Suffering From Depression? Our Depression Clinic in Newcastle Can Help You
Those suffering from depression or related symptoms often find themselves seeking a specialist depression clinic in Newcastle or in their local area. Seeing a psychologist, counsellor or CBT therapist is important as depression can be disabling to those that experience it. Furthermore, trying to deal with it on your own can lead to frustration and further feelings of isolation.
Some symptoms subside quickly without any help, however if your feelings of depression are interfering with your day-to-day life, seeing one of our Psychologists, Specialist Counsellors, or Specialist CBT Therapists at our depression clinic in Newcastle can help you find your way out of the pit of low mood.
Should I See a Psychologist or a Psychiatrist for Depression?
When it comes to depression, people often are unsure about the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist.
This difference largely comes down to approach to working; Psychiatrists tend to focus more on the medical management, and as such often provide medication (such as antidepressants) to help people feel better. Unfortunately, according to the depression research, medication can take a few weeks to work and this benefit is often lost when the person stops taking it, even if there has been a long period of recovery.
Many people also often experience side-effects with medication that can put them off taking it or seeking treatment from a doctor.
Psychologists on the other hand focus more on using talking therapies (such as cognitive-behavioural therapy, or CBT) to help people feel better. Through talking through and developing new ways of dealing with their situation, people develop helpful coping strategies that help with day to day life and to fix the cause of the problem.
Most studies show that those who attend CBT or talking therapy (with or without medication) often feel better for longer (shown by lower relapse rates). This suggests that talking therapy or counselling for depression with or without the use of anti-depressants improves people’s mood, and is more likely to help them avoid depression in the future.
What Should I Talk About When Visiting Your Depression Clinic in Newcastle?
Some people feel nervous about seeing a psychologist, therapist or counsellor. This is normal and any good psychologist or counsellor will help put you at ease. Though every psychologist and counsellor work differently, there might be some common questions or topics of conversation during the first session:
- How long have you been feeling sad, down or depressed?
- Are you having difficulty sleeping?
- How have you been coping up to this point?
- What has been going on for you that might have caused this?
- What have you tried that has/hasn’t worked?
- What are you hoping to get from therapy/counselling?
Rather than being an interview, sessions at our depression clinic in Newcastle are conversational. We don’t ask people to fill in questionnaires (unless both of us feel it would be helpful), and our sessions are more like a conversation with some gentle questioning and understanding than a series of interview questions.
How Long Does it Take to Feel Better?
The duration of therapy varies depending on your goals and the nature of the problem. Often we see people weekly as we find this gets the best results though this is flexible based on your needs and situation. Each session lasts for 50 minutes.
During each session, your psychologist or counsellor will work with you identify any unhelpful patterns or habits of behaviour or thinking and to problem solving your situation. This can lead to developing some practical coping strategies to experiment with.
Often, once people start to break the negative cycle of depression, people start to feel better quickly. To help consolidate this, our team of psychologists, counsellors and CBT therapists are also experienced in relapse prevention so that you maintain your progress and know how to avoid the pit of low mood and depression in the future.
For Further Information About Our Depression Clinic in Newcastle
Good mental health, resilience and positive coping is important for our well-being and happiness. Depression can hit anyone, quickly affecting their mood and day to day life. As well as leaving people feeling low, worthless and/or lonely, depression can also cause problems in your relationships and work life.
If you feel that you would benefit from seeing one our Specialist Counsellors, CBT Therapists, or psychologists (including myself), contact us at Newcastle Psychologist & Counselling and make an appointment at our depression clinic in Newcastle to take the first step to getting out of depression.
Best wishes,
Dr Stuart Sadler
Lead Clinical Psychologist
