Before getting into my experiences with acceptance and mindfulness, I wanted to mention the specific psychotherapies and self-help resources I’ve been working with. I’m no expert in this field, but I’ve learned a lot even from my limited exposure to the key methods and practices. I’ve become most familiar with four therapies that have been […]
Self-Help
Ecotherapy: Healing Depression in Wilderness and Gardens
Ecotherapy is more than a walk in the woods or watching a beautiful sunset. It’s an emerging form of treatment that can help with healing depression. It aims at restoring the connection to the natural world that is usually limited to high-speed glimpses of windshield scenery. Reconnecting to the literal earthly world is an important […]
Review of Mary Ellen Copeland’s “The Depression Workbook”
Doing the exercises in Mary Ellen Copeland’s The Depression Workbook is the only way to get its full value as a self-help recovery resource. A workbook is as useful as you make it. You can skim to get the gist, dismiss it as too basic or obvious to help you, and put it down. Or […]
Mapping Recovery-5: Does Your Life Support Depression?
Mapping the full scope of your depression requires a searching look beyond symptoms to include the way you’re living your life as a whole. When tracking symptoms, the focus is on what’s wrong, what you can no longer do. Following daily life means focusing on what you do, the specific actions you take in response to the situations you run into.
By following your daily actions, it’s easier to spot the patterns of depression’s impact on the way you’re living. You can see more clearly when the illness seems to drive everything you do and when you feel have some room to maneuver. Those are the openings for change that let you begin a recovery process.
Great Self-Help Therapy for Depression: Why Don’t I Do It?
The force for change and healing can start with excitement and promise, then slowly dissipate until settling back into the stillness of depression. There are great self-help therapies to achieve well-being, and I have great intentions to get them all done. So why don’t I do them? I feel like a basketball. It hits the […]
Mapping Recovery-4: Matching Therapies to Your Symptoms
If you’ve been tracking your symptoms for at least a month, you should have a fairly detailed picture of your particular variety of depression. You understand the full range of symptoms, when they occur, what other conditions in your life accompany them and which ones you’ve got to deal with first. Now comes the hard […]
