The Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre is one of the five Anglican Community Ministries. This is the fifth article in a series introducing readers to the OPC’s team members and their work.
Heather Fawcett joined the OPC as its executive director in 2023. She is also one of its practicing registered psychotherapists with more than 16 years’ experience.
With its cold temperatures and long, dark nights, January has a bad reputation for being a depressing month. How do you distinguish between Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and depression?
With SAD, you have a lot of the depressive symptoms. Oversleeping …it’s a desire to hibernate, to become socially withdrawn. You crave carbohydrates and comfort food. …It’s just a low mood. It can feel like a heaviness… like things have become too much effort. …. And if you’re experiencing it for the first time, it can be hard to identify … because it’s not something that is sudden onset. It’s not that you wake up one day and you feel depressed, or you’ve got brain fog… It’s definitely the frog in the hot water kind of scenario. It starts off and the heat gets turned up and you become used to it, but you know that you’re just not yourself.
[It’s seasonal.] We’re getting a lot less light. For some people, it makes a huge difference to their mood. That’s one of the differences between depression and SAD… Depression doesn’t automatically lift because the days start to get longer. You might feel better, but you still don’t feel yourself.”
[Therapists] know what markers to look for, so we can help somebody determine if it’s SAD or situational or even chronic depression. We cannot officially diagnose, so we would say go talk to your doctor.
When people are depressed, they often hear: ‘You just need to get out more.’ ‘You just need to have more faith.’ especially in Christian circles. ‘You need to stop worrying’. … It’s a biochemical situation. It’s not choice.
If the causes are biochemical, how can therapy help?
Psychotherapy can help somebody understand what’s going on, to assess and develop the coping skills and techniques. What’s healthy? What’s working? How come? What’s that accomplishing?… Part of our training is to know what questions to ask and what to look for, which makes it different than talking to a friend.
With SAD, it is more a case of understanding or learning that this is simply how your body reacts.
That’s one of the reasons why medication works in conjunction with therapy. It works really well because you get to understand what’s going on, why it’s going on, what triggered it, what you can do about it, build your coping skills. Do that and take a serotonin uptake inhibitor, which is basically an antidepressant, and the serotonin is in your system, and you can really start to feel like life is manageable again.
What do you find most rewarding in your practice?
When a client says, ‘I don’t need you anymore. It’s been good. I can see the changes, and I feel like I just don’t need to see you.’ That’s awesome….My goal is always to do myself out of a job. Or when a client says, ‘I tried that thing and it worked,’ or ‘I never knew I had this much value.’ Life changing insights.
What do you want readers to know about the OPC?
It’s a place where you can talk and explore with freedom from condemnation…. There are so few places we experience that….We protect dignity….It’s a place where you can feel secure without the need to have your defences up. It’s a place where it doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you’re struggling with.
The other thing is that, honestly, whatever you’re facing, it doesn’t have to stay this way. One of my favourite quotes is from and Eagles’ song. “So often time it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we hold the key.” That’s what we do. We find the keys so that you don’t have to have the chains.
Spotlight on The Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre (The OPC) — Heather Fawcett
The Ottawa Pastoral Counselling Centre is one of the five Anglican Community Ministries. This is the fifth article in a series introducing readers to the OPC’s team members and their work.
Heather Fawcett joined the OPC as its executive director in 2023. She is also one of its practicing registered psychotherapists with more than 16 years’ experience.
With its cold temperatures and long, dark nights, January has a bad reputation for being a depressing month. How do you distinguish between Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and depression?
With SAD, you have a lot of the depressive symptoms. Oversleeping …it’s a desire to hibernate, to become socially withdrawn. You crave carbohydrates and comfort food. …It’s just a low mood. It can feel like a heaviness… like things have become too much effort. …. And if you’re experiencing it for the first time, it can be hard to identify … because it’s not something that is sudden onset. It’s not that you wake up one day and you feel depressed, or you’ve got brain fog… It’s definitely the frog in the hot water kind of scenario. It starts off and the heat gets turned up and you become used to it, but you know that you’re just not yourself.
[It’s seasonal.] We’re getting a lot less light. For some people, it makes a huge difference to their mood. That’s one of the differences between depression and SAD… Depression doesn’t automatically lift because the days start to get longer. You might feel better, but you still don’t feel yourself.”
[Therapists] know what markers to look for, so we can help somebody determine if it’s SAD or situational or even chronic depression. We cannot officially diagnose, so we would say go talk to your doctor.
When people are depressed, they often hear: ‘You just need to get out more.’ ‘You just need to have more faith.’ especially in Christian circles. ‘You need to stop worrying’. … It’s a biochemical situation. It’s not choice.
If the causes are biochemical, how can therapy help?
Psychotherapy can help somebody understand what’s going on, to assess and develop the coping skills and techniques. What’s healthy? What’s working? How come? What’s that accomplishing?… Part of our training is to know what questions to ask and what to look for, which makes it different than talking to a friend.
With SAD, it is more a case of understanding or learning that this is simply how your body reacts.
That’s one of the reasons why medication works in conjunction with therapy. It works really well because you get to understand what’s going on, why it’s going on, what triggered it, what you can do about it, build your coping skills. Do that and take a serotonin uptake inhibitor, which is basically an antidepressant, and the serotonin is in your system, and you can really start to feel like life is manageable again.
What do you find most rewarding in your practice?
When a client says, ‘I don’t need you anymore. It’s been good. I can see the changes, and I feel like I just don’t need to see you.’ That’s awesome….My goal is always to do myself out of a job. Or when a client says, ‘I tried that thing and it worked,’ or ‘I never knew I had this much value.’ Life changing insights.
What do you want readers to know about the OPC?
It’s a place where you can talk and explore with freedom from condemnation…. There are so few places we experience that….We protect dignity….It’s a place where you can feel secure without the need to have your defences up. It’s a place where it doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you’re struggling with.
The other thing is that, honestly, whatever you’re facing, it doesn’t have to stay this way. One of my favourite quotes is from and Eagles’ song. “So often time it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we hold the key.” That’s what we do. We find the keys so that you don’t have to have the chains.
Leigh Anne Williams is the editor of Perspective. Before coming to the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, she was a staff writer at the Anglican Journal and the Canadian correspondent for Publishers Weekly. She has also written for TIME Magazine and the Toronto Star.
View all posts [email protected]Keep on reading
Reading Larry Audlaluk’s What I Remember, What I Know: The Life of a High Arctic Exile
Community Ministries put compassion into action
Listening to, learning from and worshipping with young people
Centre 440 in Hawkesbury’s hot meal program launches with a boost from the Future Fund
Episcopal Election Update
Jazz vespers draw a new worshipping community together