Skype Therapy - Mindfulness Therapy via Skype for Anxiety & Depression

Online Mindfulness-based Psychotherapy via Skype for Controlling Anxiety & Depression without drugs. 

Welcome! My name is Peter Strong. I'm a professional psychotherapist specializing in Mindfulness Therapy and I provide online mindfulness-based psychotherapy for treating anxiety and depression without using drugs.

 So, Mindfulness Therapy is extremely effective for helping you change the underlying cause of your anxiety or depression or any other form of emotional suffering that affects the quality of your life. We work at the level of the reactive habits, the reactive thinking and the patterns of emotional reactivity that produce our anxiety and depression. We learn to see these patterns and we learn to help them change by becoming more conscious and by developing a conscious relationship with these patterns.

 So this is the first most important thing that we must do if we want to change. We have to develop a conscious and non-reactive relationship to our reactions. If you don't do that then the reactions become habitual. That is, they become subconscious and continue to operate without any choice and without our control. But once you make them conscious, then you can begin to change them and produce the internal changes that are necessary to train yourself out of those habits.

 So anxiety and depression and most other forms of emotional suffering are really emotional habits. They are simply reactive habits that become established and then become subconscious and operate without our say. So the first step in mindfulness-based psychotherapy is learning to see these habits and then break free from the habitual nature that fuels the reactivity.

 Doing this on Skype is a very effective way of learning these mindfulness skills. You don't have to see a mindfulness therapist in person in order to learn how to work with your mind. You can do that very well via Skype. So that's why I offer online psychotherapy via Skype. It works really well, and the intention is to give you the tools so that you can break free from the habits of anxiety or depression without having to resort to medications or years of analytical therapy.

 Medications are not sufficient to change these psychological habits. That requires a form of psychological response, psychological training or psychotherapy. But the function of psychotherapy should be to see these habits and then change them consciously.

 The second most important part of Mindfulness Therapy, besides becoming more aware of our habits, is to look at the underlying emotional structure. So what is it that's driving those habits? So what is the nature of the underlying emotions that is driving our anxiety or depression or addiction or any other form of emotional suffering?

 So typically, the root of just about all emotional suffering, whether it's anger or guilt or addiction or self hatred or anxiety or depression in its many different forms, you will find that underneath all of these forms of reactivity you will find fear. Fear is usually the root energy source for anxiety and depression and all of the different forms of emotional suffering.

 So we learn to build a conscious and mindful relationship with this fear. That is essential. The habits simply take us away from that fear. They displace our attention away from the fear that needs us more than anything else. So to heal fear we must develop a conscious and compassionate relationship with that fear.

 This is a central focus in Mindfulness Therapy, the system that I developed over the years and that I teach via Skype. It's all about learning how to develop a compassionate and friendly relationship with your anxiety and depression and with the fear underneath the anxiety and depression.

 So we learn to look at that fear and in the same way that we might look at a child that was in a state of fear. We learn how to respond compassionately towards that fear the same way that we would do is respond compassionately to a child that was afraid or to a friend that was suffering. This is vital for healing. Developing this internal relationship, a relationship based on internal love, that is love for the fear.

 We learn to take care of that fear and bring it what it most needs for healing which is that love. So this we describe has developing an internal relationship between your True Self, which is the origin of true love and the Little Self which is that fear. When that relationship is strong then healing is very much accelerated and the fear will heal in direct proportion to the strength of that internal relationship.

 So we learn how to bring love to our fear, to our pain, to our anger, to our guilt, to our compulsive thoughts, to our negative thoughts, whatever it is that's generating our suffering. That's what we must bring this internal love to, or mindfulness.

 Mindfulness basically is the conscious expression of love for our experience whatever that is, whether it's neutral, or suffering, or whether it's joyful. If we bring conscious love to it, that will promote healing and well-being and greater joy in our life.

 So the way we do this is to actually learn how to meditate on our fear and other emotions and other parts of the mind that are stuck that are in a state of suffering. We meditate on those emotions and thoughts and traumatic memories and so on. We do not avoid them. We do not try to talk ourselves out of experiencing those states of suffering, but rather we try to develop a conscious and friendly relationship with those parts of ourselves. This is vital.

 We do not indulge in the fear either. We do not indulge in anger or depression or anxiety. We instead develop a conscious and non-reactive relationship that is the basis of love. This is necessary to produce healing.

 So we meditate on our emotions. We establish this strong internal relationship based on love and then we explore what ways we can interact with the fear that will allow it to release its fear that promotes healing. And so healing is the primary goal in Mindfulness Therapy. It is to find the fear and then bring about its healing through our internal compassion and love and consciousness.

 So if you would like to learn more about mindfulness-based psychotherapy via Skype, then please go to my website and then e-mail me. Ask any questions you may have about the process and how to get started with therapy via Skype. And when you feel ready we can schedule your first Skype therapy session.

 The Mindfulness Therapy approach is extremely effective for the reasons that I outlined, briefly. Most people will see dramatic improvements within the first few sessions. The moment you start changing that relationship that you have with your emotions the faster they the healing happens.

