Depression can affect mood, motivation, energy, sleep, appetite, concentration, relationships, and the ability to experience pleasure or hope. It does not look the same for everyone. Some people feel visibly sad, while others feel numb, irritable, exhausted, disconnected, or unable to keep up with ordinary responsibilities.
Helyx Health provides outpatient psychotherapy and psychiatric care for depression. Treatment begins with understanding the individual's symptoms, history, health, circumstances, strengths, and goals.
Experiences may include:
These symptoms can also arise from grief, anxiety, trauma, sleep disruption, medication effects, substance use, medical conditions, or major stress. A clinician considers context, duration, severity, and functional impact before recommending care.
An initial assessment may address current symptoms, previous episodes, family and treatment history, medical conditions, medications, sleep, substance use, stressors, relationships, and safety. The clinician may also screen for bipolar-spectrum symptoms or other conditions that could change the treatment plan.
Online questionnaires can provide useful information, but they do not replace a clinical evaluation.
Therapy may help patients understand patterns contributing to depression, restore meaningful routines, work through loss or conflict, reduce isolation, develop more balanced responses to self-critical thinking, and reconnect with values and relationships.
Helyx clinicians use different approaches, which may include cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic, interpersonal, acceptance-based, mindfulness-based, trauma-informed, or other evidence-informed methods. The selected approach is matched to the patient's needs and the clinician's training.
Some patients benefit from a psychiatric evaluation for medication, particularly when symptoms are persistent, recurrent, severe, or only partially improved with therapy. Medication decisions are individualized and should include discussion of potential benefits, risks, side effects, alternatives, and follow-up.
Psychologists, including Britney Blair, PsyD, do not prescribe medication.
Helyx Health is an outpatient practice and does not provide emergency response, inpatient treatment, or acute stabilization. If you may harm yourself or someone else, call 911, call or text 988, or go to the nearest emergency department.
Helyx Health serves patients near 518 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, including Stanford, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Los Altos, and surrounding communities. Telehealth may be available to eligible patients elsewhere in California.
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