Burnout and running on empty
When long hours, long commutes and constant demands finally catch up, the body often responds by shutting the lights down.
Depression Counselling Melbourne
Last updated:
Soul Counselling · Depression Support · Melbourne
When the colour drains out of Melbourne, you do not have to sit with it alone
If the days feel flat and grey, whether you are in the CBD, the inner north around Fitzroy and Brunswick, bayside St Kilda, or out through Werribee and Craigieburn, there is room to be heard here. Christina meets you with warmth and honesty. Sessions are online by video and phone.
Book a free 15-minute assessment → Ask a question firstPrefer to talk first? Call 0479 144 561
In any given year roughly one in thirteen Australian adults, about 7.5 per cent, lives with an affective disorder such as depression. Victoria sits close to the national picture too, with the ABS National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2020 to 2022 finding that around 21.4 per cent of Victorians aged 16 to 85 experienced a mental disorder in the previous twelve months.
Source: ABS National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020 to 2022.
Five-star Google reviews
People keep saying the same thing.
One conversation in, most clients say they’ve finally been understood.
“I truly felt heard for the first time in all my life and deeply understood.”
“When I came to Christina I was drowning in darkness… now I’m finally thriving again.”
“Due to her mediumship I was able to see core issues that I wasn’t able to recognise before.”
Depression rarely announces itself. It tends to creep in quietly.
- Mornings feel like lifting something heavy before your feet even touch the floor, and the day only gets harder from there.
- Things you used to look forward to, a walk along the Yarra, a coffee with a friend, now feel like chores you have to talk yourself into.
- You are getting through work and the school run and the messages, yet underneath it all you feel strangely absent, as if you are watching your own life from a distance.
- Sleep is either impossible or never enough, your patience is thin, and small setbacks land far heavier than they should.
- Part of you keeps asking why this is happening, what it is really about underneath, and whether there is a deeper reason your body and mind have slowed to a stop.
In a city that can go weeks under low cloud, a flat mood is easy to explain away and easy to keep carrying far longer than you should have to.
How Christina works
How Christina works with depression
There is no pressure here to feel positive or to perform being fine. Christina starts by understanding what your nervous system has been holding and why it may have dimmed everything down to protect you. From that honest place, gently and at your pace, there is real room for things to shift.
Understanding first
Before anything changes, we make sense of what has worn you down and what the low mood has been trying to manage. Being understood is often where the weight starts to ease.
Small, steady steps
We work in gentle, doable moves rather than a checklist of shoulds, so momentum builds in a way that feels sustainable rather than exhausting.
Deeper meaning
For those who want it, Christina brings an intuitive lens alongside grounded counselling, exploring the deeper story your low mood may be pointing to.
Go deeper
Want to understand depression more deeply before you reach out?
This page is deliberately brief. If you would like a fuller, calmer read on how depression takes hold, why it lingers, and what genuine support can look like, our longer article walks through it without pressure. It is there whenever you are ready, no need to book first.
Read the depression counselling blogRead it in your own time, then reach out only if it feels right.
What we can work through
Common threads we work through together
Depression wears many faces, and these are some of the themes Melbourne clients bring most often.
Numbness and low motivation
That flat, disconnected feeling where nothing lands and everything takes more effort than it seems it should.
Loss and quiet grief
Grief for a person, a relationship, a version of life you expected, or a sense of who you used to be.
Isolation and disconnection
Feeling alone inside a busy city, still recovering from years that pulled so many people apart.
About Christina
The counsellor behind Soul Counselling.
Christina Feyes founded Soul Counselling in 2016 and has spent more than ten years walking alongside people through their hardest seasons. She is a counsellor with training across psychology, social work and human services, and she works with clients right across Australia by video and phone, including throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria.
What people tend to value in Christina is the way she holds both layers at once. She brings genuine clinical understanding and practical, grounded counselling, and alongside that an intuitive sensitivity to what is stirring beneath the surface. That means space for the everyday and the doable as well as the deeper emotional questions you may not have felt safe to voice before.
Common questions
Before you book.
If your question is not here, the free 15-minute assessment is the easiest way to ask it.
Is depression counselling expensive?
There are no prices or fees to weigh up before you begin. Everyone starts with a free 15 minute assessment, with no card required and no obligation to continue. It is simply a calm conversation to see whether Christina feels like the right person for you and whether the way she works suits what you need. If it does not feel like a fit, that is completely fine and you have lost nothing. There is genuinely nothing to lose by having that first chat.
Do I need a referral to book?
No referral is needed. You do not have to see a GP first, gather paperwork, or be referred by anyone to reach out. You can contact Soul Counselling directly and book your free 15 minute assessment whenever you feel ready. Many people appreciate being able to take that first step quietly and on their own terms, without having to explain themselves to several people before they even begin.
Are sessions online, and is there a Melbourne clinic I can visit?
There is no physical clinic in Melbourne. Soul Counselling works online across the whole of Victoria and Australia, so wherever you are, from the CBD to bayside to the outer growth suburbs like Werribee or Craigieburn, you can be seen from home. Sessions are held by video or phone, whichever feels more comfortable. Christina’s only physical base is in Southport on the Gold Coast, but you never need to travel there to work with her.
I do not even know where to start. Is that okay?
That is one of the most common ways people arrive, and it is completely okay. You do not need a tidy summary of what is wrong or a clear goal in mind. Often not knowing where to begin is simply part of what depression does. Christina will gently help you find the threads and make sense of things together, so you do not have to have it all worked out before you reach out.
How many sessions will I need?
There is no fixed number and no set program you have to sign up for. Some people come for a short season to move through a particular low patch, while others value having ongoing support over a longer stretch. It genuinely depends on you, what you are carrying and what you want from the work. Christina will talk this through honestly with you and never pressure you to keep booking beyond what feels helpful.
What if I feel too flat to talk?
That is welcome here, and you will not be pushed. Some days the words are hard to find and even showing up feels like a lot, and Christina understands that deeply. You are allowed to arrive quiet, to sit with long pauses, and to let the conversation move slowly. There is no expectation that you perform or explain everything at once. Being met gently, exactly as you are on the day, is part of how the support works.
Can online counselling really help from home, especially through winter?
Yes, and for many Melbourne clients it is easier than in person. When the days are dark and cold and leaving the house feels impossible, being able to meet from your own warm lounge room removes the single biggest barrier. Research and experience both show that talking therapy works well over video and phone. You get the same genuine, attentive support without the drive across the city or the effort of getting out the door.
What if I am in crisis or feel unsafe right now?
Please know that counselling with Soul Counselling is not a crisis or emergency service. If you are in immediate danger or worried you may act on thoughts of harming yourself, call 000 straight away. For urgent support at any hour you can phone Lifeline on 13 11 14, or text or chat with them online. These services are there for the moments that cannot wait. Christina’s counselling is best suited to ongoing support once you are safe, rather than an emergency response.
A gentle first step, whenever you feel ready
Start with a free 15 minute assessment, no card and no obligation, just a quiet chance to see whether this feels like the right fit for you.
Book your free 15-minute assessment →Prefer to talk first? Call 0479 144 561
Depression support across Melbourne
Grounded support for the way depression shows up in Melbourne
Melbourne carries its own particular weight. Long grey winters and short, dark days can flatten mood in ways that are easy to dismiss as just the weather. Add a sprawling city with punishing commutes, the lingering aftermath of some of the world’s longest lockdowns, and steady cost of living and housing pressure, and it is little wonder so many people quietly reach the end of their reserves.
- You are in the CBD or inner city and functioning at work while feeling hollowed out underneath.
- You are in the inner north around Fitzroy, Brunswick or Coburg, or the inner east, and the spark has gone out of things you used to love.
- You are bayside in St Kilda or Brighton, or out through Werribee, Point Cook, Craigieburn, Dandenong or Frankston, and the commute leaves nothing left for yourself.
- You have been carrying a low, heavy mood since the lockdown years and it has quietly become your normal.
Sessions are held online and by phone across Melbourne and all of Australia. You can also explore all Melbourne counselling services.
Support through the dark months
No cross-city trek, especially when winter makes leaving hard
When the mornings are dark and the motivation is gone, the last thing that helps is a cold trip across town in traffic. One of the quiet benefits of online counselling is that the hardest part, actually getting there, disappears. You can meet from your own lounge room, wrapped up and warm.
You will be talking with a qualified, caring counsellor, entirely online by video or phone, at a pace that respects how flat you may be feeling. There is no need to arrive polished or with the energy to explain everything at once. You can start small, and Christina will meet you exactly where you are.