How we treat depression
Depression gets flattened into sadness in a lot of conversations, but the people I work with who are living with depression will tell you it's a lot more than that. It is overwhelming, a disconnection that causes you to through the motions of your own life without really being in it.
The foundation of everything we do at Denver Therapy Collective is Person-Centered. That matters especially with depression because one of the things depression does most reliably is convince people that they are the problem. We don’t hand you a list of coping strategies and send you on your way. We trust that you already have insight and capacity inside of you, even when you don’t.
What Depression Is
Clinically, depression is a mood disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and functions in daily life. The DSM-5, the diagnostic manual used across the mental health field, outlines a specific set of symptoms used to identify a Major Depressive Episode. To meet the criteria, a person experiences five or more of the following symptoms during the same two-week period, and at least one of them is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure:
Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, which might show up as feeling sad, empty, or hopeless, or in children and adolescents, as irritability
Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day
Significant weight loss or weight gain, or a decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day
Insomnia or sleeping too much nearly every day
Psychomotor agitation or slowing, meaning feeling physically restless or noticeably slowed down in a way that others can observe
Fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day
Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every day
Difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions nearly every day
Recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or specific plan for completing suicide
These symptoms cause significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning, and they aren't better explained by substances, a medical condition, or another mental health diagnosis.
Depression has a way of making the present feel permanent and the future feel unreachable. It distorts the way a person sees themselves, their relationships, and their capacity for change. That distortion is part of what makes it so hard to reach out for help, and part of why having a therapist who understands that is so important.
What Treatment Might Look Like
Every person's experience of depression is different, and so the work looks different for everyone. That said, there are some things that tend to show up consistently in how we treat it.
We start by getting a clear picture of what depression actually looks like in your life. When does it feel heaviest? What situations tend to make it worse? Are there relationships, patterns, or circumstances that seem connected to it? Understanding the shape of it is how we start to find the places where movement is possible. From there, we build self-empathy and understanding. Depression often comes with very little room for curiosity about your own experience.
For clients who have been living with depression for a long time, or who haven't found meaningful relief through traditional talk therapy or medication alone, we also offer Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy and psilocybin assisted therapy. Psychedelic therapy has shown real promise for treatment-resistant depression, and the neurological window it opens can make it possible to access and process things that have been difficult to reach through conversation alone. The preparation and integration work we do around a medicine session is grounded in the same Person-Centered values that guide everything else we do.
Who We Work With
We work with adults in Denver who are navigating depression alongside a range of other experiences, including relationship difficulties, identity questions, major life transitions, grief, and trauma. We offer affirming care for LGBTQIA+ clients and hold awareness of the ways that minority stress, systemic harm, and discrimination compound the experience of depression for people who are already navigating a world that isn’t build for them.
Evening and weekend appointments are available. Sliding scale rates are offered, and we accept insurance. If you'd like to talk about whether we might be a good fit, send us a message.