1. Free 15-minute call
A no-pressure conversation. You share what's going on, I share how I work, and we figure out together if this feels like the right fit.
Therapy in Rhode Island — for college students, young adults, and everyone in between
Rhode Island packs more colleges per square mile than almost anywhere in the country, and the mental-health demand reflects it. I see RI residents by telehealth — undergrads, grad students, working young adults, and the parents and partners of all three.
No credit card · 15 minutes · Talk directly with Rose
Rose Markotic, LMFT — licensed in California, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Rhode Island is small. The mental-health demand isn’t.
Rhode Island is the smallest state in the country — and one of the most college-dense. Brown, URI, Rhode Island School of Design, Bryant, Salve Regina, Providence College, Roger Williams: a population this size shouldn’t produce that many students per capita, but it does. Add in the working young-adult population in Providence and Newport, and you get a state where mental-health demand consistently outstrips supply.
Most of my Rhode Island clients are in their late teens through their thirties. Common threads: perfectionism that learned to run quietly through high school and is now showing up as paralysis in college, social anxiety that gets worse the more selective your environment, ADHD that survived high school structure but stops working at college freedom, and the identity questions that come with the gap between who you were at home and who you’re becoming here.
Sessions are entirely telehealth — you can meet from a Brown dorm, an apartment in Federal Hill, your parents’ place in Cranston during break, or anywhere else in the state.
Serving clients across Rhode Island: Providence · Newport · Warwick · Cranston · Pawtucket
Whether you're in Providence, Newport, Warwick, or anywhere else in Rhode Island, video sessions remove the geographic barrier — you just need a private space and a stable connection.
How sessions work
All sessions take place over a HIPAA-compliant video platform. You need to be physically located in Rhode Island at the time of session.
2. Initial session
An extended 90-minute assessment session. We review any measures or inventories you've completed, talk through your history, and clarify what you're hoping to accomplish in therapy.
3. Goal setting & treatment plan
Together we set the direction — what we'll work on, what tools we'll start with, and how we'll know when something is working.
What Rhode Island clients tend to bring in
A lot of overlap with the rest of the practice — but the college-density of RI shapes what shows up most.
College students and recent grads
Brown, URI, RISD, Bryant, Salve Regina, Providence College — and increasingly grad students at all of the above. We work on the perfectionism, procrastination, and identity questions that surface when academic structure stops being external.
Perfectionism (the signature specialty)
Especially common in RI’s academically selective environment. We get specific about which standards are protecting you and which are breaking you, and we test them directly.
Social anxiety and connection
Smaller campuses can amplify social-anxiety patterns — every dining-hall interaction feels rehearsed. Practical methods, in-session and at-home, to interrupt the anxiety loop.
ADHD and executive function
College freedom is a stress-test for ADHD that high school structure was masking. Real systems — not Pinterest planners — that fit how your brain works.
Post-graduation transitions
The gap between commencement and your first job is its own kind of disorientation. Whether you’re moving to NYC, staying in Providence, or going home, we work with what shows up.
Family and parenting
A growing portion of RI clients are parents working through their own anxiety while raising teenagers — often anticipating the same college-launch transition they themselves struggled through.
Rose Markotic
MA, LMFT
Licensed in: California, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont
Telehealth across all five states
Most of my clients arrive having already tried hard. They're thoughtful, capable, often outwardly successful — and stuck on something the strategies that got them this far can't fix. What I love about TEAM-CBT is that it gave me a way to do therapy that respects how hard people are already trying. We don't sit with stuckness for years.
We measure how you're feeling at every session, look honestly at what's keeping change from happening, and use specific tools — not vague encouragement — to move things. I trained in TEAM-CBT through Dr. David Burns' Stanford group at the Feeling Good Institute, where I'm now Level 3 certified. The methodology fits how I work: structured, transparent, and built around real change you can feel by session three or four — not a relationship you maintain forever.
My counseling style is warm, empathetic, and collaborative. I provide a safe space to explore what's going on and generate solutions you can actually use between sessions. I'm currently accepting new clients across California, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Frequently asked questions about therapy in Rhode Island
Do you see students from Brown, URI, RISD, or Bryant?