 So if you would like to learn more then please reach out to me by e-mail and let's schedule a Skype therapy session

Skype Therapy for Depression

Skype Therapy for Depression

Talk to a therapist online via Skype

Learn more about Online Mindfulness Therapy and Skype Therapy for Depression by visiting my YouTube Channel  http://www.youtube.com/user/pdmstrong.

Welcome! I provide online Skype therapy for depression, anxiety, stress, addictions and other emotional issues.

 For most people, the depression treatment option that is available online via Skype is an excellent choice and especially if you are suffering from the more normal forms of depression that we face in society. Naturally, in case you are suffering from a clinical type of depression then you must consult with your doctor for appropriate treatment.

But, for most of US, what makes up good treatment for depression will be to learn strategies that are better for working with open psychological issues that fuel the melancholy: Things like reactive thinking and the underlying causes of that depression. And for this, there are numerous successful forms of psychotherapies that can allow you to.

The kind of therapy that I offer for the treatment of depression is called Mindfulness Therapy, and it is an excellent means of neutralizing those habitual patterns of reactive thinking that feed and sustain depression as well as resolving those underlying core emotions.

Therefore, if you're thinking about internet treatment for your depression, please contact me through my site. Let us discuss whether this a good choice for you personally. The we can schedule a Skype Therapy session of depression treatment online. Please contact me and visit my web site.
Thanks!

Skype therapy for depression

 Welcome! My name in Peter Strong and I'm a professional psychotherapist that is on-line. I live in Boulder, Colorado, and that I provide on-line treatment via Skype. This Skye Counseling Treatment Service is available wherever you might reside, throughout Canada the United States and Europe at the same time. The service I offer is quite powerful for dependence, as well as for working with anxiety, depression, PTSD.

 Most of the time, we only react to our emotions or we attempt to avert them, or we simply become overwhelmed by them. This permits US to start to alter the emotion and discover how itself can be changed by the emotion, often through vision, because at the core of emotions you will find some type of imagery, internal images that capture the emotion. And, when you can see this imagery, you are able to change the imagery, and the emotion changes, when you alter the imagery.

 The other will be to create a secure and compassionate relationship to your own personal emotions, since that is what facilitates healing.

If you are interested in Skype Counseling online, please e-mail me, visit my website, the link is below, e-mail me and let us schedule a Skype Therapy Session. Thank you.

Skype Therapy Session for the treatment of depression

Depression Treatment Online - Mindfulness Therapy via Skype

ONLINE TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION

Online Help for Depression via Skype

Online Counseling Therapy

CONTACT ME TODAY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING ONLINE THERAPY WITH AN ONLINE THERAPIST.

The Boulder Center for Mindfulness Therapy Online with Online Therapist, teacher and author, Peter Strong, PhD.

Visit my website http://www.counselingtherapyonline.com to learn more about this Online Counseling Therapy Service.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ONLINE THERAPY WITH AN ONLINE THERAPIST VIA SKYPE

You might also like to watch this introductory video about Online Therapy:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFN08RVkqzE.

Go to my YouTube Channel to watch more videos about Online Mindfulness Therapy: https://www.youtube.com/user/pdmstrong.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE AND LEAVE HELPFUL COMMENTS ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS AND ONLINE THERAPY. 

Online Mindfulness Therapy and Counseling for Depression

ONLINE COUNSELING FOR DEPRESSION

 Today, it is possible to get effective Online Counseling and Online Therapy from a professional Online Counselor via Skype.

Online Counseling Therapy for Depression 

Depression is a common condition that affects most of us at some time in our life. For most of us, these depressive episodes pass through like a rainstorm, but eventually they resolve themselves and we bounce back to our normal state of balance. For some, the patterns of anxiety reactions do not lift so easily and the same negative thoughts repeat over and over like a broken record player. This reliving and re-experiencing emotional agitation and pain is a major source of stress and leaves us feeling exhausted and unable to cope. We become apathetic and feel our life energy draining away.

Depression and other anxiety disorders have an internal structure in the form of habitual cognitive reactions to which we have become blindly attached through the process of identification. The negative thought arises and then we become the thought. A worry-thought arises and we become worried. Anger arises and we become angry. Fear arises and we become afraid. This process of becoming happens quite automatically and is sustained by the fact that we are unaware of the reactive process of becoming. The thought arises and literally grabs hold of us and pulls us into a predetermined state of consciousness against our will or choice. Habitual reactions thrive on our unawareness of them and will continue indefinitely so long as we remain unaware. So, clearly the very first step in overcoming depression requires that we reverse this process and train ourselves to become aware of our negative emotional reactions. As the saying goes, “no consciousness, no choice; partial consciousness, partial choice; complete consciousness, complete choice.” In mindfulness psychotherapy this is called awakening to our reactivity.

