Therapy for Depression

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Everyone feels down sometimes. A rough patch, a low week, sadness after a loss. That’s just part of being human.

Depression is something more. It’s a heaviness that settles in and stays. It drains your energy, your interest, and your sense of hope, often for no reason you can point to. For some, it can make an ordinary day feel like moving through wet cement.

If that’s where you are, it’s not weakness, and it’s not something you can just snap out of.

You’re also far from alone. Depression is one of the most common mental health conditions in the country. Last year, more than 21 million US adults lived through a major depressive episode. Depression also responds well to the right care. Most people who work on it with a therapist, sometimes alongside a doctor, find real relief.

If you would like therapy support, we are here to help. We offer in-person therapy in Lansing, MI, at our office inside Wild Ferns Wellness Center. Our office is located on the Lansing/East Lansing line and just minutes from MSU. There is a CATA bus stop a half block away from us. Our office is wheelchair accessible, and there is an elevator.

Prefer to meet from home? We offer online therapy across Michigan, so you can work with an identity-affirming therapist wherever you are in the state.

Common symptoms

Depression can look a bit different for everyone, but some of this may sound familiar:

  • Low, empty, or hopeless mood that persists most days
  • Losing interest or pleasure in things you used to enjoy
  • Feeling exhausted no matter how much you rest
  • Sleeping too much, or not being able to sleep
  • Changes in appetite or weight
  • Trouble concentrating, remembering, or making decisions
  • Feeling worthless, or like a burden to the people around you
  • Thoughts that life isn’t worth living

If several of these sound like you, therapy can help you understand what’s going on and find your way back to yourself.

Causes

A person looking out the window, with a content expression, symbolizing hope and resiliency.

Depression doesn’t have a single cause. For some people, it’s tied to brain chemistry, genetics, or a medical condition. For some, it follows a loss or a hard season. And sometimes it arrives with no clear reason at all. All of it is worth taking seriously.

For a lot of the people we work with, there’s another layer to consider: the weight of moving through a world that does not prioritize our wellness.

For LGBTQIA2S+ folks, research consistently points to minority stress: the ongoing strain of discrimination, rejection, and having to hide parts of yourself to stay safe. Over time, that grind can wear hope down into hopelessness. For Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, the cumulative toll of racism and everyday microaggressions does the same, and it has a name: race-based traumatic stress. And for a lot of neurodivergent people, years of being told you’re “too much” or “not enough,” and masking to get by, can quietly erode your sense of worth.

And for many of us, we have more than one identity that carries minority stress. You might be Black and queer, trans and neurodivergent, an immigrant and disabled. Marginalized identities often intersect, and the stress of navigating them together is an experience in itself.

Group of diverse people embracing in a supportive hug outdoors.
Minority communities experience minority stress, but they also experience high rates of connection, belonging and community. We are resilient.

Treatment

There’s no single right way to navigate these challenges, and no script we run everyone through. We start where you are and go at your pace. Our therapists bring anti-oppressive, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive training, and we work with you to find approaches that fit your life and your goals.

Some of the treatment approaches our therapists use include

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
  • Informed Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
  • Informed Internal Family Systems (IFS)
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)
  • Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
  • Eclectic- Pulling from several approaches
Request Appointment

Start therapy in just 3 easy steps!

  1. Click Request Appointment and complete the form.
  2. We will email you with your scheduled appointment details and other info the same day or the next day.
  3. Complete intake forms and attend your appointment!

*If you prefer to get started via phone, call us at 517-798-6745 and let us know you want to skip the form.

Insurance and fees

We work hard to make therapy as accessible as possible. We accept several insurance plans, including several Medicaid plans, and offer a grant to cover therapy, as well.

Insurance and Fees

Meet your future therapist

Research shows the single biggest predictor of whether therapy helps is the therapeutic relationship between the two of you. When you trust your therapist, feel safe with them, and agree on what you’re working toward together, therapy works better. Feeling heard, safe, and understood, including in your identity and culture, is what makes the hard work of therapy possible. We do our best to find you a great match, and your input matters.

Our team brings different specialties, styles, and lived experiences. Browse our team and use the filters to find your match.

Meet Our Therapists

Crisis lines

If you’re in crisis or need support right now, you don’t have to wait for an appointment.

A note about calling 911

If you or someone else is in immediate danger and you need to call 911, please know that police are not trained to provide mental health care. For Black and Brown people, trans people, disabled people, and people in psychiatric crisis, a police response can make things more dangerous. If you can, ask a friend, neighbor, or family member to be there with you when they arrive.

Sources

The facts on this page come from the organizations and research below. The information regarding depression is for informational purposes only and isn’t a substitute for care from a licensed professional.