Depression counselling in Melbourne.

Depression is often described as persistent sadness, but many people experience it differently: as numbness, as a heaviness that makes everything harder, as an inability to feel pleasure in things that used to matter, or as a quiet sense of disconnection from their own life. Some people describe feeling like they are watching their life from behind glass.

These are all valid experiences of depression. They are also all things that respond to support, and none of them mean you are broken or beyond help.

Leah draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), polyvagal theory and somatic awareness to work with depression at both the physiological and psychological level. Rather than trying to force positive thinking, ACT helps you change your relationship to difficult thoughts and feelings and reconnect with what matters to you.

Sessions also work with the nervous system. Depression often involves a dorsal vagal state, a kind of shutdown the body uses when it has been under sustained stress. Understanding this physiologically can be clarifying and, for many people, relieving. It shifts the experience from what is wrong with me to this is what my system learned to do, and that shift makes it something you can actually work with.

If your depression is severe or has not responded to therapy, it is worth speaking to your GP. Medication and counselling work well together for many people. Leah can work alongside any medical treatment you are receiving and can refer you to appropriate professionals if needed.

Sessions are available in person at 167 Drummond Street, Carlton, or online from home. When depression makes leaving the house difficult, online sessions remove that barrier entirely.