Therapy for Washington College Students in Chestertown, MD
& College Students Across Maryland
You got into college.
Now you feel like you have to prove you belong here.
You worked hard to get here.
Maybe you have always been the student who gets good grades, meets expectations, stays involved, and figures things out.
You know how to perform. You know how to push yourself.
And you probably know how to look like you're doing just fine—even when you're not.
College has a way of challenging that.
Suddenly, everyone around you seems smart, accomplished, talented, confident, involved, and somehow able to keep up.
Meanwhile, you may be wondering:
Why am I struggling this much?
What if I'm actually not as smart as everyone thinks I am?
Why can't I just get started on this assignment?
Why does one bad grade feel like a disaster?
Why do I care so much about what everyone thinks of me?
What if I disappoint my parents?
What am I even going to do with my life?
You may not need someone to teach you how to work harder.
You may need a place where you don't have to perform at all.
When being a “good student” starts costing you
Perfectionism in college doesn't always look like perfection.
Sometimes it looks like a 4.0.
Sometimes it looks like staring at an assignment for three hours
because you don't know how to begin.
Sometimes it looks like procrastinating until the pressure becomes unbearable—and then somehow pulling it off at the last minute.
Sometimes it looks like rewriting the same paragraph ten times.
Or comparing yourself to everyone around you.
Or feeling devastated by a B when everyone else tells you it's a perfectly good grade.
It can also look like:
Overthinking assignments, conversations, and decisions
Feeling guilty when you're not studying or being productive
Avoiding challenges because you're afraid you won't do them well
Feeling like everyone else has college figured out
Trying to meet others' expectations while figuring out what you actually want
Feeling lonely or overwhelmed, even when you're surrounded by people
You may be succeeding academically while privately feeling anxious,
exhausted, angry, overwhelmed, or unsure of yourself.
Achievement and struggle can exist at the same time.
The “I should be able to handle this” problem
College is supposed to be exciting.
So when it isn't, you may start judging yourself for that too.
You tell yourself:
I should be more grateful.
I should be more disciplined.
I shouldn't be this stressed.
Other people have it harder.
I should know what I want to do by now.
I should be able to handle this.
There are a lot of shoulds in perfectionism.
And eventually those shoulds can become a measuring stick you use against yourself.
Therapy allows us to get curious about where those expectations came from, what you're afraid might happen if you don't meet them, and whether the standards you're living by are actually helping you become the person you want to be.
Procrastination doesn't always mean you're lazy
This is especially important for high-achieving students.
You can be incredibly motivated and still procrastinate.
Sometimes procrastination isn't about not caring.
Sometimes you care so much that starting feels dangerous.
If you don't start, you can't fail.
If you wait until the last minute, you have an explanation if the result isn't perfect.
If you keep researching, preparing, organizing, or thinking, you can temporarily avoid the uncomfortable possibility that your best effort might not produce the outcome you wanted.
So instead of simply asking, “How do we make you stop procrastinating?” we can begin asking:
“What makes this task feel so difficult to begin?”
That's a very different conversation.
Who are you when you're not achieving something?
College isn’t only about academics.
You’re also becoming an adult.
That means figuring out relationships and friendships, boundaries, values, faith, independence, family expectations, career decisions, and who you want to be when other people aren’t making those decisions for you.
For some students, that’s exciting.
For others, it’s terrifying.
And for many, it’s both.
You don’t have to have your entire life figured out because you’re in college.
Part of our work together can be learning how to
tolerate uncertainty without immediately trying to control it.
You don't have to be falling apart to come to therapy
This may be the most important thing I want college students to understand.
You don't need a crisis.
You don't need to be failing your classes.
You don't need to have everything falling apart.
And you don't need to convince me that what you're dealing with is “bad enough” for therapy.
Maybe you're doing quite well.
But doing well and being well aren't always the same thing.
Therapy can be a place to understand why you put so much pressure on yourself, why mistakes feel so threatening, why you're constantly comparing yourself, why you procrastinate on things that matter to you, or why accomplishing more never seems to make you feel like you've finally done enough.
My work isn't about lowering your standards or convincing you not to care about achievement.
It's about helping you understand what is driving the achievement.
Because there's a difference between pursuing something because it matters to you...
and pursuing it because you're terrified of who you might be if you don't succeed.
You are allowed to want more for yourself without constantly proving that you are enough.
Therapy for Washington College students & college students in Chestertown
If you're attending Washington College or another college in the Chestertown area, therapy doesn't necessarily have to mean another virtual appointment squeezed into your day.
I offer in-person therapy in Chestertown, Maryland, providing students with an option to step away from campus and have a private space to talk about what's actually happening.
Sometimes getting physically away from the environment where you're studying, performing, socializing, and trying to keep everything together can help you think differently.
For students who prefer virtual therapy—or who attend college elsewhere in Maryland—I also provide online therapy throughout Maryland.