Anxiety & Depression

Anxiety and depression can affect how you feel about yourself, relate to others, and approach everyday life. You might feel frequently on edge, caught in patterns of worry or overthinking, or experience low mood, flatness, exhaustion, and a loss of interest in things you would usually enjoy.

Sometimes these difficulties arise in response to particular experiences or changes in life. At other times, there may be no obvious explanation. You might know that you are struggling without fully understanding what is contributing to how you feel.

How anxiety and depression can show up

Anxiety can involve persistent worry, overthinking, physical tension, restlessness, or a sense that something could go wrong. You might find yourself seeking reassurance, avoiding certain situations, trying to stay in control, or becoming stuck trying to make the right decision.

Sometimes anxiety is connected to particular fears or situations. At other times, it can be harder to identify what feels threatening. You might find yourself anticipating criticism, rejection, conflict or disappointment, or struggling with feelings that are difficult to tolerate.

Depression can involve sadness or heaviness, but also flatness, numbness, exhaustion, withdrawal, or difficulty finding motivation and enjoyment. You might become increasingly self-critical, feel disconnected from others, or struggle to make decisions and engage with everyday life.

Low mood can sometimes develop around experiences of loss, disappointment, rejection or conflict. It may also involve feelings that have been difficult to recognise or express. At other times, the reasons for feeling depressed may be less clear.

How I work with anxiety and depression

My approach is relational psychodynamic and attachment-informed. I am interested in understanding the meaning of your symptoms and the experiences, feelings and relational patterns that may be contributing to them.

Ways of thinking, feeling and coping can develop in response to earlier experiences and become familiar over time. They can continue to shape how you experience yourself and others, and how you respond to difficult feelings and situations, sometimes without you being fully aware of it.

Therapy involves exploring these experiences and the feelings or conflicts that may be difficult to recognise, acknowledge or put into words. The therapeutic relationship is also part of this work. Familiar feelings and ways of relating can sometimes emerge between us, offering an opportunity to notice and understand these experiences as they unfold.

Thinking about beginning therapy?

If anxiety or depression is affecting your everyday life, you are welcome to get in touch. The first few sessions give us time to understand what has brought you here and whether working together feels like the right fit.

Begin enquiry

Individual Therapy for Anxiety & Depression in East Melbourne

I offer individual therapy in East Melbourne and via telehealth across Australia for adults experiencing anxiety and depression.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • No. You do not need a diagnosis or a clear way of describing what you are experiencing before getting in touch. You might simply know that you have been worrying more, feeling flat or unmotivated, becoming stuck in decisions, withdrawing from people, or not feeling like yourself. The initial sessions give us time to understand more about what has been happening.

  • My approach is primarily exploratory rather than structured around a set of strategies or techniques. We will spend time understanding your experience more fully, including the feelings, patterns, relationships, and circumstances that may be contributing to how you feel.

    This can be particularly helpful when anxiety or depression has been present for a long time, keeps returning, or when you have previously focused on managing symptoms but would like to understand your experience more deeply.

  • Long-standing anxiety or depression can become intertwined with how you experience yourself, your relationships, and everyday life. Ways of coping or responding can also become so familiar that they are difficult to recognise from the inside.

    Therapy can offer time to understand these patterns gradually, including what may have shaped them and what continues to affect you now.

  • That is a very reasonable place to begin. Sometimes there is an obvious relationship, loss, change, or period of stress connected with anxiety or low mood. At other times, there is no clear explanation.

    Part of therapy can be gradually developing a fuller understanding of what you are experiencing and what it may mean in the context of your life. You do not need to have figured this out before you start.