Beth Charbonneau

“THE BEST YEARS OF YOUR LIFE!”

Uh, no. Sure, some of it is great. It’s nice to come and go as you please, make your own choices about what you do and who you see. But if this is “the best years of your life”, you are not feeling so thrilled about the future. You wonder if you are behind everyone else in sorting out how to be successful now, have a life and figure out how to create a future that lets you live the way you want to live.

Your families don’t know what it’s like to be a college student today, and your friends don’t know a whole lot more than you do. Plus, they all have their own ideas about you and your life. You’re looking for someone outside of your everyday life to help you put the pieces together and figure out how to find your way into living a life that feels good to you.

For almost 20 years, I have been a therapist in College Park, Maryland, supporting many college students and recent graduates in a variety of ways. Some come looking for short-term support in making hard decisions or getting through a rough patch. Others come for longer support as part of taking responsibility for their mental health care while in school and away from home. I enjoy working with college students and recent graduates who are interested in being active partners in their treatment. You don’t have to know exactly what you are doing in order to make good progress. A willingness to show up consistently, be honest about what’s going on and follow through on things we work on in sessions will go a long way to helping you reach your treatment goals.

Clients typically meet with me weekly so that we can make consistent progress towards their goals. Everyone takes time to learn skills that are useful in life—including skills you might not have had a chance to work on yet for things like managing moods or anxiety, conflict resolution, decision making or figuring out how to follow through on long term goals. All of these things are skills that can be learned and improved and we can figure out specific tools and plans to help you with them. Our sessions are also a time to be able to talk out what’s going on with you, with someone that’s not involved in your day-to-day life.

To see if we might be a good fit to work together, I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation to hear about what's going on with you and answer questions you might have about my practice.