Attentive Psychotherapy & Counseling Center
- Jan 24, 2022
- 5 min read

Is Virtual Therapy Effective For College Students?

Updated: Jan 28, 2022

Finding Support When You Need It

The chances are that you have heard of telehealth, online therapy, or virtual therapy. Since the pandemic, going online has been a necessity in so many facets of our work, education, social lives, and health. We can attend classes online, see our doctor online, and work from home with video platforms. Not enough of us are taking advantage of therapy online. Life hasn't become any easier since 2020, and many of us are striving to keep up our productivity and energy but are we utilizing all of our options? Now is the best time to get a therapist and start healing all from the comfort of our homes and living spaces.

There are few silver linings in the pandemic, but one that we should all jump on is getting into therapy. At this point, the world is stressed, frustrated, angry, and sad. We aren't our best selves, and so many things going on around us are bleak. We may feel cut off from our friends, frustrated with dating online, stressed with online education, and missing out on the "college experience." Many students are stressed and worried about choosing a major as there is often a lot of pressure to choose carefully with little support to figure it out. This is the best time to get into therapy and feel good about it. You can even brag about it, and lots of people do. Gone are the days of mental health and wellness being something that makes us different or broken; when we are all in the same anxious and depressed boat, there is no one to judge.

Benefits of teletherapy:

Access with fewer barriers: If you are in a shared space, many college campuses will provide private areas to meet your therapist online. Some offer space in their own counseling offices, and often campus libraries have private rooms for virtual sessions. Most college and university campuses have counseling clinics. Still, the increase in students seeking mental health services has grown so much (an increase of 80% or more on many campuses) that accessing therapy may require going outside your college. Most clinicians work within the state where they are licensed and require that you be in that state, but there are still so many options for accessing care. If you are wondering if a therapist can see you in your current state, ask; most clinicians will be able to get back to you pretty quickly. When you can do your growing and healing from your computer, tablet, or phone, so many barriers to getting the support you need vanish. Therapy online is flexible; all you need is a device and Wi-Fi.

Appointments that fit right into your day: When we had to go to an office for therapy, most of us had to go after classes, after work, or take off early. If we meet online, we can have sessions on our lunch break, in between classes, before work. Working in therapy isn't easy, but it helps to start your day with it and carry the changes you want to make forward with you. Maybe you have something challenging to unpack; you and your therapist can work on the best time to make that happen for you. Without the limitations of only having time in the evenings and on weekends, you can meet more often and make progress faster.

A jump-start to healing and growth: When you can access therapy that works with your schedule, you can get to work on all those things that cause friction in your life. Therapy is full life support that gives you the platform to grow your relationships, communication, emotional wellbeing and learn about yourself. College is a time full of life transitions and having a therapist can help you identify the hard things, build the skills to handle them, and get you ready for whatever may come your way in the future. So much of what holds us back is often right before us, but we don't know what to do to make the changes we need to feel better. Therapy can help with that.

Untangling all that holds you back: Speaking of life transitions, going from high school to college, balancing work and personal life while finding who you are in the world is complex. It isn't straightforward. Are you choosing a major? Deciding what to do for what feels like the rest of your life? That's a lot of stress. Having someone to talk it through with can help you discover who you are now, why you feel the way you think, and how to reach your goals. Meeting with your therapist online can help you work through any questions about life, our internal messages, and our purpose. So much about this stage in life is finding who we are and learning about what makes us happy. Teletherapy can be just what you are looking for to get started.

Whether you are living on campus and attending classes in person, living on your own or with a partner or a roommate and attending classes online, or living at home and commuting, virtual therapy allows you to work towards thriving in a time when most people are just surviving. It's our ticket to feeling better even though things around us aren't going well. Social media is full of people talking about their mental health and how therapy has changed their lives. There's a social conversation about mental health and wellness that is new and exciting. Recognizing our collective struggles is where we can find our confident jumping-off point to start our healing journey.

A few tips for finding the right therapist for you are doing a little digging: You can find our website here. Look us up! All of our clinicians are excited to work with college students in a way that fits perfectly into your schedule. Think about what you would like to be different in your life. Do you want to feel better? Manage your emotions? Are you struggling with work or with family? Is college life not all that you thought it would be? Is the pandemic getting to you? Getting clear about what you need will help you find a therapist that can help you. Our website has a particular "Meet The Team" page so that you can browse through the clinicians in our practice and see which person you feel you will click with. Next, contact us we'll walk you through the steps to grow and heal. We also have a FAQ page to answer your other general questions about therapy and our practice.

References:

Since 2020:

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/messages/2021/one-year-in-covid-19-and-mental-health#:~:text=According%20to%20one%20CDC%20report%2C%20which%20surveyed%20adults,thoughts%20of%20suicide%20in%20the%20past%2030%20days.

Comfort Of Our Homes:

https://www.verywellmind.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-online-therapy-2795225

Brag:

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_reasons_to_share_your_mental_health_struggles

Lots Of People Do:

https://www.brinknews.com/quick-take/the-pandemic-is-weakening-the-stigma-around-mental-health/

Judge:

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211221/Study-reveals-how-stigma-has-changed-over-two-decades-for-mental-health-disorders.aspx

Students Seeking Mental Health: