Depression is one of the most common issues that people bring to
therapy. It is also a mental health condition with several well-known
and readily available medications to treat it. That said, every
clinician knows that medications do not work for all clients, and even
if they do work they can often come with unwelcome side effects that are
difficult and hard to bear. In short, medications are not foolproof.
Fortunately today, with rising interest in non-drug approaches,
effective and easy-to-implement alternative strategies exist for dealing
with depression in your clients, either in conjunction with medication
treatments or on their own. Six of the best are presented in this book.
With his characteristic mix of insightful clinical anecdote and personal
narrative, seasoned therapist Bill O'Hanlon lays out six of his go-to
non-medication strategies for clinicians to use with their own depressed
clients. These include "marbling" (training people to intersperse happy
memories with sad ones so that over time they move away from a feeling
of such negativity); challenging isolation in clients (helping them to
see the benefits of the social world); and understanding neuroplasticity
and how it can be used to your clients' advantage.
Bill O'Hanlon writes from a place of experience. As a youth, he was so
severely depressed that he contemplated suicide. His successful rise
from that dark place, some 30 years ago, can be seen as the starting
point for this book. Many of the strategies he used to overcome his own
illness he now puts forward here, with compassion and wisdom, so that
other clinicians may benefit.
Every depressed person experiences his or her own variety of the
illness, and as therapists we need to help our clients discover their
own paths to healing. Armed with the compelling, non-drug strategies in
this book, clinicians will be able to do just that, opening up a new
route to health and wellness.
Whether you routinely prescribe psychotropic drugs or would never think
of doing so, this book may offer just the advice you need to advance
your therapy work and make a real difference in your depressed clients'
lives.
