Therapy for College Students
Mental Health Counseling for Students
College can be a perfect storm for mental health issues. Living away from family for the first time + increased responsibility + rigorous academics + finding new friends + dating + living with roommates + pressure to know what you want to do with your life post-graduation. Of course 80% of college students say they are struggling emotionally.
Mental health for college students is something I care deeply about. It's a time when stress is at its highest and coping skills are at their lowest.
With college students, I primarily use a method called Narrative Therapy, which believes that we can rewrite the stories we’ve told ourselves to more accurately represent who we are at our core, separate from our problems. We will work together to identify your concerns, externalize them, and investigate the narratives that are fueling them.
Counseling with me is extremely collaborative. I’ll never make you do something you don’t want to do, and I’ll even let you choose whether or not you have homework (too bad your professors don’t do the same). I love when my clients bring in a topic to discuss, but if you don’t have anything in mind, I’ll choose a discussion topic or activity that will help you reach the goals you set at the beginning of counseling. A primary component of what I can help you with is finding coping skills that calm you down and make you happy.
If you’re open to it, we’ll even incorporate expressive art techniques like art, journaling, and meditation to relax and open up the mind.
Do I need therapy?
Starting counseling is a big step, and I know it can be really scary for a lot of people. I believe that counseling can be beneficial at any stage of life. If you feel that you’re not able to function like you want (in school, friends, family, dating, work, for example) or if you have unresolved trauma, resentments, or hurts that keep coming back up, it might be time to start counseling.
“And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive…But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.”
— Haruki Murakami