Depression treatment works fastest when therapy and alternative treatments work together as a coordinated team. Research shows that combining therapy with treatments like Deep TMS or Spravato makes people 27% more likely to respond than therapy alone and 25% more likely to respond than medication alone. This is no small difference; it’s the difference between struggling for months and feeling better in weeks.
Propagate Hope Counseling, has partnered with Axis Integrated Mental Health to bring this integrated approach to Denver, Boulder, Westminster, and Aurora.
This article explains how combining IFS therapy with alternative depression treatments creates faster relief, why each treatment makes the others more effective, and what this partnership means for your recovery.
You’ll learn:
- How therapy and alternative treatments address different aspects of depression simultaneously
- Why IFS therapy combined with Deep TMS or Spravato accelerates healing
- What happens in your brain during depression and how different treatments target different mechanisms
- Real timelines for combined treatment approaches
- How the Propagate Hope Counseling and Axis Integrated Mental Health partnership delivers coordinated care
If you’re in Denver, Aurora, Westminster, or Boulder and you’ve been told you must choose between therapy OR medication, this article will show you why combining approaches gets you better faster.
The Confusion That Keeps People Suffering Longer
Here’s what happens to most people seeking depression treatment in Denver.
They schedule an appointment with their doctor who spends a few minutes with them and hands them a prescription.
Or they find a therapist who might suggest avoiding medication.
Both providers mean well, but both approaches miss something crucial.
You’re given half the solution and told it’s the whole answer.
The truth is simpler than you’ve been led to believe: Depression affects multiple systems in your brain and body at once. Addressing just one system leaves the others untreated.
Your brain chemistry is off balance. Your thought patterns have become negative and automatic. Your behaviors have changed.
Your stress response system is stuck. One treatment alone can’t address all of this simultaneously.
This isn’t about being “broken”, you’re not. It’s about getting the right support for a complex condition.
Depression is like trying to navigate with a compass that’s been demagnetized and a map that’s showing the wrong territory. You need both tools working correctly to find your way forward.
What Actually Happens in Your Brain When Depression Hits
The brain is an organ that can malfunction like any other organ in the body. Depression isn’t weakness or something you can think away. Contrary to popular belief, Depression is not caused by ‘Chemical Imbalance. It stems from the non-communication or low-communication of the neurotransmitters in the brain.
When you’re depressed, it is because:
- Your neurotransmitters might not be communicating with each other. Serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, all decrease. This makes it harder to feel pleasure, stay motivated, or think clearly.
- Your stress hormones stay elevated. Cortisol floods your system constantly, keeping you in a state of anxiety and making it hard to sleep or concentrate.
- Your brain structure changes. The hippocampus (your memory center) can actually shrink. The prefrontal cortex (your decision-making center) becomes less active.
- Your thought patterns get stuck. Neural pathways that support negative thinking become stronger while pathways for positive thoughts weaken. Your brain literally creates highways for negative thoughts while the roads for positive ones close down.
This is why single-treatment approaches often fail. Medication can help balance neurotransmitters, but it doesn’t automatically change negative thought patterns.
How IFS Therapy Addresses Depression from the Inside Out
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy offers a unique way to understand and heal depression. IFS therapy helps you understand the different parts of yourself that contribute to how you feel.
IFS recognizes that we all have different “parts” of our personality. Some parts might feel hopeless.
Others might be angry or anxious. Often there’s a part trying to protect you from pain by shutting down emotions, which can look and feel like depression.
Here’s how an IFS therapist can help you:
Identify which parts of you are struggling and why
Understand what these parts are trying to protect you from
Heal the underlying wounds these parts are guarding
Help all your parts work together instead of fighting each other
What makes IFS therapy particularly effective for depression?
It doesn’t treat depression as an enemy to fight. Instead, it recognizes that even your depressed feelings are trying to help you in some way, perhaps by protecting you from overwhelming emotions or past trauma.
When you understand this, healing becomes about compassion and integration rather than just symptom reduction. You’re not trying to eliminate parts of yourself. You’re helping all parts of yourself work together in healthy ways.
Why IFS Therapy and Alternative Treatments Create Powerful Synergy
Here’s where the real magic happens. When you combine IFS therapy with alternative treatments like Deep TMS or Spravato, each approach enhances the other.
