Mental Health
How you feel is shaped, more than you may think, by how you live.
Depression, anxiety, and the fog that comes with both are real medical problems. They are also, in part, problems of the body: what it is fed, how it sleeps, whether it moves, how much light and company it gets. Those things can be changed, and when they are, many people feel better. This is not a substitute for a psychiatrist or a counselor. It works alongside them.
Book a Consultation →Si necesitas ayuda ahora
Si estás en crisis o pensando en hacerte daño, por favor busca ayuda ahora mismo. Llama al *4141, la Línea de Prevención del Suicidio, gratuita y confidencial, disponible las 24 horas, todos los días, atendida por psicólogos capacitados. Para orientación en salud mental, Salud Responde: 600 360 7777, opción 2.
Si estás en peligro inmediato, acude al Servicio de Urgencia más cercano o pide a alguien de confianza que te acompañe. En caso de emergencia, también puedes llamar al 131 (SAMU).
No estás solo. No estás sola. Mereces apoyo en este mismo momento.
The brain responds to the same things as the rest of the body.
Inflammation, blood sugar swings, poor sleep, and lack of movement all affect mood and thinking, and all of them respond to lifestyle. That does not make depression a character flaw or a diet problem. It means there are more levers to pull than most people are offered.
You do not have to stop a psychiatric medication to start living in a healthier way. The two go together. Each person is different, and whether to stay on a medication or slowly come off it is a decision to make with your psychiatrist.
What the research shows
Food and exercise have been tested as treatments for depression, and they help.
In the Australian SMILES trial, adults with moderate to severe depression were randomly assigned either to dietary counseling or to an equal amount of social support. After twelve weeks, about a third of the diet group were in remission, compared with 8% of the control group. The improvement did not depend on weight loss (Jacka, BMC Medicine 2017).
At Duke, 202 sedentary adults with major depression were randomized to supervised exercise, home exercise, sertraline, or a placebo pill for four months. Remission rates were 45% with supervised exercise, 40% with home exercise, 47% with the drug, and 31% with placebo. Exercise did about as well as the medication (Blumenthal, Psychosomatic Medicine 2007). A year later, the people who had kept exercising were the ones most likely to still be well (follow-up).
Sleep deserves its own mention. Insomnia and depression feed each other, and treating the sleep problem directly, with a structured program, often lifts mood as well. Sleeping pills do not do that. Sunlight in the morning, time outdoors, and regular contact with people you trust round out the list. None of these is dramatic on its own, but together they make a real difference.
How it works
Three steps.
Book a consultation
We meet by video for an hour. I go through your history, your medications, your sleep, your diet, and what your days look like.
Get a plan
You leave with a written plan for food, movement, sleep, and light, with the first steps small enough to actually start.
Follow up
We check in regularly. I coordinate with your psychiatrist or counselor, and no medication changes happen without them.
From the medical literature
Cases doctors have written up.
Two results from the trials above, in plain terms.
In SMILES, the people who changed their diet the most were the people whose depression improved the most. The researchers found that relationship strong enough to argue for a real effect and not a placebo effect.
Jacka et al., BMC Medicine, 2017 and 2018 reply · Read the replyIn the Duke exercise trial, benefit at one year tracked with minutes of exercise per week, and most of the gain came within the first three hours a week. You do not have to become an athlete. You have to keep moving.
Hoffman et al., Psychosomatic Medicine, 2011 · Read the reportWhat is possible
What most people can expect.
Sleep is often the first thing to change, within a couple of weeks. Mood and energy follow over one to three months as diet and movement take hold.
Some people eventually reduce medication with their prescriber. Many stay on it and feel much better than they did. Both are good outcomes.
Ready to start?
Book an hour. Bring your questions and a list of what you take.
Ways to work together
Ways to work together.
First Visit
A one-hour first visit by video.
$45.000 CLP · US$50
Plan of 5 Follow-Ups
Five 30-minute follow-up visits after your first visit, while you make the big changes.
$105.000 CLP · US$115
Follow-Up Visit
A 30-minute check-in to review progress and labs.
$25.000 CLP · US$30
Group Program
Small online groups working through the same changes together.
Video visits for patients located in Chile. Booking and payment through Encuadrado.
Video visits for patients located in Chile. Booking and payment through Encuadrado.