Depression
Emerging from Depression
Support for Low Mood, Emotional Pain, and the Journey Back to Self
Struggling with Persistent Sadness or Loss of Motivation?
Do you feel weighed down by emotional pain, stuck in negative patterns, or disconnected from joy? Depression can make everyday life feel like an uphill climb, draining energy, focus, and hope. You might have tried to manage on your own — through willpower, distraction, or routine — but still find yourself feeling the same.
At Sommers Psychotherapy, we specialise in helping you explore the deeper feelings, experiences, and meanings that underlie your depression. In a safe and confidential environment, we work together to uncover the emotional patterns keeping you stuck and help you find renewed clarity, vitality, and self-connection.
Understanding Depression and Your Mental Health
Depression is more than sadness—it’s a complex emotional and psychological state that can affect how you think, feel, and experience yourself and the world. You may notice persistent fatigue, disinterest in activities that once brought joy, or a sense that life has lost its colour and meaning.
From an integrative perspective, depression can sometimes be the mind’s way of protecting you from overwhelming pain, loss, or conflict. When emotions such as anger, grief, or disappointment are pushed down for too long, they can turn inward — dulling your energy, voice, and sense of possibility.
At Sommers Psychotherapy, we recognise that depression is deeply personal. Our work focuses not only on relieving symptoms but on understanding what your depression may be communicating about unmet emotional needs, past wounds, or inner conflicts. Through therapy, you’ll have the space to speak freely, reflect openly, and begin reconnecting with your authentic self.
The Emotional Depth of Depression
Depression is often less about weakness and more about emotional survival. Many people who experience it describe an internal “shut down”—a quiet, heavy stillness that develops when feelings become too painful to bear. Existentially, this can reflect a loss of connection to meaning or purpose; psychologically, it can emerge from years of self-criticism, relational strain, or unprocessed grief.
In therapy, we begin to meet depression not as an enemy to eliminate, but as a messenger revealing where you may have become disconnected from your true feelings or needs. By turning toward the parts of yourself that feel numb, hopeless, or unseen, we can restore compassion and bring those silenced experiences into awareness.
This process can be profound — an invitation to rediscover your emotional life and sense of meaning.
Common Symptoms of Depression
Everyone’s experience is unique, but depression often shows up in some of the following ways:
Persistent low mood, sadness, or emptiness.
Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed.
Fatigue, lethargy, or feeling emotionally “numb”.
Difficulty concentrating or making decisions.
Irritability, anxiety, or restlessness.
Feelings of guilt, shame, or worthlessness.
Withdrawal from friends, family, or intimacy.
Physical symptoms such as changes in appetite or sleep patterns.
Loss of meaning or disconnection from yourself.
These symptoms often mask deeper emotional struggles, unresolved grief, trauma, or unmet needs — areas that can be explored together safely in counselling to help you gain insight and begin to heal.
Counselling for Depression: How It Works
Every person’s journey through depression is unique. Our approach offers structure, understanding, and compassion—helping you move gradually from survival toward growth and reconnection.
Initial Assessment
We begin with a comprehensive assessment to explore your emotional history, current challenges, and how depression is affecting your life. This helps us develop a tailored approach that fits your needs and pace. We also discuss your personal goals for therapy so we can track progress collaboratively.
Building Trust and Safety
The therapeutic relationship is at the heart of the process. You’ll meet with a trained therapist in a confidential, non-judgemental space where you can talk openly about your feelings, experiences, and inner world. Together, we create the foundation of trust needed for meaningful change to occur.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) techniques can be particularly helpful here, allowing you to safely connect with different “parts” of yourself—the ones that feel hopeless, angry, or exhausted—and learn to relate to them with compassion rather than judgment.
Exploring Underlying Feelings
We gently explore the emotional roots of depression — such as unresolved sadness, anger turned inward, or patterns of self-criticism and shame. Using psychodynamic and existential approaches, you’ll begin to see how past experiences and inner conflicts may have shaped your current feelings.
Depression often conceals an unexpressed emotional truth. When that truth is finally seen, named, and understood, the burden of it begins to lift.
Developing New Perspectives and Coping
With insight comes choice. Together, we help you reframe old narratives, experiment with new meanings, and develop healthier coping mechanisms to manage emotional distress, low mood, and daily stressors.