Alternative treatments handle the immediate crisis:
Reducing severe symptoms so you can function
Calming your nervous system
Creating neuroplasticity (brain flexibility for change)
Providing relief when traditional medications haven’t worked
IFS therapy handles the deeper healing:
Identifying and changing negative thought patterns
Processing past trauma that contributes to depression
Understanding the root causes of your depression
Building lasting coping skills
Healing the relationships between different parts of yourself
Think of it this way: Alternative treatments calm the storm so you can safely explore the landscape. IFS therapy helps you understand the landscape so you can navigate it even after the treatment ends.
Deep TMS: Magnetic Stimulation That Reactivates Underactive Brain Regions
Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (Deep TMS) is an FDA-approved treatment that uses magnetic fields to stimulate specific areas of your brain. It’s completely non-invasive. You sit in a comfortable chair while a magnetic coil delivers pulses to precise brain regions involved in mood regulation.
How Deep TMS works:
The magnetic pulses reach deeper brain structures than regular TMS, particularly targeting the prefrontal cortex, a region that becomes underactive in depression. The stimulation helps increase activity in these regions and normalize brain function.
Think of it as targeted support for brain regions that have gone offline. Magnetic stimulation helps these regions wake up and start functioning properly again.
Here’s more on how Deep TMS works: Understanding Deep TMS Treatment in Denver, Boulder and Westminster
Why Deep TMS works well with IFS therapy:
Deep TMS sessions happen daily for several weeks. During this time, your depression symptoms often improve dramatically.
This creates the perfect window for IFS therapy work. You’re feeling better, thinking clearer, and have more energy to engage with understanding the different parts of yourself.
Studies have found that over 65% of people with severe depression experienced remission using deep TMS magnetic brain stimulation, with improvement often happening within weeks rather than months.
Patients receiving Deep TMS in Denver, Aurora, Westminster, or Boulder through the Axis partnership often report:
Improved mood within 2-3 weeks
Better sleep and energy
Clearer thinking and better concentration
Reduced anxiety
Greater ability to engage meaningfully in therapy
Spravato: Fast-Acting Relief That Opens Windows for Healing
Spravato (esketamine) is an FDA-approved nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression. Unlike traditional antidepressants that take weeks to work, Spravato can provide relief within hours or days.
How Spravato works:
Spravato affects NMDA receptors in your brain. These receptors are involved in learning, memory, and forming new neural connections.
By targeting these receptors, Spravato rapidly reduces depression symptoms and helps your brain form new, healthier neural pathways.
Traditional antidepressants focus on serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine. Spravato takes a completely different approach, which is why it can work for people who haven’t responded to other medications.
Here’s more on what to expect from Spravato treatment:
Why Spravato works well with IFS therapy:
Spravato creates windows of neuroplasticity, states where your brain is more flexible and able to form new connections.
When you engage in IFS therapy during these windows, the new understandings and skills you develop can take root more easily.
It’s like Spravato loosens the soil, and IFS therapy plants new seeds that can actually grow.
The Propagate Hope Counseling and Axis Integrated Mental Health Partnership
Propagate Hope Counseling has partnered with Axis Integrated Mental Health to offer something most places can’t: truly integrated care where expert IFS therapy and cutting-edge alternative depression treatments work together under one coordinated plan.
What this partnership means:
- You don’t have to coordinate between multiple providers who never talk to each other.
- Your IFS therapist at Propagate Hope Counseling works directly with specialists at Axis Integrated Mental Health.
- They share information (with your permission of course), coordinate your treatment plan, and make adjustments together based on how you’re responding.
Why you should care:
Most people seeking depression treatment in Denver, Boulder, Westminster, or Aurora face a frustrating reality. Their therapist and psychiatrist don’t communicate.
Their therapy focuses on one thing while their medication addresses something else entirely. There’s no unified vision for their recovery.
Simply put, when your providers collaborate, you get:
- Faster symptom relief through coordinated timing
- Better treatment coordination with one unified plan
- Fewer gaps in care and faster adjustments when needed
- More personalized treatment based on your specific needs
- Advocacy across all aspects of your treatment
Common Myths That Keep People Stuck and Suffering
Myth 1: “Needing medication or alternative treatment means I’ve failed”
This belief keeps countless people suffering unnecessarily. You’re getting the support you need for a real medical condition, just as someone with diabetes needs insulin or someone with poor vision needs glasses.
Myth 2: “Therapy alone should be enough if I’m strong enough”
For mild depression, therapy alone might be sufficient. But for moderate to severe depression, or depression that hasn’t responded to previous treatment, therapy alone often isn’t enough. The structural brain changes are too significant. This is about biology. Combining approaches addresses all aspects of the condition.
