How it all began
In 2018 I witnessed something miraculous.
A group of colleagues sat down in consultation, with the mutual purpose of helping each other do better at their job. They were kind, but demanding of one another. They were respectful, but frequently challenged each other. In an hour session, you could almost feel the growth happening around you.
These were therapists in a DBT consultation team. They dedicated an hour every week to consult each other, religiously. Absences were rare and only pressing needs would keep people away. And here comes the miracle: Not only were people learning a lot, people would leave the meetings feeling better, too. The sessions were, as intended, therapy for the therapists. They were helping each other grow, to stick to the relatively demanding approach of DBT, but no one seemed to be suffering.
When I thought about my learning experiences in other contexts, and those I have witnessed since, I recall uncertainty, misunderstandings, embarrassment, and lots of stress. The DBT consultation team also had plenty of uncertainty, but, while tensions certainly came up, little anguish. I wondered: Could other teams use the DBT consultation team model to develop?
This was the spirit that ultimately drove the development for a consultation team for research, which my colleagues and I have been piloting since 2021. After a successful trial, we put together a proposal to develop it for predoctoral researchers in our faculty. We were also lucky to have the support of Drs Phil Renshaw and Jenny Robinson of Coaching on the Go to help us develop the program for a wider audience.
This week we officially kicked off the project, PeerHD – Evaluating the effectiveness of a peer-coaching for improving PhD outcomes”, which we hope will help address the critical state of mental health in PhD programs.
Program Details
You can read more about the logic and structure of the program here:
To summarize, predoctoral researchers are far more likely to develop mental health issues during their work than other similar knowledge workers–the rate is close to the rate of incarcerated individuals–an issue which not only affects the researchers themselves, but also has tremendous societal cost. Existing approaches to addressing the issue are often costly or time-intensive.
PeerHD will assess the potential impact of peer-coaching for PhDs, which looks well-suited for:
1) taking time to clarify one’s goals
2) providing a source of support and understanding
3) becoming more efficient and effective
4) doing all this with (mounting) time pressure!
How to participate:
If you’re a PHD researcher at the UB, you can express your interest by taking this survey and leaving your contact information:
This survey will be available until January of 2025.
Pictured here are some of the other project members and my long-time peer-coaches, Mercè Bernardo Vilamitjana, Sucet Jimena Martínez Vergara and Vesna Savic, and we also count with Karla Paola Hernandez Del Valle, Johana Cristina Sierra Moran, and Alfonso Antonio Hernandez Vivanco.
Happy research!
