How do therapists help depressed clients who struggle to engage because everything is bad and nothing is ever enough?
The client showed up for therapy. That is huge. They keep coming. That is more huge. I’d say the client has engaged, plenty.
Still, they keep saying everything is bad and nothing will ever be enough?
OK. Then that’s where we start, supporting the client as they find ways of expressing it fully and in different ways, all the feelings and the thoughts.
Now the despair is right there to see and describe. It’s a thing, a horrible thing, but the client has stepped back to look at it, accompanied by the therapist. No longer is it all-consuming. No longer does it define them fully and hopelessly.
Already, now, the client has established a safe place to describe the pain. Already they have a reliable, skilled companion in the process. That’s plenty for right now, because it’s an opening that can lead to healing change.