Young Adult Therapy in Fairfield County, CT | Ages 17-29
Finding Your Way Forward When Everything Feels So Uncertain
If you're reading this, chances are you're somewhere between 17 and your late twenties, and life feels a lot more complicated than you expected it to be.
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Maybe you're staring down your senior year of high school thinking "I have no idea what I'm doing" while everyone around you seems to have all their shit together. Or perhaps you're a few years out of college, wondering why you feel like you should be further along in life by now.
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Here's what I want you to know: that feeling of being lost, overwhelmed, or stuck? It's not a character flaw. It's being human during one of the most challenging transitions we face.
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I'm Angelina Miceli, LCSW, and I work with young adults throughout Westport, Darien, New Canaan, Fairfield, and surrounding Connecticut communities who are tired of pretending they have it all figured out. In my practice, we get real about what's actually going on beneath the surface - the anxiety that keeps you up at night, the pressure to make the "right" choices, and that nagging feeling that you're somehow behind where you're supposed to be.
The Reality of Young Adulthood That Nobody Talks About
Young adulthood is sold as this exciting time of freedom and possibility. And while that's partly true, it's also when you're expected to make life-altering decisions about your career, relationships, and identity - often with very little guidance and a whole lot of judgment from others.
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If You're in Starting College, In College or Just Graduated (Ages 17-22)
If you're about to start college, in college or just graduated in Westport, Darien, New Canaan, or Greenwich, you might be grappling with questions like "How am I supposed to choose what I want to do with the rest of my life?" The pressure to pick the perfect major, land the ideal job, or figure out your entire future can feel suffocating. Making friends feels impossible and fake when everything seems forced and surface-level. You might find yourself homesick but also craving independence, caught between two worlds that don't quite fit.
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Then there's the constant comparison trap of social media. You scroll through Instagram or TikTok seeing everyone else's highlight reels - their perfect internships, their seeming confidence, their picture-perfect relationships - while you're in your dorm room eating ramen and questioning every life choice you've made. Dating feels like navigating a minefield of apps, ghosting, and unclear expectations where vulnerability feels risky and authentic connection seems impossible to find.
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If You're an Emerging Adult (Ages 23-29)
The struggles often shift as you move through your twenties. You might love your family but desperately need space to become who you're meant to be. Setting boundaries feels impossible without the crushing weight of guilt. You're tired of people-pleasing but have no idea how else to navigate relationships. Your family doesn't understand who you're becoming, and honestly, sometimes you don't either.
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The dating world feels even more complicated now - everyone seems to be either commitment-phobic or desperate to settle down, and figuring out what you actually want in a relationship while managing the anxiety of modern dating apps can feel exhausting. Meanwhile, your social media feeds are full of engagement announcements and career achievements that make you wonder if you're somehow falling behind in the race of life.
These aren't signs that you're failing at life. They're signs that you're human, navigating a phase that our society doesn't adequately prepare us for or support us through.​
What We Work On Together
Or: Stuff My Clients are Dealing With
While every person's experience is unique, certain themes tend to emerge in my work with young adults in Fairfield County:
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Identity and Authenticity: Who are you when you're not trying to meet everyone else's expectations or curate the perfect online presence? This exploration often involves examining family patterns, cultural influences, and societal pressures that may be shaping how you see yourself.
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Social Media and Comparison: Learning to navigate the constant stream of other people's highlight reels without losing sight of your own journey. We'll work on developing a healthier relationship with social media and breaking the comparison cycle that keeps you feeling inadequate.
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Decision-Making and Future Planning: Learning to make choices from a place of self-awareness rather than fear or external pressure. This isn't about having your entire life planned out - it's about developing the confidence to take steps forward even when the path isn't perfectly clear.
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Dating and Relationship Dynamics: Whether it's navigating the confusing world of dating apps, figuring out what you actually want in a relationship, or learning to maintain your sense of self within connections with others, relationships bring up complex questions about boundaries, vulnerability, and authenticity.
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Managing Overwhelm: When everything feels urgent and important - from career decisions to relationship status to social media presence - learning to prioritize, set boundaries, and manage anxiety becomes essential life skills.
