Counseling for College Students and Young Professionals

in Brentwood and throughout TN

You’ve been looking forward to this moment for as long as you can remember.

Maybe you are: 

  • Going to college! 

  • Finishing school and entering your career!

  • Getting married! 

  • Having your first kid!

Maybe it is another-or complimentary- life transition like living on your own for the first time. Or living with someone who you aren’t related to. Maybe it’s moving to another city or state-maybe even the country. Maybe you're dating for the first time, or entering your first long-term relationship.

When you have been thinking about these milestones-envisioning them and planning them-all you felt was excitement at the changes about to happen! The independence gained along with new experiences. 

Now, as you are living through these moments, rather than excitement, you have really started to think about what may be changing. Thoughts like:

- ‘How am I going to be able to afford hospital bills, diapers, formula, day care?!’ 

- ‘There is no time to do everything in the day! How can I take care of myself, finish my work, and spend time with my family and friends?’ 

- ‘What if I am too different from everyone and everyone judges me and no one likes me and I’m all alone.’ 

- ‘I’ve worked my whole life to be in this position, but I don’t know if it's right for me. It takes up all my time, my co-workers are rude, my pay sucks. ’

These fears and anxieties start to become overwhelming, filling you with self-doubt and uncertainty about the life you have chosen to live. You ask yourself ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What am I doing with my life?’

These anxieties and questions trigger your ‘inner bully,’  confirming that you have no idea what you are doing and that what you are doing isn’t enough. Providing evidence to every worrisome thought you may be having, eliminating all the excitement you’ve had for experiencing these milestone life events.

  • When you were thinking about going to college you were so excited about all the freedom and adventure that came with it. You didn’t realize that with that freedom came additional responsibilities. Suddenly, freedom became:

    • Figuring out the schedule rubrics of classes, studying, chores, taking care of yourself, socializing, etc., anxiously staring at the clock as you try to keep up with an impossible schedule.

    • Navigating roommate squabbles, making new friends while trying to maintain high school friendships, dating when living away from home, internally tying yourself up into knots to not make waves and to make a good impression.

    • Learning your own boundaries as you have more access- and less oversight- to how you choose to spend your time.

    You feel the pressure to make ‘lifelong friends’ and experience all that college has to offer, while continuing to excel at school. You feel the weight of having to balance this all on your own, maybe for the first time.

  • When you were thinking about leaving school (hopefully for the last time) and becoming an adult, you were excited about being fully independent: having your own income, your own home, your own relationships. You thought after college, you had gotten the hang of balancing your freedoms with your responsibilities. But increased independence became:

    • Feeling overworked at a job that may or may not have more cons than pros, making it harder and harder to find time to spend enjoying life outside of work.

    • Friends being spread out through the city or country (or globe) with their own work schedules, with their own family and relationship commitments, making it harder and harder to find time to speak-much less meetup. Questioning how to make new friends when everyone is at a different point in their lives and whether it is appropriate to have friends through work.

    • Finances become all on you and you are left trying to figure out how to budget, pay bills on time, insurance plans, 401ks, daycares, and vacations.

    You feel the pressure to be excelling at life- to be thriving in your career, to be financially secure, to maintain a close group of friends who you see regularly, to be well rested, to pursue hobbies, to get outside daily…the list of ‘excelling’ goes on and on.

You want to be living your ‘best life,’ your most authentic life. You see so many examples of people effortlessly succeeding in this. While you are having a hard time deciding what this looks like, much less living in it. You're left wondering ‘is something wrong with me?’ ‘what am I doing wrong?’ 

But what? 

Major life transitions come with a certain amount of uncertainty, doubt, anxiety- and that’s ok. In fact it is more than ok, it is expected. 

As you are living through these transitions:

  • Going to college! 

  • Finishing school and entering  your career!

  • Getting married! 

  • Having your first kid!

And the biggest change you have made was to your mindset about change…

NOW you are able to be excited for all the newness these experiences create- even feeling excited (ok maybe not excited, but accepting) of the anxieties that come along with these changes.

How Counseling Can Help!

  • Create space to explore who you are in the here and now-figuring out what you like to do, what you don’t like to do; what's stayed the same, what’s changed; what you’re doing when you feel your best.

  • Identifying what your values in life are help provide clarity when making decisions and allows you to trust in the direction you are moving in.

  • Asking yourself where do I feel lost? Where do I feel uncertain? How come this is feeling hard right now? What is all this trying to tell me?

  • Recognizing and cultivating the strengths you have that have allowed you to be able to navigate changes you have previously experienced.

  • Explore different solutions to new experiences so that you have a roadmap to help you feel confident in navigating complex relationships, time management, and the world of finances.

  • Letting go of the ‘comparison game’ so that you are able to be fully connected in the present and to the decisions that make the most sense for you.

  • Giving yourself permission to be in a period of growth, allowing yourself the space and time you need to acclimate to the newness of your life, and letting go of the judgemental comparisons.

In building these skills, you create space to interact compassionately with yourself. You recognize that experiencing uncertainty about where you are-or uncertainty about how to navigate where you are-is valuable. You are able to recognize that this is a helpful part of growth and knowing yourself. You build trust in your abilities to navigate adulthood as you continuously develop the skills that will allow you to move through adulthood confidently.

Therapy for College Students and Young Professionals can help you: 

  • Feel supported and less alone as you move through these times of transition.

  • Gain a sense of knowing about who you are and what living your ‘best life’ looks like for you.

  • Develop the skills you need to successfully navigate adulthood.

  • Make peace with your inner bully so you are not beating yourself up in moments of uncertainty.

You don’t have to figure out adulting on your own.

 Frequently Asked Questions:

  • A: Unfortunately at this time, we would not be able to meet when you are out of the state of Tennessee.

    We would pause meeting with a scheduled day and time to resume meeting when you return to school.