Therapy for Depression In Pembroke Pines, FL and online
Written by Karli Gallo, LMHC | EMDR-Certified Therapist | Pembroke Pines, FL
Depression doesn't always look like not being able to get out of bed. It can look like going through all the motions, showing up for everyone else, and quietly wondering why nothing feels meaningful anymore. It can look like exhaustion that sleep doesn't fix, or a flatness that's hard to explain to people who haven't felt it.
Whatever depression looks like for you, therapy offers something most people with depression rarely give themselves: a space to be honest about how things actually are, without having to manage anyone else's reaction to it. At Unbound Psychotherapy, I work with depression using a relational, trauma-informed approach and EMDR to address more than just the symptoms.
When should I seek therapy for depression?
If you’re asking when you should seek therapy for depression, it’s already a meaningful sign that something doesn’t feel right. It may be time to talk to a therapist. You don’t need to wait until things feel unbearable to seek help. Therapy can be helpful at any stage of depression, whether your symptoms are mild, moderate, severe, or persistent. A common misconception is that therapy is only for when things are really bad. Starting therapy earlier can prevent depression from worsening and help you regain relief sooner.
Common Signs of Depression
If you’ve had some of these feelings for more than two weeks, therapy may be especially helpful.
Feeling persistently sad, empty, or numb
Losing interest in activities you usually enjoy
Feeling tired, unmotivated, or struggling to get through tasks
Significantly more or less sleep than usual
Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
Feeling hopeless, stuck, like things won’t improve, or nothing can help you
Withdrawing from relationships, or feeling persistently alone
You might also consider therapy for depression if:
You seem to be functioning on the outside, but feel overwhelmed on the inside
You push through, but nothing changes
You rely on unhealthy coping (like avoidance, overworking, self-harm, emotional eating, or alcohol)
You’ve gone through a stressful life event, loss, or major transition
You’ve tried to manage on your own, but still feel stuck
Your depression exacerbates your anxiety
Your depression is caused by past events, and may benefit from trauma therapy
How I Work With Depression
Depression is not a character flaw, a lack of motivation, or something you can think your way out of. It is often the result of experiences, losses, and relational patterns that have accumulated over time and it responds best to an approach that addresses those roots rather than just managing the surface.
At Unbound Psychotherapy, I draw on three therapeutic approaches that are particularly well-suited to treating depression at depth:
Person-Centered Therapy operates from the belief that you are not broken and do not need to be fixed. Depression often carries enormous shame, the sense that you should be doing better, feeling better, trying harder. Person-centered therapy offers something different: unconditional positive regard, genuine warmth, and a relationship where you are accepted exactly as you are. That experience of being fully accepted without conditions is itself therapeutic, and often directly counters the core beliefs that depression reinforces.
Gestalt Therapy brings your attention to what is happening right now in your body, in your emotions, in this moment. Depression often pulls people into the past (regret, loss, shame) or the future (hopelessness, dread, catastrophizing). Gestalt work interrupts that pattern by returning you to present experience, helping you reconnect with all parts of yourself and develop a more honest relationship with what you're actually feeling rather than what you think you should be feeling.
Relational Therapy recognizes that depression rarely develops in isolation, even thought it can feel incredibly isolating. It is often shaped by relationships, early experiences of loss, neglect, criticism, or disconnection that taught you something about your worth and your place in the world. Relational therapy works with those patterns directly, using the therapeutic relationship itself as a space to experience something different: genuine connection, authentic care, and the experience of being truly known by another person.
Together these approaches treat depression not as a diagnosis to be managed, but as a meaningful signal about your inner life that deserves to be understood.
Learn more about individual therapy at Unbound Psychotherapy →
The Connection Between Trauma and Depression
For many people, depression and trauma are deeply intertwined, and treating depression without addressing underlying trauma often produces limited or temporary results.
Trauma changes the way the brain and nervous system function. It can create persistent states of shutdown, numbness, and hopelessness that look and feel exactly like depression, because in many ways they are. The flatness, the disconnection, the inability to feel pleasure or motivation are not just symptoms of a mood disorder. They are often the nervous system's response to experiences it has never fully processed.
This is particularly true for people who experienced childhood trauma, prolonged stress, relational wounds, or religious trauma. Depression rooted in these experiences doesn't always respond to approaches that treat it as a purely biological or cognitive problem. It responds to therapy that goes to the source.
EMDR is particularly effective when depression has traumatic roots. Rather than talking about what happened, EMDR helps the brain reprocess the memories and beliefs that are driving the depressive symptoms.
If you've struggled with depression for a long time, tried other approaches, and still feel stuck, trauma may be a missing piece of the picture.
When Depression and Anxiety Occur Together
Depression and anxiety often show up together, and the combination can feel especially exhausting. You might feel hopeless and on edge at the same time. Tired but unable to rest. Wanting to withdraw while also feeling constant worry about everything you're not doing.
This combination is incredibly common. Depression and anxiety often share underlying roots, including trauma, chronic stress, and relational patterns, and they can reinforce each other in a difficult cycle: anxiety wears you down until depression sets in, or depression brings a sense of falling behind that fuels anxiety.
Therapy doesn't need to treat these as two separate problems to manage individually. By working with what's underneath both, many people find that addressing the root causes improves both at once.
