Jed Shlackman, LMHC, treats clients in the Miami and South Florida area who have experienced a variety of mental health issues, including depression and bipolar disorders. Here Jed has provided an explanation of his approach to addressing these issues.Depression is typically understood as a mood where one feels "low" and lacks joy and enthusiasm. This may include symptoms such as poor motivation, low energy, feeling helpless or hopeless, having sleep difficulties (e.g. insomnia), changes in appetite (poor appetite or overeating), and lack of interest in social interaction or daily activities. Depression is a mood that pretty much everyone experiences at times in their lives. It can become a significant challenge when it becomes prolonged or overly intense. Depression can become a self-perpetuating pattern since it leads to thinking patterns and behaviors that will tend to reinforce the situations that have contributed to the depressed state. When depression is interfering with people's ability to function adequately in their lives it may be diagnosed as a clinical disorder by a health care professional.
Depression involves multiple elements in a feedback system. It includes depressive thought patterns and beliefs, emotional state associated feelings, disturbances in energy flow, and imbalances in neurochemistry and brain activity. At a very deep level depression can relate to how one feels about oneself, about life, one's relationships, and one's connection to God/Creator. In order to help relieve and heal depression it is important to consider all these aspects of one's life. Thus, therapy may include counseling from humanistic, cognitive, and psychospiritual perspectives, as well as energetic therapies (e.g. Reiki, acupuncture, chakra & meridian balancing), hypnotherapy, nutritional interventions, lifestyle guidance, social support, and more. There are many tools and resources to help people find motivation, meaning, joy, and appreciation in their lives.
Jed has worked with many people of all ages to help them shift their mental and emotional patterns and revitalize their lives. If you are feeling depressed there is definitely hope for you to transform yourself and find happiness in your life. Depression is not something ordained by genetics (there can be tendencies we tune into from our ancestors, yet we each have the power to create our own consciousness and our own way of being). It is not something that we have to constantly struggle with throughout our lives (although, some people do not find effective help or ways to overcome depression and do continue to struggle). It is not something that necessitates taking drugs (prescription or recreational), even though many people use chemical ingestants to temporarily override what they are feeling. Depression is a state that can and does change when our consciousness and energy states change.
