Hypnotherapist, Ph.D., ACHt.
Like anxiety, I have been challenged with depression at various times in my life. Depression is living in the past with repressed anger at the self and not being able to be present. Once again, in Hypnotherapy when one is depressed we want to go back to another time in our past when we felt numb, depressed, hopeless, unresolved/incomplete grieving, etc. Usually, there is fear, shame, guilt, or loneliness draped over self anger preventing us from feeling the anger, grieving the loss, and moving on with sadness yet freedom. I've had many clients over the years, especially men who do not want to feel, go back to a time of loss and just shut down. When they can fully extinguish any feelings of guilt, fear, shame, and loneliness, and then fully experience the anger and corresponding sadness with their loss, they frequently sob and the water gates open to freedom and a lightness with themselves that had been lacking for so long.