Loren Gaillardetz (she/her)

Depression is not one-size-fits all. Some people's depression feels like a hollow emptiness, like being trapped in Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar. Another person's depression feels like an intense, all-encompassing sadness and pain. As a therapist, my approach to your depression will not be one-size-fits all, either. I will learn as much as I can about what this experience is like for you. Often, depression is a symptom of an underlying problem. I can help you find out what that is.

Relationships are some of the most important things in our lives, but they can be some of the hardest things in our lives, too. Maybe you’ve noticed that you keep having the same relational problems, or that you keep getting involved with the same kind of people over and over again. Try as you might to break out of these patterns, you find yourself back in the same place. I can help you figure out where these patterns come from, and where you might be able to find greater flexibility.

I know how excruciating anxiety can be--the way it looms over your life, impacting the smallest moments. It can leave you feeling frozen in fear, unable to move forward. Like depression, anxiety is often a symptom of an underlying problem. It's like a fever--we can manage it as a symptom, but if we don't also find the underlying cause, it's going to keep coming back. I have extensive training in seeking out the roots of your anxiety and treating the cause.

Depression is not-one-size-fits-all. Some people's depression feels flat and empty, like being stuck behind a pane of glass, unable to touch life. Another person's depression may feel like an agonizing, all-pervading pain. We'll start by exploring what depression is for you, because treatment of depression shouldn't be one-size-fits-all, either. Depression is usually a symptom of another, underlying problem. Let's figure out what that is so you can start feeling better.

Psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and attachment-oriented therapy are all different words for essentially the same thing. This kind of therapy is a depth-oriented therapy in which we follow the "red thread" of emotion to learn about who you are. We explore your past AND your present. We are curious about what you may be avoiding or hiding from yourself. We focus on your relational world, including the relationship between the two of us. We take a deep dive into your inner life.

All of us have relational blueprints that we learned in childhood. Its these blueprints that are often responsible for sucking us back into repeating old patterns. This isn't necessarily a bad thing--although I know it can feel like it! Instead, this experience of stuckness and repetition can be a clue that there's something unresolved from the past that we need to work through.

No, you won't be lying down on the couch (unless you want to). Psychoanalysis has changed a lot since the days of Freud. In fact, for me personally, psychoanalytic psychotherapy has been the single greatest tool I've ever found to help me understand myself and live my life more fully. It can do the same for you.