Lucas E. Somma, MA LPC

The radical claim of depth psychotherapy is that your symptoms have meaning. Pervasive sadness, suicidal thoughts, the heaviness on your shoulders are the psyche’s misunderstood messengers to summon you on a healing journey. The distressing problems that bring you to therapy will later be revealed as the unlikely pathways towards a well-lived life.

In therapy, we will first work together to establish a sense of stability: from the first session, we’ll build a trusting relationship that offers a much-needed space for your concerns. You may benefit at this initial stage by simply having a trustworthy ear to hear. Depression, for instance, is often a profoundly isolating experience, so simply sharing your story with another person will bring relief.

As therapy continues, the motifs and processes that fuel the problems you bring up will start to become clearer. We may learn that the troubling experience of wanting-to-die is a deeply compelling internalized criticism from another, or an attempt to alleviate the suffering of a long-forgotten grief, or some other meaning that is unique to you and your story. These insights then invite us to make changes that honor the totality of your experience; it may range from monumental career changes to starting a daily meditative practice.

As a psychotherapist, I hold the tension of psychotherapy as a mysticism and a science. But it is no snake oil: community, storytelling, and self-exploration are the elixirs which gradually lead to healing. If you would like to learn more about my approach, see if we may be a good fit, or schedule a session, please contact me today.