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In-person therapy in Houston, online in Texas • In-network with BCBS, Aetna, Cigna, UHC, Oscar, Tricare, Curative • Therapy in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Farsi • Immediate Openings

'Therapy session room at Real Talk Clinical Psychology in Houston, TX

Depression & Low Mood

PhD-Level Depression Therapy in Houston, TX

People use the word "Depression" loosely, for many states: numbness, quiet, loss of wanting, heavy mornings, moving without interest. We do not ask you to fit a list. We look at when this began, what keeps it in place, and how it shapes your days and ties to others.


Our clinical team of doctoral level, in-network psychologists in Houston provides depression therapy in person and online across Texas.

We are licensed psychologists coming from various countries, speaking multiple languages, with experience in many clinical settings. We are attentive to how culture, migration, race, gender, identity, and social position shape a person's life. 


Our clinical approach is depth-oriented. We are interested in what sustains the symptoms, not only what they look like on the surface. This takes time, and requires a different quality of attention and a clinician who can hold complexity over the long term. 


Depression is not a single condition. It presents differently across people, histories, and life contexts, and can show as numbness, chronic emptiness, episodes that lift and return, heaviness. Treatment that does not account for that difference is less likely to hold. We work to understand what sustains each person's suffering, not only what depression typically looks like.


Our clinical team of doctoral-level psychologists provides in-person therapy in Houston and telehealth across Texas. Some of us are also PsyPact-authorized to see patients in other states. 


We are in-network with Aetna, BCBS, Cigna, United Healthcare/Optum, Oscar, Tricare, and Curative, and we verify your benefits before your first appointment. Our clinical director reviews each inquiry personally and recommends a clinician whose background and approach fit what you are bringing in.

What Changes Over Time

  • More room inside the day


  • Energy for what matters


  • Words for what was mute


  • Less apology for needs


  • Interest that returns in small ways


  • Capacity to stay with difficult feelings without being overwhelmed by them


  • Sleep and appetite that stabilize as the underlying process shifts

PhD-Level Training in Depression

Depression is not a single condition. It presents differently across people, histories, and life contexts, and treatment that does not account for that difference is less likely to hold. Doctoral-level training matters most when depression is chronic or recurrent and has not responded to previous treatment, when it co-occurs with anxiety, trauma, grief, or significant relational difficulty, when the presentation is atypical or complicated by medical factors, or when understanding what sustains the depression requires more than symptom management.

Dennis Santana, Ph.D.

Adults • English, Spanish • Online • Anxiety, depression, attention issues, aging, life transitions.

Micah Rees, Ph.D.

Adults • English • Online • Grief, trauma, identity & meaning, existential & spiritual issues.

Kimberly Smoots, Ph.D.

Children, Teens, Adults • English, Spanish • Online, In Person • Trauma, anxiety, depression, autism.

Rose Signorello, Ph.D.

Adults • English • Online, In Person • Academic and work stress, learning differences, grief.

Kristen Wheeler, Psy.D.

Adults • English • Online, In Person • Trauma, crisis, substance use. LGBTQ+, veterans, first responders.

Shirin Rahgozar, Ph.D.

Adults • English, Farsi • Online, In Person • Trauma, EMDR, OCD, PTSD, cultural adjustment.

Lorena Davis, M.S., M.Ed.

Children, Teens, Adults • English, Spanish • Online, In Person • Psychoanalysis, trauma, crisis, relationships.

Shon Faye. Depression Is a Haunting. 

Vogue, 2024. Read here


Susanna Schrobsdorff. Depression Is a Pandemic. 

Time, 2021. Read here.


John Welwood. Depression As A Loss Of Heart. 

The Sun, 1988. Read here.

From Our Journal

Therapy Is More Than Just Feeling Better.

Read Here.



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