If you are in crisis right now, please don’t wait for an appointment. Call or text 988 (Suicide Crisis Helpline, 24/7) or the Distress Centre Calgary at 403-266-HELP (4357). If you are in immediate danger, call 911. We will still be here afterwards.
Depression Counselling for Women Calgary & Online Across Alberta
You didn't stop caring. Caring just stopped reaching you.
Depression counselling for women who are still showing up for everyone while quietly disappearing from their own lives.
It doesn't always look like sadness.
Sometimes it looks like getting through the day on autopilot. Being fine in front of people and having nothing left after. Sleeping badly and still feeling tired. Losing interest in things you used to love and not being able to say why. A voice in your head that talks to you the way you'd never let anyone talk to a friend.
And because you're still functioning, still working, still parenting, still remembering everyone's appointments, nobody sees it. Sometimes not even you. There's a name for this: high-functioning depression. It counts. It responds to treatment. And you don't have to fall apart to qualify for help.
Depression narrows life quietly. First the optional things go, the hobbies, the friends, the walks. Then the meaningful things start to feel optional too. Part of our work is reversing that narrowing on purpose: small, deliberate re-entries into your own life, chosen together, sized so they actually happen. Behavioural activation is the clinical name; "getting your life back one piece at a time" is what it feels like.
Depression isn't one thing, so we don't treat it with one tool.
Sometimes the front door is the thought loops, the replaying, the harsh self-talk, the "what's the point" and there we use CBT, the approach with the deepest evidence base for depression. Sometimes the loops are guarding something older, and we work with the parts of you underneath (IFS): the one that went numb to get you through, the critic that thinks it's keeping you safe, the one that decided long ago that your needs come last. Sometimes depression lives in your relationships, the loneliness of being everyone's strong one, and attachment-focused work is what moves it. And sometimes it's your body and your season of life: postpartum, perimenopause, or plain depletion. Depression that arrives in your forties alongside "normal bloodwork" is real, it's documented, and it's one of our specialties, not a footnote.
We figure out which doors are yours, in the first few sessions, together. Then we work, at a pace your nervous system can keep.
Most women notice something shifting inside six to eight sessions. Some need longer. We review progress openly and we won't stretch it out — when the work is done, we'll say so
HOW WE WORK TOGETHER
You don’t have to have it figured out before you book. That is what the fifteen minutes is for.
Common Questions
Is depression a medical diagnosis?
It can be, and to be clear about our lane, we don't diagnose. What we treat is the pattern you're living: the flatness, the exhaustion, the loss of interest, the harsh inner voice. Therapy, CBT in particular, is a first-line, evidence-based treatment for depression, whether or not you ever seek a formal diagnosis. If you want a diagnosis or to explore medication, your family doctor is the right first stop, and many of our clients do both at once.
Sessions with Chanelle or Kia, MSW, RSW. In person in Calgary's Kensington neighbourhood and online across Alberta. Individual sessions 50 minutes, $190. Free 15-minute consultation. Direct billing available.
What we don’t do. We don’t prescribe medication and we don’t do psychological assessments or diagnoses. If medication is something you want to explore, your family doctor is the right first stop and plenty of our clients do both. If you are looking for a formal diagnosis for work or school, we will point you to someone who does that properly. We would rather tell you that in the first five minutes than take your money for the wrong thing.
Free 15-minute consult, a real conversation, not a sales call. Ask us anything.
Most consults booked within 24 hours.
In person in Calgary at #204B, 2120 Kensington Rd NW, or online anywhere in Alberta.
$190 per 50-minute session. Direct billing available with most major insurers.
You will see the same therapist every time.