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Welcome back to BeREAL! This week, Diana and Ednesha are back for another minisode with BeWELL’s very own, Susan Miller. Susan is here to discuss graduating from college in a pandemic. The episode explores the scenario from both the graduate and the parent’s perspective.
Susan has extensive experience working with individuals, couples, and families who may struggle with anxiety, depression, life transitions, grief & loss, and their relationships. She believes that therapy is a collaborative process and works together with her clients to strengthen their ability to reflect upon and cope more effectively with their current concerns, conflicts, and pain. Her long held view that each person has the ability to change until they take their last breath supports her fluid approach to therapy. She is committed to building a meaningful therapeutic relationship, one that facilitates emotional and behavioral growth for her patients.
Susan starts off the episode by explaining her background in the mental health field. She has worked with both parents and children for a while, and today is here to discuss the phenomenon that is graduating in a pandemic. Susan explains how emerging adults can be rational, but are often hyper rational. That means that they look at narrow facts without paying attention to the larger context. This can lead to partaking in dangerous activities or acting against their parent’s will. Both these scenarios can create conflict when a graduate’s life is intertwined with their parents after graduation.
Susan continues by addressing the shame that many graduates may be feeling at the moment. They may have had a job and an apartment lined up for the coming summer, but due to COVID, they find themselves back in their parent’s house. There is a balance that must be found if this is the case. Graduates must ask themselves how they would like to be parented, while also acknowledging that in their parent’s home there are certain rules they must follow out of respect.
After a break, the women return to discuss the rift that can occur when emerging adults move in with their parents. Parents may be stuck seeing their children as teenagers and hold them to similar standards as they did in high school. However, their children are young adults now this means that major conversations must be had. Some of these conversations are about finances. If the graduate had an apartment ready for the summer after graduation, they are most likely financially capable to help around the house. If not, what are other ways they can contribute to life at home during the pandemic. These are all important questions parents must consider when their child is graduating from college in a pandemic.
Thank you for tuning into this week’s episode of BeREAL! Be sure to check out the previous episode with Kasey Compton about entrepreneurial confidence, and stay tuned for a new episode next Tuesday!
For more information on Susan, her upcoming talk, BeREAL (our mental wellness podcast) and BeWELL (our therapy practice in New York City and Hoboken, NJ) visit the links below:
To schedule a therapy appointment text BeWELL to 484848 today
Susan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susanbewell/
Susan’s upcoming talk: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/your-kid-is-graduating
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Be.WELL.Psychotherapy/
