Depression Therapists in Berkeley, CA
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Claire Stone
Marriage & Family Therapist, MFT
Verified
Verified
Are you overwhelmed with the demands of life, leaving you feeling anxious and
depressed
? Do relationships seem really hard to maintain? Maybe you can get a glimpse of what would make you happy, but you just can't seem to make it happen. Or when you try to make change, you find yourself stuck in the same negative pattern. I can help you find your way through these hardships, helping you to transform self-defeating patterns and create a satisfying life. You will then experience new ways of being that will feel liberating and serve you much better.
Stacey Hoffman
Marriage & Family Therapist, MA, MFT
Verified
Verified
I work with adults and couples of all ages wanting a safe and confidential environment, with an experienced therapist. We all want to feel happy, connected to people we love and/or connected to the work we do. These basic parts of life can bring tremendous fulfillment, but if not actualized, can evoke loneliness,
depression
, anxiety, anger or resentment. Sometimes behaviors intended to be helpful, create even more problems, and suffering. I believe in my work and my clients desire to move out of anxiety or suffering, and into a more satisfying and fulfilling life.
Nancy Jackson
Marriage & Family Therapist, LMFT
Verified
1 Endorsed
Verified
1 Endorsed
My patients have difficulties with
depression
, anxiety, self doubt, and interpersonal relationships.
Authentic change happens from the inside out. It can't be veneered onto one's surface. Painful life experiences create a complex web inside that shapes a person's world. This web can limit one's ability to find joy and meaning in life. Psychotherapy offers a way to access deep emotional experience. As therapy proceeds connections will start to appear between past & current life experience. Problematic internal patterns will become visible and open to reevaluation and change. As internal stress decreases, clarity, joy and meaning will have the chance to emerge.
Susan K Maxwell
Psychologist, PsyD
Verified
Verified
Even when we are trying to do everything right, things can feel wrong. If you cope with anxiety or are drowning in a difficult work environment, we will find the specific ways your nervous system grounds. If you struggle with
depression
, we will knit connection and purpose to heal disconnection. If you carry adult or childhood trauma, I offer evidence-based therapies for recovery. When appropriate, we will soften and shift habits through somatic-based practices. Even if you’ve never been interested in anything “spiritual,” meditation and breathing practices can give a frayed mind/body the experience of sanctuary it needs.
Anna M Musco
Marriage & Family Therapist, MA, LMFT
Verified
Verified
Damaged relationships with the world and our families can affect us deeply throughout our lives leaving us feeling isolated, uncomfortable in our bodies and generally unsafe. Our energy begins to decline along with our enthusiasm for life. Its confusing. We quietly stonewall everything and everyone while wishing for the right partner, right career and right friends. Feelings of insecurity, loneliness or shame can spiral into deep bouts of
depression
, acting out, despair and suicide. Prioritizing the needs of everyone else can lead to unhealthy behaviors and choices supplanting authenticity and joy, while swapping virtual reality for real relationships and happiness.
Waitlist for new clients
Peninsula Counseling and Consulting
Clinical Social Work/Therapist, MBA, LCSW
Verified
4 Endorsed
Verified
4 Endorsed
Let’s be honest: you’ve always been a responsible adult, and now you’ve got a lot to manage! Between a demanding career and family needs, you’re feeling stressed, and life feels out of balance. It’s impossible to do it all, and nothing ever seems good enough. You feel alone and worried, and your social network isn’t able to provide you with the support that you need. Perhaps your sleep is problematic, or your energy is low. Maybe you’re feeling anxious,
depressed
, irritable, or having difficulty concentrating. You might be troubled by feeling that you're an ineffective partner or parent. Things will get better soon, right?
Rebecca Bluestone Epstein
Psychologist, DMH, MFT, MS, EdM
Verified
1 Endorsed
Verified
1 Endorsed
I am a Berkeley clinical psychologist who has been in practice for thirty nine years. I see children, adolescents, adults, couples/families who are seeking help for relationship problems,
depression
, anxiety, post-trumatic stress, losses and life transitions. I am known for my excellent dedicated patient care, warmth, trustworthiness, problem solving and good sound advice. I provide a supportive environment to enhance healing and change. I enjoy working with business leaders and helping employees with work related difficulties.
Steve Kanofsky
Psychologist, PhD, MFT
Verified
Verified
I work best with clients who are looking for a safe and caring therapy relationship in order to pursue goals that have previously seemed too difficult to achieve alone. These goals typically range from wanting to experience life more fully, including a fuller range of emotions, to having more rewarding relationships and more fulfilling work lives. I have been practicing psychotherapy for 33 years, have been teaching it for almost as long, and feel comfortable assisting with a very wide range of issues, including
depression
, anxiety, parenting challenges and other relationship and family conflicts.
