You want to feel like yourself again
Depression and burnout dampen your joy, motivation, energy, and connection with yourself and others. Even if you seem to be functioning well from the outside, you may still be exhausted or checked out, just existing day to day.
Things that used to matter to you don't feel the same, and you notice that you're just going through the motions. Rest doesn't come easily, and even when you do get rest, it doesn't seem to help.
You might understand what's happening and why you feel this way, but still feel stuck. Sometimes coping strategies and insight alone aren't enough, and you need deeper brain and body-based therapy for depression and burnout to bring about lasting change.
Depression goes deeper than sadness
Depression affects more than your mood. When your nervous system has been under stress for a long time, it can begin to shut down or conserve energy. This might leave you feeling exhausted, numb, disconnected, or unable to engage with things that once brought joy to your life.
For some people, depression looks like deep sadness. For others, it shows up as irritability, emotional numbness, or fatigue. In therapy, we'll look beyond the symptoms to understand what your mind and body have been responding to, and how those responses may have developed to help you cope or survive.
You need something more than talk therapy
If you've been in therapy before, you may already have a lot of insight. You understand where some of your patterns come from, recognize your inner critic, and can connect what you're experiencing now to your past.
But understanding yourself doesn't always change the fact that you wake up every day exhausted, feel disconnected from your life, or can't seem to get out of the same cycle.
Depression and burnout aren't things you can think your way out of. When your system has been under stress for a long time, these patterns can become deeply ingrained and show up as exhaustion, numbness, shutdown, or hopelessness about the future. That's why I bring brain and body-based approaches in alongside traditional talk therapy.
EMDR and Brainspotting can help us work with past experiences that may still be shaping how you feel in the present. Polyvagal and somatic therapy help us understand how your nervous system is responding, and parts work can help us get to know the parts of you that push through, criticize, withdraw, or feel like giving up.
The goal isn't just to understand why you feel this way. It's to help you feel less stuck, have more actual energy for your life, and reconnect with yourself and the things that matter most to you.
A whole-person approach to depression and burnout
Depression and burnout don't happen separately from the rest of your life. The way you feel is shaped by your relationships, history, identity, environment, nervous system, and the expectations you've learned to place on yourself.
Depending on what you're experiencing, we may use EMDR, Brainspotting, IFS and parts work, somatic practices, or polyvagal-informed care. In some sessions we'll process experiences from the past that are still affecting you. Other times, we'll focus on what's happening in your life right now, the cycles you want to shift, or learning how to notice your body's signals.
Therapy can help you feel more connected to your emotions and needs, and start to experience motivation, hope, and connection again.
Body-based therapy for depression may be a good fit if you
- Feel exhausted, numb, disconnected, or not like yourself
- Are functioning on the outside while struggling internally
- Have lost motivation or interest in things that once mattered to you
- Feel like you're constantly pushing yourself to keep going
- Have difficulty resting without guilt
- Tend to be hard on yourself or feel like you're never doing enough
- Notice yourself shutting down when life feels overwhelming
- Have tried talk therapy before but still feel stuck
- Want a deeper, more body-based approach to healing
Ready for a change?
You don't have to reach a breaking point before asking for help. If you've been pushing through exhaustion or feeling disconnected from yourself, you deserve care that sees the whole you, not just your symptoms.
I offer therapy for depression and burnout in person in Asheville, North Carolina, and online throughout the state. Reach out to schedule a free 15-minute consultation to see if working together feels like a good fit.
