Depression therapist in Sacramento, CA
WHEN GETTING THROUGH THE DAY FEELS LIKE TOO MUCH
You are exhausted from pretending you’re okay, because you really are not. There’s a version of you that shows up, gets through the day, tries to smile when it’s expected. But underneath that, something feels very wrong, and carrying it is wearing you out.
It’s hard to concentrate. Your sleep is off. Your body feels like something you have to drag around just to get through ordinary moments. You find yourself stuck in your own head, turning things over and over, and no matter what you try, you cannot seem to shake this funk you are in.
The guilt and the shame are overwhelming. Not because you are failing at anything dramatic, but because the basics feel hard. Following through with responsibilities. Taking care of yourself. The things that are supposed to be simple. They are not simple right now, and that gap between what you think you should be able to do and what you can actually manage is crushing.
You are not just tired. You are tired of feeling this way.
Maybe you have been here for a while. Maybe this has been building so gradually that you barely noticed until one day the weight of it became impossible to ignore. The negative thoughts that loop without stopping. The irritability that surprises even you. The way you feel detached from the people and things that used to matter. The low self-esteem that whispers things you would never say to someone you love.
Depression doesn’t always look like what people expect. Sometimes it looks like holding it together just enough, showing up, functioning. But feeling hollowed out on the inside, disconnected from yourself, and quietly wondering if this is just how things are going to be.
It does not have to be.
SOMETHING IN YOU BROUGHT YOU HERE
The fact that you are reading this means something. It means some part of you hasn’t given up. Some part of you still believes that things could feel different, even if that belief is faint right now, even if it flickers more than it burns.
That part of you is right.
Underneath the exhaustion and the shame and the dragging yourself through the day, there is something still present. A self that wants to reconnect. A life that is worth reclaiming. You have not lost that. It is still there, waiting.
I'M COLLEEN, THERAPIST FOR DEPRESSION IN SACRAMENTO
I'm Colleen King, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner based in Sacramento, CA. I work with adults who are living with depression, and I bring both a compassionate and directive approach to this work. That means I am not going to simply nod and reflect for fifty minutes. I am going to be present with you, engaged with you, and actively involved in helping you find your way through.
My work is rooted in trauma-informed, somatic therapy, and I draw on several evidence-based approaches that I have found to be genuinely effective for the people I work with.
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, or MBCT, helps you develop a different relationship with your thoughts. Not fighting them, not being consumed by them, but learning to notice them with some distance and steadiness. Depression often pulls people into a current of negative thinking that feels completely real and completely permanent. MBCT helps you step out of that current. Over time, many clients find they are less hijacked by their own mind and more able to choose where their attention goes.
Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy, or IPSRT, recognizes something that is easy to overlook: the rhythm of your daily life matters. Your sleep, your routines, your relationships, the stability or instability of your days, all of it has a real impact on how depression moves through you. IPSRT helps you build structure and steadiness into your life in a way that supports your mood from the ground up. It also addresses the relational side of depression, because depression does not happen in isolation. It affects how you show up with the people you care about, and how those relationships affect you in return.
Somatic therapy, informed by my training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, works from a simple but important truth: depression lives in the body as much as it lives in the mind. The heaviness, the fatigue, the difficulty being present, these are not just emotional experiences. They are physical ones. Healing them requires working with the whole person. For many people living with depression, the body has become a place they do not want to inhabit. The work we do together is about slowly, gently changing that relationship and building a sense of safety inside yourself again.
Clients who work with me often describe feeling more grounded over time. More able to tolerate difficult emotions without being swept away by them. More connected to themselves and to the people they care about. Many clients find that as their relationship with their own thoughts, their daily rhythms, and their body shifts, the depression symptoms that once felt immovable begin to loosen.
If you’re working with a psychiatric provider, a primary care physician, or other support persons, I am happy to collaborate with them. Good care is coordinated care, and if that kind of continuity matters to your situation, we can talk about how to make it work.
WHAT DEPRESSION THERAPY WITH COLLEEN LOOKS LIKE
We begin with understanding you specifically. Not a generic treatment checklist, but a plan built around your needs, your strengths, and your actual life. Depression looks different for everyone, and the approach that helps you move forward should reflect that.
Together we will work to:
Decrease the impact of depressive symptoms on your daily functioning and relationships
Identify and build on the strengths you already have, even when they feel invisible right now
Address negative thinking patterns, ruminating thoughts, and the self-doubt that keeps you stuck
Build steadier daily rhythms and routines that support your mood and your nervous system
Reconnect with your sense of self, your self-esteem, and your identity beyond depression
Develop coping skills that feel real and usable, not just techniques from a workbook
Explore the underlying beliefs and limiting assumptions that depression has used against you
The somatic piece of this work means we are not only working with your mind. We are working with your nervous system, your body's patterns, and the way safety and presence feel in your physical experience. Combined with the mindfulness and interpersonal tools we draw on, this is what makes the healing durable. When your body learns to settle, and when your daily life has more rhythm and steadiness, the mind often follows.
