Depression

The word depression is used so broadly that its meaning can vary widely from person to person. Most people are not working from the clinical definition found in the DSM (the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). For the purposes of this page, I'll use a common understanding: depression as a felt sense of low energy and diminished engagement with life.

At Pinashka Psychotherapy, I work primarily through an Internal Family Systems (IFS) lens — a framework that shifts the focus away from disease or disorder and toward understanding all inner experiences as the system's way of adapting to life. Within this paradigm, depression is neither good nor bad. It simply is.

Consider this: what if depression were an extreme expression of parts trying to slow things down, conserve energy, and create space to recover? Might it exist on a continuum with rest and rejuvenation? When we approach it this way — without judgment — we become able to work with it rather than against it.

In my own parts work, depression shows up as a heavy, thick blanket — think weighted down comforter — that spreads across my system when it feels needed. It may be responding to external stress, the activity of other parts, or a general sense of overwhelm. When the blanket is on, life feels muffled: I can see things, but they're low-contrast and effortful. Recognizing it — "oh, the blanket is here" — creates just enough distance to get curious rather than consumed. That recognition is usually a trailhead to something deeper.

Everyone's experience is unique. Some people describe a fog, a heaviness like quicksand, or a sense of moving through taffy. Others don't work with imagery at all. What tends to be universal is this: when we can see the depressed part as a part — not as who we are — there is both clarity and hope. There is work to do, and it is possible.