Navigating the Doctoral Journey

Descriptive

This course is for early-career academics who want to increase their resilience and well-being.

Researchers must sustain a high level of performance, often work long stretches in isolation, and are exposed to frequent critique and tight deadlines. Given the demanding nature of the academic career and lifestyle, struggles with motivation, procrastination, perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and stress are common. However, young researchers who learn to navigate these challenges, increase their resilience, and actively cultivate well-being are likelier to thrive personally and professionally.

This workshop underscores the integral relationship between resilience and success in navigating the Ph.D. process, emphasizing the role of well-being as a cornerstone for personal and professional growth and success. It gives participants evidence-based tools and strategies to recognize and counteract stress signals, manage energy, increase capacity, handle critique, maintain motivation, and overcome challenges such as procrastination, perfectionism, and self-doubt. Participants will learn about cutting-edge research on the science of well-being, habit formation, self-awareness, and self-management. Participants will leave the workshop with an understanding of what they can concretely do to increase their resilience and cultivate their well-being within their unique context and given their individual preferences, circumstances, challenges, and strengths.

Learning outcomes

During this workshop, participants will:

• Gain an understanding of the science of well-being and resilience.
• Increase their overall self-awareness and understand the relationship between self-awareness, self-management, and social-emotional intelligence.
• Understand the concept of P.E.R.MA+ and how it can help them increase their well-being and thrive in their personal and professional lives.
• Understand the concept of energy management and its implications for productivity and well-being.
• Know what they can concretely do when faced with challenges such as a drop in motivation, procrastination, perfectionism, and self-doubt.
• Understand where they need to establish boundaries and how to communicate these in a productive and positive way.

Format & Content

This is a one-day, in-person workshop. The workshop will take place in person at CMU from 9:15am to 5:00pm

The workshop begins by acknowledging the multifaceted nature of participants' experiences. Next, we identify what is working well and areas of struggle. Following this analysis, participants are introduced to the P.E.R.M.A+ framework, a fundamental concept from positive psychology. This framework, designed to enhance overall well-being, becomes the lens through which participants holistically assess their current state of well-being.

Participants will gain insights into the transformative potential of emotional literacy and the power behind cultivating positive emotions specifically. The emotional roots of perfectionism and procrastination, as well as practical strategies for overcoming them, will also be addressed. Moreover, the workshop will impart techniques to manage stress effectively by teaching participants how to work with their nervous system to regulate stress responses in acute situations while building long-term strategies to enhance stress resilience and prevent burnout. Participants will also learn how to manage their attention and physical energy (through healthy eating, movement, and sleep) and cultivate positive relationships with colleagues and supervisors.

Throughout both sessions, participants engage in a mix of individual reflections, self-assessments, small group discussions, and informative lectures. Additionally, hands-on activities, including stress management mindfulness exercises and role-playing, will provide practical experiences to reinforce learning.

By the end of the workshop, participants will have a personalized self-care plan that aligns with their individual needs and aspirations. This transformative workshop equips Ph.D. students with the resilience-building tools and strategies to flourish in their academic pursuits and beyond.

Practical information

The workshop is open to PhD students and postdocs from UNIGE.

The workshop is free but registration is mandatory.

The workshop will be given in English

Place number limited.