College Student Therapy – So You Can Make it to Next Semester
You were excited (and a little scared) to go off to college. Of course, you hoped that your hard work in high school would pay off in the form of a great college experience. You pictured new friends, lots of laughs, and excellent grades that would set you up for a successful future.
What you didn’t picture was the new levels of stress you would experience. Balancing everything is more difficult than you expected. You just want to feel calm and have fun. But there never seems to be enough time. Worry takes over and keeps you from getting out like you want. It keeps you so upset about your grades that you can’t relax. You can tell you aren’t fun to be around. Then you worry about what all of this is going to do to your friendships.
Not only that, but you are worried about the future. The questions in your mind might include: What if your friend is mad at you? What if you let your parents down? What if you fail this test? What if you don’t graduate? What if you don’t get a good job that makes you happy? And the biggest question…What if you have wasted all this money?!?! It is a lot and it all feels out of your control.
When you come to college, everything changes. The people you spend time with, the workload, and your environment all change rapidly. It is to be expected that so many transitions at once brings on a lot of feelings. Anxiety can reach a new level of intensity.
And to a certain extent, anxiety is normal. But sometimes, our fears can begin to interfere with the life we want. If you have found this page, you are probably already noticing that some things in your life are not working. Maybe you are calling home too often. Or avoiding fun nights out. Some anxious college students do socialize but their anxiety makes the next day miserable as it recounts all the stupide things it thinks you said and did the night before.
College innately comes with pressure, and with pressure comes high levels of stress. Some of my college student clients are just starting out and needing support around adjusting to their new life. Others are finishing up college and need a lot of reassurance about the unknowns in their future. Oftentimes, my clients are competent students that are reaching for the next level and want help with their imposter syndrome.
My college student clients come from schools all over Tennessee. Sometimes they are far from home. They are in a variety of majors – from pre med to music business. Some need to talk to a professor but haven’t been able to do it. Some are studying for the LSAT and need some more effective stress management tools. And in the current economy, most of my seniors have big worries about finding a job. All of these challenges are valid and all of them can be overcome!
Signs your Stress is turning into Anxiety
The following signs of anxiety are things you might be noticing. Not everyone experiences anxiety the same way. But if you identify with a few or a lot of the following symptoms, you may benefit from therapy for college students.
- Trouble sleeping or feeling tired often
- Difficulty eating
- Excessive worry
- Stomach problems or headaches
- Restlessness or being fidgety
- Headaches
- Irrational fears
- Avoiding social interactions
- Easily irritated or angry
- Attempting to control things to the point of creating conflict
- Panic attacks
Therapy Can Help With College Student Anxiety
Throughout my time as a therapist for college students, I have found a real passion for helping young adults. The typical college students who come to counseling are smart, active people that really want to be happy and make something of themselves. But in many cases anxiety, perfectionism, and stress are getting in their way.
There’s good news! I can help. With my experience in working with college students, plus my extensive mental health training, I have helped many young adults overcome anxiety. My expertise has proven to be effective for people that strive to be successful but cannot seem to stop worrying about their future. In our work together, we will sort through the things on your overly full plate to see where tweaks can be made. Utilizing psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and a psychodynamic, relational approach we can address:
- Low self-esteem
- Negative self talk
- Reaching your goals
- How to utilize a support system
- Boundary setting
- Expectation management
- Relationships
- Problem-solving
- Confidence with Adulting
- Harness things you are already doing well and use them in more and more ways
Reach Out for College Student Therapy
Oftentimes, students hesitate to invest in therapy because they think that their problems are not “bad enough.” Sure, it may be true that there are others having a harder time than you. But that doesn’t mean that your experience isn’t valid. You might also be wondering why you would go with a college student specialist like me over the least expensive therapist out there. Most people believe that the low cost option is just as good.
While I agree that there are a lot of competent therapists out there, I urge you to meet with me anyway. There is no commitment. Once you talk to me in person you may notice a difference. I dive right in and I don’t waste our time on fluff. We will laugh at times and sometimes we might cry. But I am always focused on moving you forward. You will notice that I make sure we have an agenda and that you leave every session with several new insights and ideas. Maybe you’ll be able to move forward with plans that have felt stalled or have the courage to speak up for yourself. I have noticed that many of the college students that come to me have big goals and end up moving on to NYC or abroad.
Sometimes, anxiety ramps up because of a stressful event in your life. And sometimes we never find the thing that set your increased anxiety in motion. The good news is, it doesn’t matter where it started. Everyone’s stress and pain is important.
Begin Therapy for College Students near Nashville, TN
I use online therapy in Tennessee to meet with college students and young adults around the state from my Tennessee based private practice. Students from community colleges up through PhD and MD programs have benefitted from my services. Some clients start with me as freshmen and end up staying with me until graduation. Some just get started in senior year and I help them with all the big feelings that come with graduation and transitioning to their first job. This will be the second economic downturn in which I have helped a cohort manage a poor job market that left them underemployed. Through it all I am a cheerleader that offers encouragement in that magical way that only a specialty therapist can.
Contact me today to begin your journey of self-growth and finding freedom from anxiety. Schedule a consultation, then we’ll meet over the phone or video call to get to know each other and identify goals for therapy. I look forward to meeting you!
Online Therapy for Young Adults with Anxiety in Tennessee
