Depression

Clinical depression is effectively treated with medication, psychotherapy or a combination. Outcome research shows psychotherapy alone to be about as effective as medication alone. However, the effects of medication disappear once the medication is terminated, but the effects of psychotherapy are irreversible, and those receiving it are significantly less likely to relapse than those who do not.

Psychotherapy does not use machines or electronic devices to bring about change. The outcome depends upon the relationship between the client and therapist. Selecting a therapist whose theoretical orientation and personal attributes who matches the client's needs is the first, and probably the most important, challenge in managing depression and preventing relapse.

Our staff includes several clinicians who treat clinical depression (please visit Professional Profile to learn more about each). Clinical directors, Bill and Tina Dubin, each have more than 30 years experience as licensed psychologists treating individuals and families. In addition to their obvious differences, including gender and personality, they each view depression and its treatment in very different ways.

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Tina's View 

Tina is interested in the story of your depression and the context in which it occurs. What your depression is about, and how you view yourself in the story. Tina is also interested in how your situation or environment contributes to your mood. Her strategies often involve ways to manage your emotions until you can create a better situation or find an environment that offers a better fit for you. Social support can be a significant container and buffer for difficult emotions; Tina creates groups for folks in similar circumstances who might benefit from the support of one another. Click here for ways to calm your system.

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Bill's View

Depression is the biological consequence of having negative and pessimistic beliefs about yourself or your future. Moreover, depression makes you think and act in ways that produce outcomes that confirm the pathogenic beliefs. [Please click here for an example of how this recursive trap works]. The key to good outcome is to change the way you react to things that happen. To accomplish this, Bill utilizes cogntive behavior therapy and hypnotherapy to help the client through a developmental passage to acting in accord with your interests and principles [please click here for Bill's online treatment manual]. The links in the lower portion of the right column offer invitations to experience state-dependent phenomena directly. These exercises along with other tools provided here will enhance your ability to influence your motivational state and hence your ability to perform adaptively in real time.

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To me there is in happiness an element of self-forgetfulness. You lose yourself in something outside yourself when you are happy; just as when you are desperately miserable you are intensely conscious of yourself, as a solid little lump of ego, weighing a ton.

- J.B.Priestley