Our therapists provide depression counseling in Woodbridge, VA

My competency and preferred modality is based on cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and some DBT skills. I like to utilize this combination because it helps clients understand their thoughts and emotions and how they can influence their behavior. I'm trying to understand what they want to see in their life and help them manage their depression symptoms.

I teach about the following tools and topics with individual therapy:

• Recognizing emotions on the feelings wheel
• Negative ruminations
• Learning about the cognitive triangle, hierarchy of needs, and stages of life
• Coping skills and strategies for managing and regulating emotions and stress
• How to recognize, challenge, and reframe cognitive distortions, otherwise known as automatic negative thoughts
• Addressing barriers to change by cultivating awareness and mindfulness
• Learning communication skills, such as expressing what they feel, advocating for their needs with the people in their life, and taking appropriate pauses in order to respond rather than react
• Breathing exercises
• Processing journaling
• The use of calendars and schedules
• Reality-checking fears and anxieties
• Cognitive restructuring

I can tell a client is making meaningful progress in individual therapy when they are able to come back session after session and confidently report their ability to use skills, strategies, and routines they have been working on in treatment to address their low mood, low motivation, frustration, irritability, and other depression symptoms. Also, when they are using terminology they learned, demonstrate increased awareness, an ability to utilize therapy skills to regulate themselves daily, and feel confident in their progress.

I encourage clients to supplement their work in individual therapy with positive, healthy, and effective activities, or what we refer to as pleasant events, to help them feel they are making progress towards a life worth living. Also, they can discuss activities, practices, routines, and habits that provide life satisfaction and help them feel like they are working toward long-term life goals. We will often look at a balanced life wheel that I have been known to share. I do utilize education around getting engaged socially, engaging in nature, increasing pleasant events, and other beneficial practices.

I encourage clients to prepare for their first individual session by thinking about the areas of their life they hope treatment can address: what symptoms they are experiencing with their depression, the areas that their depression symptoms affect their life, and problems they are facing in general and in relationships. They can identify or recognize future goals they want to work toward.