depression or have been in counselling for quite some time, remember finding a good counsellor is the key to feeling better.
A good counsellor is someone you trust and feel comfortable opening up to. After all! Unless you feel safe enough to share your problems with your counsellor, you cannot get the help you need to manage it.
To ensure that you will receive a professional counselling service, ask your counsellor or psychologist if they are member of one of the peak professional bodies in Australia, such as the Australian Counselling Association and if they adhere to a Professional Code of Ethics.
Living with depression can be quite overwhelming at times. However, recognizing and acknowledging the symptoms of depression and reaching out for help is the first step toward defeating it.
To help you get started, try reaching out to Vision Counselling and Psychology and their team of professional body of counsellors accredited by the Australian Counselling Association and the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia.
So book an appointment and choose a counsellor from one of their 8 offices across Perth and WA that caters best to your individual needs and demands!
If you or someone you know is experiencing these symptoms, we can offer professional and confidential help for depression in Perth.
While the counselling session largely depends upon the client, the severity of their depression and how long they have been experiencing it, a depression counselling session usually includes a counsellor using “talk therapy.” Here, the counsellor encourages a client to speak up and share as much detail as possible about their prevalent condition while the counsellor listens, tries to understand, and takes notes.
The counsellor will then start working with the client and devise coping strategies that may be useful to the client and provide valuable feedback. They will check the progress of a client’s condition every week and evaluate if the suggested strategy is working or does it needs any sort of alteration.
For depression counselling to succeed, both the patient and the counsellor must collaborate and work together towards understanding the triggers that cause depression and then focus on practicing different coping techniques, which will help alleviate these symptoms. Some of the areas that a counsellor might focus on include:
– What a client does, how he thinks or what is his perspective about things (cognitive therapy)
– Finding ways and helping clients meet their basic emotional needs
– Finding solutions to a client’s immediate problems
– Sifting through different ways that can help a client feel better (solution-focused therapy)
Treatment for postpartum depression will help you to identify negative thoughts or feelings and to find processes to support you through this time to help you get back to feeling your full range of emotions and begin to enjoy your baby.
Experiencing depression after the birth of a child can be as common as one in four mothers in Australia. Postpartum depression can also be experienced by new fathers.. If you feel that you are experiencing postnatal depression, depression counselling can offer a range of services to help you get through this difficult time.
