Depression & low mood · in person, online, Phone, Messaging
Depression & Low Mood Counselling
When the colour has drained out of things and getting through the day takes everything you have. Steady, evidence-informed therapy for depression and persistent low mood, at your pace.
No GP referral or diagnosis needed
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Harjeet Hayre
Integrative Psychotherapist · BACP Registered Member · NHS-experienced Reviewed September 2026 · About Harjeet
Does this sound familiar?
More than a bad few days.
The NHS puts it plainly: depression is more than simply feeling unhappy or fed up for a few days. It is feeling persistently sad for weeks or months. Alongside the low mood there is often hopelessness, tearfulness, guilt, irritability, no motivation or enjoyment, difficulty making decisions and, for some people, thoughts of harming themselves. It shows up in the body too: disturbed sleep, changes in appetite, aches with no clear cause, a heaviness in every movement.
It is more common than most people think. In autumn 2022, around one in six adults in Great Britain reported moderate to severe depressive symptoms, up from one in ten before the pandemic. England's most recent national survey found more than one in five working-age adults living with a common mental health condition, rising to one in four among 16 to 24 year olds.
If any of this is you, one thing matters more than the rest: you do not need a diagnosis, a label or the right words to ask for help.
What the evidence says
Talking therapy works and it is not only CBT.
NICE, the body that sets clinical guidance for the NHS, lists a range of talking therapies as options for depression, including cognitive behavioural therapy, behavioural activation, interpersonal therapy, counselling and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. Its guidance is explicit that treatment should match your preferences as well as your needs.5
Two details from that guidance are worth knowing. For less severe depression, NICE says antidepressants should not routinely be offered as the first step unless that is your informed preference. And a large NHS trial found person-centred counselling was as effective as CBT for moderate and severe depression at six months, although CBT had an edge by twelve.
The honest summary: several approaches help, the relationship with your therapist matters a great deal and the right one is the one you will actually keep turning up to.
How I work with depression
Small, real steps and the story underneath.
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CBT-informed and behavioural tools help interrupt the withdrawal spiral early: doing one thing that used to matter, before you feel like it, because the feeling follows the doing.
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Psychodynamic work looks at what the depression may be carrying: losses that were never grieved, anger turned inward, a life shaped around other people's needs.
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Person-centred space means you are met with warmth rather than a worksheet, week after week, which for many people is the first thing that shifts.
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Somatic awareness gives the heaviness somewhere to be noticed and settled, rather than fought.
Setting matters with low mood. Many clients find walk and talk therapy in Kew easier to face than a room, and the movement and daylight do some of the lifting for us. When leaving the house feels impossible, online, messaging, and phone sessions keep the thread going. Depression often travels with anxiety, with grief or with a long history of low self-esteem and we will follow wherever it leads.
Sadness is a response to something and it moves. Depression tends to persist for weeks or months, colours everything and often arrives with the physical and social signs above.1, 2 If low mood has lasted more than a couple of weeks, the NHS suggests speaking to a GP and you are welcome to speak to me.
Many people do. For less severe depression, NICE says antidepressants should not routinely be the first step and lists talking therapies including counselling and short-term psychodynamic therapy among the options.5 For more severe depression, therapy alone remains a listed option and combined therapy and medication tops NICE's table. Medication decisions sit with you and your GP; I will support whichever route you choose.
It varies with how long the low mood has been running and what sits underneath it. We review together as we go and you are never committed to more than one session at a time. The NHS's own talking therapies can involve waits of several weeks or months,7 which is one reason people choose to start privately.
Sources
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NHS (2023). Depression in adults: overview.
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NHS (2023). Depression in adults: symptoms.
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Office for National Statistics (2022). Cost of living and depression in adults, Great Britain.
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NatCen Social Research (2025). Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2023/4.
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NICE (2022). Depression in adults: treatment and management (NG222).
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Barkham, M. et al. (2021). Person-centred experiential therapy versus cognitive behavioural therapy for moderate or severe depression (PRaCTICED). The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(6), 487 - 499.
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NHS (2023). Depression in adults: treatment.
This page is general information from a registered psychotherapist, not medical advice or a diagnosis. If you are in crisis, call 999, NHS 111 and select the mental health option or the Samaritans free on 116 123.
Ready when you are.
A free Introductory Call, no forms and no obligation. Just a quiet conversation to see whether working together feels right.