Are you attending school currently, or are you raising a student? In today’s world, we are undergoing a shift in the way we approach mental health concerns, which are not only more prominent in today’s schools, but also these concerns can create a variety of problems for those schools.
Students that struggle within themselves may become less engaged in the class material and face a higher likelihood of skipping school or dropping out altogether. Thankfully, there are more schools and universities offering some sort of mental health support their students can access on campus.
What is it that’s affecting students’ mental health specifically? New data in a study that was conducted between 2022 and 2023 reveals that the top topics that students wished to discuss during counselling included: self-esteem, social isolation and loneliness, trauma, academic concerns, and sleep. [1]
What this data reveals is simple. Whether you, as a student, already have a diagnosed mental health condition or not, all students can benefit from psychotherapy sessions. Anyone dealing with new challenges as a student can benefit from speaking to someone, including (if you have):
- Friend, family, or relationship issues
- Low mood, self-esteem, or interest in things you typically enjoy
- Heightened stress and anxiety about your schoolwork or anything else
Psychotherapy sessions can help you understand these issues and suggest strategies for dealing with your feelings. Learn more about why students may wish to seek out therapy and the benefits and positive outcomes of psychotherapy sessions for students.
Reasons Why Students May Wish to Seek Out Psychotherapy
Manage Stress: School, work, family, and friends. Experiencing pressures to do well in school, stress from big projects that are due or exams, or stress from trying to fit in. There’s also the “what am I going to do with my life” pressure that teachers, and parents and we ourselves can cause some major stresses. Stress can take a serious toll on a person’s mental well-being.
Strengthen Relationships: It can be hard forming and keeping relationships whether we are 8, 18, or 28. Therapy can teach us communication skills, interpersonal skills, and how to develop new strategies to build the relationships we want.
Adjusting/Coping with Life/Social-Related Issues: Everyone experiences difficulties in their life, and sometimes it’s nice to have a place that feels safe where we can talk about what’s bothering us. Whether it be bullying, failing grades, cliques, or teacher-related issues, as a few examples of social-related issues students may face, therapy can provide support and give students the skills they need to successfully navigate through the school year.
Grief: Everyone grieves differently, especially for children and teens where it’s more difficult for them to grasp what has happened or fully understand what they’re feeling. Therapy provides resources and support during these challenging times, whether through individual, family, or group therapy.
Crisis/Trauma Support: You, and your children, are not alone. Experiencing any form of assault, domestic violence, suicidal ideations, harassment, stalking, or any other form of crisis, at Hopewoods, we can be your confidential resource to support you in your decisions and guide you through your healing. Early intervention is key to a healthy recovery from traumatic events.
Treatment for Mood Disorders or Other Mental Health Conditions: Therapy is a great tool in effectively managing ADHD, depression, panic or anxiety disorders, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, or other mental health conditions.
Low Self-Esteem: Self-confidence is something everyone can struggle with, young children, teens, and young adults. If self-esteem issues are unaddressed there is a higher risk of problems like substance abuse and academic failure.
Other Reasons Students May Seek Therapy
You don’t necessarily need to be experiencing specific symptoms of mental illness to gain benefits from therapy. Other reasons students may want to seek out psychotherapy include:
- Wish to gain a greater self-awareness
- Feel the need to talk about difficult topics to people other than family or friends
- Discussing sexuality, sexual orientation, or gender identity
- Autism spectrum diagnosis
- Dealing with diagnoses involving learning, neurological development, etc.
- Issues adjusting to changes in life
- Eating disorder symptoms, restrictive eating or binge eating, for example
- Feeling lonely
- Issues with negative thinking
- Issues within romantic relationships or friendships
- Risky behaviour or self-harm
- Struggles with their sense of identity or self-worth
- Issues coping with chronic health conditions, mental and/or physical
- Dealing with other issues, such as racial or cultural discrimination
As you can see, there are many reasons students may wish to seek out psychotherapy. So what are the benefits and positive outcomes one can see, once therapy sessions have started?
Providing a Safe Space for Expression
A therapist’s office provides a safe and judgment-free space for students to express themselves and to share their innermost thoughts and feelings. Too often students have a hard time expressing their feelings because they fear judgment or ridicule. As a result, students tend to bottle up their emotions to the harm of their mental health.
By seeking psychotherapy, students can be assured they have an outlet to freely express themselves in a safe place which makes all the difference in a student’s outlook.
Effective Communication
Students engage with a therapist one-on-one talking about themselves about their personal thoughts and feelings. Their therapist is helping them to develop a vocabulary and teaching skills to communicate these thoughts and feelings with others. Students participating in therapy take time each week to practice their new communication skills, leading to better communication outside of sessions in their everyday life too.
Better Self-Management
Before starting psychotherapy, students may be unfamiliar with identifying and regulating their emotions. When in therapy, emotional intelligence is nurtured, as students work with their therapists to identify their feelings and learn coping skills to work through their arising challenges. When self-awareness is developed, students can healthily manage their emotions.
Improved Academic Performance
Indeed, when students have better mental health, they will perform better academically. Students participating in therapy delegate time to work through their struggles each session (which for some may be weekly, bi-weekly or monthly), and free up their mental load for academic studies. Anxiety and depression create a struggle for students in their ability to focus, loss of motivation, and loss of interest in school.
Psychotherapy is a great tool for managing mental health issues and challenges and alleviating some of these symptoms. Students can be at ease learning in the classroom environment after learning communication skills and self-management in therapy. [2]
If you find your child, or yourself struggling academically, we offer both psychoeducational and psychovocational assessments to examine how someone thinks, learns, and applies their knowledge. Once we have an assessment, we will have an idea of how to best guide you through to better academic and positive mental health outcomes.
We are Here When You’re Ready to Seek Help
You’ve identified why you may wish to start psychotherapy, and you know the benefits and positive outcomes that can come from psychotherapy sessions. You may be wondering, where do you start now?
At Hopewoods, we’re here for every step of your mental health journey. From elementary and secondary school students to post-secondary and beyond, we support every kind of student. No matter if we only see you for a few sessions to get you through the school year or you decide to see us year-round, we will be here to support you on your path to recovery.
We believe everyone should have access to mental health services. This is the reason we have started our community program, Beacon of Hope Community Clinic. We offer six sessions, three free 50-minute sessions and three sessions for $49 per session from our skilled therapists in training. Once these sessions are completed, you have the option to continue working with your therapist at their regular rate, or you can be referred to the main clinic where you can benefit from the specialization and expertise of more experienced professionals.
If you’re a student or are a parent to a student looking for mental health support, we’re here to help. If you have any questions or concerns regarding our psychotherapy sessions, any assessments, or other services that we offer, contact us directly today or you can book a free 30-minute consultation.
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