We may think that we are aware of our thoughts and emotions, and this is true up to a point, but the issue is that we are seldom aware of our reactions in the moment that they arise, only after the fact when we are consumed by becoming the reaction. Our awareness is not immediate and direct, but delayed, and the delaying factor is unawareness. Mindfulness is first and foremost a deliberate effort to change this and awaken to our reactions as soon as they arise. In fact, we learn to recognize the impulse to react that precedes the thought form itself. Each moment in which we become mindful of our impulse to react creates a space, a brief interval in which there is freedom and choice. Sometimes this is all it takes to interrupt the reactive process altogether and we are able to choose to think or act differently. Other times, the impulse is so strong that we are tempted back into becoming the reaction again. Nevertheless, each moment of mindfulness strengthens and cultivates this inner state of freedom, and with conscious effort and repetition, the space of inner freedom will grow. What we are learning to do is to refrain from feeding the beast, the inner structure of habitual reactivity. If you stop feeding a reaction by becoming identified by it then it will begin to lose power to sustain itself. It will also lose its power over you.

Now that you have gained some freedom from your reactivity, you can do something quite remarkable and actively turn your attention towards the suffering, towards the feeling energy that fuels the impulse to react. This is the second part of mindfulness practice and a very important part of the method of Mindfulness Meditation Therapy. We literally make the emotion, itself, the focus of our meditation, which is why we use the term Mindfulness Meditation Therapy.

When we are in the unaware reactive mode of consciousness, we do anything but turn towards our pain. We react further to the anxiety, fear or depression with secondary reactions of avoidance, resistance and aversion. We seek positive distractions; we try to drown our sorrows in drink, obsessive sensory stimulation, or work. We become aggressive and project our inner suffering onto others and even onto those we love. But, through mindfulness, we are able to avoid the secondary reactions of aversion, wanting and distraction and come back to the simple process of being present with our pain. You may think you are present for it, but if you look more closely you will probably see that you are not really present, but reactive. Even the act of thinking about why you are upset or worried is NOT the same as being fully present for the feeling. Mindfulness is the art of being awake to every subtle movement of mind that tries to take you away from being present.

So, through the practice of mindfulness, we learn to be more and more present with our experience, including our direct experience of suffering. This has a remarkable effect on the configuration of emotional energy attached to the negative thought or belief. The feeling energy begins to regain mobility and malleability and in the inner free space of mindful-awareness, the emotion begins to change. We create, what I call a therapeutic space around the emotion, and in this space the emotion responds positively by undergoing therapeutic change. An emotion is an unstable configuration of energy, and the psych will always seek to resolve instability as long as it has the freedom to change. Mindfulness creates this inner freedom and this is why mindfulness is so therapeutic. As we say, “reactivity sustains suffering; mindfulness resolves suffering.” We do not have to try and change the suffering; it changes itself – as long as we stay mindful.

Peter Strong, PhD, is a Professional Mindfulness Psychotherapist, Online Therapist, Spiritual Teacher, Medical Research Scientist and Author, based in Boulder, Colorado. He was born in the UK and educated at the University of Oxford.

Besides therapy sessions in his Boulder Office, Dr Strong offers an Online Counseling Service via live Skype sessions, providing Online Help for Anxiety and Online Help for Depression.

Email inquiries are most welcome. Request a Skype session today and begin a course of Mindfulness Therapy for your Anxiety, Depression or Emotional Stress.

Online Mindfulness Therapy and Counseling for Depression

You can purchase a copy of Dr Strong’s book ‘The Path of Mindfulness Meditation’ through Amazon.com , Amazon.ca , Amazon.co.uk and Barnes&Noble.com. Also available on Kindle.

Learning to Sit with Depression - Online Therapy for Depression

ONLINE MINDFULNESS COUNSELING THERAPY FOR DEPRESSION

Online therapy with an online therapist. Online therapy for depression

During my work with clients either through Online Mindfulness Therapy Skype sessions or in the office, I find that one of the central problems most people have is that they do not know how to focus inwardly and create a quiet, safe space in which they can engage with their inner emotional suffering. We develop a plethora of secondary reactions of avoidance, resistance or plain resignation. We busy ourselves in activities, anything to avoid facing the inner reality of our anxiety or depression. We talk about our problems, analyze them, and try to fix things through will power and positive thinking, which are all fine in themselves, but only if they come out of a foundation of stillness and inner listening. The problem is that we do not take the time to cultivate this inner relationship, and that’s like trying to fix a problem without knowing all the facts, and that is never a good strategy. We need to learn the art of being still and completely present with the anxiety, depression, traumatic memory or other upset; in short we need to learn the art of listening within. Everyone knows the importance of listening without, to a friend or child needing our attention and support. Well this very same attitude is needed within if we want to bring about healing. This is the prime work of Mindfulness Meditation Therapy: learning to form a relationship based on listening, openness and being completely present with your emotions, and in therapy-teaching sessions, you will be taught how to do this in great detail.

          

 Online Therapist for Depression - Mindfulness Therapy Online

 Therapy begins the moment a client establishes a mindfulness-based relationship with his or her emotional reactions, and in fact therapy can almost be defined as the process of cultivating the art of inner listening until it becomes the natural response to suffering. Why is this so important? The attitude of listening and being totally present for our experience has many extraordinary effects, and all of them bring benefit. At the most fundamental level, listening is the process in which we stop reacting and start experiencing. This is what is described as the development of “presence,” and this is one of the chief characteristics of mindfulness: being fully present for whatever you are experiencing, without the interference of thinking or further reacting to what you are experiencing. In fact mindfulness can be described as “engaged-presence.” It is that quality of acute listening and openness to experience coupled by a willingness to engage and face our experience, including the painful and disagreeable thoughts and emotions.

