In-person in Alexandria and online THROUGHOUT VIRGINIA and DC
Life Can Feel Like More Than Just Getting Through the Day.
Depression therapy that goes beyond managing symptoms.
Most days, it feels like you’re going through the motions.
From the outside, it may not look like anything is wrong. You’re still going to work, responding to messages, taking care of responsibilities, and doing what needs to be done. But inside, life feels different. Things you used to enjoy don’t feel the same, motivation is harder to find, and small tasks can take more energy than they used to.
You may notice yourself:
Feeling drained no matter how much you rest
Pulling away from people or wanting to spend more time alone
Finding it difficult to feel excited about things, even when you have something to look forward to
Being harder on yourself than you would ever be on anyone else
Struggling to focus, make decisions, or follow through on things
Feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities that once felt manageable
Depression can affect more than just your mood.
In your relationships
You may pull away from people you care about or feel distant even when you’re with them. It’s not that they don’t matter—you may just not have the energy to explain what’s going on.
In your everyday life
A few emails get missed. Laundry piles up. The thought of returning a text is exhausting. Ordinary things just seem to take more effort.
In how you see yourself
When things that used to feel manageable start taking more effort, it’s easy to get hard on yourself. You might start judging yourself for what you didn’t get done and overlook how much it took to do what you did.
common depression concerns i help clients work through
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Explore the harsh expectations you place on yourself, persistent feelings of inadequacy, and the beliefs that make it difficult to recognize your own worth.
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Address the cycle of withdrawing from activities, putting things off, and feeling increasingly discouraged when even small steps seem difficult.
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Understand how depression affects your energy and ability to manage responsibilities, while finding realistic ways to reduce the pressure you're putting on yourself.
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Work through the emotional distance, withdrawal, and difficulty communicating that can make maintaining relationships especially challenging.
If relationship difficulties are a central concern, you can also explore relationship therapy.
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Process losses, relationship changes, and difficult experiences that may be contributing to how you feel about yourself and your life.
If you're navigating a significant loss, you can also learn more about grief counseling.
My Approach
There's more to depression than how you're feeling.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the approaches I draw on to help you recognize how depression affects the way you think about yourself, your relationships, and your future. We'll also look at how low motivation, withdrawal, and avoidance can reinforce depression—and develop practical ways to interrupt those cycles.
But depression isn't always straightforward, and no two people experience it in exactly the same way. Together, we'll explore what's contributing to your depression, identify what may be keeping it going, and work toward meaningful changes in how you feel and function in your daily life.
When it’s hard to imagine feeling any different.
When depression has been part of your life for a long time, you may start to wonder if this is simply who you are. It can be difficult to imagine things changing when you've felt the same way for months or even years.
The way you feel right now is not the whole story of who you are.
Therapy gives us a place to understand what may be contributing to how you feel and begin working toward changes that once seemed out of reach.
There's More to Feeling Better Than Having Fewer Bad Days
Have things in your life that you genuinely look forward to
Have a hard day without feeling like everything is falling apart
Spend less time beating yourself up and feel more comfortable with who you are
Find interest in activities and experiences that have felt unappealing
Feel more present and connected in your relationships
Feel like you’re participating in your life again instead of watching it pass by
Things can change, even when it's hard to imagine how.
Questions?
FAQS
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Everyone goes through difficult periods, but depression can be harder to recognize, especially when you're still managing your daily responsibilities. The difference isn't always obvious, and you don't need to figure it out on your own.
With more than 20 years of experience treating depression, I can help you understand what you're experiencing, identify what may be contributing to it, and determine where to focus our work.
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Depression can make it easy to look around and think everyone else has life figured out while you’re struggling with things that seem to come naturally to them. The problem is that you’re comparing what you feel on the inside to what you can see of everyone else on the outside.
Depression can also distort how you see yourself, drawing your attention to everything you think you're doing wrong or should be handling better. In therapy, we'll examine those beliefs, where they came from, and whether they're actually accurate, so you're not continually measuring yourself against everyone else.
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No. I’m not going to tell you to look on the bright side, find a silver lining, or try to convince yourself that things aren’t as hard as they feel. You’re feeling this way for a reason, and therapy gives us a place to take that seriously. We can work on what’s making life feel so difficult without pretending everything is fine or forcing you to feel differently before you’re ready.
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It can be frustrating to invest time, energy, and money in therapy without seeing meaningful changes. Sometimes therapy becomes a place to talk through the same problems without getting much closer to understanding why they keep happening.
I take an active, focused approach. I'll ask questions that help us get beyond what you already know, point out things you may not be seeing, and help you connect what we discuss in session to what's happening in your life. The goal is for therapy to make a difference outside my office, not just give you a place to talk about your week.
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There’s no shortage of mental health advice online, but more information doesn’t necessarily mean better help. Social media, self-help content, and AI can offer explanations, ideas, or validation, but they’re limited by what you search for, what you tell them, and what you already know to ask.
Therapy gives you something those resources can’t: another person who gets to know you over time and can notice things you may not recognize on your own. I can hear the way you talk about yourself, notice when something doesn’t quite add up, ask about something you might have brushed past, and remember what you told me three months ago that suddenly matters now. That kind of understanding is difficult to get from information alone.