Depression therapy across Wisconsin, in person or by telehealth.

People expect depression to look like a person who can't get out of bed. Sometimes that is what it looks like. More often it looks like getting up, going to work, getting through dinner, and ending the day with the sense that nothing in it landed. Other people don't always notice. You do.

Depression responds to therapy. The progress is slower than with anxiety, and it is rarely a straight line. Most of the people I work with start to feel a meaningful shift somewhere between the second and third month, which can be a long time when you are inside it. We will talk at the first session about what your timeline might look like and what would help the wait feel less endless.

What it looks like, in plainer language

The clinical list is real, and it misses a lot. Depression often shows up first as a quiet, persistent disinterest in the things you used to like, plus the sense that you are mostly performing your own life rather than living it.

• Sleep is off in one direction or the other, often both in the same week
• Food is a chore, or you are eating without tasting it
• The morning is the hardest part of the day, every day
• The conversations you used to enjoy feel like a long phone call you wish would end
• You catch yourself thinking it would be okay if you just did not wake up tomorrow

How we'd work on it

Person-centered work is the spine of what I do. With depression in particular, that matters: you need a room where you are not being measured against a list of things you are failing to do. From there, cognitive behavioral and dialectical behavioral tools come in where they are useful, and trauma-focused work where the depression has roots that earlier therapy did not reach.

In practice we will spend a lot of the early weeks slowing things down. You do not have to come in with a topic. We can sit with what is here, name it accurately, and figure out together what wants to come next.

Most depression I see is a sane response to something true. The work is figuring out what the something true actually is.

Postpartum, seasonal, situational

Postpartum depression, seasonal depression, depression that arrived after a death or a job loss or a move, all respond to the same general approach with the specifics adjusted. Postpartum work in particular benefits from being able to take the call from home, which telehealth makes easier.

What this is not

If you need medication, that requires a prescriber. I'm not one. I can help you find a psychiatrist or work alongside your primary care doctor, and the therapy continues in parallel. And weekly outpatient therapy is the wrong level of care if you're in active crisis with thoughts of suicide and a plan. The right call there is 988, text 988, or your nearest emergency department. Reach out to me for the longer work once you are safe.

What to do next

If reading this felt like a description of where you are, the next step is to schedule the consultation or intake session. You don't have to have it figured out before we meet; that's what the first conversation is for.

Schedule a free 15 minutes consult →