Round 1 of the workshop series is complete!
Dates for the next round are not yet set, but I would love to hear from anyone who is interested in attending.
This is a series of 4 virtual workshops for people who have chronic, high-functioning depression and aren’t getting the results they want from their current treatment protocols.
The 4 90-minute Zoom meetings each will cover a different topic. You will get the most from the workshop if you are able to attend all 4, but you are welcome to join if you can only make some of them.
Workshop 1: exploring why you’ve been stuck in chronic cycles of depression + begin crafting a new, more empowering story
Workshop 2: exploring 3 foundational frameworks that support a shift from helplessness to hopefulness: dandelion-orchid, stress-vulnerability + u-shaped happiness curve
Workshop 3: exploring potential root causes for your particular depression, as well as developing a “Huberman-style” personalized well-being formula
Workshop 4: crafting your action plan so that you can integrate everything we explored in the workshops + be well on your way to breaking your cycles of depression
Interested? Register below to get details when the next workshop series starts.
Testimonial
At a hopelessly low point in my life, I felt "broken" enough to share with Keely what I was walking through. In a state of desperation, I listened as Keely shared her journey with depression. The message I received was one of hope. Hope that the darkness can be lifted. Hope that there was a different idea about depression than the one I had been told since I was twelve. Keely had planted a seed.
My own journey took time. Just like anything worthwhile does. However, I have found a rich joy and a life of fulfillment I never thought possible. No medication had ever given me that and I had tried most of them. Keely was my catalyst to consider that life could be different, to challenge what I thought I knew. She has a very important message. One that I hope more people will receive with an open mind and take to heart. I consider myself lucky to have heard it and I hope others will too!
-Erin S.
For those of you who want more details
What we’ll cover:
The overall series is about gathering together (communal care > self-care) to explore alternative perspectives on:
Why you developed chronic, high-functioning depression in the first place (hint: it’s not because you have a chemical imbalance; that was only ever a theory to begin with and it’s since been conclusively disproven)
What will help you get the results you want
The meat and potatoes of the workshop will be:
Exploring more empowering theories of depression (if you don’t have a chemical imbalance, what do you have?)
Learning how to play depression detective and work through a list of potential root causes that could be causing your unique depression (spoiler: the list is long enough that it’s unlikely that any two people in the room will have the exact same root causes)
Driving home the reminder that humans have needs and, if your needs aren’t being met, it’s not weird that you have no energy, vitality or joie de vivre (remember the Nepalese auntie I introduced in my morning musings?)
Developing a personalized, just-for-you action plan for after the workshop ends
Exploring how TF to actually follow an action plan when you’re depressed – you may know from personal experience that things like exercise help you, but if just surviving your day-to-day life already takes up every ounce of energy that you have, how are you supposed to find the motivation to do things like exercise?!
Will you leave having completely overcome depression in the 4 times that we meet? I wish I could promise that, but then I’d be a liar. Like Erin says in her testimonial, “My own journey took time. Just like anything worthwhile does.”
My hope is that you will leave with a new and empowered perspective on depression that helps you get the results you want, as well as an action plan to actually work towards those results.
If I can leave you with one idea, it’s this: maybe it’s not weird that you’re depressed. Maybe you’re not broken or flawed or doomed. Maybe your depression is a natural and normal response to a situation (or situations) that need to be addressed and, once they’re addressed, you’ll feel better.
Who’s a good fit:
You’re a good fit for this workshop if:
You have chronic, high-functioning depression: high-functioning depression means that, while you actively struggle with depression, you’re still able to do things like go to work, maintain relationships, tend to your children if you have them and keep the house tidy enough that there’s no vermin infestation. Chronic means that you have either had multiple episodes of depression (you don’t need to actively be in a depressive episode to join) or you have chronic low-level depression that typically classified as dysthymia.
You’re not getting the results you want from your current treatment protocols
This is a real pain point for you and you’re ready for something to change
You believe in the value of peer support and understand that this workshop is based on the peer support model. I’m not a professional. I don’t have a degree that gives me permission to share this information. I’m a human who struggled with chronic, high-functioning depression then found a path out and now wants to share what helped me in case it also helps you.
You understand that this is my first time presenting this material and have no expectation of a perfectly polished experience (which, to be honest, you wouldn’t be getting even if it were my 200th time presenting it. I’m not a perfectly polished kinda gal and I don’t want to be.)
Who’s not a good fit:
You’re not a good fit for this workshop if:
Your depression is currently so severe that you are incapacitated or nonfunctional – an online workshop is an inappropriate level of care for this situation. While my heart aches for you, I am not qualified to help you.
