Therapy may help if you or your child experience:
- Persistent feelings of sadness, emptiness, or hopelessness
- Loss of interest in activities, hobbies, or relationships you once enjoyed
- Low energy, fatigue, or difficulty getting out of bed
- Trouble sleeping — or sleeping too much
- Low self-esteem, guilt, or overly self-critical thoughts
- Difficulty concentrating, making decisions, or following through
- Withdrawal from friends, family, or social situations
- Irritability, mood swings, or feeling numb
- Physical symptoms like headaches, appetite changes, or unexplained aches
What Is Depression Therapy?
Depression therapy is a structured, evidence-based process that helps you understand and change the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that keep you stuck. More than just venting — it’s an active partnership with a skilled therapist to build real strategies for feeling better.
Call (650) 461-9026
Text (650) 461-9026
Book an appointment online
Children & Teens
What may look like irritability, withdrawal, or defiance can be a child or teen struggling with a quiet loss of joy and a sense of being alone in ways they cannot fully explain. Therapy gives them a safe place to express what is underneath and begin restoring connection, confidence, and emotional balance.
Young Adults
Feeling stuck while life keeps moving forward can make academic pressure, identity questions, and major transitions feel overwhelming and uncertain. Therapy offers support to sort through these experiences and rebuild a clearer sense of direction and possibility.
Adults
When motivation fades, relationships feel strained, and even simple tasks take more effort, depression can begin to shape everyday life in exhausting ways. Therapy provides space to understand what is happening and develop meaningful steps toward renewed energy and engagement.
Types of Depression We Treat
Depression takes many forms — and recognizing yours helps guide the most effective treatment path:
- Major Depressive Disorder (MDD): Persistent sadness, loss of interest, and difficulty with sleep, focus, or appetite that significantly disrupts daily life.
- Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia): A chronic, lower-grade depression lasting two or more years — less intense than MDD, but still draining on motivation and self-esteem.
- Postpartum Depression: Intense sadness, anxiety, or irritability following childbirth — far beyond the typical “baby blues,” and very treatable with support.
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Recurring mood shifts, fatigue, and withdrawal tied to seasonal changes, most commonly in winter months.
- Depression with Anxiety: A common combination — racing thoughts, constant worry, and low mood occurring together, making it harder to find relief.
- Situational Depression (Adjustment Disorder): Depression triggered by a life event — job loss, divorce, grief, or a major move — that feels overwhelming and hard to shake.
Our Approach to Depression Therapy
Our therapists specialize in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), widely considered one of the most effective, evidence-based treatments for depression. CBT helps you identify and shift the negative thought patterns and behaviors that keep you feeling stuck — and replaces them with practical, real-world strategies for feeling better faster.
Unlike open-ended talk therapy, CBT is structured and goal-oriented — which means you can often see meaningful relief in weeks, not years. Our therapists are highly trained, warm, and patient, and sessions are tailored to your specific type of depression and life situation.
With the right support, you can lift the fog, reconnect with your life, and feel like yourself again.
Call (650) 461-9026
Text (650) 461-9026
Book an appointment online
Other therapeutic approaches may also be incorporated based on individual needs, including:
Play Therapy
For kids who struggle to express emotions verbally — play, drawing, and storytelling allow them to process feelings safely and naturally.
Couples Therapy
Depression can create distance, strain communication, and leave both partners feeling disconnected or unsure how to support one another. Couples therapy helps rebuild and strengthen connection, creating a more supportive way forward together.
Family Therapy
Depression affects the whole household. We help families improve communication, reduce conflict, and create a supportive home environment.
With convenient office locations in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and San Jose, we proudly serve the entire Silicon Valley community – from Stanford University and the Peninsula to the South Bay, offering easy access for tech professionals, students, and families.
Recognizing Good Therapy
Evidence-Based
Specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, we help you understand and shift the patterns that keep depression in place. Our therapists provide thoughtful, effective care and stay current with the latest training so you receive support that truly helps you move forward.
Strong Relationships
When depression leaves you feeling disconnected or alone, our relationship with you becomes a steady, supportive place to begin. We work alongside you with compassion, respect, and honesty as you move toward your goals at your own pace.
Short-Term & Focused
Depression can make change feel slow or out of reach, which is why we use structured, personalized exercises to help you begin seeing progress in your daily life. By focusing on what matters most, we support meaningful relief so you can start feeling more like yourself again.
Client Convenience
When depression makes it harder to take the next step, we make getting support as accessible as possible. With evening and Saturday appointments, a caring and responsive administrative team, three Bay Area locations, and video therapy, you can access help in a way that fits your life.
Frequently Asked Questions About Depression Therapy
Everyone is different. Many clients notice improvements within just a few sessions. Our CBT-based approach is structured and goal-oriented, so you often see real results in weeks — not years.
Not at all. Whether or not you’ve been formally diagnosed with depression, therapy can help if you’re feeling persistently down, stuck, or overwhelmed.
If your mood is interfering with your daily life, relationships, or work, therapy is worth exploring. You don’t need to meet a clinical threshold to benefit from support.
Yes. Depression in young people may look different — as irritability, withdrawal, or falling grades rather than sadness. Our therapists are trained in age-appropriate approaches including CBT and play-based therapy, with family involvement where helpful.
Yes. Depression therapy is not one-size-fits-all. We use tailored, evidence-based approaches and work collaboratively with you to adjust your treatment until you find what works. A new path forward is possible.
Many clients use out-of-network benefits or HSA/FSA funds. We can provide a superbill to submit to your insurance for potential reimbursement. Contact our office and we’ll help you understand your options.
Yes. Our licensed therapists provide secure video therapy for clients throughout California — including San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and beyond. Online therapy is equally effective for most people.
Sadness is a normal emotion tied to specific events. Depression is more persistent — it lingers for weeks or months, affects energy, focus, sleep, and daily functioning, and often doesn’t have a clear cause. If it’s disrupting your life, that’s a signal worth paying attention to.
What Our Clients Are Saying…
Palo Alto Therapy does not just provide talk therapy, but focuses on teaching skills to maintain therapy. You have a genuine interest in the client’s well-being and you offered a new way of thinking about or means of addressing my issues.
What Our Clients Are Saying…
I liked the emphasis on doing concrete things to get results-writing down negative thoughts, trying to say things to counter those thoughts…Thank you for helping me make my life better.
What Our Clients Are Saying…
I found the homework exercises to be very helpful to me. I’ve been able to use techniques I have learned from those exercises to slow down my thoughts when problems arise and work through whatever the issue may be, OCD or otherwise.
Meet Our Team of Therapists in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, & San Jose working with Depression
Janika Filipe, AMFT, APCC
Hong-Ha Vuong, AMFT, APCC
Hannah Bodin, AMFT
Sarah Partridge, ASW
Sarah Chelew, AMFT
Sarah Covert, AMFT
We connect you with a therapist who specializes in depression – no guesswork. You get the right support immediately, before things get worse.
We track outcomes starting with your first session. Therapy success means concrete progress in weeks, supported by clear, measurable evidence.
Skip the waitlists and insurance runaround. We match you with a specialist who fits your needs — and a real person walks you through every step.
Our depression specialists provide compassionate, evidence-based support tailored to how your mind works.
Get Support for Depression Today
At Palo Alto Therapy, we specialize in depression therapy in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and San Jose — helping children, teens, adults, couples, and families using evidence-based techniques, often without long-term counseling.