Therapy for Depression in Silver Spring, MD
For high-achieving adults when everything looks fine and still feels heavy.
Virtual sessions in NY, MD & all PsyPact states · In-person in Silver Spring, MD
It's a Tuesday evening. You've answered your emails, made your calls, done everything you were supposed to do. And now you're sitting there feeling — nothing, exactly, but also not fine. Not present. The flatness has been around long enough that you've stopped expecting it to lift.
You find yourself withdrawing: responding to fewer texts, canceling plans, having less to give. Small decisions take more energy than they should. You're not sure when that started. You're not sure why things that seem to manage fine for other people feel this effortful for you. And part of you keeps wondering why you can't simply pull yourself out of it — which doesn't help, but you keep trying anyway.
Signs you might benefit from therapy for depression in Silver Spring
you might be here because...You're functioning — work, relationships, obligations — but going through the motions feels like all you have energy for.
Things that used to feel meaningful don't land the same way anymore. You're not sure when that changed.
Small decisions take more energy than they should. Tasks that once felt simple now feel overwhelming.
You find yourself withdrawing — responding less, canceling plans, avoiding texts — without fully understanding why.
You wake up most mornings already behind, already heavy, already bracing for the day.
You move through most days on autopilot, comparing yourself to others and quietly feeling behind.
You've been waiting for things to get bad enough to warrant help. They haven't. And you're still exhausted.
What therapy for depression actually addresses
Depression in high-achievers is often driven by things that don't look like depression on the surface — chronic self-criticism, the relentless pressure to perform, a deep disconnection between external success and internal experience. The behaviors that helped you succeed — working harder, holding higher standards, pushing through — can quietly compound the problem when they're the only tools you have. What gets you through also keeps you stuck.
How CBT + psychodynamic + ACT work together for this concern
In our sessions we draw on three frameworks that work well together for this kind of depression. CBT helps us identify the thought patterns... Psychodynamic work goes deeper, helping us understand where those patterns came from... And ACT helps you build a different relationship to those patterns in real time: noticing when the inner critic is running the show, making choices based on what actually matters to you rather than what you're afraid of, and learning what it feels like to let yourself rest without it meaning something has gone wrong.
What therapy for depression in Silver Spring can help you work toward
-
Understanding what's underneath the flatness.
Depression in high-achievers rarely arrives without context. We explore the patterns, beliefs, and relational experiences that helped shape it — not to excavate the past for its own sake, but because understanding where something came from changes your relationship to it. The inner critic starts to feel less like a fact and more like something you can work with.
-
Rebuilding a relationship with your own experience.
A lot of high-functioning depression involves a kind of disconnection — from feelings, from the body, from anything that isn't productive. Part of the work is learning to notice what's actually happening internally, to take your own experience seriously, and to build a life that feels inhabited rather than performed.
-
Functioning without the cost.
The goal isn't to lower your standards or stop caring. It's to stop the caring from being so exhausting. Most clients find that as the self-criticism eases and the pressure loosens, they're more present, more effective, and more connected — not less driven, just less depleted.
Who seeks depression therapy at this practice
Many of the people I see for depression are high-achieving adults who don't fit the clinical picture they have in their head. They're not in crisis. They're not unable to function. They're privately exhausted, going through the motions, and waiting for something to feel meaningful again. Many are professionals, graduate students, or academics in demanding fields. Many are also navigating eating disorder recovery, body image struggles, or chronic anxiety alongside the depression — concerns that are more connected than they might appear, and that this practice is specifically equipped to hold together.
Questions people ask about depression therapy late at night
things you might be wondering...
-
It can be. High-functioning depression is one of the most commonly missed presentations precisely because it coexists with productivity, achievement, and keeping up appearances. The clinical picture isn't always crying in bed — it's often a persistent flatness, a disconnection from things that used to matter, an exhaustion that sleep doesn't fix, and a low-grade sense that you're living slightly outside your own life. If that resonates, it's worth exploring. Functioning well doesn't disqualify you from support.
-
Less than you might think. Burnout and depression in high-achievers share a lot of the same territory — exhaustion, disconnection, loss of meaning, difficulty resting. In practice, we don't start by pinning down the diagnosis. We start with what you're actually experiencing and what's driving it. Whether we call it burnout or depression, the underlying patterns — chronic self-criticism, impossibly high standards, a self-worth built entirely on performance — are what we work with.
-
Stress tends to have a source you can point to — a deadline, a conflict, a season of overload. Depression is sneakier. It often shows up as a background condition that doesn't lift when the stressor resolves, or that exists without an obvious cause at all. The flatness, the disconnection, the quiet sense that things should feel easier — these tend to persist regardless of what's happening externally. If you've been waiting for circumstances to change and your mood hasn't followed, that's often a meaningful signal. You don't need a diagnosis to start exploring it.
-
Yes — and that ambivalence is worth naming out loud. A lot of people come into therapy for depression not fully convinced change is possible, or not sure they deserve to feel better, or worried about what it would mean to stop being the person who holds everything together. Those feelings are part of what we work with, not a barrier to starting. You don't need to arrive motivated. You just need to be willing to show up.
-
It often is, and it's one of the things this practice is specifically built to hold. Depression, body image struggles, and eating disorder history tend to run along the same thread — self-criticism, disconnection from the body, a sense of never being quite enough. You don't have to separate them out before reaching out. Bringing all of it is welcome here.
Ready to start depression therapy? Schedule a free consultation in Silver Spring or virtually
You don't have to feel worse before you deserve support.
Depression doesn't have to stay this heavy. It can get lighter. If you're ready to stop managing and start feeling more like yourself, I'd love to talk.
-
Therapy for anxiety
Depression and anxiety frequently travel together — the flatness and the restlessness, the withdrawal and the overdoing. If you recognize both, you're not alone. Many clients find that the same thread runs through them.
-
Eating disorder therapy
For many people, depression and a complicated relationship with food are deeply intertwined — both shaped by the same patterns of self-criticism, disconnection, and the sense of never being quite enough. If that resonates, this work addresses both.
-
Body image therapy
Depression often changes how you inhabit your body — you feel more disconnected from it, more critical, less present. Body image work and depression therapy overlap more than you might expect, and this practice holds both.