Therapy for University Students and Young Adults in Central London
University can offer new freedom, relationships and opportunities, but it can also bring considerable emotional pressure. Living away from home, academic demands and uncertainty about the future can sometimes become overwhelming.
I offer psychodynamic psychotherapy to university students and young adults experiencing anxiety, low mood, loneliness, impostor syndrome, burnout, relationship problems, neurodivergence, or a sense of not belonging.
When university life becomes hard to manage
Starting university often brings a new sense of freedom and independence. While this can feel exciting, it may also bring pressures that are hard to anticipate.
Some young people arrive at university already carrying emotional struggles. For others, the transition itself brings feelings to the surface that had previously been easier to manage. Academic competition may contribute to impostor syndrome, perfectionism or burnout, even in students who appear to be doing well.
As graduation approaches, uncertainty about finding work, becoming financially independent and entering professions being reshaped by artificial intelligence can make the future feel increasingly insecure.
University can also bring questions about identity and belonging into sharper focus. Meeting people from different backgrounds, or moving away from family and community, may lead a young person to think differently about their heritage, race, faith, class, sexuality or gender. Each year at university can feel like an exciting new beginning, but it may also involve experiences of difference or exclusion, conflicts between different parts of the self, or a fear that changing or seeing the world differently could mean losing connection with people and communities that matter.
A student may appear independent while privately feeling overwhelmed, isolated or unsure of who they are. They may struggle to work, withdraw socially, rely increasingly on alcohol or other ways of managing distress that may create further problems, or begin to question whether they can remain at university.
Therapy offers a confidential space to understand what may be happening beneath these experiences, including patterns and feelings that are not yet fully conscious.
Support for students and their parents
Parents may become concerned when their son or daughter appears increasingly anxious, unhappy, isolated or unable to cope with university life. It can be hard to know when to step in and when to allow a young adult to find their own way.
Parents are welcome to contact me initially. However, when therapy is for a young adult, the therapeutic relationship and confidentiality remain with the young person.
How I work
I am a psychodynamic psychotherapist with particular experience working with teenagers, university students and young adults.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy considers both what is happening now and the emotional experiences and relationships that may underlie it. Over time, this understanding can help make sense of what the young person is going through and open up possibilities for change.
My approach is thoughtful, collaborative and attentive to identity, difference, neurodivergence and experiences of belonging or exclusion.
About me
I am registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council and the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists. Alongside my private practice, I am a Senior Lecturer and Supervisor at Tavistock Education and Training.
I also have a background in medicine, neuroscience and neuroimaging.
Sessions
I offer weekly 50-minute sessions:
In person at 17 Cavendish Square, Central London
Online where appropriate
Fee: £300 per session
Making an enquiry
If you are a university student seeking therapy, or a parent concerned about a young adult, you are welcome to contact me to arrange an initial conversation.