THERAPY FOR DEPRESSION & EMOTIONAL DISCONNECTION

Yes, absolutely. This is often referred to as high-functioning depression or dysthymia. You may continue to meet obligations, excel at work, and maintain social appearances while internally experiencing a profound sense of emptiness, physical exhaustion, and emotional disconnect. Somatic therapy supports you in connecting with the underlying survival energy your body is expending to keep you ‘functioning,’ allowing your system to safely rest and recover.

For people who are accustomed to pushing through, depression can be especially easy to minimize because life may still look relatively normal from the outside. Functioning doesn’t necessarily tell us how much effort it takes to keep functioning—or how you feel while doing it.

When your nervous system detects prolonged distress or stress with no immediate escape, it defaults to a ‘freeze’ or ‘shut down’ response. In this state, your body shifts into conservation mode: your heart rate decreases, metabolism slows down, and energy reserves are heavily guarded. This physiological preservation state translates directly to persistent, heavy, and unshakeable physical fatigue.

Absolutely not. Disconnection is a temporary adaptive defense, not a permanent part of your identity. Because this protective system was learned by your body in response to stress or trauma, your nervous system can also learn to step down safely. Through steady and respectful somatic attention, we can gently guide your body back into active warmth, emotion, and safe connection.

Depression can affect the body as well as mood and thinking. You may notice fatigue, heaviness, low energy, changes in sleep or appetite, tension, diminished sensation, or feeling physically slowed down. Some people also feel disconnected from their bodies or have difficulty recognizing internal cues.

These physical experiences are one reason I include the body and nervous system in our work rather than approaching depression through thoughts alone.

Yes. Early relationships help shape the developing nervous system, emotional regulation, self-concept, and our expectations about whether other people will be available when we need support.

Experiences such as emotional neglect, chronic invalidation, inconsistent caregiving, abuse, or having to suppress important feelings and needs can increase vulnerability to depression later in life. This doesn’t mean that all depression is caused by childhood experiences, but understanding your history can help us recognize patterns that may still be affecting you today.

Therapy gives us space to understand both what you’re experiencing now and what may be contributing to it. Depending on your needs, we may explore current stressors, relationships, losses, earlier experiences, protective patterns, emotional responses, and what happens in your body and nervous system.

Our work isn’t simply about eliminating symptoms. We’ll also work toward helping you reconnect with yourself, develop greater capacity to respond to difficult emotions, and gradually re-engage with relationships, activities, and parts of life that feel meaningful to you.

Talking about your experiences remains an important part of our work. Somatic therapy expands the process by also paying attention to what’s happening in your body as we talk—the sensations, emotions, impulses, and nervous-system responses that accompany your experience.

This allows us to work not only with what you know about yourself, but with patterns that may happen automatically and be difficult to change through insight alone.

There isn’t one therapy that’s best for every person with depression. The most appropriate approach depends on your symptoms, history, needs, preferences, and what may be contributing to your depression.

My approach is holistic, relational, and somatic. This means we’ll pay attention not only to what you’re experiencing now, but to the relationships, experiences, protective patterns, and nervous-system responses that have shaped how you experience yourself and your life. Our work will be shaped by your individual needs, experiences, and what you hope to change.

There’s no set number of sessions that works for everyone. The length of therapy can depend on how long you’ve been struggling, the severity and complexity of what you’re experiencing, your history, current circumstances, and what you hope to change.

Some people come to therapy with a recent episode connected to a particular stressor or loss. Others are working with longstanding patterns of depression, emotional disconnection, trauma, or relationship difficulties that developed over many years. We’ll regularly consider how the work is helping and what you need as therapy progresses.

When you’re depressed, even small things can require considerable effort. Rather than creating a long list of things you should be doing, it can help to start with what feels possible—such as eating regularly, getting outside, moving your body gently, maintaining some contact with supportive people, or creating a little structure around sleep and daily routines.

If depression is persistent, worsening, or interfering with your ability to function, professional support can help you understand what’s contributing to it and determine what kind of treatment may be appropriate.