
Attached to this lecture is a PDF course workbook with notes of what is covered in each lecture. You can print off and follow along with the workbook and there is space on each page for writing your own notes. There is also a supporting notes document which has recommended reading and links to articles about depression which give further information and research about topics covered in this course.
Identify symptoms of depression in children, including loss of interest in play, withdrawal, clinging, lethargy, poor sleep, and fears that a parent could die or have an accident.
teens with depression may exhibit withdrawal, concentration problems, anger, anxiety, fatigue, and sleep disruption; evaluate duration and pattern while distinguishing normal teen development and using the depression checklist.
Identify common depression symptoms in adults, including digestive issues like irritable bowel syndrome, pain and backaches, insomnia, exhaustion, anxiety, lack of interest, motivation, and concentration, with attention to context.
Explore the cycle of depression, from depressive thinking style to worrying and over dreaming, and how disrupted deep sleep fuels exhaustion and maintains symptoms.
Explore the depressive attributional style, where good events are external, specific, and unstable, while bad events are internal, global, and stable, shaping a depressive reality.
Explain the happiness attributional style, how good events are seen via locus of control and global stability, and bad events as specific, one-off. Promote contentment with life.
Frame worrying as problem identification, then apply a solution-focused approach to close open emotional patterns and alleviate depression within a 24-hour no-worry period.
Understand depression as an emotional trance that narrows attention and alters mind-body states, influencing pain tolerance, immune function, digestion, and how reality is perceived.
Chronic stress can lead to depression by elevating cortisol and reducing serotonin, while prolonged stress triggers the fight‑flight response and disrupts adrenaline, digestion, and sex drive.
View depression as a signal and a solution that points to underlying problems, guiding clients to address issues like money worries or housing to resolve it.
Dispel the myth that clients must feel worse before they improve and focus on helping clients feel better now while pursuing real, steady progress.
Antidepressants may help briefly, but are not usually best for long term depression; pair short-term drug use with counseling or cognitive behavioral therapy to address problems and come off meds.
Explore how bipolar disorder cycles between manic or hypomanic energy and depressive episodes, determine genetic influences, and review Lithium treatment alongside cognitive behavioral therapy strategies.
Learn the rigor model for structuring therapy sessions: rapport and therapeutic alliance, information gathering with WATT questions, goal setting, accessing resources, agreeing a strategy, and rehearsal.
Explore pattern matching in therapy, focusing on patterns rather than content to show how patterns sustain depression and how addressing triggers in the present helps change them.
Focus on positives to boost serotonin, embrace a strengths-based, solution-focused mindset, weigh alternative viewpoints, cultivate locus of control, and practice mental rehearsal for a calm mind.
Learn how mindfulness helps reduce depressive rumination by becoming an observer of thoughts and emotions, practicing breathing techniques like 7-11 breathing, and detaching from negativity.
Mental rehearsal trains mind and body through vivid, future-oriented visualization, turning imagined success into instinctive responses and reshaping memory and self-talk toward depression relief.
Therapists begin with nursing tasks that require noticing, then tailor progressively challenging, client-specific activities—from organizing letters to an outdoor walk and friendly greetings—to support change.
Boost serotonin and endorphins, improve sleep and energy, and enhance mood through brisk walks and HIIT, making exercise more effective and longer lasting than antidepressants for treating depression.
Look after yourself to prevent taking clients' emotions home and use clinical supervision to separate personal from client issues, while setting after-hours boundaries to protect well-being and sustain therapy.
Learn what depression is and its symptoms, explore how causes and maintenance operate, including the cycle, attribution style, nutrition, and lifestyle, and apply treatments and mindfulness strategies.
Understanding and Treating Depression is a course for counsellors, hypnotherapists, and other professionals working with clients who may have depression. The course can also be taken by those interested in gaining a greater understanding about depression for personal development or learning.
The course is taught by Dan Jones, who has worked as a depression and anxiety specialist since 2001 and teaches therapists to treat depression and anxiety disorders, prior to this Dan worked in psychiatric care homes.
This understanding and treating depression course also contains a 54-page PDF of extensive course notes and a PDF document of links to articles to supplement your learning and a list of recommended reading.
Depression is the predominant mental health problem worldwide. In the UK in 2014 one in five people over 16 showed symptoms of anxiety or depression, so it is very common among the general population and there is more prevalence with clients in therapy who perhaps are presenting with something other than depression as their reason for seeking support.
On this course you will learn:
• What depression is and the symptoms of depression
• What causes and maintains depression
• How to treat depression
The course is structured to give you an understanding of what depression is and depression symptoms before covering causes of depression which includes the cycle of depression, the depressive attributional style, worrying, and sleep and depression. Then the course progresses into the nature of depression as a deep trance state and how it isn't the things that happen to people that causes depression, but rather their response to the world around them that leads to depression, then the role of stress in relation to depression is explored. These understandings pave the way to be able to understand how to help clients quickly move on from depression and how to help them reduce the chances of having periods of depression in the future.
One of the first paradigms explored is the idea that rather than depression being a problem it is actually a solution or a signal for the client, and to tackle the depression you need to know what it is a signal or solution for and address that. The course looks at some of the myths around depression treatment, like clients having to feel worse before they get better, that anti-depressants are a good solution for long-term treatment of depression, and that depression is a biological illness.
Before getting into what you can do to treat depression there is an overview of the main drugs used in depression treatment. It is common for clients to assume therapists know about the drugs they have been prescribed, so it is helpful to have a basic understanding of this, Then the course moves into how to lift depression, how I structure a therapy session when working with depression clients, what information I look for from the client, how I gather that information, what information is needed from a client to help them move on from being depressed and how I help clients to carry changes forward into their life beyond the therapy session.
To end the course diet, nutrition and exercise are covered as well as two topics I rarely see on other courses, safeguarding your client, as there is an increased risk of suicide among depressed clients, and there maybe risk of harm to others, and safeguarding yourself, it can be an emotional and difficult role working with depressed clients, especially if they commit suicide or threaten to, or if they have been revealing very emotional information to you, so it is important to know how to look after yourself.
There is also a Sussex Hypnotherapy Centre certificate of completion in addition to the Udemy certificate of completion.