            As a therapist, my primary mission is to help my client establish this engaged-presence of mindfulness with his or her suffering. Mindfulness teaches us how to tune in to our core emotions, and as we do that, we create a space around the pain that I call the “therapeutic space of mindfulness.” Reactivity tends to close and contract the mind making it fearful and angry, neither of which helps the healing process. Mindfulness tends to open and expand conscious awareness, and literally makes room in which tight and contracted emotional states can begin to move, unfold and differentiate. In summary: Reactivity inhibits change; mindfulness facilitates change, and this is one of the basic principles of mindfulness psychology.

            Mindfulness of our emotions is not the same as acting out the emotion and it is not wallowing in feeling bad. It is the process of literally “sitting” with the emotion: nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to fix, just being 100% present with the emotion as an object to observe and investigate with care. This shift in relationship from subjective reactivity, in which we are continually hijacked by our emotions, to an objective relationship, in which we can be with our emotions in a state of inner silence, has an immensely powerful healing effect. It literally creates a space in which the emotion can change from within. So, if you feel overwhelmed by anxiety, fear, worry, guilt or depression, then Mindfulness Meditation Therapy will be of great value to you.

            One woman described how she saw herself as being a victim of incessant worrying and anxiety. She had tried several forms of talking therapy, but the anxiety persisted. When I asked her what color the anxiety-emotion was, she seemed puzzled. Apparently, in all her previous therapy sessions no one had asked her to look inside and see what was actually there. Talking about emotions is never as effective as actually looking at them directly. After a couple of sessions of MMT she established an inner mindfulness-based relationship with the anxiety-emotion and immediately noticed that it had a black color and had a hard, tight form. Now, for the first time, she had something tangible to work with, and after several more sessions of simply creating a therapeutic mindfulness space around the black object, it spontaneously began to soften and loosen up, eventually taking on a new color and changing in many other ways. The constricted emotional energy was being released during this process of direct inner experiencing and this led to profound transformation at the core. Out of this change at the core feeling level, her beliefs and thinking also changed and she no longer felt a victim of compulsive worrying. She readily found new solutions and more positive perspectives on things, and all this arose as a consequence of first learning to be present with her worry-thoughts through mindfulness training.

            Mindfulness meditation is like “mental massage” in which we bring warmth and healing energy to those hard, reactive places within, and with each gentle touch, suffering begins to respond by healing itself from within. During Online Mindfulness Therapy, I teach clients how to do this “mindfulness massage” so that they can practice the art of inner healing at the core level and learn a totally different way of being with the many challenges of their lives. The problem is seldom in the challenges, disappointments and issues, but almost always in the way that we react to these events. Mindfulness teaches us how to maintain balance and to avoid becoming reactive. We learn to replace reactivity with responsiveness, based on mindfulness rather than blind compulsion. That is the path that heals suffering in our heart and in our relationships. In fact, many of my clients use the mindfulness skills that they learn to heal the compulsive patterns of reactivity and arguing that destroys personal relationships. It all begins by learning the art of true listening based on mindfulness and engaged-presence.

Peter Strong, PhD, is a Mindfulness Psychotherapist, Online Therapist, Spiritual Teacher, Medical Research Scientist and Author, based in Boulder, Colorado. He was born in the UK and educated at the University of Oxford.

Besides therapy sessions in his Boulder Office, Dr Strong provides an Online Counseling Service via Skype for anxiety (Online Anxiety Therapy), depression (Online Therapist for Depression) and mindfulness-based therapy for stress and PTSD (Online Stress Management).

YouTube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/pdmstrong  

 

Email inquiries about Online Therapy and Online Counseling are most welcome. Request an Online Psychotherapy Skype session today and begin a course of Mindfulness Therapy for your Anxiety, Depression or Emotional Stress.

You can purchase a copy of Dr Strong’s book ‘The Path of Mindfulness Meditation’ at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk and Barnes&Noble.com. A Kindle edition is also available.

Overcoming Depression with Mindfulness Therapy Online

ONLINE DEPRESSION TREATMENT

TALK TO AN ONLINE THERAPIST VIA SKYPE

Depression and anxiety are very prevalent problems in today’s society, affecting almost all of us at some time in our lives. For many, and estimates are as high as 40% of adults, depression can be a chronic problem that severely impacts the quality of life, happiness and personal relationships. However, there are many things that we can do to manage depression and one of the most important approaches is to work on changing the underlying patterns of negative thinking at the core of depression. Mindfulness Therapy is one of the most effective tools for doing this, because it helps us tune in at a very detailed way into the whole process of habitual reactive thinking. Mindfulness also provides the right kind of inner space, the therapeutic space as it is called in mindfulness psychology that promotes the transformation and healing of the trapped emotional energy that fuels negative thinking.

