Therapy for Young Adults
Do The Life Decisions You Face Seem Daunting, Challenging, And Difficult Instead Of Exciting And Life-Giving?
As a young adult, are you overwhelmed by life’s uncertainty? Do you feel confused and unsettled by the status of your relationships, career, living situation, and overall transition into adulthood? Would having an encouraging person to talk to about the important decisions that lie ahead be helpful?
Entering adulthood can be a daunting task. There are many questions to be answered as you embark on creating an independent life for yourself. With so many choices to make, you may become overwhelmed whenever you think about the future. Perhaps you’re feeling anxious or depressed and rely on unhealthy coping mechanisms to get by. And when things don’t turn out how you wanted, you may easily become angry and frustrated.
Young Adulthood Can Be A Lonely Time
Maybe you were not prepared for the shifting landscape of relationships you are currently experiencing. Perhaps you are seeking a romantic partnership that is causing complicated emotions to come up. What’s more, the core group of friends you’ve grown up with might have splintered off as you each set off on diverging life paths. Although old friendships may have been replaced with new ones, right now you could be feeling lonely and insecure about how well you connect with others.
External factors such as family or societal pressures might contribute to your emotional pain. As additional responsibility shows up in your life, you may be grieving the loss of your carefree childhood. Perhaps you’re questioning your identity as your environment shifts and you step outside of your family’s influence, leaving you feeling lost and in need of direction.
Fortunately, therapy for young adults can help you navigate this challenging period of your life. By quelling anxiety, nurturing self-compassion, and identifying your purpose, you can fortify your relationships and make decisions about your life with more confidence.
Emerging Adulthood Looks A Lot Different Than It Used To
For today’s young adults, a common refrain we often hear them say is “’adulting’ sucks.” In recent years, there has been a huge shift in the way that emerging adults are living compared to previous generations. Because the emerging adulthood phase is taking longer and looks different than it once did, it is sometimes unfairly labeled by parents as a “failure to launch”.
However, when considering important life choices—like romantic partnerships, education, and career paths—many young adults want to first identify their purpose so that these decisions are fulfilling and meaningful to them. They strive to co-create with a community of like-minded individuals and live in a new and expansive manner.
Our Brains Are Still Developing Through Our Mid-20s
Because the human brain doesn’t complete development until approximately age 25 (and sometimes even later), young adults are still a work in progress.¹ It’s only after our brains fully develop that we are able to process and organize information and our values, helping us settle into a routine way of living. Until then, we often find it difficult to make important decisions that will impact the rest of our lives.
But even though our brains haven’t caught up developmentally, as young adults we’re expected to plant our flag and get on with “adulting.” Facing external pressure to not only know what we want to do but to also set a course for achieving it, we commonly internalize this pressure. As perfectionism overtakes us, we may grow increasingly overwhelmed by the prospect of all the choices we’re expected to make.
Although resilience is the key to overcoming uncertainty, perhaps you were never taught the coping skills necessary to navigate these challenging years effectively. The good news is that you can think of therapy for young adults as a personalized crash course in “Adulting 101.” Identifying your values as well as understanding your emotional and behavioral patterns will help you gain invaluable self-awareness—a crucial component for determining the kind of life you want.
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Therapy For Young Adults Offers A Roadmap For Your Life
At by the willow therapy, we are intimately familiar with the unique pressures young adults face that can make them susceptible to anxiety and depression. Utilizing a strength-based approach to mental health, our therapists work closely with young adults to help them nurture self-compassion and self-esteem so they can make life decisions more confidently.
By creating a safe and trusting therapeutic environment, we will ease your process of self-discovery with positive encouragement and enthusiasm. Once you identify who you are—by determining your values and aligning your behavior and choices to support these values—you will learn how to live an authentic, purpose-driven life.
What To Expect In Therapy For Young Adults
Part of our focus will be to help you explore your relationship dynamics with others and better understand what your attachment style is. Learning to set healthy boundaries and communicate effectively will help you cultivate and maintain meaningful connections with friends, family, colleagues, as well as potential romantic partners. Finding your tribe will enhance your sense of community and bring emotional stability and support to your life.
The long-term goal of therapy is to empower you to move toward what is meaningful for you. We do this by exploring past events that may inform how you currently move through the world and address any unresolved trauma that may be holding you back from being the person you want to be. Promoting resiliency and developing better coping and decision-making skills will help you manage challenging life transitions and stressors as they arise with more ease and calm.
The Modalities We Use In Young Adult Counseling
Our approach to therapy is compassion-focused as well as holistic, integrating mind, body, and spirit as you learn to navigate an independent life path of your choosing. To cultivate self-compassion, we will encourage you to adopt positive self-talk and give yourself permission to be yourself.
A modality we find helpful in this pursuit is Internal Family Systems (IFS), an attachment-based therapy that can help you normalize all the different “parts” of yourself that make up the whole person. You may have difficult parts you currently perceive as weaknesses that in fact represent your strengths. IFS allows you to hold the duality that exists within you and appreciate your dichotomies as they arise.
You do not need to know everything to be a successful “grown-up”. With self-awareness and skill-building, you can heal from the difficult experiences you have weathered and build fulfilling relationships that help you create a meaningful life.
But You May Have More Questions About Therapy For Young Adults…
Having never attended therapy for young adults before, how will it benefit me?
Therapy is a place for you to process past experiences, explore your identity, learn about how you relate to others, and, ultimately, grow and heal. Being unsure about how therapy will benefit you is normal—almost everyone who has never tried it before feels apprehension about what to expect. We can work through the fear together to create a warm and welcoming space for you to be authentic and open.
As a young adult, I already have too much going on in my life—counseling feels like one more thing to do.
Therapy for young adults offers one hour per week to put the hecticness of life on a temporary pause and focus on your well-being. Clearing your mind and processing what’s going on will allow you to be more present in your busy life. Because we individualize young adult counseling to fit your unique requirements, the time you spend will ultimately serve you well.
Do I need a “big” reason to see a therapist who works with young adults? My life is not in major crisis, but I still could use someone to talk to.
Some of us have the notion that we should wait until we are experiencing an emotional crisis before attending therapy. However, this is simply untrue. You do not need to be in crisis to greatly benefit from therapy—especially if you’re a young adult. Therapy offers you a safe and supportive space to help you navigate emerging adulthood with more self-acceptance and self-compassion. No crisis is required to make this an invaluable experience.
Therapy For Young Adults Can Be The Beginning Of A New Path Forward
With help and support you can heal and grow into the person you hope to be. If you would like to find out more about therapy for young adults, please visit our Contact Us page or call (970) 363-4835 to schedule a free 20-minute phone consultation.
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