Depression
Online Depression Therapy
Psychotherapy for low mood, loss of motivation and emotional exhaustion, held online in English or Arabic.
Psy. Moustafa Kamel, Psychotherapist. Online sessions of 50 minutes in English and Arabic.
Depression is often quieter than people expect
Many people who are depressed still go to work, still answer messages, still appear fine to colleagues. What has gone is colour and interest. Things that used to matter feel like items on a list. Conversation takes preparation. The day is got through rather than lived.
Because functioning continues, people postpone asking for help, often for years, on the reasoning that others have it worse. That comparison is not a clinical measure, and it delays a great deal of unnecessary suffering.
What people describe
- Low mood that is present most of the day, most days
- Loss of motivation, and a gap between intention and action
- Emotional exhaustion, or feeling nothing much at all
- Sleeping badly, or sleeping a great deal and waking unrested
- Appetite and concentration changes
- Harsh self-criticism and persistent guilt
- Withdrawing from people while feeling lonely
- Work or study slipping, and the shame that follows
- A sense that this is simply your character rather than a condition
Why it keeps itself going
Depression removes energy and then asks you to use energy to recover. Activity feels pointless, so it stops; stopping removes the small sources of reward that stabilise mood; mood drops further and confirms the belief that nothing helps. Meanwhile self-criticism explains the whole thing as a personal failing.
Naming that loop is a large part of early therapy. It moves the problem from a verdict about who you are to a process that can be interrupted.
How psychotherapy can help
I start with a thorough assessment, including how long this has been going on, what preceded it, what else is happening in your body and your circumstances, and whether losses, migration, burnout or relationships are part of the picture.
The work then tends to combine two things: structured, evidence-based methods that re-establish rhythm, sleep, movement and small manageable action, and a deeper examination of the beliefs and long-standing patterns that keep the self-criticism convincing. For some people the depression is chronic and the plan is long term. For others it is a response to a specific set of events, and the work is more focused.
Therapy can sit alongside medical treatment. If antidepressant medication may be useful, that is a conversation for a doctor or psychiatrist, and I will say so rather than avoid the subject.
What the first session involves
Fifty minutes by secure video. I ask about history and current circumstances, we look at what you want to be different, and I give you my honest view of what would help and roughly how long that might take. There is no requirement to have a diagnosis, and no obligation to continue after the first appointment.
If anxiety is also present, which is common, we work with both together rather than in sequence.
Safety, language and starting
If you are having thoughts of ending your life, please treat that as urgent. Contact your local emergency number or your nearest emergency department, or a crisis line in your country. Planned therapy is the right tool once immediate safety is in place, and I will ask about this directly rather than leave it unspoken.
Sessions are available in English or Arabic. Sessions are held online. Whether I can work with you depends on where you are living at the time of the sessions and on the professional and legal requirements that apply there, so it is worth telling me your location when you first write.
One session is a reasonable place to begin
You do not need to have organised your thoughts first. Bringing them disorganised is the normal way to start.