Anxiety, Depression, Academic Pressure, and Finding Your Footing
Little Dove Psychology is a virtual practice for children, teens, and college students across Texas. This page is about our work with college students. Sessions are in network with Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Optum (UnitedHealthcare), and Oscar Health, or $175 self-pay with a licensed psychologist.
Nobody really tells you what the first months of college are going to feel like. The dorm at midnight when everyone else seems fine. The professor who does not know your name. The classes that move at three times the speed of high school. The friend group that has not quite cohered. The Sunday-night dread that has somehow followed you here.
You are sleeping wrong. Eating wrong. Maybe drinking too much, or pulling away from people, or scrolling until your eyes burn. The anxiety you used to be able to push through has gotten loud. Or the heaviness that used to lift in the summer is sitting on your chest in a way that does not lift anymore. You came here to do something with your life, and instead you are wondering if you are going to make it through this semester.
You can have therapy that is actually built for this. Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to talk it through.
Therapy for college students that meets you where you actually are: in your dorm, your apartment, between classes, on a Sunday night when everything feels like too much.
This is not your campus counseling center. The center has its place, and we are not anti-counseling-center, but the rhythm there is often six free sessions and a referral. Here, you get continuity. You get the same therapist every week. You get someone who has been doing this for sixteen years and who is not running between five other students stacked back-to-back.
Sessions are virtual, which matters more than people realize. You do not have to walk across campus to a building where someone you know might see you going in. You meet from your room. From your apartment. From the library if that is where you can find privacy. Research consistently shows that virtual therapy works just as well as in-person for the things college students are wrestling with: anxiety, depression, panic, sleep, the spiraling thoughts, the avoidance.
Austin is a college town at heart (UT Austin, St. Edward's, Huston-Tillotson, ACC, Concordia), and the anxiety patterns we see track the rhythm of the school year. The freshman wave hits in September and October: the first exams that didn't go the way high school exams went, the homesickness nobody warned you about, the feeling that everyone on campus got a manual you didn't. If you're searching for therapy for anxiety as a college freshman in Austin, that search itself usually means the adjustment has crossed from "normal hard" into "I need some help with this", and that's exactly what this work is for.
Because sessions are online, it doesn't matter whether you're in a dorm near the UT campus, an apartment in Riverside, or back home in Dallas for the summer. Same therapist, same continuity, wherever the semester takes you. For anxiety specifically, we use the same evidence-based CBT approaches described on our Austin anxiety therapy page, adapted to the realities of college life, sleep schedules included.
If you are a college student reading this, the work is yours. Parents are involved only in the way you choose. Some students want a parent on a consultation call to help work out logistics or payment, then it is just you and your therapist from there. Some students want zero parent involvement, and that is fine too. You are an adult, you are protected by HIPAA, and what you say in session is between you and your therapist.
If you are a parent reading this, what helps your college student most right now is letting them lead. Forwarding this page to them, saying "no pressure, just here if you want it," and stepping back is often the move. We are happy to do parent-only consultations if you want to think through how to support without taking over.
Not a student, or past college? Our page for young adults 18 to 27 covers therapy, adult ADHD and autism evaluation, and what changes about accommodations after high school.
Therapy for college students is billed to Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, and Optum (UnitedHealthcare), and Oscar Health plans are in network as well, so you pay your plan’s copay or cost share rather than the self-pay rate. Our Optum contract also covers UnitedHealthcare StudentResources, the plan many universities offer. If you are on a parent’s Texas plan and at school in another PSYPACT state, coverage usually follows you. Read us the plan name on your card during the free consultation and we will verify your benefits and tell you the expected cost before the first session. Details are on our Fees & Insurance page.
Yes, as long as you are physically located in Texas or one of the other PSYPACT states. Most students stay continuous through breaks, summer included.
Many students start there and then move to ongoing care here once their session limit runs out. Bring whatever has been useful from those sessions and we will pick up from where you are.
Yes. Therapy for college students is billed in network to Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Optum (UnitedHealthcare), and Oscar Health, including UnitedHealthcare StudentResources, so you pay your plan’s copay or cost share. A parent’s Texas plan usually still covers you at school in another PSYPACT state. For other plans, we provide a superbill you can submit for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Some students pay themselves; some have parents who pay.
Yes, many of our college clients are UT students. Because therapy is online, you can meet from your dorm, West Campus apartment, or the PCL if you can find a quiet corner. We are also happy to coordinate with UT's Counseling and Mental Health Center if you started there and want ongoing weekly care.
Some adjustment anxiety is normal in the first semester. It is worth getting help when it stops responding to time and rest: sleep that will not settle, panic before classes or exams, avoiding the dining hall or lectures, or dread that follows you through the week. Those patterns tend to grow if left alone, and they respond well to short-term, skills-focused therapy.
If you are in immediate crisis, please call or text 988 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) or go to your nearest emergency room. For ongoing, non-crisis support, we are here.
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Start with a free 15-minute consultation. Call or text (512) 240-2633 or reach out online.