Sometimes a person is diagnosed with Depression but what is actually happening is a normal grieving response to a loss like the death of a loved one, divorce, illness, miscarriage or other significant event. If this is the case then we need to focus on learning about what "counts" as a loss, learning about the grieving process, and supporting the client through the ups and downs that come with it. People process losses in different ways and it's important for clients to be able to identify what their patterns are and what messages they have received from parents, religion and society about how to handle loss. Sometimes these messages really cause harm and make it nearly impossible for someone to go through all the necessary stages of grief in order to integrate the loss into their experience. When we go through a loss, it can be very difficult to think about anything else and it's common for people to engage in behaviors to try to numb emotions and avoid thinking about it. But when we avoid dealing with the loss, it doesn't just get better on its own; rather we just delay the grieving process and the repressed feelings can actually cause physical illness. Additionally, when we don't process and feel our emotions, it's impossible to actually enjoy life because we are spending a lot of energy avoiding feelings and trying to be numb. Part of my job in helping people move through grief is to give them concrete tools they can use to deal with their feelings in small chunks rather than all at once which is overwhelming.