Myth 3: “Alternative treatments are experimental or risky”
Both Deep TMS and Spravato are FDA-approved treatments. They’ve been extensively studied and proven safe and effective. They’re evidence-based treatments offering options when traditional approaches haven’t worked. The partnership between Propagate Hope Counseling and Axis Integrated Mental Health ensures you receive these treatments under expert medical supervision.
Myth 4: “Treatment will change my personality.”
Treatment doesn’t change who you are. It removes the depression that’s covering up your true self. In IFS therapy terms, treatment helps your different parts work together harmoniously instead of being overwhelmed by protective parts trying to manage unbearable pain. People often say after treatment, “I feel like myself again for the first time in years.” That’s exactly the goal.
Red Flags: When You Need More Than Traditional Treatment
Some signs indicate you need a more comprehensive approach combining IFS therapy with alternative treatments:
- You’ve tried two or more antidepressants without significant improvement
- You can barely get out of bed most days or struggle with basic self-care
- You’re having suicidal thoughts or intense hopelessness
- Your depression significantly affects work, relationships, or daily functioning
- You’ve been in therapy for months without meaningful progress
- Traditional medications cause unbearable side effects
- You feel disconnected from yourself or like you’re just going through the motions
If any of these apply to you, it’s time to consider combining IFS therapy with alternative depression treatments like Deep TMS or Spravato through the Propagate Hope Counseling and Axis Integrated Mental Health partnership.
Questions to Ask When Choosing Depression Treatment in Denver
Whether you’re in Denver, Aurora, Westminster, or Boulder, ask potential providers these questions:
About coordination:
Do your therapists and medical providers communicate regularly about patient care?
Is there one person coordinating my overall treatment plan?
How quickly can I access different types of treatment if my needs change?
About expertise:
What specific experience do you have treating depression?
Are you trained in evidence-based approaches like IFS therapy?
How many patients have you treated with alternative treatments like Deep TMS or Spravato?
About treatment planning:
How do you decide what combination of treatments is right for each person?
How often will we reassess and adjust my treatment plan?
What happens if one approach isn’t working as expected?
About practical matters:
What’s the time commitment for different treatments?
Do you accept my insurance?
What support is available between appointments if I’m struggling?
The answers to these questions tell you whether a provider offers truly integrated care or just separate services that happen to be available in one place.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does combining therapy with alternative depression treatments speed up recovery?
Combining IFS therapy with alternative treatments like Deep TMS or Spravato addresses depression from multiple angles simultaneously. Alternative treatments quickly rebalance brain chemistry and reduce severe symptoms within days or weeks, giving you the mental clarity and energy to engage meaningfully in therapy. Meanwhile, IFS therapy helps you understand the different parts of yourself contributing to depression, develop coping skills, change negative thought patterns, and heal underlying emotional wounds.
What is IFS therapy and how does it help with depression?
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy views your psyche as made up of different “parts,” each with its own perspective and role. In depression, certain parts might feel hopeless while others try to protect you from pain by shutting down emotions. An IFS therapist helps you understand these parts, heal underlying wounds they’re protecting, and help all parts work together harmoniously. When combined with alternative treatments that rapidly stabilize brain chemistry, IFS therapy can address the deeper causes of depression more effectively.
Can I get Deep TMS and Spravato treatments in the Denver area?
Yes, through the partnership between Propagate Hope Counseling and Axis Integrated Mental Health, you can access both Deep TMS and Spravato treatments in Denver, Boulder, Westminster, and Aurora. Both are FDA-approved for treatment-resistant depression and can be combined with ongoing therapy for optimal results.
How do I know if I need more than traditional antidepressants and therapy?
You may benefit from alternative depression treatments like Deep TMS if you’ve tried two or more antidepressants without improvement, experience severe symptoms interfering with daily functioning, have unbearable side effects from traditional medications, or haven’t seen meaningful progress after months of therapy. Warning signs include persistent inability to work or maintain relationships, ongoing self-harm thoughts, or depression so severe you struggle with basic self-care.
What should I expect from the partnership between Propagate Hope Counseling and Axis Integrated Mental Health?
This partnership provides collaborative care where your IFS therapist and medical team work together on your treatment plan. Your providers communicate regularly (with your permission) and adjust your treatment based on your progress. This integration means faster relief, fewer gaps in care, and a unified treatment approach rather than disconnected services.