Although medication can help lift your mood, it does not tackle any underlying problems you may be experiencing. Psychological therapies can help to explore what may have contributed to your depression in the first place, and what might be keeping you depressed.

There are lots of different psychological therapies. None have been proven to be "better" than any other, and so it is more a question of finding a therapy and therapist that suit you. The most common kinds of psychological therapies are:

Cognitive Therapy: How you think largely determines how you feel; when you are depressed, you feel very negative. Cognitive therapy works by challenging these negative thought patterns, and suggesting changes to destructive behavior.

Interpersonal Therapy: This focuses on your relationships with other people. It teaches you how to communicate more effectively and improve your view of yourself.

Psychodynamic Therapy: This helps people to understand past conflicts, release aggression and reduce feelings of guilt or inadequacy.

Counseling: The term refers to a wide range of techniques and approaches, some of which draw from the above therapies. As a general rule, counseling offers people the opportunity to talk through issues in their everyday lives that may be contributing towards their depression, rather than aiming to treat more deep-rooted problems.