Orlando Therapist Helps Your Teen Navigate Through College Rejection Letters
Orlando Therapist Helps Your Teen Navigate Through College Rejection
Your teen has been excitedly awaiting their college acceptance letters. They check the mail and their email daily in anticipation that they will soon hear back from colleges after working hard on their applications. As their parent, you’re anticipating this news as well and join in on their nerves and excitement!
They open their first response from a college and as they do so, you watch their face fall into disappointment. After all their hard work, they received a letter that they were not granted acceptance into college. Your teen is crushed and upset by this rejection and unsure how to handle it. As their parent, you feel their pain and defeat. How do you help your child through receiving this bad news?
As an Orlando Therapist offering Teen Counseling, I help my teen clients struggling with the emotions that come with college rejection letters.
My name is Elizabeth Yoak, I am a licensed counselor who offers teen counseling in Orlando, FL. Helping your teen through rejection can be a tough subject to tackle. If your teen has been struggling with college rejection letters, I encourage you to read on for tips on helping them through this.
1. Allow space for the hard feelings.
Seeing your teen feel rejected is a hard emotion to sit with. As their parent, of course, you want to take the pain they’re feeling away. It may be tempting to go straight for the positives or “look on the bright side” approach but I encourage you to not jump to this right away. By moving right into looking at the positive, you may gloss over how they’re feeling in the moment. Ignoring the distress they’re feeling can be an invalidating experience for your teen.
Instead, I encourage you to allow time for your teen to sit with the hard feelings that came up in response to this rejection letter. Ask them what they need and how you can support them through this. Knowing that they have the space to cope with these tough emotions can help them feel more supported by you.
2. Verbalize your support.
How a parent responds to their teen getting denied acceptance can ultimately make these rejected feelings better or worse. You may be feeling disappointed that they didn’t get into a particular college. Maybe it’s your alma mater or maybe you know it was your teens’ dream school. However you are feeling, it is important to verbalize your support for your teen and cope with your own feelings about this.
Some teens may be worried about disappointing their parents if they don’t get accepted, which can make the sting of college rejection hurt even worse. Offering your support and validation verbally can reassure your teen that you aren’t disappointed in them. Some teens may communicate their fear that they have let you down whereas others may keep that bottled in. Therefore, it’s important to express your support and reassurance even if they haven’t directly told you they’re worried they let you down.
3. Encourage a social media break.
In this day and age, social media can make an already hard event even more difficult. This time of year, it’s not uncommon to see posts about college acceptance letters. Although your teen may be happy for their peers who got accepted, it can also add to the rejection your teen is already experiencing. If your teens’ social media is filled with posts about college acceptances, it may be time to suggest a short break from scrolling through Instagram, TikTok, etc. It can be helpful to take some time to process their emotions without getting caught up in the comparison of others getting accepted into college.
4. Help them recognize it’s not personal.
Being rejected by a college can feel like a personal dig. Although your teen has spent time writing their essays, choosing extracurricular activities to add to their application, and keeping their grades up, getting a rejection letter does not mean that this is a slight against them even if it feels this way. In the midst of feeling down, it can be helpful to remind them that this college’s acceptance or denial is not a judgment of them personally. If you know that your teen puts added pressure on themselves academically, it can be especially important to discuss this with them.
5. Develop an alternate plan if needed.
After taking some time to sit with the disappointed feelings, help your teen turn towards looking into a plan of action. If your teen is still waiting to hear back from other colleges, it can become a waiting game of seeing which one results in an acceptance letter. However, if your teen has been denied acceptance to all schools they applied to, it can be helpful to come up with a backup plan.
This plan will look different for each teen but researching other college options, such as community colleges, can be a helpful option. If your teen has their heart set on a particular school, looking into transferring from another college in the future can be another possibility. Work together with your teen to find an alternate plan if they need to.
Getting a college rejection letter can be a difficult process for teens and parents alike. My hope is that you found some helpful information in this post to guide you in helping your teen through this hard time. If you feel your teen would benefit from seeking counseling services to further address this, please feel free to contact us at 407-579-3779. We are happy to help provide further information on our teenager counseling services in Orlando, FL and assist with any questions you may have.
Ready to start Teen Counseling in Orlando?
Elizabeth Yoak, LMHC at Mindful Living Counseling Orlando is ready to get started in your teen’s healing journey. Elizabeth helps your teen regain control of their emotions again, helps improve their self-esteem, and brings peace and calm back to your home. To get started with Teen Therapist Elizabeth Yoak:
Fill out our New Client Consultation Form
Schedule a consultation call with our Client Care Coordinator
Start the journey of helping your teen heal
Not Quite Ready for Teen Counseling?
Elizabeth Chambers is highly trained and prepared to help your teen through whatever obstacle they may be overcoming. As an Orlando therapist, Elizabeth will help you gain tools that will help you overcome any anxiety your teen may be struggling with. If your teen is not ready, we understand. In the meantime, feel free to read the articles below.
Additional Teen Counseling Resources
How to Validate Your Teen So They Feel More Understood
How to Find an Orlando Therapist for Teens
What to Expect: Teen Therapy Orlando
Therapist Orlando Spotlight - Elizabeth Chambers, LMHC
8 Questions to Ask a Teen Counselor in Orlando
How to Talk to Your Teen: 6 Helpful Steps
An Anxiety Therapist Shares Everything You Need to Know About Anxiety
Other Therapy Services Offered at Mindful Living Counseling in Orlando, FL
Our therapists understand that anxiety may not be the only challenge you may struggle with. That’s ok. We offer a variety of therapy services at Mindful Living Counseling which include Trauma therapy, EMDR therapy, Eating Disorder Therapy, Toxic Relationship Therapy, and Anxiety Therapy. We encourage you to check out our Guided Meditations. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!
About the Author
Orlando Therapist Elizabeth Yoak, LMHC offers Teen Counseling at Mindful Living Orlando. Elizabeth is also an EMDR Therapist. Utilizing EMDR and mindfulness practices helps clients move beyond anxiety and depression.
Her specialties include working with teens struggling with anxiety, trauma, self-esteem, and depression. As an Orlando Therapist specializing in Teenage Counseling Elizabeth enjoys helping teens work through anxiety and self-esteem issues, as well as helping teens and their families rebuild their relationships.
During her time off Elizabeth enjoys spending time traveling with her husband. She also loves visiting Lake Eola and strolling through the farmer’s market with her puppies.