The Bullsh*t-Free Guide to Depression by Jacs Guderley

Author:Jacs Guderley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2025-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

* CHAPTER 9 *

Stepping Inside the Therapy Room

Is therapy all it’s cracked up to be?

Therapy changed my life. I will forever remember that initial session with my first therapist – it was the first time I’d connected with someone over my mental health. I walked in, confused, self-loathing and ashamed, still reeling from months of darkness. I wouldn’t accept I’d been depressed; rather, I thought that I had ‘royally messed up’ my life. Leaving that session, those messy feelings didn’t suddenly disappear (and it would still take me many months to call it ‘depression’), but I carried something new with me. Hope. A little bundle of the stuff initially, but, with time, it would grow into my dependable sidekick – meet my Pet Hope! As I left that first session, I couldn’t identify it as ‘hope’ just yet; all I knew was that I felt a piece of the ‘old me’ – the one that possessed self-belief and a fiery determination – begin to stir within and think about coming back to life. Week after week, as I returned to therapy, my hope grew larger (and so did my little sidekick!), gradually pushing out the confusion, self-hatred and fear that had taken up too much space for too long.

Therapy helped me make sense of an experience that once seemed totally unfathomable. My therapist was the only person to show me that those ‘dark times’ (as I was then calling it) were understandable within their context. Suddenly I could make sense of this previously mind-scrambling life event. Therapy has allowed me to rewrite my internal narrative, using knowledge and understanding. The effect of this has been a self-belief that I have learnt to nurture and grow myself, whether it’s been two days or two years since I last had therapy. The benefits of therapy with a therapist who seemed to truly ‘get me’ have been constant and it’s still my first therapist’s voice I hear when I need to coax myself into more helpful behaviours. When I manage to treat myself with self-compassion, rather than beating myself up like nobody’s business, it’s often my most recent therapist’s advice that pops into my head, reminding me to be kind to myself. Therapy has been instrumental in taking control of my own mental health, and continues to be, to this day.

Therapy isn’t only about getting through low mood. One of the biggest surprises on this path has been how hard the ‘stuff around depression’ is, on top of dealing with the depression itself. It wallops great big dents into so many parts of our lives, leaving us running around, trying to patch them up. Therapy has helped me regain the confidence that deserted me, have difficult conversations with friends, process the loss of friendships and jobs, renegotiate my identity (in a positive way), rebuild my self-belief bit by bit, and so much more. It has given me what I like to call ‘mental health confidence’.

As someone who has been depressed

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