Depression doesn’t always announce itself clearly. Sometimes it’s the weight that makes getting out of bed feel pointless. Sometimes it’s the absence of feeling — that flat, grey stretch where things that used to matter just don’t anymore. And sometimes it looks fine from the outside, while inside you’re running on empty.
Talk therapy for depression gives you somewhere to bring all of that.
What actually happens in sessions
People often arrive not quite sure what they want to say. That’s fine. There’s no script, no checklist to work through. What matters is that the space exists — to think out loud, to name what’s been sitting unspoken, to start working out what’s driving the low mood rather than just managing the symptoms.
Talk therapy isn’t about being given advice or told to look on the bright side. It’s a process of understanding — why you feel what you feel, where it started, what it’s connected to. That understanding tends to shift things in ways that coping strategies alone simply can’t.
Why depression often needs more than medication alone
Antidepressants can take the floor off the lowest episodes. For some people, they’re essential. But they don’t tell you why you got there. Talk therapy works at a different level — the level of meaning, of patterns, of the beliefs you’ve built up about yourself over time.
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Many people work in therapy while also taking medication. And quite a few find that the therapy becomes what carries them once medication no longer feels necessary.
What you might explore
Every person’s depression is different. For some it’s tied to a specific loss — a relationship, a career, a version of themselves they’d expected to become. For others it’s more diffuse, a low mood that’s been there so long it almost feels like personality.
In sessions, you might find yourself looking at early experiences that shaped how you learned to deal with difficulty. Or at patterns in relationships that keep repeating. Or simply at what your life currently looks like and whether it matches what you actually want.
None of this is about blaming the past or dwelling in it. It’s about understanding it well enough that it stops running the show.
You don’t need to be in crisis to start
A lot of people come in when they notice they’re not functioning the way they’d like — not catastrophically, but not well either. Low motivation, disrupted sleep, going through the motions. That’s enough reason to start.
Talk therapy can help whether the depression is new or has been part of your life for years. It works with people who’ve tried other approaches before and with those who’ve never spoken to anyone about this. The only real requirement is some willingness to look at what’s going on.
Working with us
At Philippe Jacquet & Associates, we work with depression across a range of therapeutic approaches — psychoanalytic, Jungian, and EMDR where trauma underlies the mood — depending on what fits you and what the depression seems to be about. Sessions are available in person in London and online.
There’s no pressure to commit to a long course before you’ve had a chance to see if it feels right. An initial consultation is the place to start. Get in touch using the contact form or call us directly.