Depression

Depression can have a wide range of underlying origins, including those which are endogenous (internal) or exogenous (external) or both.  It is necessary and required that if you are experiencing any thoughts of suicide, or of harming yourself or others, that you immediately seek help; call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.  Acute depression is a serious medical/psychological condition and should be evaluated and treated by an experienced licensed physician or psychologist.

For those who experience chronic depression – those not in any acute stage of depression – consciousness work, dreamwork and mindfulness therapy offers a way through the “dark night of the soul” from where we learn how depression serves our development, how it turns our psychic energy inward for the purpose of healing and ultimately how we can lead richer, fuller lives.  Chronic depression often endures longer than necessary because we do all we can to avoid its symptoms leaving the deeper layers untouched.  We understandably fail to see chronic depression as an ally, as an energy which seeks underlying changes in how we live our lives.  Consciousness work, including shadow work, is essential in bringing to awareness the conditions, circumstances, beliefs and self-deception which can contribute to chronic depression.

Consciousness Work and Chronic Depression 

A fundamental principle behind online therapy for depression, is that material (instinctual energies, feelings, emotions, beliefs, etc.) that we do not carry consciously, which is not in our waking state awareness, is often carried by the body in the form of physical, behavioral and/or emotional symptoms including, at times, chronic depression.  Using an approach of bringing this unconscious material to our awareness without self-criticism or judgment, of examining our beliefs and understanding how they inform and affect our physiology introduces a process of healing which helps to free us from the seemingly endless experience of feeling chronically depressed.

Another fundamental principle of our guidance sessions, is that we cannot heal or even attend to a problem or challenge when fixed in the state of consciousness of the problem.  This means that we learn to shift our perspective, to expand our awareness, to dis-identify with our problems so that we can gain a new viewpoint and proceed on the journey to authentic healing.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a practice which facilitates consciousness work by bringing the practitioner to the experience of the present or now moment.  The focus of one’s attention on the now moment enables a release from the entanglements of the past and future and their accompanying pain and suffering.  Mindfulness therapy helps open the gateway to the deeper Self and sets the stage for accessing, integrating and embracing more of who and what we are.

Mindfulness is a journey not a destination.  We practice mindfulness to honor the call of an interior life…when we seek a deeper experience than the day-to-day intensities of surface consciousness, when we seek to move through anxiety, depression, reactivity, fear of aging, fear of incompetence or inadequacy and other energies which fracture us.