Depression

Depression is often misunderstood.

It’s not just sadness or a lack of motivation. It can feel like a shutdown, a sense of numbness, heaviness, or a disconnection from life. You might find yourself withdrawing from things you once enjoyed, struggling to get out of bed, or going through the motions without feeling fully there.

From the outside, it might look like laziness or apathy.

On the inside, it can feel like survival.

In Gestalt therapy, we understand depression not as a flaw or failure—but as a protective response.

It’s the body and mind adapting to something that has felt overwhelming, out of reach, or too painful to fully process at the time.

Depression can emerge when we’ve had to suppress emotion in order to cope.

When anger, grief, longing, or truth didn’t feel safe to express—our system may have learned to go quiet, to conserve energy, to disconnect as a form of protection.

It may be the result of years of self-neglect, over-adapting, or carrying things alone.

It might show up after a big life transition, or when something in you knows a change is needed—but the path forward isn’t clear.

So rather than asking, “What’s wrong with me?”—we start by asking,

“What has your depression been trying to help you survive?”

In therapy, we’ll begin to gently explore what’s underneath the shutdown.

Not to force your way out of it, but to build enough safety to feel again—at a pace that’s respectful to your system.

We’ll bring curiosity to the parts of you that have been silenced or pushed aside, and begin restoring connection, aliveness, and choice.

Depression isn’t who you are.

It’s a wise, protective strategy—and when you’re ready, we can listen to what it’s been trying to tell you.