Ilya Parizhsky
Marriage & Family Therapist, MFT
Verified
7 Endorsed
Verified
7 Endorsed
How did you decide it was time to look for a therapist? It’s usually emotional pain - anxiety, sadness/
depression
, grief, relationship problems - that brings you here. And addressing the source of that pain is the start of our journey. We’d begin with a 15/20 minute phone call where you lay out what you’re dealing with and I give you some sense of how we would begin to tackle it. Most therapists offer this and it’s a really solid way to feel into whether you want to work with someone. I have seen over and over that the pain that brings someone to therapy - if you work with it - is actually a gift.
Not accepting new clients
Patricia B. Becker
Clinical Social Work/Therapist, PhD, LCSW
Verified
Verified
Developing a trusting relationship is the most important element in successful psychotherapy. We will create a unique relationship that encourages your expression of inner feelings and learning to know what is true for you. I appreciate depth work, and although weekly sessions are beneficial, up to three sessions per week deepens the process.
I frequently work with the following issues:
depression
, anxiety, relationship problems, disabilities and chronic illness, self-esteem and LGBTQ issues.
Morgan Hart
Clinical Social Work/Therapist, MSW, LCSW
Verified
Verified
I am a compassionate, interactive, collaborative therapist who works with adult individuals, couples and parents who are facing a major life transition, relationship challenges,
depression
, anxiety, or self-defeating patterns of behavior. I believe in the healing power of humor and I strive to develop a frame that is profoundly supportive but also challenging, where you will feel free to express your feelings and speak your mind, with meaningful change and growth as our shared goal. My approach is trauma-informed; it integrates attachment theory, dynamic emotion focused therapy, neurobiology, systems, and relational models.
Suzie Shihshin Wu
Clinical Social Work/Therapist, LCSW, CA/NY, MSW
Verified
4 Endorsed
Verified
4 Endorsed
I am an experienced licensed clinical social worker providing short and long-term psychotherapy to individuals, couple, and family. I specialize in trauma,
depression
, anxiety, immigration, parenting, life transitions, relational issues, and Asian identify.Therapy is a collaborated work with trust and sense of safety. We discover various aspects of your parts, discover relationship and behavior patterns, look into issues from new perspectives to promote a better quality of life. I am respectful to everyone I treat and can easily connect with you. Together, we create treatment goals that settled in your needs and best results.
Debra Milinsky
Clinical Social Work/Therapist, MSW, MA, LCSW
Verified
Verified
Every journey.. your first thought to call a therapist when you need to talk to someone, begins with a single step. When anxiety,
depression
, stress, personal, family, work relationship problems lead you to reach out, I will listen and help you find the best way through. Experienced licensed psychotherapist, 40+ years in general psychotherapy practice, I provide a safe place to talk, explore, resolve, heal what is challenging or troubling. I bring compassion, perceptiveness combined with patience, curiosity and many years of knowledge and skill to our collaboration to help you find effective solutions and make better life choices.
Heather Paige Collins
Clinical Social Work/Therapist, LCSW, PPSC
Verified
Verified
I have over 20 years of clinical experience working with children and adults in a variety of settings, including in-patient and out-patient psychotherapy, and schools. While I enjoy helping people who have relationship problems and suffer from
depression
, I also have expertise with children and adolescents who have experienced trauma, suffer from anxiety, mood disorders, or adjustment issues related to family stressors.
Not accepting new clients
Betty Tharpe
Marriage & Family Therapist, MFT
Verified
1 Endorsed
Verified
1 Endorsed
I work with adults, adolescents, children and couples / families. If you are anxious,
depressed
, or lonely; in a troubled relationship, grieving, haunted by childhood trauma, or painful, confusing feelings; it can be hard to make headway alone. There are times when the reason for coming to therapy is clear (a loss, a crisis), other times a feeling that something is holding you back, or keeping you from your self.
Carol Zeitlin
Marriage & Family Therapist, MA, LMFT
Verified
2 Endorsed
Verified
2 Endorsed
If you are curious about being in therapy with me, I invite you to set up a 30-minute consultation session at no charge. I am committed to helping adults who are struggling with painful situations such as
depression
, anxiety, relationship issues, or feelings of disconnection. Together, we will strive to understand your emotional suffering and recognize relationship patterns that have not served you well. Over time we will use our relationship to rework old patterns and allow you to see choices in life where before there had seemed to be none.
Jessica Brown
Marriage & Family Therapist, LMFT, MA
Verified
6 Endorsed
Verified
6 Endorsed
Together we work to develop a new path forward by understanding the many facets within them: the desires they have to expand themselves and their lives, and the parts where they get stuck and held back by experiences such as
depression
, anxiety, insecurity, trauma and pain.
