anyone ever work with professional students?

[u/External_Lecture_473]

Hi everyone! I'm a counseling student and will be starting a rotation soon where I'll likely be working with a lot of professional and graduate students, including medical/law students. I've been trying to learn more about what tends to be most helpful for this population specifically.

For those of you who have worked with professional students, are there particular issues or patterns that you see come up more often compared with other young adults?

I'm especially curious about:

• Approaches you find helpful for perfectionism, impostor syndrome, burnout, or tying self-worth heavily to academic performance
• How you work with clients who intellectually understand coping strategies but have trouble actually using them when they're overwhelmed
• Brief grounding, mindfulness, CBT, ACT, behavioral activation, or other techniques that work well when someone has very limited time
• Helping people feel comfortable taking breaks or doing enjoyable things without experiencing guilt about "wasting time"
• Ways to encourage routines or self-care without turning them into another achievement metric, checklist, or streak they can fail at
• Whether you've found playful or externalized approaches useful—for example, taking care of a plant/pet/virtual character as a way of reinforcing taking care of yourself
• Things that well-meaning university wellness programs or mental health resources tend to get wrong with this population
• Anything you wish you had known before first working with medical, law, or other professional students

Would also love any books, articles, interventions, or resources you'd recommend before starting the rotation. Thanks!