What is Therapy?

College life brings many challenges and is often stressful. Students experience those challenges in a number of different areas--some students have difficulties adjusting to the changes in academic demands from high school to college, others experience confusion in deciding on a major or career path, and still others struggle with issues in their families and relationships. A majority of students feel anxious, depressed, confused, or overwhelmed at some point during their college experience.  According to the National Institute of Mental Health, more than 30 million Americans eventually seek help for dealing with feelings and problems that seem beyond their control.

For college students, that help sometimes comes from friends, family members, significant others, etc., but in some cases help from a trained professional is beneficial. Therapy is a process that can help people identify more effective strategies both to cope with difficult things in their lives and to achieve their goals. While some people who seek counseling have chronic emotional difficulties, most are dealing with normal life events and are simply in need of an objective listener--someone who doesn't judge and who can help them see new alternatives. Asking for help is definitely not a sign of weakness; rather, it's a show of tremendous strength, as it indicates that one has the courage to face up problems and to try to solve them.