Many of the people I work with are unsatisfied or struggling in key areas of their lives. They are challenged by unfulfilling relationships with co-workers, romantic partners, dating, friends, or family members. The difficulties they face can tend to feel familiar; patterns they have not yet been able to fully understand or find their way out of on their own. Many patterns are formed by relationships in our early lives, therefore it takes a healing and generative relationship to make real change. I also work with individuals and couples who are facing the major life transition of becoming parents.
Lori Goldman
Marriage & Family Therapist, MA, MFT
Verified
4 Endorsed
Verified
4 Endorsed
In my work with adults, I specialize in the following areas: heightened sensitivity, difficulties with trust, anxiety and panic,
depression
, ambivalence, interpersonal trauma, relationship problems and with those who want to experience more meaning, intimacy and authenticity in their lives.
I am direct, genuine and collaborative, and bring a natural curiosity and empathy to my work with clients. I use a relational depth-oriented therapeutic approach with a focus on present moment bodily and emotional experience to help my clients work through hard places, release emotional blocks and feel more creative and free in their lives.
Camara Meri Rajabari
Marriage & Family Therapist, MA, LMFT
Verified
Verified
Do you experience a constant and unyielding inner critic that points out every mistake and every flaw you have. Do you often feel like an imposter—not good enough and unqualified? Like you, my clients are people at the top of their class, leaders in their career, recognized creators, yet they feel unaccomplished and undeserving. They describe many moments feeling panicked and alone in their feelings. Their anxiety causes them to overextend themselves to get validation from others. They experience cycles of burnout and
depression
. They put their own needs last—every time. They find it hard to say no and practice healthy boundaries.
Sarah Gold
Marriage & Family Therapist, LMFT
Verified
Verified
If you are struggling with
depression
, anxiety, self esteem issues, or challenges in relationships then you have come to the right place. I have helped many people to improve their lives through an approach that uses evidence based treatment methods and clear therapy goals. It is time to stop habitual mental and behavioral programs that overtake and rule your life. We focus on breaking through these patterns and giving you the means to grow in adaptive, life affirming ways. I will help you decrease your emotional pain, find healthy coping strategies, and be the version of yourself that you most want to be.
See more therapy options for Berkeley
Depression Therapists
What is the goal of therapy for depression?
Therapy for depression has several major goals. One is to relieve the mental pain of depression, which distorts feeling and thinking so that sufferers cannot see beyond their current state of mind or envision feeling better. Another is to give people the mental tools to recognize and correct the kinds of distorted thinking that turn a problem into a catastrophe and lead to despair. Therapy also teaches people how to process negative emotions in constructive ways, so they have more control over their own emotional reactivity. And it helps people regain the ability to see themselves positively, the motivation to do things, and the capacity for pleasure.
What happens in therapy for depression?
Perhaps most important, no matter the type of therapy, patients form an alliance with the therapist; that connection is therapeutic in itself, plus it becomes an instrument of change. Patients learn to identify and to challenge their own erroneous beliefs and thoughts that amplify the effects of negative experiences. They learn to identify situations in which they are especially vulnerable. And they learn new patterns of thinking and behaving. They may be given “homework” assignments in which they practice their developing skills. In addition, good therapists regularly monitor patients to assess whether and how much the condition is improving.
What therapy types help with depression?
Several types of short-term therapy have been found effective, each targeting one or more areas of dysfunction. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps clients challenge their negative thoughts and beliefs, learn new behavioral strategies, and curb reactivity to distressing situations. Behavioral activation (BA) is a form of therapy often used in conjunction with CBT; it focuses on engagement in rewarding activity as a pathway to changing negative feelings and disturbed mood. Another widely used approach is interpersonal therapy (IPT), which targets the social difficulties that both give rise to and get exacerbated by depression. Therapists may combine approaches as needed.
Can therapy for depression be done online?
Studies have found that online therapy can be highly effective for treating depression, although it may be more challenging to build a good therapist-patient alliance on screen than in person—at least at first. However, online therapy can offer considerable advantages. Accessibility and convenience are tops among them. Some people actually find it easier to talk about problems online than in person. While online therapy typically limits visibility of facial expression and body gestures that give important nonverbal cues to a patient’s state of mind, it can give therapists a glimpse into a patient’s world and life, providing information that can be highly useful in guiding therapy.
How effective is therapy for depression?
Many studies show that therapy is highly effective provided that patients complete the prescribed course of therapy, commonly 16 to 20 sessions. Over the long term, it is more effective than medication and the effects are more enduring. As a result, psychotherapy has the power not just to relieve current suffering but to prevent future episodes of the disorder. Therapy reverses the dysfunction in neural circuitry that disposes individuals to a negative view of themselves, the world, and their future and they acquire coping techniques, problem-solving skills, and understanding of their own vulnerabilities that are useful over the course of a lifetime.