It does not need to take forever. It may not take very long at all. Good holistic therapists stress that one healing modality is rarely enough to treat serious depression. Effective therapists stress the importance of building a repertoire of treatments to treat every aspect of depression. Because every case is different, flexibility is key.
Depression means so many things.
Thankfully, the multiplicity of presentations can be treated by a great range of modalities. Clinical Hypnosis Depression involves a narrowing of the focus. As an optimist wears the proverbial rose-colored glasses, the depressive's glasses are tinted with smoke. That person can have an average day, and before going to bed will remember the three worst things about that day, and call it a bad day. Hypnosis is a different kind of narrowing of the focus.