Tag: coaching
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The Stress Effect & Creative Burnout
In this post I am going to address one of the commonest issues that present in my coaching of academics, creative burnout. I have explored physiological burnout and how it differentiates from stress in this post, so if you are not familiar with burnout it might be worth revisiting that content. However, creative burnout is…
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FREE Resource for Grief
I recently write a series on grief and its role in recovering from loss and processing disappointment. If that series resonated with you and you would like to go further, I am now offering a free resource. This journaling workbook takes you through the five stages on the Kübler-Ross & Kessler Change Curve with explanations…
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The Problem with Perfectionism
Kicking off a new series, I am going to explore some of the key challenges that clients often bring to coaching: topics like procrastination, imposter syndrome, dealing with rejection, and experiencing anger at work. I’m starting with perfectionism, and in particular its impacts on our ability to produce creative work, because this is something I…
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Trauma, Dissonance, & Disenfranchised Grief in Academia
TRIGGER WARNING: this post contains references to potential trauma triggers In my recent blog posts I have been exploring grief in academia and the need to acknowledge how many losses can characterise our progress in the sector. In today’s post I want to take a closer look at the griefs that emerge from the embedded…
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Traumatic History, Traumatised Researchers
I was recently invited to give a seminar to research postgraduates of history at the University of Edinburgh on the subject of trauma. As a trauma researcher and historian, I was delighted to have this opportunity to bring some mental health awareness into the research space. I’m very pleased that they have allowed me to…
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The Grief of Disappointment
In my previous two posts I introduced the importance of fully processing grief and loss, the time that takes, and the consequences of not taking or not being given sufficient space to grieve. In this post I want to look at a very specific and frequently overlooked manifestation of grief. Often referred to as a…
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Grief and the brain
In my last post I introduced the theme of grief in academia, a pervasive experience that remains largely unacknowledged but which has profound effects on our ability to process, plan, and move forward. In this post, I am going to take a closer look at why grief affects us so acutely, specifically the brain fog…
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Grief in the Academic Process
Welcome back. In the first of a new series for 2023 I am going to explore grief, and how it might affect the academic journey. I realise this topic may sound out of synch with popular New Year culture, when everything around us is about goal setting and fresh starts (and on that subject, for…
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Breathe and relax
Our breath is one of the most powerful tools we have to manage our stress response and calm our nervous system. In times of high stress we are less likely to prioritise the activities that really help us maintain our wellbeing, such as being outside and eating healthily, so I wanted to film a short…
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This is your brain on burnout
In my last two posts I introduced burnout as a collection of common symptoms rooted in nervous system exhaustion, a result of enduring high stress levels for too long. The conditions of chronic unrelieved stress and mild to moderate burnout are endemic in academia because of fundamental systemic problems. But there is also a lack…