anxiety and depression therapy in chicago
Anxiety and Depression Therapy
We heal when we can develop a new relationship to our feelings and experiences. For many of us, the complexity of being fully alive is difficult and we struggle to be with all it holds - loss, grief, pain, aloneness, illness, and fear. And as a result we may struggle with anxiety or depression. At LifePath we believe that anxiety and depression are not feelings, but states that our body and brains move into in an attempt to manage what feels unmanageable.
Your anxiety or depression is a signal that something needs tending to.
Our task is to support you in figuring out what that is! You can change your relationship to anxiety and depression, so that overwhelming fear or deep despair is no longer holding you back.
Anxiety Therapy
What starts out as fear may snowball into a panic, avoidance, overwhelm, and feeling out of control.
You may feel caught up in intrusive or obsessive thoughts, or stuck in engaging in behaviors or choices that feel compulsive. Sometimes it’s hard to even understand why we are feeling so anxious. We may have a cognitive answer - worry for our loved ones, the conflict in our relationships, flying on an airplane, being overwhelmed at work, worry about what others think about us, concern about the challenges our world is experiencing.
But understanding our anxiety doesn’t necessarily lead to change in how we experience it. Our therapists are here to support you in creating real change, going beyond cognitive understanding of healing. How do we do this? By using the container of therapy to help you develop deeper insight, try on new ways of being and doing, and empowering you to choose how you want to respond to your anxiety and help you step out of reactive patterns.
“I used to think healing meant ridding the body and the heart of anything that hurt. It meant putting your pain behind you, leaving it in the past. But I’m learning that’s not how it works. Healing is figuring out how to coexist with the pain that will always live inside of you, without pretending it isn’t there or allowing it to hijack your day. It is learning to confront ghosts and to carry what lingers.”
― Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted
Depression Therapy
When we experience depression, it can take every ounce of energy to get out of bed or attempt to care for ourselves. The things we “could do to help” often just feel too overwhelming and burdensome. The things that used to matter to us can feel empty and pointless. Sometimes the things we want most for ourselves are also connected to our deepest pains and fears.
When you’re in this place it can feel overwhelming to even think about seeing a therapist - maybe there’s a fear you have around feeling like you need to fill the space with words when you don't have the energy to engage, or a worry that talking about sad things will just make you more sad.
But therapy is not a place of pressure, expectation, or just sinking into sadness. You are not alone, and there is no rush to hurry up and fix it. Together we can work at a safe pace to understand and care for the underlying difficulties contributing to your depression.
Engaging in therapy for anxiety and depression can look like:
Inviting unconscious patterns into awareness and opening opportunities for greater agency and meaningful change
Building skills to manage the activation of anxiety or depression, understanding your nervous system response
Identifying and understanding thought patterns of perfectionism, control, preservation, or self-loathing
Developing increased capacity for mindfulness to differentiate between core values and anxiety/depression patterns
Attuning and attending to self with kindness and curiosity
Developing a toolkit to manage panic attacks, urges for self harm, or suicidal ideation
Understanding the role of shame in your experience of anxiety and depression
Engaging in an exploration of what you most deeply want for your life, and identifying what’s getting in the way
