Most students who contact us have already tried something. Maybe you booked the walk-in at the campus wellness centre, or worked through a short block of sessions, and then the term ended or the file closed. What you want now is somewhere to carry on. Therapy for students here is for anyone enrolled at a college, university or polytechnic, and for young adults the same age who are not in a program at all. Nobody will ask you to justify the decision, produce a diagnosis, or arrive holding a referral.
- Free 30-minute first appointment
- Sessions from $100
- No referral needed
- Registered with the CRPO and the OAMHP
- In person in Concord, Vaughan
- Online, anywhere in Ontario
When Campus Counselling Runs Out
Every college and university in Ontario offers counselling to enrolled students, and it is usually the right first stop. What is on offer varies from school to school, but it is commonly time limited. York University, the closest campus to us, describes its own service as single session walk-in counselling and short term counselling.
Students tend to reach us at one of four moments. Your block of sessions ended before the work felt finished. The wait for an intake appointment ran longer than you could manage. The academic year ended, and your access ended with it. Or you wanted someone with no connection at all to the place where you study, write exams and might one day ask for a reference.
Campus services carry large caseloads on fixed budgets, and short-term counselling is built to get you through a difficult stretch rather than to work on something that has been building for years. Both have their place. Lev Dvorkin, one of our therapists, completed his clinical training inside that same York service, so he knows what it offers and where it stops.
What Brings Students to Therapy
Students usually arrive with something specific rather than something general, and often with two or three of these at once.
- Anxiety that has spread from one deadline to most of the week.
- Low mood that has outlasted the term that caused it.
- Stress about grades, money, immigration status, or what happens after graduation.
- Burnout, and the recovery that does not arrive over reading week.
- Sleep that has inverted, or stopped.
- Trouble focusing, missed deadlines, or an ADHD question that has only surfaced now the work got harder.
- Drinking or numbing that began socially and stopped being social.
- Conflict with a partner, or a relationship taking more than it gives.
- Family expectations about your program, your marks, or how much you are supposed to be enjoying this.
Perfectionism, Comparison and the Pressure to Perform
Some students struggle in a way that is invisible from the outside. The work gets handed in. The marks may even be good. Underneath, nothing ever feels finished, only abandoned at the deadline, and every result becomes the new minimum.
Perfectionism tends to get praised right up until it stops working. Comparison is constant now, and quantified, because everyone else’s version is visible at all times and edited before you see it. Impostor syndrome, the conviction that you were admitted by mistake and will eventually be found out, is very common among students, and being common does not make it easier to carry. Procrastination looks like laziness from the outside while feeling like dread from the inside, which is why advice about time management so rarely helps. At its most stuck it is sometimes called ADHD paralysis, and plenty of students recognize it without ever having been assessed for anything.
Therapy is one of the few places you go where nobody is marking you.
101 Psychotherapy – Always caring, always here
Therapy for Young Adults, In or Out of School
Not everyone this age is enrolled. Some finished a program and are working. Some started one, left, and are deciding whether to go back. Some are in the gap between an undergraduate degree and whatever follows, which can be strange and lonely in a way nobody warns you about.
Counselling for young adults covers the same ground either way, because the questions are the same. What to do with a life that has suddenly lost its structure. How to decide anything when every option closes others. What to make of the feeling that everyone else received instructions you did not. If you are in your late teens or twenties and none of the labels on this page quite fit you, that is not a reason to wait.
Studying Far From Home
If you moved provinces or countries to study, the hard part is rarely the coursework. It is the ordinary loneliness of a place where nobody knew you before, a family several time zones away who can only be reached at bad hours, and the weight of an investment somebody made in you. Homesickness sounds like a small word for how heavy a first year away can get. For most people it eases as the place starts to feel familiar. When it does not, it is worth talking about rather than waiting out.
Sessions at 101 Psychotherapy can run in English, Russian or Farsi. For students who do not think in English, that removes a step between the feeling and the words for it.
Keeping Therapy Going Between Terms
Student life moves. You are in Vaughan for the fall, at home in another city over the summer, on a co-op placement in the winter, possibly on exchange for a term. Campus counselling is tied to where you are enrolled and to the dates you are enrolled there, so access tends to stop the moment you leave. We are not tied to your school, so your sessions do not have to stop.
The same therapist can see you at the Concord office while you are in town and by secure video while you are not, provided you are somewhere in Ontario at the time. Keeping the same person matters, because the alternative is starting the whole explanation again with somebody new each time your address changes.
Session Fees
Therapy for students here starts at $100 a session, and the first half hour is free. Taking it does not sign you up for anything. Sessions with a Registered Psychotherapist are not covered by OHIP, though many student health plans cover a set number of sessions a year. It is worth checking yours before you write the cost off.
Book a Free ConsultationMeet Your Therapists
You might want somebody closer to your own age, or you might much rather not. You might care which language a session runs in. Both are fair to raise before you book, and neither is an awkward question. Tell us the situation and what you would prefer, and we will suggest a clinician who works with students and fits what you asked for.
Natalie Besharat
Clinician, Pediatric Care and Addictions Specialist, MSc, CCAC, CICAPP Candidate
Full profileOur Vaughan Clinic, and Sessions Online Across Ontario
We’re here to support students across Vaughan, including Concord, Woodbridge, and Maple, and in nearby communities such as Aurora, Brampton, Markham, Mississauga, Milton, Oakville, Oshawa, and Richmond Hill, as well as Thornhill. We also welcome clients from across Toronto, including North York, Midtown, and Uptown Toronto. If you can’t make it to our office, we offer virtual appointments across Ontario.
We're here to support individuals and families across Vaughan, including Concord, Woodbridge, and Maple, and in nearby communities such as Aurora, Brampton, Markham, Mississauga, Milton, Oakville, Oshawa, and Richmond Hill, as well as Thornhill. We also welcome clients from across Toronto, including North York, Midtown, and Uptown Toronto. If you can't make it to our office, we offer virtual appointments across Ontario.
Visit us: 1520 Steeles Ave W #101A, Vaughan, ON L4K 3B9 (Steeles & Dufferin, Concord). Phone: (905) 597-2521
Frequently Asked Questions About Therapy for Students
Do students get free therapy?
Most Ontario colleges and universities offer counselling at no cost to enrolled students, and it is worth trying first. What is on offer varies by school, but it is generally short term: a single session, or a brief block, delivered in person or online. Students come to us when that limit is the problem, or when you would rather see someone unconnected to your school.
How much is counselling per hour?
A session with us begins at $100, and the half hour you spend deciding whether to book one costs nothing at all. OHIP does not cover a Registered Psychotherapist. Your student plan very likely includes a set number of sessions each year, though, so open it and find the mental health line before assuming the whole amount is yours to carry.
How do I know if therapy is working?
Give it a few sessions before you judge it, because the early ones go partly on building the picture. After that, look for small concrete changes: sleeping better, arguing differently, catching a pattern before it plays out rather than afterwards. If several weeks have passed and you still cannot say what you are working towards, say exactly that in the session. A good therapist treats it as useful information and either changes the approach or helps you find someone who fits better.
Can ChatGPT do therapy?
The CRPO, which regulates psychotherapists in Ontario, puts it plainly: AI tools are not regulated as therapists here, and using one as a substitute for therapy carries real risks, among them privacy and unhealthy dependence. If a chatbot has been the only thing you talk to about this, tell a person. And if things feel worse than that, 9-8-8 answers calls and texts at any hour.
Book Your Free 30-Minute Appointment
Thirty minutes. No fee, and no expectation that you book a second one. Come with a question, or come with nothing at all and just start talking.