Depression Treatment Online via Skype

Mindfulness Therapy is, in some ways, like a cat-and-mouse game in which you develop the finely tuned attention of a cat, forever watchful and patient, as it sits in front of a mouse hole, waiting for its prey to emerge. In our case the prey are not mice, but the countless negative thoughts and emotional reactions that emerge from the shadows of our conditioned mind. In Mindfulness Therapy and Mindfulness Meditation, we train our senses, continually refining them so that we become expert hunters, able to see the impulse to react before it takes hold. This is much better than staying stuck as the victim, which of course is one of the major contributing factors in depression. Rather than feeling helpless and waiting for suffering to grab us by the throat, we choose to face it by teaching ourselves how to become an expert hunter, and this means learning to become experts at recognizing the impulse to react before it is converted into unskillful action. In mindfulness psychology, we call this cultivating “mindfulness of the arising of mental phenomena.”

            Depressed people often feel unable to cope with their emotional reactions to life events and tend to feel continually overwhelmed by them. Feeling overwhelmed leads to inertia and fatigue, which makes us less able to cope. Depression is a response in which the mind literally closes down and contracts, and withdraws from the world. But it is important to realize that this is not immutable, not truth, but simply the result of some pretty powerful conditioning that has caused us to become enslaved by our emotional reactions, negative thinking and beliefs. Beliefs, thoughts and emotional reactions can all be changed, but first we must learn to become a hunter and take the initiative to train ourselves to catch our negative thoughts “in the act.”

What next, after we have caught our reactions?

This is the crux of the matter. Developing the art of mindfulness of the arising of reactions is immensely important, but what you do next will define whether the reactivity will be able to change, transform and resolve itself, and whether you will be able to break free of its grip.

            For those who follow the path of mindfulness, we choose to actively greet the reaction, the impulse that is stirring, the emotion or thought that is trying to take control. We literally greet it with, “Welcome. I acknowledge you. You are most welcome here, please take a seat.” We learn not to run away from the impulse, and not to react to it with aversion to the emotions stirring inside. We watch very carefully for the secondary impulses to become involved in the reaction or emotion, to become caught up in the story and identified with the contents of thinking. Mindfulness is not thinking about things; it is the direct awareness of things as they are, without an observer, without an ego evaluating, judging and commenting. This is what we call the Response of Mindfulness, the choice to be fully present and aware without becoming reactive. Reactivity is enslavement and leads to more of the same; it inhibits change. Responsiveness is freedom from thoughts and emotions and this promotes change, transformation and healing. Reactivity closes the mind; mindfulness opens both the mind and the heart, and it is in this therapeutic space that real change can take place.

            Therefore, after Recognition comes Relationship, the acceptance of the right of our inner thoughts and emotions to exist, which is the foundation of love and compassion. Ultimately, nothing can resist this powerful presence, and everything becomes free to change and heal itself in the light and warmth of mindfulness. Quite simply, mindfulness heals because it is about caring and learning how to care for the suffering that lies within. This is not abstract love, but love directed at the detailed “mess” that is the turmoil of our mind. We choose, as the hunter chooses, to bring this healing spaciousness to each fragment of the mind; each negative thought, belief and emotion. We choose to “sit” with each and give it the space in which to unfold, unwind and release its grip. In this therapeutic space of mindfulness, painful emotions, anger, hurt, guilt or fear are at last allowed to heal in their own unique way. They need the freedom to complete their dance, which is called cultivating the “mindfulness of the existence of that which has arisen.”

            Suffering and the depression that results from chronic suffering is caused by not allowing inner pain to complete its dance and to do whatever it needs to do to attain resolution, and bring about the release of emotional energy that has become trapped and frozen in place. Completion requires inner freedom, which is the conscious awareness and presence that we call mindfulness. Mindfulness is the stage on which experience can complete its dance and come to a close. This is called cultivation of the “mindfulness of the cessation of phenomena.” When we train in mindfulness, we learn to do this from moment to moment, cultivating mindfulness of the arising of experience, the dance of experience and the cessation of experience. When we allow this to proceed without interruption and resistance, then we can sublimate depression, anxiety, fear and worry, and release that trapped energy back into the psyche where it becomes available to produce action and change in our daily life and in our relationships.

This is not metaphysical speculation, not New Age idealism, but something that can be directly experienced and felt. I invite you to learn more about mindfulness, mindfulness meditation and Mindfulness Meditation Therapy, and apply these teachings to transform and heal your depression or anxiety.

Today, many psychotherapists, counselors and life coaches recognize the widespread need for education in the field of emotional management and self-help, and are offering this in the form of personalized coaching online, particularly through email correspondence and Skype sessions. Online coaching offers many advantages to the client, and convenience has to be one of the greatest reasons why Online Counseling is becoming more and more popular. Another very important advantage of Online Counseling is that it empowers the client, allowing him or her to direct the process in a way that works for them. The very process of writing down ones thoughts and feelings and preparing for a Skype videocam session is therapeutic in itself. The Online Therapy process also helps both client and therapist focus on designing specific solutions to specific problems. Often this will involve exercises and “homework” assignments that the client can experiment with at home.

