Depression Treatment
Depression is not sadness, and the people who come to us are rarely crying. More often they are functioning: getting up, answering emails, holding a household together, and finding that nothing lands. Food, music, their own children, work they used to care about. The word most of them use is flat.
InHarmoni treats mild to moderate depression in a private residential setting in El Paraíso, minutes from the beach and a short drive from Marbella. Ten clients at most, a clinical team of psychiatrists, psychologists and trauma therapists, and daily individual therapy in English. The clinic is licensed in Spain as a healthcare provider.
When it has stopped lifting on its own
Most people wait a long time, usually because the condition itself argues against getting help. These are the points at which the people who contact us decided to.
- Waking early, or sleeping far more than usual, for weeks rather than days
- Concentration and memory failing in ways that frighten you
- No pleasure in things that used to give it, which is the symptom clinicians look for first
- Withdrawing from the people who would notice
- A drink in the evening that has become the only thing that reliably helps
- Six months of telling yourself it is just a phase
Recognising several of these does not mean anything is irreversible. It means the condition has moved past the point where waiting is a strategy.
What we treat, and what needs somewhere else
We treat mild to moderate depression, including depression that has followed burnout, bereavement, trauma or a long period of overwork, and depression that sits alongside alcohol or medication use.
We are a ten bed residential clinic and not an acute psychiatric unit. Severe depression requiring inpatient psychiatric care, acute suicidal crisis and psychosis need a different level of care than we can responsibly provide, and we will say so at assessment rather than accept an admission that is not safe.
If you are in immediate danger, or thinking about ending your life, please contact your local emergency number or emergency services now rather than waiting for a clinic abroad. That is not a formality, it is the correct order to do things in.
Assessment, including the physical part
Depression is diagnosed clinically, but several physical conditions imitate it and are missed regularly. Thyroid function, anaemia, sleep disorders, vitamin D and the side effects of medication you are already taking all belong in the assessment, and all of them are checked before anyone concludes anything.
We also review medication properly. If you are on an antidepressant that is not working, that is a conversation with a doctor, not a decision made by a website. We do not take people off medication as a matter of principle, and we do not start it as a matter of routine either.
The therapeutic work
Daily individual sessions are the core of the programme, with the same therapist rather than whoever is available.
Cognitive behavioural therapy for the thinking patterns that keep low mood in place, and for the practical business of getting activity back before motivation returns, which is the order it actually happens in.
Acceptance and commitment therapy for the relationship with the feelings themselves, which is often where the exhausting part sits.
Schema therapy where the pattern is long standing rather than recent.
EMDR and trauma informed work where something unprocessed is underneath it.
Group and creative work alongside the individual sessions, because depression is isolating and being in a room with people who recognise the description does something that one to one work cannot.
Anxiety alongside depression
The two arrive together far more often than either arrives alone, and treating one while ignoring the other rarely holds. We treat mild to moderate anxiety in the same programme: generalised anxiety, health anxiety, the anxiety that follows burnout, and panic where it is part of the picture rather than the whole of it.
Severe anxiety disorders needing specialist inpatient treatment are outside what we do, and that is a conversation for the assessment.
Sleep, movement and light
These are not the treatment, and any clinic that presents them as the treatment is overselling. They are the conditions under which the treatment works.
Sleep is restored first, with clinical support where it is needed. Nutrition, daily movement and daylight follow, and the coast gives us upwards of three hundred days of sunshine a year to work with. Yoga, breathwork, meditation, art therapy, therapeutic horticulture and personal training all sit inside the programme.
Going home
Depression relapses, and the plan for the months after treatment matters as much as the month itself. Every 28 day programme includes four months of individual aftercare with a case manager. Before you leave we build a plan covering continued therapy where you live, contact with us, medication where it is part of the picture, and the specific changes at home without which the same pressures rebuild the same state.
Where you want your own doctor involved, we hand over properly, with your written consent.
Our prices
The programmes, with the price each starts from:
- 14 days program – Prices from 14,000€
- 28 days program – Prices from 22,500€
- 56 days program – Prices from 36,500 €
The price of the 56 day programme depends on the room you choose.
For our clients that have been under our care for a minimum of 3 months, we offer an outpatient day program. The client gets a chance to train on being independent, while they are still under treatment.
Prices from; 6500 € per month.
Frequently asked questions
How long does residential depression treatment take?
Twenty eight days is the standard, and it is long enough to restore sleep and get into meaningful therapeutic work. Fourteen days can stabilise a situation. Recovery from a significant depressive episode is generally measured in months, which is why the aftercare is included rather than optional.
Do I have to stop my antidepressants to come?
No. Medication is reviewed with a doctor as part of the assessment and any change is a clinical decision made with you.
Will I be pushed into group therapy?
Group work is part of the programme, and the amount is adjusted early on. Nobody is made to speak in a room before they are ready.
Is treatment confidential?
Entirely. Nothing about your stay is shared with an employer, insurer or family member without your written consent.
Can I come if I also drink too much?
Yes, and it is common. Both are treated in the same programme by the same team, and if withdrawal needs medical management that is part of the plan rather than an obstacle.
What if I am not sure it is depression?
Then say that on the first call. A lot of people arrive with a description rather than a label, and working out what is actually going on is part of the assessment rather than something you have to do first.
Can family be involved?
Yes, and we encourage it where the relationship allows. Family sessions are part of the programme, and relatives can speak to us separately if they need guidance of their own.
One conversation, no obligation
Depression is very good at arguing that nothing will help and that you should deal with it yourself. A first conversation with us is confidential, costs nothing and commits you to nothing, and it will give you an honest answer about whether treatment here is the right step.
