Feelings of depression can range from feeling "blue" to incapacitating self-states that make executing activities of daily living a challenge. In the case of debilitating depression, an in-depth exploration of what underlies this state and the ways this arises may provide glimpses of how to manage the experience so it does not have to be so enervating. Working together, we can come to an awareness of the many ways depression manifests and cultivate ways of responding that truly honors and respects the self-state one may be inhabiting at any moment. Healing is not so much a matter of "cutting out" problematic self-states such as depression (e.g., as in the western medical conceptualization of "cure"), but becoming aware of what any experience is bringing forth into our lives and learning the lessons each and every one provides. And by integrating the lessons depression aims to teach us, by healing and tending the wound, one can cultivate a life that is richer and more meaningful thereby easing the grip of depression's captive hold in the abyss of desolation and despair.