(1) If I were a counselor who specialized in treating depression, I would put consideration, empathy and genuine understanding at the forefront of my work. I would show them special consideration by a

(1)

If I were a counselor who specialized in treating depression, I would put consideration, empathy and genuine understanding at the forefront of my work. I would show them special consideration by always remembering that everyone handles depression differently and while it may be easy for one person to push forward out of that pit it may be hard for another; I would never handle them in a cookie cutter, assembly line manner. My main questions would always be: "How do you feel?", "Why do you feel the way that you do or what do you believe provoked these feelings?", and, "What do you feel like we can do to get you to where you want to be; what is it that you need?"

Since depression is a persistent feeling of sadness or loss of interest, I would recommend my clients adding meaningful activities to their day and things that make them feel as though getting out of bed that day was worth it. I would urge them to engage in physical activity, meditation and moments of reflection where they express gratitude and ponder the things that they loved about their day and themselves as opposed to the things that they felt could have pulled them back down. I would recommend one activity a day that promoted self-care, built their self-esteem and reignited their interest in things that depression has deprived them of. By going about counseling this way, I believe that I will help my clients to achieve their goals of freedom from depression as opposed to making them feel as though I am only rendering harsh judgment and requiring something unrealistic of them. 

(2)

Every mental health disorder is unique in its own right. The way you would approach depression is completely different than how you would approach anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder. Being a counselor to patient that has depression, I would start out by asking questions about getting to know them, who they are, and what they're feeling exactly, without becoming too intrusive. The last thing you would want to do is for them to put up a wall make them feel like they do not like or do not trust you. I would be friendly and ask them to tell me a little bit about their background, what type of things do they love and what type of things do they hate. I would ask for them to do daily words of affirmation to themselves in the mirror. Asking them to tell themselves three things that they really love about them and do it while looking in the mirror as if they are an individual that is talking to them to brighten their day. Another thing I would do is ask them to find a happy place. Think of a time when you were happiest and when you're feeling low or can not pull yourself out of a funk, go there in your mind. Escape to what makes you happy. It would help them to deal with everything going on around them and try to cope in everyday situations of feeling low. Depression is not something where you can just change something in your daily events and it can just go away but something that you can change in your daily events to lessen the side effects is attempting to remove toxic people from your life. Interventions having to do with depression are a very sensitive subject. I would let them know how great of a job they are doing and hope they are willing to open up more.

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