Yes — students from those schools and others are a substantial portion of the Rhode Island caseload. Sessions work around academic schedules; we can hold to a weekly rhythm during the semester and adjust around exams and breaks. As an adult (18+), what we discuss is confidential — not shared with your school, your dean, or your parents (even if your parents are paying).
Can I keep sessions going over winter or summer break?
It depends where you go. If you head home to one of the five states where Rose is licensed (CA, CT, ME, RI, VT), yes — we keep meeting. If you go home to a state where Rose isn’t licensed (e.g., NY, NJ, MA), we have to pause for that period. Many RI students plan around this; we’ll talk through it during the consult.
I’m a grad student dealing with research-related anxiety. Is that something you work on?
Yes — graduate-school anxiety is a common presenting concern. The pattern is usually some combination of perfectionism, imposter feelings, and chronic procrastination on long-horizon work. TEAM-CBT is well-suited to it because we work on specific cognitive distortions about your work and use measurable homework assignments between sessions.
How does this work alongside my school’s counseling center?
It’s usually complementary rather than competing. Many RI campus counseling centers cap individual sessions per semester — students often use those for crisis support and pair it with ongoing weekly therapy here. If you’re currently seeing a counselor on campus and want to coordinate, we can talk about it on the consult.
I’m a Rhode Island resident but go to college out of state. Can we still meet?
Only when you’re physically in Rhode Island — typically during summer and winter breaks. During the semester, you’d need to be in CA, CT, ME, or VT to keep meeting (the other states where Rose is licensed). Many RI students at out-of-state schools just do summer-only therapy with us, and that works too.
Do you take BlueCross BlueShield of Rhode Island?
Better Thoughts is out-of-network. BCBSRI PPO plans typically reimburse 60–80% of out-of-network therapy fees. Email us to request a superbill any time; you submit it through your BCBSRI member portal — see our reimbursement guide at /insurance-reimbursement for direct links and step-by-step instructions. HMO/HMO-only plans usually don’t reimburse out-of-network — we can talk through what makes sense for you on the free consult.
Common reasons Rhode Island clients reach out
Each link goes to a focused page on what TEAM-CBT for that concern actually looks like — signs, how the work unfolds, and a condition-specific FAQ.
Social anxiety
Particularly common at smaller campuses where every dining-hall interaction feels rehearsed.
Read more →Perfectionism
A signature specialty — and the underlying pattern behind much of the academic paralysis Brown / URI / RISD students bring in.
Read more →Anxiety
For the late-teens-through-thirties anxiety that has stopped responding to "you're overthinking it."
Read more →Also licensed in
One therapist, five states. If you split time between Rhode Island and any of the below, we keep meeting through the move.
Therapy in California
Tech burnout, perfectionism, anxiety, and adult ADHD — for the high-pressure California professional.
Read more →Therapy in Connecticut
Executive burnout, perfectionism, and Yale / UConn students — for high-RPM lives.
Read more →Therapy in Maine
Anxiety, depression, SAD, and perfectionism — telehealth where in-person specialists are hard to find.
Read more →Therapy in Vermont
Structured TEAM-CBT for clients who already do mindfulness or yoga and want the cognitive-behavioral toolkit too.
Read more →Local mental-health resources in Rhode Island
Better Thoughts is a private telehealth practice — these external resources are independent and may help if you need crisis support, lower-cost care, or want to verify a clinician's license.
In a crisis
If you or someone you know is in immediate distress, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential, and available 24/7.
Call or text 988 →Community support & education
NAMI Rhode Island offers free education, support groups, and family programs — a useful adjunct to therapy or a starting point if you're not sure what you need.
NAMI Rhode Island →Verify any clinician's license
You can independently confirm any therapist's license — including Rose's — through Rhode Island's public licensing-board lookup.
Rhode Island Department of Health — License Verification →Get started with Better Thoughts today
A 15-minute video call with Rose. We'll talk about what's bringing you in and see if I'm the right fit. No pressure to book sessions afterward.
No credit card · 15 minutes · Talk directly with Rose