Counseling for Depression Can Restore Hope, Energy, Joy, and Connection.
Symptoms of Depression:
Is your teenager seemingly unreachable? Has your teen withdrawn? When your teen does interact is their mood either lifeless and indifferent or strongly irritable? Has your teenager shown a change in sleep pattern and appetite? Has your teen voiced thoughts of suicide or self-harm? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, then your teenager might be suffering from depression.
Depression is miserable and yet the energy and effort needed to improve the depression is nearly impossible for a person to find.
What is depression?:
Depression has different diagnostic levels ranging from Persistent Depressive Disorder to Major Depressive Disorder. It is a state of hopelessness, joylessness, and irritability that is hard for your teen to control. If your teenager truly has depression, don’t assume they can fix it by changing their attitude. Clinical depression is a complex combination of thoughts, behaviors, and biological processes in the body and brain. Aaron Beck, the founder of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (one of the main types of therapy known to be effective with depression) says that depressed people have a negative view of self, a negative view of the world, and a negative view of the future. In other words, your teenager is feeling hopeless about their circumstances, experiencing self-loathing, and does not believe things will ever get better. The bottom line is that depressed people are in a lot of pain and do not see a way through it, which is why depressed people will frequently engage thoughts of suicide.
How do our therapists help with depression in your teen?
First we conduct a comprehensive assessment. Many times symptoms of depression are caused by another underlying problem such as trauma, OCD, severe anxiety, or even a biological condition. We will usually ask you to also have your child seen by a pediatrician to ensure there is not a physiological cause for the depression symptoms. Once we determine your teen does in fact suffer from depression, we will educate you and your teenager on the disorder and associated struggles. From there we use various clinical techniques (mainly Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) to effect small, progressive changes. Depression is not usually an easy fix and it takes time.
While you and your teenager are getting through your teen’s depression, we are gently and lovingly walking alongside your teen. We challenge their negative beliefs while simultaneously expressing empathy for their pain. We know how much it hurts you to see your child feeling this way. We want nothing more than to join you in helping your teenager get back their life.
