When everything takes more than it should
Depression doesn’t always look like sadness. Sometimes it’s flatness. The shows you used to love feel like background noise. Texts go unanswered for days. Getting out of bed takes a negotiation, and by the end of the workday there’s nothing left for the people you love. Sleep is too much or not enough, and neither one helps.
A lot of the people I work with are still functioning. They go to work, they show up for their kids, they look fine. Underneath, they’re running on fumes and quietly wondering if this is just who they are now.
It isn’t. Depression is common and it’s treatable, and you don’t have to wait until it gets worse to deserve help.
How I treat depression
I use approaches with solid research behind them and adapt them to you. Our work usually includes:
- Making sense of it. Depression rarely appears out of nowhere. We look at what’s feeding it: loss, chronic stress, illness, burnout, old patterns, or a life that’s asking too much.
- Rebuilding momentum. Depression shrinks your world, and a smaller world deepens depression. We take small, specific steps back toward the things that give your days some weight and meaning, at a pace you can actually keep.
- Working with the inner critic. The thoughts that say you’re failing, lazy, or a burden feel like facts when you’re depressed. You’ll learn to recognize them and loosen their grip.
- Taking care of the basics. Sleep, movement, and daily structure aren’t a cure, but they matter, and we’ll work on them in realistic ways.
- Planning ahead. Learning your early warning signs so a bad week doesn’t have to become a bad season.
Depression and the rest of your life
Depression often shows up alongside grief, anxiety, chronic illness, or a big transition, and sometimes it follows years of running on empty at work. Because I work with all of those, we don’t have to treat your mood separately from the life it’s happening in. If it started after a death, see grief counseling in Houston. If work has worn you down to nothing, the page on burnout therapy in Houston may fit. If a diagnosis changed everything, see chronic illness counseling.
If you are having thoughts of suicide or of harming yourself, please call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or dial 911 now. Therapy is for ongoing support, not emergencies.
Getting started
Sessions are by secure video from anywhere in Texas, so there’s no commute to talk yourself out of. Reaching out is often the hardest part, and it’s enough to start there.
Book an online depression therapy session, or send Laura a question if you’d rather talk first. Costs are on the insurance and fees page.