Help with Depression – Find out how The Mindset Clinic in Watford and Radlett, Hertfordshire helps people to overcome depression, low mood and negative thinking.*

Help with Depression

Help with depression is available. One of the obstacles to beating depression is the huge amount of inaccurate information that surrounds it both in the medical profession and popular culture.

I have helped many people to re-think their view of depression and consequently they find that life starts to look and feel better. However, there is a certain type of person that I seem to attract. They will usually:

• Have tried a range of other therapies and counselling first to try to overcome depression.
• Been on antidepressants and not found them to be as helpful as they hoped at battling depression.
• Tend to think of trying hypnotherapy as a last resort for treatment for depression
• Be looking for ways to treat depression or low mood without the use of medication
• Be looking for extra support as they work with their GP or Psychiatrist.

If that sounds like you then I encourage you to book a free 30 minute telephone consultation with me and have any questions answered and how  my treatment works.

If  you would like help with depression please email rebecca@themindsetclinic.co.uk or call 07803 603 882.

I use a range of techniques that I have adapted based on empirical research and scientific evidence to help with depression. If you want to read some testimonials click here.

Signs of Depression

Depression: Many people who want help with depression or want to beat depression tell me that they have sleeping difficulties, they find it hard to switch their minds off and relax. They also tell me that they don’t feel rested when they do get to sleep and can wake up feeling even more tired. Its as if sleep is actually draining them rather than refreshing them.  Frequently people with depression also say that they dream a lot. For some people the dreams are vivid whilst others find their dreams hard to recall. Many people find that life has stopped being fun and they have lost enjoyment in things that once gave them pleasure. When someone is depressed doing the smallest of things can feel like a massive effort.

People who want help with depression tell me they become easily upset and are quick to get angry over what might, to others, seem minor incidents. They tend to catastrophize situations believing them to be far worse than they actually are. People who have a depressive thought processing tend to think in  a black and white thinking style. It is also common to hear that they find it very hard to switch off and relax, and that their minds tend to go over and over re-processing thoughts without finding resolution.

If this sounds like the sort of thing you are experiencing the good news is that you are not alone.  Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common mental health problem in Britain. (Nice Guidelines 2011). For more information on anxiety treatment click here.

How to treat depression

There are many views and theories about the best way to treat depression. My approach is to tackle the negative mindset.  This way The Mindset Clinic can help you free yourself from low moods and negative thought patterns that contribute to feeling depressed. I will teach you techniques to re-train your brain to process information more effectively. This in turn should help you sleep better and wake refreshed from sleep and help you to beat depression.*

Depression counselling

Depression counselling services differ on how they help with depression. My view is based on a behavioural theory which purports that  dysfunctional or unhelpful behaviour, such as depression is learned. Because depression is learned, behavioural psychologists suggest that it can also be unlearned. More recently, research has shown that internal events such as expectations, perceptions, attitudes, values, personal evaluations of self and others, fears, desires, etc. do affect behaviour, and are important to take into account as part of a therapeutic approach.  At The Mindset Clinic I take the approach that clients should not define themselves by their thinking style. Instead I encourage them to say “I do depression”. It is a behaviour rather than something you are. Behaviours can be changed.

If  you would like to find out more please email rebecca@themindsetclinic.co.uk or call 07803 603 882.

Depression myths busted

There are many myths about depression;- how to treat it, what causes it and what it is. So let’s put a few things straight:-

• Is depression a disease?

No, depression has biological effects, but studies now show that less than 10% of depression is biologically caused.

• Does depression runs in families?

There is some evidence that some depression has a genetic basis. Manic depression, or bipolar disorder, in particular. However, we know that most depression is learned, not genetic. (Yapko, M. D. (1997) Breaking the Patterns of Depression. Doubleday). There is no depression gene. Just because your mum or dad were caught in a cycle of negative thinking patterns it doesn’t mean that you are destined to follow the same path.   However, you can be influenced by people around you who do depression, particularly if they play a significant role in your life.

• Is depression caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain?

Despite what we have been told for many years. Low serotonin levels do not cause depression. They are a symptom. A study by Donald Kuhn and colleagues at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center and Wayne State University School of Medicine proved serotonin is not a major factor in depression. This study is published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience. “Regarding depression as “just” a chemical imbalance wildly misconstrues the disorder.” – Psychology Today, March 1999

• Are antidepressants the best or only treatment for depression?

