UvA Training - Student Services

Doing a PhD can be demanding and stressful. Tame your inner critic and find a healthy balance. This training consists of 6 sessions.

For you?

This training is for PhD candidates only. Are you struggling with a harsh inner critic or unhealthy perfectionism? This can cause a lot of stress and can reduce your pleasure in work or productivity. In this training, you will become more aware of your stress triggers. You'll work on slowing down, taming your inner critic, and cultivating a compassionate mindset. All this will help you to find a healthy balance and enjoy your work. Also, there will be room for sharing and supporting each other. We will use techniques from Compassion Mind Training to help you balance your mind, body, and actions. This approach combines evidence-based and research-based Western therapy techniques such as CBT, Mindfulness and recent research on human development and brain studies.

Important to know

• Daily, you will need about 30 minutes for exercises and recording. Discussing your experiences during the week in the meetings is an integral part of the training;
• Following this training takes time and energy. Therefore, we advise you not to follow different training sessions at the same time;
• We count on you to attend all meetings. This is important for your own process and the group process. If you cannot attend all the meetings, see if another training series or group might be a better fit.