How Anxiety Therapy Reduces College Stress

Attending college is one of the most important times in a young person’s life, as it is often the first time they are moving away from home and their families. As a result of this, many incoming students can find the situation to be highly stressful, unsure of how to navigate their emotions. With that in mind, let’s go over a couple of services that students may find useful in making the transition to college, including anxiety therapy, counselling services, and life transition counseling.

What is Anxiety Therapy?

As the name implies, anxiety therapy focuses specifically on alleviating the symptoms of anxiety, which can include but are not limited to:

• Insomnia
• Lack of appetite
• Feeling tense about being in group settings
• General lack of ability to focus

These are all common occurrences for new students, especially amongst the first few weeks, when they are settling into new routines. Anxiety therapy helps with more effective thought management so a student is able to be the best version of themselves.

What are Counselling Services?

Counselling services are highly specialized and often include behavioral strategies that students can implement to better take care of themselves. Subjects that counseling services may focus on in depth are:

• Positive self-care
• Healthy eating choices and how they affect your mental health
• Maintaining healthy social support systems

These services are provided by trained professionals and will often include the use of such strategies as:

• Breathing techniques to manage high stress situations
• Confronting social anxiety by being placed in new social situations
• Cognitive therapy to manage uncertainty and aid in making logical choices

These strategies are designed to be easily implemented by the student in real world situations and are very helpful in making positive, long term decisions instead of acting impulsively and doing something they may later very well regret.

What is Life Transition Counseling?

Life transition counseling is a broad term that applies to teaching incoming students how to survive in the adult world, as many are away from home for the first time and do not possess these skills. Some of the things that life transition counseling would focus on to better improve a student’s well-being are:

• Time management
• Strategies for decision making
• Interacting with roommates

This kind of counselling can often be found in classes that are specifically offered to freshman students only. If you are interested in one of these courses, consult your school’s course catalog and see if they are offered. If not, you can attempt to e-mail your school’s student services division directly and see if they are available.

If you have questions about anything you have read here or mental health in general and are based in the Chicago area, don’t hesitate to contact the wonderful team at Smith Psychotherapy Associates. They can be reached at their website or by phone at 847-824-8366.