College Students

Karen Nicholson services for college studentsI offer assessments and ongoing short term or long term therapy for children four years old and older who are struggling in pre-school, grade school family, and/or relationships and friendships.  I usually meet with parents first before seeing the child to assess the situation. I then do family/parent consultations if needed after meeting with the child for at least three sessions.  I provide school consultation services if needed in order to ensure that teachers, school social workers and I work as a team to help child succeed at school and at home.

I prefer to meet with children and parents in my office, but do virtual therapy sessions using skype and face time if the parents are out of town.  I also offer phone sessions if necessary.

Symptoms to look for in college students:

  • Avoidance

    • Avoids:
      • going out with friends and/or spending the night at a friend’s house
      • Studying
      • school classes, presentations and or group activities
      • sports or competition
      • foods or certain locations
      • unfamiliar or new situations
      • making and building new relationships

  • Irritability

    • More irritated with friends and family than usual
    • Withdrawing into room for long periods of time for most days of the week.
    • More quiet than usual
    • Difficulty concentrating

  • Physiological symptoms

    • Feeling faint
    • Frequent Stomach aches
    • Frequent Headaches
    • Frequent Back aches
    • sweating
    • Nausea
    • Heart racing
    • Difficulty swallowing
    • Shaking
    • Throwing up before special events
    • Difficulty sleeping
    • Agitation

  • Worries

    • Realistic worries

      • Excessive worries about:
        • tests often
        • school often
        • friendships often
        • the future often
        • appearance often
        • performance in sports, school, and relationships often
        • being judged
        • Worries get in the way of school, relationship building, and jobs, and family
        • Worries about separation from parents, especially when they go to work or travel

    • Unrealistic Worries

      • Excessive worries about:
        • the world ending
        • about health
        • about something bad happening without reason
        • about natural disasters
        • about death and separation

  • Comupulsions

    • Counting
    • Rituals
    • Praying
    • Tapping
    • Washing hands
    • Reassurance seeking “am I pretty?” “am I ok?” “do you love me?” and no matter how much reassurance is given it’s not enough

    • Procrastination

      • Work load increasing to unmanageable quantities
      • Perfectionistic tendencies
      • Overwhelming feelings
      • Crying
      • Avoidance of work
      • Depression

    • Sadness

      • Cutting behaviors
      • Crying often without reason
      • Low self-esteem
      • Says no one likes them
      • Difficulty connecting to others
      • Over analyzing
      • Suicidal thoughts thinking “I would be better off dead” “no one loves me” “would anyone even go to my funeral”

Many of these symptoms occur at some point in a college student’s life, but if the symptoms occur more often than peers at same age, you may want to consider further assessment.

If you would like to seek treatment, treatment for these symptoms should include evidence -based therapeutic approaches, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and or dialectical therapy with some parent guidance. It is imperative that the therapist understand and know how to elicit the destructive complicated thought patterns, and feelings that induce these behaviors. It is also very important that exposure therapy for fears is used by a trained therapist in exposure-response prevention therapy to gain more success in overall functioning.