You have such bad Zoom fatigue that the idea of signing up for one. more. online. meeting. makes you want to hide under the covers. If the online workshops go well, these might eventually become in-person workshops. However, in-person at the moment means “in Hong Kong” so if you’re not local, there’s going to be a bit of a wait.
You’re signing up out of a feeling of obligation: if you’re only joining because you think you should, please skip this time. If, in the future, it feels more like an authentic yes, you’re welcome to join. But one of my life missions is to spread a “trust what feels good!” message. Please don’t ever sign up for anything I offer out of a sense of obligation.
You think that the only people who should be offering workshops on depression are qualified medical professionals: I’m not that and I’m never going to be that.
Some questions you may have:
Who authorized you to offer a workshop on this material?
Me, myself and I. I’m a fantastic permission-slip signer and, by the end of the workshop, I hope that you’re an expert at signing your own permission slips as well.
But really – I do want to drive home this point: this is a workshop based on the peer support model. I am not a doctor. I am not a therapist. I’ve never played one on TV. I am a person who struggled with chronic, high-functioning depression and, in 2013 and 2014, I felt so defeated by the fact that I was getting worse, not better year after year that I thought I was doomed to be depressed forever. Then, in a stroke of good fortune, I learned that the problem wasn’t my depression. The problem was that I had been treating it with remedies that were never going to work. I found a path out and the idea of sharing what I learned lights me up inside. When something lights me up inside, I listen. So now I’m offering a workshop.
How did this workshop come to be?
For a long time, I’ve wanted to compile the information that helped me overcome depression and put it in a shareable format. Since I’m a writer, I always thought it would be in a book (or at least a PDF).
But whenever I try to write the book, it doesn’t flow. However, a few weeks ago, I realized that the idea of sharing the information in workshop format really lit me up. So…here it is in workshop format.
Is this a sales funnel thing? I know that you offer one-on-one sessions and I don’t want to sign up if this whole workshop is leading to a “and if you want to get better, work with me!” pitch.
Nope. It’s actually the opposite. I’m offering this because I understand that my one-to-one price isn’t accessible for a lot of people and I want to begin offering lower-priced things.
The truth is that my one-to-one price will likely never be low. Having a spacious life is one of my core values, so I only offer 4 one-on-one sessions per week.
Fortunately, you don’t need one-on-one work with me to get the results you want. You never have and you never will. It’s a nice to have, not a need to have, and, since I plan to be doing this work for the next 8 decades or so because I love it so much, it’s pretty likely that I’m going to build up a robust body of “here’s stuff that’s free or inexpensive that I really think could help you.”
What if I want help with this problem, but a virtual workshop isn’t a good fit for me?
You’re me 8 years ago. In 2015, I desperately wanted help with how to overcome depression, but a virtual workshop wasn’t a good fit because it didn’t exist (at least not that I could find).
So I put my library card to work, became a regular at Barnes and Noble, and went deeply down Internet rabbit holes.
If you don’t want to sign up for a virtual workshop, please know that other options exist for you.
I suggest that everyone start by reading Johann Hari’s Lost Connections and, if you want some help picking more books that could be useful, send me a message. I don’t have a “read this” list ready yet, but I’ll gladly share it with you when I do.
Nothing that I am sharing in this workshop is unique, groundbreaking or exclusive to me. The truth is that I spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours, reading, researching, listening to podcasts, trying things out and doing my own detective work before I found solutions that work.
If you join this workshop, my hope is that you won’t have to spend those hundreds or thousands of hours because, frankly, I’d prefer for you to feel better sooner than that. But if it’s not for you (or if I’m not for you) there are plenty of other options.
Will you be telling me to drink green juices and start running every day?
If you ever see me running, drop everything and run in the direction I’m going because something is very wrong.
No. I’m not going to get on a soapbox and tell you that you’ll only recover if you eat a certain way or follow certain lifestyle protocols.
What I’m going to do is present a whole heap of potential root causes and a whole heap of “these are things the human animal needs” and then, together, we’re going to figure out which ones are relevant to you.
You might end up experimenting with a healthier diet, you might not. I’ve seen people get better without having to touch their diet (even though they lived on Monsters and fast food) and I’ve seen people who really can’t eat much junk and feel the way they want to feel.
You’re going to leave the workshops with your first attempt at a “personal well-being formula” and that will dictate what you try.
Will you talk about ayahuasca?
Plant medicines were a part of my path out of depression. However, many people who sign up for these workshops are in recovery and would prefer not to hear about plant medicines. I’m contemplating the possibility of two different workshop templates — one that is focused on people in recovery from substance abuse who don’t want to hear about substances, and one for people who are interested in plant medicines.
Does anything come after this series of workshops?
My friend Erin & I are plotting about a weekly “How to Human” virtual gathering on Thursdays at 8:00 PM EST after this workshop series is over, but nothing is set in stone yet.