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Many young adults I work with discover that what they thought were personal failures are actually responses to very real pressures and challenges. Sometimes what feels like anxiety about the future is really unresolved trauma that's affecting your ability to feel safe in uncertainty. Other times, the struggle with major life transitions like graduation or starting a career brings up deeper questions about identity and belonging.
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The anxiety that many young adults experience isn't just "stress about school or work" - it's often a complex mix of perfectionism, fear of failure, social comparison, dating anxiety, and the very real challenge of figuring out who you are in a world that seems to change faster than you can keep up with.
How I Work with Young Adults
My approach to helping you figure it all out
I bring a sense of warmth and humanness to our sessions that helps my clients feel comfortable, heard, and truly seen. I will be real with you - I may swear, and though I will never judge you, I will challenge you when needed.
Talking to me feels like talking to that person in your life who knows just the right questions to ask, exactly when to call you on your bullshit, and always knows when you just need to be heard.
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Every young adult I work with brings their own unique story, struggles, and strengths. That's why I don't believe in cookie-cutter approaches. Instead, I tailor my therapeutic approach to fit exactly what you need, drawing from several evidence-based modalities that are particularly effective for the challenges young adults face.
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The Therapeutic Approaches I Use
Psychodynamic therapy helps us explore the deeper patterns and unconscious beliefs that might be keeping you stuck. Sometimes the anxiety about making the "wrong" choice or the compulsive need to check how you measure up to others on social media stems from earlier experiences or family dynamics that are worth understanding.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) gives us practical tools to challenge the thoughts that fuel your overwhelm. When you're spiraling about not being where you think you should be or catastrophizing about a dating situation, CBT helps identify and shift those unhelpful thought patterns.
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Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is particularly powerful for young adults because it directly addresses the "shoulds" and "musts" that create so much unnecessary suffering. It helps you separate what you can actually control from what you can't—like other people's social media posts or their timeline for life milestones.
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When you're dealing with experiences that continue to impact how you show up in relationships or how you see yourself, EMDR and Accelerated Recovery Therapy (ART) can help process and integrate those experiences so they stop running the show in your present life.
What Therapy Actually Looks Like
Forget everything you think you know about therapy from movies or TV.
In my office, you won't find me sitting silently while you talk to the ceiling. Instead, you'll find someone who's genuinely interested in understanding your experience and helping you make sense of it.
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Some sessions, we'll dig deep into family patterns or past experiences that are influencing your present relationships or self-image. Other times, we'll work on very practical skills - like how to have a difficult conversation with a parent, how to set boundaries in dating, or how to manage the urge to constantly compare yourself to others online.
And occasionally, you'll spill the tea on the latest drama in your world, and we'll use that seemingly everyday situation to uncover the deeper patterns of how you relate to others, where your boundaries need strengthening, and how you can communicate your needs more effectively - because sometimes the best insights come from dissecting why that text from your ex sent you spiraling or what's really behind your urge to say yes when you want to say no.
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I'll ask you the questions that help you get to the heart of what's really going on, and yes, sometimes I'll lovingly call you out when you're telling yourself stories that aren't serving you. Because real growth happens when someone cares enough to challenge you while also holding space for exactly where you are.
Ready to Stop Pretending You Have It All Figured Out?
If you're tired of feeling like you're drowning in uncertainty, scrolling through social media feeling inadequate, or navigating relationships that leave you more confused than fulfilled, therapy might be exactly what you need. Not because something is wrong with you, but because navigating young adulthood is genuinely difficult, and you don't have to do it alone.
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My practice serves young adults throughout Fairfield County, including Westport, Fairfield, Darien, New Canaan, Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Wilton, Ridgefield, and surrounding Connecticut communities. Whether you're a high school senior, college student, recent graduate, or emerging adult navigating your twenties, specialized counseling can provide the support you need during this crucial life stage.
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You deserve to work with someone who understands the unique challenges of this phase of life - someone who won't minimize your struggles with social media anxiety or dating stress, and who won't rush you toward premature solutions. Someone who gets that "figuring it out" isn't a destination you arrive at, but an ongoing process of becoming more authentically yourself.
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Ready to stop going through the motions and start living with more intention and self-compassion? Let's talk about how young adult therapy can help you navigate this chapter of your life with more clarity, confidence, and ease.