Finding Support When Everything Feels Overwhelming

Brighton is a wonderful place to study, but it can also be a difficult place to feel settled. Many students arrive here full of hope and excitement, only to find themselves dealing with pressures they didn’t expect. Academic deadlines, friendship changes, relationship worries, finding somewhere to live, financial strain and the pressure to make the most of your time here can all build up. Even positive changes can feel destabilising when everything is new.

Because of this, many students in Brighton find themselves wondering if therapy might help. You do not need to be in crisis to seek support. Sometimes therapy offers a space to pause, take stock and understand yourself more clearly, especially when life is moving fast.

In person centred therapy, the focus is on you as a whole person. There is no pressure to talk about anything before you are ready, and there is no expectation that you should have a clear problem to solve. Many students come to therapy with a sense that something feels off or overwhelming, but they are not sure why. Others arrive wanting to explore anxiety, low mood, loneliness, stress, self esteem or the impact of past experiences that have resurfaced since moving away from home. Some simply want a quiet and accepting space where they do not have to hold everything together.

One of the most important things therapy offers is a space where you do not have to perform. Student life can feel full of comparison, expectations and pressure to prove yourself. Friends, tutors or family members might have their own ideas about what you should be doing or who you should be becoming. In therapy, you do not need to be any particular version of yourself. You can speak freely, think out loud, take up space or sit in silence. It is a space for you to slow down enough to listen to your own voice.

As a therapist working with students in Brighton, I understand how isolating it can feel to struggle when it seems like everyone else is coping. You are not alone. Many students seek therapy at some point during their studies, not because they are failing but because they are human. University can bring up big questions about who you are, what you want and how you relate to others. These questions are not signs of weakness. They are signs that you are growing.

If you are a student in Brighton and you are thinking about therapy, you are welcome to reach out. My low cost therapy spaces are designed to make support more accessible. You decide what to bring, at your own pace, and we move from there. And if now does not feel like the right time, there is no pressure. You can come back to the idea whenever it feels right for you.