YOU DESERVE SUPPORT
You deserve to devote real time and energy to changing how depression impacts your life. Not just managing it. Actually reclaiming the parts of yourself and your daily experience that depression has been quietly taking.
If you are ready to take one step, I offer a free 15-minute phone or video consultation. It is a no-pressure conversation to see whether working together feels like the right fit. You do not have to commit to anything. You just have to show up for that one call.
That one step is worth taking.
Schedule your free 15-minute phone or video consultation by clicking here.
Frequently Asked Questions about Therapy for Depression in Sacramento
-
A good depression therapist does more than listen. In our work together, sessions are active and engaged. We might explore the thoughts and patterns that keep you stuck, work with what your body is holding, look at the rhythms and relationships in your daily life that are affecting your mood, or practice mindfulness skills that help you relate differently to difficult thoughts. Every session is shaped by where you are that day and what you most need. The goal is not to talk about depression indefinitely. The goal is to help you move through it.
-
You don’t have to be in crisis to deserve care or benefit from therapy. If depression is affecting your ability to function, your sense of self, your relationships, or your daily quality of life, those are signs that professional support would be helpful. Many people wait longer than they need to because they’re not sure their experience is serious enough. If you are dragging yourself through the day and nothing you try seems to shake it, that is enough of a reason to reach out.
-
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, or MBCT, is an evidence-based approach that combines mindfulness practices with tools from cognitive therapy. It helps you increase awareness of your thoughts without being pulled under by them. For depression specifically, it’s particularly effective at reducing emotional reactivity to the negative thought patterns that depression tends to generate. MBCT also helps reduce the risk of relapse by changing your relationship with the thoughts that tend to generate self-critical stories. Rather than trying to argue with or suppress difficult thoughts, you learn to observe them with steadiness and step back from them.
-
Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy, or IPSRT, is built on the understanding that mood is deeply connected to the rhythms of daily life. Sleep, routines, social connection, environmental stress, and the stability of your days all play a significant role in how depression moves through you. IPSRT helps you build steadier rhythms and address the relational patterns that may be contributing to or worsening your depression. Many clients find that when their daily life becomes more structured, stress is mitigated, and their relationships feel more supported, their mood begins to stabilize in ways that other approaches alone did not achieve.
-
Somatic therapy works with the body as part of the healing process, not just the mind. Depression is not only a mental experience. It lives in the body as fatigue, heaviness, disconnection, and physical tension. As a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, I am trained to help you work with what your nervous system is holding, not just what your thoughts are doing. Many clients find that when they begin to feel safer and more present in their own body, the emotional and cognitive symptoms of depression begin to shift as well.
-
This depends on many factors, including the severity and duration of your depression, your goals, and how the work unfolds for you. Some clients notice meaningful shifts within a few months. Others benefit from longer term support, especially when depression is connected to long-standing patterns or past experiences. We will talk about your goals early in our work together and revisit them regularly so you always have a sense of where you are and where we are headed.
-
Yes. I work with adults experiencing the full range of depressive symptoms, from mild to severe. The approach we take will be shaped by what you are experiencing, what your goals are, and what your nervous system can work with at any given time. If you are also working with a psychiatric provider, primary care physician, or other support person, I’m happy to collaborate with them to make sure your care is coordinated.
-
I offer both in-person therapy in Sacramento and online therapy throughout California. My Sacramento therapy office is located at 949 University Avenue, Sacramento CA 95825, I’m on the second floor in a building right next to the Guy West Bridge that spans the American River.
-
I recognize that investing your time, energy, and financial resources into fostering improved mental health and overall well-being is a big commitment, and I truly appreciate the opportunity to join you on this journey. I also recognize and respect that economic privilege is variable, so I am working to be in alignment with my values of economic justice and equity, while also acknowledging the quality of care that I provide to all my clients. I utilize a sliding scale tool based on three tiers of economic privilege.
The standard full fee for weekly therapy appointments is $200 per 50-minute appointment, and $300 per 75-minute appointment.
I am contracted with Medi-Cal HealthNet for people who are unemployed, underemployed, and/or disabled. If your financial resources exceed qualifying requirements for Medi-Cal insurance coverage, and the ability to pay my full fee would create a hardship on your ability to pay for your basic needs, please contact me so we can talk about the sliding scale.
-
The first step is scheduling a free 15-minute phone or video consultation with me. It's low-pressure, no commitment, and designed to give you a real sense of whether we'd be a good fit. You don’t have to have everything figured out before you take the next step.
-
The consultation is a 15-minute phone or video call with no pressure and no commitment required. It’s a chance for you to ask questions, share a little about what you’re going through, and get a feel for whether working with me seems like a good fit. I’ll also share a bit about how I work so you can make an informed decision. Many people find that just having a conversation with someone who understands brings some relief.