Existential and relational techniques can support this process, helping you rediscover personal agency, values, and a sense of purpose.
Integrating Change and Sustaining Wellbeing
Therapy supports you in applying what you’ve learned to everyday life — building resilience, strengthening self-awareness, and nurturing a renewed sense of purpose. Over time, many clients describe feeling more balanced, grounded, and connected to themselves and others.
Whether your depression is mild, moderate, or has been present for many years, this work can help you move from simply enduring life toward genuinely engaging with it.
What We Work On in Therapy
In therapy for depression, our work often involves gently uncovering what lies beneath persistent low mood — the feelings, experiences, and patterns that may be keeping you stuck. This may include:
Understanding the emotional and psychological roots of depression.
Exploring past and present experiences shaping your current wellbeing.
Identifying unresolved feelings that contribute to low mood.
Working through difficult relationships or patterns of self-criticism.
Developing emotional regulation and healthier coping mechanisms.
Building self-esteem, self-compassion, and meaning.
Reconnecting with values, purpose, and creativity.
Strengthening your capacity for connection and self-acceptance.
Our integrative approach combines person-centred experiential counselling (PCE-CfD), psychodynamic understanding, existential exploration, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. This flexibility allows us to respond to you as a whole person — not a diagnosis —supporting authentic, lasting change.
The aim is not only to reduce symptoms, but to help you rediscover vitality, purpose, and a renewed connection to life.
Why Choose Sommers Psychotherapy?
Choosing the right therapist can make all the difference. At Sommers Psychotherapy, our commitment is to depth, professionalism, and genuine human understanding.
Deep Integrative Expertise
Our therapists draw from multiple therapeutic models — person-centred, psychodynamic, experiential, existential, and IFS, among others, — integrating these approaches to meet your individual needs. Our work focuses on the emotional patterns beneath depression, helping you move toward authentic self-awareness and healing.
Experienced, Accredited Practitioners
All therapists are UKCP or BACP accredited and trained in advanced psychological methods. You’ll receive professional, ethical support grounded in clinical experience and compassion.
Safe and Confidential Environment
We provide a calm, non-judgemental space where you can express emotions freely and reflect without fear of criticism. Confidentiality is always maintained.
Flexible Access to Therapy
Sessions are available both in-person in London and online via secure video call, making it easier to access therapy in a way that fits your life and comfort.
Evidence-Based, Relational Approach
Our therapy is grounded in psychological research and the healing power of human connection. We help you understand, process, and transform the emotional roots of depression — not just manage its symptoms.
Long-Term Emotional Wellbeing
Beyond symptom relief, we focus on building insight, resilience, and sustainable wellbeing — helping you reconnect with yourself and live more meaningfully.
We aim to help you reconnect with a sense of meaning, hope, and possibility — both within yourself and in your relationships.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Taking the first step can feel daunting, but it’s also the beginning of change. Reaching out for help is not a sign of weakness; it’s an act of courage and self-care.
Book a session today. Together, we’ll work to understand your depression, uncover its underlying causes, and help you build the strength, clarity, and emotional balance to live with greater ease and hope.
You don’t have to face depression alone. Reach out today to begin the process of healing and rediscovery.
Frequently Asked Questions
There isn’t a fixed number of sessions — it depends on your goals, needs, and readiness to explore. Some people come for focused, short-term support, while others benefit from longer-term therapy that explores the deeper emotions and experiences underlying depression. We’ll discuss your hopes and options early on, and you’ll always have a choice in how we proceed.
We operate privately. While some clients may also access NHS services such as Talking Therapies, our sessions are independent and self-funded.
Therapy does not replace medical advice. Some people combine therapy with medication prescribed by their GP; others find counselling alone sufficient. Your therapist can work alongside your medical care as appropriate.
Yes. You can self-refer directly to Sommers Psychotherapy — no GP referral is required.
We use an integrative approach that blends person-centred experiential counselling (PCE-CfD), psychodynamic understanding, existential exploration, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. This combination supports both symptom relief and deeper emotional healing.
Yes. Even if depression has been present for many years, therapy can help uncover and transform the emotional patterns that sustain it. Over time, many clients experience a deeper sense of self-acceptance, stability, and meaning.
FEES - Please contact each practitioner directly.
£110
For in-person sessions
£95
For online sessions