Depression & Low Mood Therapy in Vancouver
you’re doing what you need to do. You just don’t feel much like yourself.
Maybe nothing is obviously falling apart. You’re still going to work, responding to people, and getting through the week, but everything seems to take more effort than it used to. Things you normally enjoy don’t feel as interesting, your energy is low, and it can be hard to remember the last time you felt genuinely excited about something.
Sometimes you feel sad. Other times, it’s less sadness and more of a flatness, heaviness, or sense that you’re just going through the motions.
what this can look like
You might:
❊ Have a hard time getting started, even with things you know would probably make you feel better
❊ Feel tired or mentally drained despite sleeping or spending more time resting
❊ Lose interest in hobbies, exercise, social plans, sex, or other things you usually enjoy
❊ Turn down plans or pull away from people because being around others feels like more effort than you have
❊ Feel irritable, numb, restless, or disconnected rather than obviously sad
❊ Be hard on yourself for not being more productive, motivated, grateful, or able to “snap out of it”
❊ Look at your life and wonder why you don’t feel better when, on paper, things seem like they should be okay
Depression doesn’t always look like being unable to get out of bed. You can be working, taking care of other people, making plans, and appearing completely fine while feeling very different on the inside.
Sometimes low mood follows a loss, difficult relationship, prolonged stress, health problems, or a period of burnout. Sometimes it seems to arrive without an obvious explanation. And sometimes you’ve felt some version of it for so long that it’s difficult to imagine what feeling different would even be like.
how we'll work together
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I’m not going to tell you that you just need to exercise more, think positively, or make a better morning routine. We’ll start by getting a clearer picture of what has been happening and what might be contributing to the way you feel. We may look at stress, relationships, loss, loneliness, the expectations you place on yourself, or patterns that have left you depleted. If you’re neurodivergent, we might also explore whether years of masking, overwhelm, or trying to function in ways that don’t fit you have played a role.
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Therapy can also help us notice what happens when you’re feeling low. Maybe you withdraw, stop doing things that matter to you, get caught in self-criticism, or wait to feel motivated before doing anything differently. We can work on creating small ways back into your life without pretending that you can simply think your way out of depression. At times, the work may also involve grief, difficult experiences from the past, or questions about whether the life you’ve built still fits the person you are now.
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The aim isn’t to turn you into someone who feels happy all the time. It’s to help you understand what’s happening, feel more connected to yourself, and gradually have more room for interest, energy, meaning, and the parts of life that have started to feel far away.
what you may gain from this work
Clients working through depression and low mood may develop:
❊ A clearer understanding of what may be contributing to the way they feel
❊ More awareness of the patterns that keep them withdrawn, depleted, or stuck
❊ A kinder and more realistic relationship with themselves when they’re struggling
❊ More ability to reconnect with people, activities, and parts of life that matter to them
❊ Greater clarity about what they need and what may need to change
❊ A stronger sense of engagement, meaning, and connection in everyday life
You don’t need to wait until things are unbearable before they’re worth paying attention to.