            Mindfulness Meditation Therapy is proving to be a very effective approach for online counseling, because it teaches clients how to work with their emotions using a very structured and individualized approach.

Peter Strong, PhD, is a Mindfulness Psychotherapist, Professional Online Therapist, Spiritual Teacher, Medical Research Scientist and Author, based in Boulder, Colorado. He was born in the UK and educated at the University of Oxford.

Besides therapy sessions in his Boulder Office, Dr Strong provides Online Counseling Services via Skype. Inquiries welcome.

Overcoming Depression with Mindfulness Therapy

You can purchase a copy of Dr Strong’s book ‘The Path of Mindfulness Meditation’ at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk and Barnes&Noble.com. A Kindle edition is also available.

Mindfulness Psychotherapy for Depression

Mindfulness Psychotherapy for Depression Online via Skype

ONLINE THERAPY FOR DEPRESSION

At the Center for Mindfulness Psychotherapy in Boulder, Colorado, its founder Peter Strong has developed a unique strategy for working with persistent emotional problems such as depression, anxiety and trauma-related anxiety called Mindfulness Meditation Therapy.

            Emotions like depression and anxiety, or excessive worrying and fear, depend on negative core beliefs and ruminative negative thinking. Ultimately, we need to neutralize these negative beliefs and replace them with more functional positive and life-supporting beliefs and thinking. The issue, of course, is how do we do this? It is not sufficient to simply tell yourself to stop worrying or to stop having negative thoughts. If it was that easy then you would have corrected the problem long ago. We must take a deeper look at the mechanics of depression and negative beliefs if we are to make a beneficial change.

            Mindfulness Psychotherapy for Depression Online via Skype

Fundamentally, negative thinking and associated beliefs are a form of habitual mental reactivity that has become established and that operates unconsciously, without our choice or input. An event happens and a thought or emotional reaction arises in consciousness and then we automatically believe and identify with the reaction. He says such and such and a reaction of anger or hurt or disappointment arises in the mind. We then become the anger or hurt or disappointment. This is the nature of habitual reactivity: There is a trigger, which is an objective phenomenon; there is a subjective reaction to that phenomenon; and then there is identification with the subjective cognitive or emotional reaction followed by becoming the emotional reaction. This whole reactive sequence from trigger to becoming depends on two factors: Ignorance, or unawareness, and blind identification, or attachment with your subjective reactions.

The first step in Online Mindfulness Meditation Therapy (MMT) is to develop a clear and profound understanding that you do not have to become your reactions, and that you do not have to be victimized by your mental reactions. There is no law that condemns you to feel depressed because a depressing thought arose in your mind; or worried, because a worrying thought arose; or angry, because an angry thought arose. It is only because of our blind habitual identification with these mental objects that we become their victims. Therefore, the first and most important task is to awaken to what is going on and become aware of mental reactions as and when they arise. This is the first function of mindfulness training: learning to become vigilant and recognize a reaction as a reaction and stop right there, before it has the chance to proliferate into a full blown cognitive and emotional reaction. Catch the reactions at their initial stage, when they are still little more than an impulse. Learn to recognize the anger impulse and stop at that flash of recognition and before the impulse has a chance to manifest as a bodily reaction with accompanying angry thinking, angry speaking and angry actions. This is a skill that has to be developed, and success depends on catching the reaction early enough. But with practice, you will become more and more familiar with the subtle undercurrents and signs of an impending emotional reaction.

            Depression feeds on negative thoughts that generate anxiety and a feeling of helplessness or loneliness or emptiness. Don’t be a victim of these mental objects, but take the initiative to learn to cultivate mindfulness of these mental reactions and catch them before they take hold. The same with fear reactions, worry reactions, stress reactions; reactions of disappointment, loss, sorrow, regret; anger, envy and jealousy; dislike, hatred, disapproval; or insatiable longing and wanting things to be a certain way. Rather than being a victim of your thoughts and emotions, learn to become an expert in recognizing what arises in your mind.

The second part of MMT is to learn how to respond to all these mental reactions after you have learned to recognize them when they arise. After Recognition comes Response and after Response comes Relationship.

            The response phase of mindfulness starts by understanding that thoughts, emotions, beliefs, memories, perceptions, and, in fact, any contents that arise in the mind are simply that: contents, mental objects, things that take on a particular form depending on past conditioning. Ultimately, you are not your thoughts or emotions or any other of the bewildering variety of mental objects that arise in the mind through conditioning. Learning to see your emotions like this, as objects, rather than as you, introduces a very important shift in perception that is profoundly liberating. Suddenly, you begin to get the sense that you are actually much, much larger than your depression, anxiety, anger or other of the objects that form the contents of your mind. The reality of your being is more like the ocean or sky, neither of which can be equated to the fish or birds that arise in it. The ocean is not its contents; it is the space that is able to contain objects, and the variety of objects that it can contain is infinite; you are infinite. Needless to say, developing a sense of this new perspective about your true identity will have profound consequences on your general state of happiness. So much of our unhappiness and mental suffering comes from a very contracted sense of identity in which we cling to our habitual reactions, believing that we are our anxiety, depression, anger and fear.

