Depression & Anxiety Coaching

Most people don’t realize that depression and anxiety are not merely states of mind; they are actually activities in which we engage, interacting with each other to produce a vicious cycle of misery and suffering. When we are not suffering from hopelessness, we are wrestling with debilitating worry.

However, the good news is that we can learn to identify and interrupt the depression/anxiety cycle and not only regain more control over our moods, but transform the energy we currently use to cripple ourselves into a source of insight, learning and growth.

Briefly, when a troubling feeling or thought tries to emerge into awareness, we often try to “depress” it, usually by telling ourselves that the feeling in question is “stupid”, “wrong” or “invalid”, etc. When we do this, the pressure we exert on our emergent feelings creates an inner tension we experience as “anxiety”. The more we depress our feelings, the more anxious we become. And the more anxious we become, the harder we try to depress the feelings that are trying to emerge. It’s a vicious cycle, which can make us feel hopeless and defeated. This is what we experience as “depression”.

I assist my clients to break the cycle of anxiety and depression by helping them get in touch with the experience that is trying to emerge. Often the feelings that are coming up need to be addressed; they might be deep longings, unaddressed hurts or even traumatic memories. We need to acknowledge and validate these feelings and work to heal the injury. Once this is done, both anxiety and depression can be significantly reduced or eliminated. Anxiety comes to be seen as a positive force alerting us to the emergence of new experience. When we stop running away from our own experience, we are better able to deal with what is happening all around us in the present moment.