We at Better Selves Counseling proudly provide therapy for college students in Pompano Beach, including students at Nova Southeastern University, Broward College, Florida Atlantic University, and all universities across Florida. We’re here to help college students and young adults alike deal with career needs, stress management, academic challenges, and relationship issues. We believe that providing counseling support at this level helps secure our community’s future by the success of today’s college graduates as they lead themselves through important career paths.
Therapy for College Students in Pompano Beach – The South Florida Experience
For many folx in college today, the experiences that come with being a college student can be exciting. In providing therapy for college students in Pompano Beach and across South Florida, we find that the freedom, which comes with the higher demands of time management and personal responsibility, can be distracting for many.
For many others, the stressors that come with maintaining their schedule, attending lectures, and completing academic work, are difficult to balance. That’s not accounting for how both their self-esteem needs and their sense-of-self can change on a day-to-day basis. Simply said, being a college student is really hard, and its worth at least to bring awareness for everyone involved to understand this. To start, here are the top three reasons college students go to therapy.
Reason #3: Overwhelming Anxiety and Chronic Stress
Simply said, Anxiety is at the root of most college challenges. Individuals seeking therapy for College students in Pompano Beach usually come to therapy to discuss constant worry about grades and performance, fear of failure, pressure to be perfect or keep up with others, and the accompanying panic attacks they experience. Insidiously, for many college students, intense levels of anxiety isn’t always labeled as such. Under the disguise of typical college problems, people tend to frequently say “I’m always on edge”, “I can’t relax”, or “I’m stressed all the time”. In turn, anxiety can thwart our ability to manage stress when performance matters the most. People don’t have to go further than the works of those such as the Yerkes-Dodson Curve, to say that the institutional experience the university brings can become deeply daunting for some.
Counseling and Therapy can help college students adapt to the demands of college life through a wellness lens. Specifically dealing with anxiety, college students can learn about helpful coping skills, anxiety management strategies, and different ways to help reframe pressure and expectations in a way that is deeply meaningful to the student – regardless of whether college or university needs to be a part of the answer
Reason #2: Academic Burnout
What do you get when you have a young adult attend college for the first time with the demand of a 15+ credit semester schedule and limited resources to deal with the stress that comes with it? That’s not even accounting for the daily I-95/Brightline fatigue, or the feeling of keeping up with others on social media with a South Florida hashtag without having to deal with imposter syndrome. But here’s the thing: this experience is the quiet second wave of stress that comes with being a college student. Many college students are at highest risk for depression after being exposed to long periods of stress, academic pressure, and feeling like “needing to be the responsible one” the entire time. At this point, students often feel burned out, as though they know exactly what they need to do but just can’t do it.
College students benefit from therapy as a direct result of addressing burnout prevention and recovery. Counseling students are often encouraged to lean on therapy as a sounding board. At some point, the counselor helps the student clarify where their personal values lie behind the academic choices they’re confronted with. Every step of the way, the counselor ensures the clients safety through practicing emotional regulation strategies, establish balanced wellness objectives, and structure pacing and boundaries around academic responsibilities in a manner that prioritize both the wellbeing of the student and their academic success.
Honorable Mentions: Time Management, Productivity, and Peer Influences
Counseling and therapy for college students in Pompano Beach are not limited to the dealings of stress. Some college students, for example, find it effective to speak with a counselor during their academic work. College students say that counseling throughout the semester helped them come to a sense of developing their own lifestyle priorities and plans of action in a way that takes full advantage of the freedom that comes with managing one’s own time. Students at risk of failing their studies due to academic difficulties are best served when they are empowered to restructure their lifestyle priorities, with becoming and being an intentional academic as their primary occupation.
And very much in the ways that college can sometimes be a microcosm of society, college students are presented with opportunities to meet new peers. Some college students are especially challenged in the ways they balance their time between their academic objectives and social opportunities. Many others are pinched where they have to make ends meet with a high-paced job and a demanding work schedule while studying. And other college students may struggle to find ways to make meaningful connections with peers.
Reason #1: Identity, Relationships, and Life Transitions
In a lot of ways, the age of the college student reflects society’s developmental expectations of their peers – go to college, graduate, apply for entry level jobs that require previous work experience, and profit. Career is important. However, one’s career identity is only a part of a greater whole. In navigating identity issues, students often come to therapy to figure out who they are. College students see therapy as a way to clarify and question their identity, values, or direction. College students come to therapy when they struggle with relationship stress, family pressures, relationship conflicts, and navigating their independence.
Ideally, when a college student meaningfully engages with the counseling process, they work to create a solidified sense of self. In turn, counselors and college students work together to find new ways to use this new sense of self to accomplish their personal goals. Counselors and college students work together to normalize and bracket the unhelpful expectations imposed by family, friendships, relationships, and society, in order to drive personalized academic goals that reflect a deeper sense of meaning.
Therapy for College Students in Pompano Beach – Common Modalities (i.e. ACT Therapy, CBT Therapy)
Working with a counselor doesn’t have to make someone feel like you’re in the hot seat. Rather, working with a counselor can involve a number of evidence-based interventions to uncover the values that meaningfully guide students to manage their time, productivity, and relationships in a way that holds both academic priorities and wellness in the same space.
For instance, through ACT Therapy, a student can find psychologically flexible ways to healthily detach from being a perfect student in order to be successful. Through a CBT Therapy lens, students would also benefit from understanding how burnout impacts neurobiology, executive functioning, and their core beliefs about self, others, and the world. The counseling possibilities for helping college students to live out a meaningful college career are limitless.
Counseling and Therapy for College Students in Pompano Beach – Call Today!
Lauren Fekete, M.Ed., is a professional counselor who provides counseling in Pompano Beach, Florida. Lauren studied and graduated with a master’s degree in clinical Mental Health Counseling at Florida Atlantic University. With experience in both collegiate and community mental health settings, Lauren had built her clinical foundation through direct service to her local community for several years. Currently as a registered mental health counselor intern, Lauren works with college students from a wellness lens to help confront and address Anxiety & Stress Management, Financial & Academic Wellness, and Identity & Life Transitions.
