Often, people try depth psychotherapy for depression when a number of other possible solutions haven't helped -- or haven't helped enough. By depth psychotherapy, I mean those forms of therapy that are really prepared to look at the depths of the psyche, the deepest parts of our being.
From a depth psychotherapy point of view, there are a number of key facts about depression.
- Depression is Serious; it Takes Significant Effort to Address it
For a Jungian approach, depression is not some odd accident that has occurred to an individual. It is something that is orignating in the depths of the person, and it is emerging for a reason. Addressing depression is going to take a deep level of commitment, in order to get to its source.
- Depth Psychotherapy Goes Far Beyond "Happy Talk."
Jungians know that depression is rooted deeply enough within ourselves that mere attempts on the part of the conscious ego to "stay happy" or "keep positive" are not going to be enough. Something deep and fundamental must change within us, if we are to get free of depression.
- Depression Has to do with "the Other" Within Us.
A depth approach to depression involves encountering the Other in ourselves, that part of our ourselves that we would rather not acknowledge. Very often, it is those unacknowledged parts of ourselves, that wish to become alive, and to be incorporated, that carry the key to the healing that is needed in depression.
Here's Jungian Analyst Jame Hollis,speaking on the Other within us:
- Depression is Often About Trying to Find Meaning
As Hollis indicates, it can often be that we encounter depression because something in us is searching for meaning. Often depression is tied to the desire in the depths of us for renewed value and meaning in our lives. To find what is personally meaningful to us is a deeply individal search that depth psychotherapy takes very seriously.
- Something New is Trying to Emerge within the Individual
As much of the above indicates, when we are in the grips of depression, there is something that is trying to emerge within us. This is a hopeful thought: that much of depression can be seen as a striving on the part of something new in our lives to emerge, and to be alive.
What would a depth psychotherapy approach to depression look like in your case? The answer to that question would be as individual as your own uniqueness, but we can be sure that it would involve encountering your undiscovered self.
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