Depression

Treatment for depression in Paris

Depression in Paris has a particular irony. One of the richest human environments in the world (beauty, culture, intellectual life) and depression makes none of it available. The contrast is its own cruelty. In the expatriate community, depression often carries the specific shape of the gap between the Paris life imagined and the life as it is being lived.

How depression presents

Depression is not simply sadness, and it does not always look like sadness. More often it shows as flatness, a loss of interest in things that used to matter, a heaviness in ordinary tasks, disturbed sleep and appetite, irritability, a sense of disconnection from people and places that should feel close. For English-speaking professionals in Paris it can hide behind continued functioning: the work still gets done, the surface holds, while privately the colour has drained out of everything. That ability to keep going is often what delays people from seeking help.

Treatment approach

Depression is approached through a Jungian and integrative lens, asking not only how to lift the mood but what the depression is pointing towards. Depression, in the Jungian view, is often the psyche withdrawing energy from a life that has become too defended, or too far from what is genuinely meaningful. This does not romanticise suffering: medication has a role, and the practice works alongside prescribing clinicians where appropriate. Where depression sits on top of unprocessed loss or trauma, EMDR and trauma-focused work may form part of the treatment. The aim is both relief from the immediate weight and an understanding of what has to change for it not to return.

How treatment begins

The first step is an initial consultation, a conversation in which you can describe what you are experiencing and we can consider together how best to proceed. There is no obligation to continue, and no referral is required.

English-speaking depression treatment in Paris

Harley Street credentials and 25 years of clinical experience, delivered in English and French, in person and online.

About Dr Philippe Jacquet

Dr Jacquet is an integrative psychotherapist and Jungian analyst with over 25 years of clinical experience in London and internationally. An EMDR practitioner with over 20 years’ experience. Addiction specialist trained at Hazelden Foundation and Hope-One. Only European with doctoral research on male eating disorders. Executive coaching trained at ESSEC (FT Top 10 European). Accredited: UKCP, BAAT, HCPC. Supervisor of the clinical teams at PROMIS Recovery Centre and Cardinal Clinic (CQC Outstanding).