All you want is to feel inspired, just a little bit of help. But, all you can experience is the empty numbness of this depressive episode.
01 / DepressionDepression Therapy in Iowa City
Depression can mean much more than sadness. It can show up as a heavy tax on the life you want to be living. Answering a text costs far more than you know it “should.” Showering costs more, getting out of bed costs more, and you feel like you have nothing left to spend in the first place.
02 / what it can feel likeHow much is depression costing you?
Depression hides well. You may be functioning as best you can, spending everything you have to keep the pilot light on. The gap between how hard each day feels and how “fine” you look to the world brings its own loneliness.
You may notice that the hobbies and people that used to call out for your attention have gone quiet. The quiet is flat and numb. Music that used to lift you does nothing now. Plans with friends you would once have looked forward to arrive as a weight so heavy you no longer want to go. Your friends and family may read the flatness as disinterest, or as a failure of their own. What it usually means is that you have been running on empty.
Self-talk tends to turn harsh around the same time. Depression is very good at arguing that your exhaustion is a character problem, that your friends or coworkers manage fine, and that you should be able to figure it out on your own. The voice is shaming you, the voice is judging you, and you are too tired to push it away.
To recognize ourselves in a struggling state is acceptance that its real, and also, that it can change...
03 / How I WorkFour approaches
I use EMDR, NARM, DBT skills work and Ego-State Therapy to help you through the emotional difficulties you are experiencing.
EMDR has a place when something specific sits underneath the flatness: a loss, a betrayal, or a stretch of years you have never healed from. When a memory still carries a charge, processing it can lift much of what grew on top of it.
DBT skills work gives you something to do on the hard days while the deeper work goes on. You learn skills for getting through an evening you cannot think your way through. You also learn to catch the negative inner voice as a voice that lies, rather than taking it as a fact.
Ego-State Therapy is for the moments you feel detached from your body or your surroundings, which is called dissociation.
NARM works on the patterns underneath the symptoms. These include long habits of putting your own needs last, and the ways you learned early in life to stay close to your caregivers.
04 / The logisticsWhat it costs and how long it takes
I do not bill insurance, so you and I decide how your care goes. No insurance company sets a limit on the sessions you get.
You can still ask your insurer to pay you back. I will give you a superbill, which is an itemized receipt you send to them yourself.
You can also ask for a Good Faith Estimate before we start, and the No Surprises Act gives you the right to one. It lists what your care is likely to cost.
How long therapy takes is different for every client. One clear goal may take a handful of sessions, and patterns you have carried since childhood can take longer. I will give you my thoughts after the first few sessions, rather than a firm number on day one.
FreeFree Consultation
A relaxed, 15-minute talk about what you need and whether we fit. By phone, by video, or in person.
$185Therapy Sessions
Weekly 53-minute sessions shaped around your needs, in Iowa City or by telehealth in Iowa and North Carolina.
Free DownloadThe Grounding Guide
A one-page set of grounding tools you can use the next time your body runs ahead of you.
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05 / Reach outA fifteen-minute call, and no obligation afterwards
Tell me what has been going on, and what you hope therapy with me can change. If I am not the right fit, I will tell you early and help you find a clinician who is.