Graduate and PhD students Therapy for graduate and PhD students
Graduate school comes with its own pressures: an advisor relationship that shapes everything, funding that feels conditional, work with no clean stopping point, and a lot of it done alone. Mindtude works with graduate students at Northwestern, UChicago and across Chicagoland.
If you are in crisis right now, call or text 988 or go to the nearest emergency department. This page is about ongoing therapy.
What graduate students tend to bring
Imposter feelings that do not go away after admission. Perfectionism that made you a strong applicant and now makes every draft impossible to finish. Isolation, especially in the research years. Advisor conflict that is hard to name because so much depends on that relationship. Burnout that looks like procrastination from the outside. And the question of what all this is for, which tends to arrive in year three.
Anxiety, low mood and ADHD often run underneath these, and the work covers both the situation and what it is doing to you.
Advisors, labs and the people who decide your future
Few relationships carry as much weight as the one with an advisor. It shapes funding, recommendations and how the next several years go, which makes friction hard to raise and easy to absorb. Therapy is a place to work out what is actually happening, what you need, and how to ask for it, or how to protect yourself if asking is not safe.
Imposter feelings, perfectionism and work with no end
Admission rarely settles the sense of not belonging; it often sharpens it. Perfectionism that once helped turns into drafts that never feel ready to send. And research has no natural stopping point, so evenings and weekends slowly disappear. The work here is practical: setting limits that hold, finishing things at good enough, and separating your worth from your output.
Isolation in the research years
Coursework ends, the cohort scatters, and much of the work happens alone. Isolation tends to arrive slowly and show up as low mood or lost motivation rather than loneliness. Therapy can help you notice it early and rebuild contact on purpose.
How therapy fits a research schedule
Weekly sessions are the starting point, by video anywhere in Illinois or in person in Evanston, Chicago or Palatine. Sessions keep going through qualifying exams, fieldwork in another part of the state, and the long stretch of writing, when people most often stop doing the things that keep them steady.
Student insurance
Most graduate students at Northwestern are on NU-SHIP (administered by Aetna) and at UChicago on U-SHIP (UnitedHealthcare Student Resources). Mindtude is in network with both, as well as with Blue Cross Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare and Aetna plans generally.
Common questions
Is this separate from my university's counseling service?
Yes. Mindtude is an independent practice. Many students use it for ongoing weekly therapy alongside, or after, the short-term support their university offers.
Is what I say in therapy shared with my department or advisor?
No. Therapy is confidential, with the standard legal exceptions, such as a serious risk of harm, which are explained at the start.
Can therapy help with dissertation or thesis writing?
Therapy does not replace academic advising, but it can help with what often stalls writing: avoidance, perfectionism, anxiety and burnout.
Does NU-SHIP or U-SHIP cover therapy at Mindtude?
Yes. Mindtude is in network with Aetna, which administers NU-SHIP, and with UnitedHealthcare Student Resources, which administers U-SHIP.
Can sessions be online?
Yes, by secure video anywhere in Illinois, or in person in Evanston, Chicago or Palatine.
Start with a free consultation
A short call, no charge, to see whether this is a fit. Send your insurance details with it and we will confirm your coverage before you commit to anything.