            Thus, the first part of the response phase of mindfulness is to see contents as objects to which we can relate, examine, investigate and hold in our awareness. The next part of the response of mindfulness describes the quality of that response. First and foremost, the mindful-response does not involve further reactions of thinking or emotions; it is a response on non-reactivity. The mindful-response is a process of opening to our experience, opening to our pain and suffering, our fear and depression or any of the objects that we have recognized as arising in consciousness. We learn to greet these objects as visitors, as guests that have something to teach us. We learn to hold our inner suffering as a mother holds her baby, with care and attention and lots of patience, and above all love. We make a space for the worry-thought, or the anger, or grief or sorrow. Just like the ocean or sky, there is plenty of room for all.

            In Buddhist psychology, the response of mindfulness is described by the term metta, loving-kindness and friendliness. This is not a fuzzy idealistic kind of love, but a clear understanding that you can never overcome suffering with aversion and aggression. Pain will not go away through resistance and will power. Metta means turning towards your pain, facing your pain with open arms, or what is commonly called, “getting in touch with your feelings.” We all know the importance of doing this, but seldom know how to do it. The mindfulness response gives us a very direct way to get in touch with the feelings and other mental objects that make up our depression or anxiety or feelings of helplessness and emptiness.

Through mindfulness we have learned how to recognize our depression-causing reactions and how to respond to them as objects to be known fully and held in the safe spaciousness of metta. Next comes the development and cultivation of this compassionate and open relationship with suffering. Actually, we have done most of the hard work already in getting to this point. Now we simply maintain and sustain this quality of engaged-presence with the emotion. This is why we call the process Mindfulness Meditation Therapy, because we make the emotional object the very center of our meditation for contemplation and investigation. We now embark on the profound work of listening, based on mindfulness, metta and stillness. The mindful-relationship is not about doing or trying to analyze or fix things, but about listening with an open heart and mind. Its about allowing our inner emotions to unfold and express themselves in the way that they need to change, rather than according to any plan that we might have for them. When you listen to a friend who is in pain, you don’t immediately respond by giving them advice. It is always better to listen first and create a safe space in which the person can express himself. It is the same with our emotions. Create a safe space for them and they will reward you by loosening their grip on you. Give them freedom and they will give you freedom. Often this simple action of non-doing, but rather responding by being fully present is sufficient to defuse the emotion. It unwinds and loses its compulsive energy, and eventually resolves by itself. It is not what we do that matters as much as the quality of how we relate to our core emotions, whether we react  out of ignorance and unawareness or respond with mindfulness and full awareness.

            In practice, I teach clients to recognize their emotional reactions and then respond with mindfulness and to do this throughout the day in mini meditation sessions of 2-5 minutes. Simply take a few minutes out to sit with your emotions and be completely there for them as you would for a child or for your friend. Learn to cradle your emotions and reactions with love and attention, rather than ignoring them or resisting them, which is our usual reaction. Do this many times throughout the day and see for yourself the difference that it makes.

            It all begins by recognizing that you are not your thoughts and then proceeds to a caring relationship in which you respond to your thoughts and emotions with mindfulness and take the time to develop a relationship with your inner visitors as welcome guests to be embraced and attended to with love and attention. You do not have to change them, but you do have to be completely present with them. When this relationship takes form, the suffering will heal by itself, or if it does not heal immediately, then you will have established a therapeutic relationship that will facilitate healing in one way or another.

Peter Strong, PhD, is a Mindfulness Psychotherapist, Online Therapist, Spiritual Teacher, Medical Research Scientist and Author, based in Boulder, Colorado. He was born in the UK and educated at the University of Oxford.

Besides therapy sessions in his Boulder Office, Dr Strong provides an Online Counseling Service via Skype for anxiety (Online Anxiety Therapy), depression (Online Depression Therapy) and mindfulness-based therapy for stress and PTSD (Online Stress Management).

Visit My YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pdmstrong  

Email inquiries about Online Therapy and Online Counseling are most welcome. Request an Online Psychotherapy Skype session today and begin a course of Mindfulness Therapy for your Anxiety, Depression or Emotional Stress.

You can purchase a copy of Dr Strong’s book ‘The Path of Mindfulness Meditation’ at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk and Barnes&Noble.com. A Kindle edition is also available.

What Color is Your Depression? Overcoming Depression with Online Mindfulness Therapy

ONLINE MINDFULNESS THERAPY FOR DEPRESSION

ONLINE THERAPY SERVICE

When we experience depression we often describe it with phrases like: “I’m in a black mood”, or “It smothers me like a heavy blanket”, or “Its like being in a thick fog”, or “I feel like I’m wading through treacle.”