Whilst many people benefit from the use of anti-depressants for others the side effects can be worse than the depression. Some antidepressants actually cause suicidal thoughts and increase anxiety levels. So it is important to speak to your GP about the best treatment for you when looking for help with depression. The evidence of a huge meta study conducted in 1995 suggests that the psychological interventions, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy, are at least as effective as medication in the treatment of depression.

• Is psycho-dynamic depression counselling the best type of therapy for depression?

No, recent research has shown that certain talking therapies that get a client to go over and over their depression and draw them deeper into depressive thoughts and feelings can make it worse. Cognitive and solutions focused approaches have shown to be a more effective approach. I use a solutions focused approach, which as it suggests, looks at what you need and want to get the results you want. I then tailor treatment based on this. One way to check if your depression counselling is working is to note whether you  leave the session feeling better than when you started? If you feel less optimistic and less hopeful after a session then perhaps its time to  consider a different approach.

What Causes Depression?

It is thought that only 10% of depression has a medical cause. Research indicates that depression is caused by excessive negative introspection and worry.

People who do depression can get locked into a downward spiral of negative thoughts. They may have experienced harrowing or unpleasant life events such as illness, loss, financial issues, bullying, or abuse. But it is not so much a case of what happened but how a person deals with the situation that causes depressive thoughts. If the part of the brain that processes information continually goes over and over events it prevents the memory of the event from moving into the part of the brain that processes and acknowledges it as a past event. Their brain offers it up again for them to find resolution but if they can’t find it the cycle repeats. This is why people who do depression often find that they can’t sleep, they experience night time waking, night terrors or bad dreams.

If  you would like help with depression please email rebecca@themindsetclinic.co.uk or call 07803 603 882.

What do you get out of doing depression?

For some people there can be a very good reason why they continue to do depression. Here are some of the common reasons I hear from my clients:-

• Some people feel that they don’t deserve to be happy, they believe they are not worthy in some way. They may have no conscious recognition of this but unconsciously it has driven their behaviour and their thinking.
• For others they recognise that they have used their depression as an excuse not to take part in life. They are afraid of failure and they are so self-critical in their thinking that they fail to see their destructive thoughts are destroying their chances of achieving.
• For some people “being depressed” is a frustration about their own sense of status. Perhaps they have not been as successful as they would have liked and so they feel like they don’t deserve to do well. They inadvertently punish themselves by their purgatory thoughts.

The Mindset Clinic teaches how to be kinder to yourself so that you generate more helpful thinking.*

The Mindset Clinic’s treatment for depression*

At The Mindset Clinic I have an understanding of what I believe causes depression based on empirical research. I understand what you may need to do in order to start generating more positive thinking. Once you have learnt how to process your thoughts differently you will be able to see, feel and hear the world differently. And, with the increased sleep you may look and feel better too.  I use a variety of different techniques to help treat depression. Not all approaches work for everyone so I take a client centric approach.*

What do you want out of life?

I take a Cognitive and Solutions Focused Approach which gets my clients looking at what they want out of life rather than what they don’t want. I use hypnotherapy and NLP to re-programme my clients’ thinking so that they can create more empowering thoughts and beliefs that in turn shift their perspective and in turn change their actions and emotions.*

Stop generating negative thought patterns

I teach clients how to stop their minds from generating negative thought patterns, I neutralise the triggers that cause a person to behave in a depressive way and I show them how to retrain their brains to create more positive beliefs systems that changes the way they view the world and how they can experience life. This enables the brain to complete the memory processing cycle. We do this rapidly in just a few sessions.*

Better Sleep

Many clients report they start to sleep better and this is because the part of the brain that processes information has been able to do this whilst they are awake instead of at night. They have less dreams and they awake feeling like they have more energy because they have been able to enter the restorative part of the sleep cycle. Find out more about Sleep hypnosis to aid restful sleep here.*

If  you would like to stop doing depression and start living a life more like the one you imagined you should live then please contact me today. Please email rebecca@themindsetclinic.co.uk or call 07803 603 882.

My belief is that everyone deserves to live a happy life. My aim is to work with people to teach them how to combat low moods and negative thinking so that they can learn ways to enjoy their life again.*

The Mindset Clinic provides professional therapy and coaching services to the people of Watford, Bushey, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Croxley Green, Ruislip, Northwood Stanmore, Radlett, St Albans, Elstree, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring.

If you would like to find out more please email rebecca@themindsetclinic.co.uk or call 07803 603 882.