Depression Therapy in

Orange County (Costa Mesa)

Hi, I'm Sadness.

✩

Hi, I'm Sadness. ✩

Depression Therapy in Orange County | Czarina De Jesus, LMFT

Oh, hi Sadness. I see you there!

Let’s have a chat about depression.

Depression can be so difficult! People might say, “Well just don’t feel that way.” Or “Just be happy”. Or even “Try to focus on the positive.” And it often is never truly that simple. Usually, if people with depression could feel a different way, they would.

I often have clients come to me with deep feelings of sadness, guilt, loneliness, and/or despair. And they might tell me, “Czarina, I don’t like these feelings, please help them go away.” But what if I told you the secret isn’t in making the feelings go away, it’s our reaction to them?

Hear me out. I know it sounds counterintuitive. But often, there is great healing in not getting away from these hard feelings, but by leaning into them. And exploring them. And better understanding them. Often these things help us tackle that shame someone may feel for simply having these emotional experiences.

I hope to be with you in the most painful of emotions, meeting you with pure empathy and total acceptance. I hope to feel these feelings with you, alongside you, and I hope you know that I’m not going anywhere. By feeling, we can process. And by processing, we can hopefully learn that you are stronger than you thought.

Depression is not a quick fix and it is often slow and steady work. But guess what? I’m with you every step of the way. And we will take it at whatever speed feels right.

Depression Therapy FAQs

Depression often comes with persistent feelings of sadness. But it can also be associated with other emotional experiences. People with depression can also experience guilt or worthlessness, hopelessness, and have difficulty experiencing pleasure in the things they used to enjoy.
There is a common misconception that depression looks just like sadness. However, we have learned time and time again that a large amount of people who have depression do not "appear" depressed at all. Depression does not simply look like sadness. Some of the "happiest" people can experience depression.
That is such a hard question. And the honest answer is frustrating because the truth is -- it depends. I encourage my clients to have patience with the process. After all, we are typically exploring years of built-up and deep emotion. It takes more than a few 50 minute sessions to unlearn and relearn new perspectives and ways of living. A lot of my clients report that the change feels slow at the start, but when they reflect and look back, they realize how far they've come and just how sturdy and stable their new foundation is.