            These and similar descriptions provide interesting clues about the nature of emotions like depression, anxiety or fear: Emotions have a structure, and that structure is encoded in imagery and physical sensations. Why is this important? Well, quite simply because when we uncover the structure of an emotion, we then have something tangible to which we can relate to and work with. Emotions like depression are typically very amorphous, like a swirling fog, they have no handles that we can grab hold of and work with. This is why depression is often accompanied by feelings of helplessness and despair, because we cannot even see the thing that is controlling us. We become victims of our emotions. How can you change something that has no form?

            Luckily, emotions do have a form; the problem is that we are not aware of it. However, we can become aware of the inner structure of depression through mindfulness, and this approach to healing is called Mindfulness Meditation Therapy.

            

 Online Therapy for Depression - Talk to a Therapist Online

What is mindfulness? It is simply the direct attention to things as they arise in our experience, without any hint of reactivity, wanting, not wanting, or even thinking about what we are observing. Mindfulness is being fully present for our emotions, our experiences, without any judgemental observer, but most importantly of all, without becoming identified with the emotion that we are observing. We have this awful tendency to become the contents of our mind. The emotion of depression arises, and we become the depression: It takes control and dominates consciousness and we suffer. Mindfulness is the antidote to this blind habitual conditioned reactivity that the Buddha called avijja, or ignorance. This is the unawareness and sleepwalking mode of being that keeps us stuck in our depression, anxiety and fear.

            During Mindfulness Meditation Therapy, we learn how to stop becoming victims of habitual reactivity. We start to take charge and investigate our emotions, including depression, with mindfulness. We learn to develop a relationship with depression as an object that arises in their consciousness, rather than blindly being overwhelmed by it every time it appears.

Working with colors. What color is your depression?

Here is one simple exercise that you can experiment with. Close your eyes, take a few minutes to relax with some deep breaths, and then when you feel ready, turn your attention towards the depression. Sometimes, we get a strong sensation of where the emotion is in our bodies; perhaps it is in the pit of the stomach, or in the heart area.

            Now simply sit with the emotion, knowing that you are looking at the emotion. This is being mindful of the emotion. The practice is called mindfulness meditation, where the emotion is the object of your meditation. If you get distracted, recognize that you have been pulled away and gently return your mindful attention back onto the depression. Don’t allow yourself to become the depression, or to indulge in thinking about the depression; simply feel its presence and continue to observe it with mindfulness. If you feel yourself being sucked into the emotion, recognize this force, pull yourself back and stay mindful.  Each time you catch yourself and are mindful of what is happening as it is happening is a small, but significant victory. This is how you will gain your freedom from habitual reactivity and depression: one small victory at a time; the effect is cumulative.

            Now, as you continue mindfulness meditation on the depression, observe the color of the emotion. Observe the color, and sense at the intuitive level if the color fits the emotion or if you need to make some adjustments. If the color is black, is it shiny or dull, hard or soft? Does the color take the form of a solid object or is it diffuse like a cloud? Take your time to explore all these subtle details. The power is in the details, because this gives you a handle on the emotion. Coming to know the structure of your depression helps you establish a relationship with it, and this helps prevent you from becoming overwhelmed by the emotion when it arises.

The more you see, the more power you have; the less you see, the more power you give to the emotion.

When you have established a good mindful relationship with your depression and you have a good sense of its color, you can proceed to the next stage, which is to do a series of experiments, making changes in the color. Maintain mindfulness at all times so that you can assess at the intuitive level if any of these changes are effective. Trust in your intuition and you will be amazed at how the deeper intuitive intelligence of your psyche will guide this process and make very subtle changes that have a profound healing effect. If the depression has a shiny black color, try changing it to a powdery white color. Check to see if that change helps. You may need to use spray paint, or perhaps just warm the black object up, or sprinkle water over it. No one can tell you what changes to make; but if you trust in your intuition and stay mindful, your psyche will always show you the way.

            Experiment with this process many times, and repeat your mindfulness mediation sessions every day. You will be quite delighted at the positive effects that come from working with your depression in this way, as something to sit with and work with in a creative way, rather than reacting out of habit.

            The underlying principle is that emotions have an internal structure and that structure is formed around imagery, the natural language of the psyche. Change the imagery and you change the emotion. But for change to be effective, you need mindfulness so that you can tune in at the intuitive level and find those changes that feel right, rather than trying to impose changes that don’t fit.

Peter Strong, PhD, is a Mindfulness Psychotherapist, Online Therapist, Spiritual Teacher, Medical Research Scientist and Author, based in Boulder, Colorado. He was born in the UK and educated at the University of Oxford.

Besides therapy sessions in his Boulder Office, Dr Strong provides an Online Counseling Service via Skype for anxiety (Anxiety Therapy Online ), depression (Online Treatment for Depression) and mindfulness-based therapy for stress and PTSD (Online Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction).

Visit My Websites: http://www.counselingtherapyonline.com. 

Email inquiries about Online Therapy and Online Counseling are most welcome. Request an Online Psychotherapy Skype session today and begin a course of Mindfulness Therapy for your Anxiety, Depression or Emotional Stress.

You can purchase a copy of Dr Strong’s book ‘The Path of Mindfulness Meditation’ at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk and Barnes&Noble.com. A Kindle edition is also available.