Building Resilience and Reflexivity sessions for PGR students
When:
—
Venue:
Online
Overview
Working on a research degree can be a lonely and isolating experience. Run by Dr Beverley Costa, an initial online interactive research degree seminar will look at building resilience and reflexivity as a researcher, followed by three small group follow up sessions.
After the initial session there will be an opportunity to sign up for small online group(s) sessions facilitated by Beverley, which will meet three times in Spring and Summer to offer reflexive conversations and collegiate support for the participants. Students may attend the seminar without signing up for the group sessions.
Initial session: 18 March 2026, 9am-12pm
1st Group Session: 1 April 2026, 5-7pm
2nd Group Session: 17 June 2026, 5-7pm
3rd Group Session: 2 September 2026, 5-7pm
Session outline
The seminar and sessions explore the stresses and challenges of doing a research degree. They focus on communication, building skills and ways of coping.
The sessions look at coping strategies – what helps and what hinders. These considerations don’t just help researchers to build their resilience during the long labour of completing a research degree. They also help to develop the skills of reflexivity, which are essential for high quality qualitative research.
Topics may include:
- reflective practice
- creative potential of vulnerability
- disconnect and isolation
- inadequacy/imposter syndrome
- voice, power, positionality, and collective responsibility
- uncertainty and innovation
- burn-out – the causes and how to avoid
- ethics and boundaries.
Who is this training for?
The sessions are open to research students at any stage of their research or writing up and from all Schools and Faculties.
Students signing up for the group sessions should have attended the group seminar held on 18 March.
If you were unable to attend this session, but wish to be considered for the group sessions, please email fhss-pgr@bbk.ac.uk.
Who is running the session?
Beverley Costa is a Senior Practitioner Fellow at Birkbeck. She is a psychotherapist, trainer, supervisor and researcher: https://www.pasaloproject.org/about.html and the author of The Art of Group Facilitation: Difficult Conversations and Reflective Practice.
How do I join this session?
A link will be sent to all ticketholders the day before the event. Check when you book that the confirmation is not being identified as spam.
Please note that these sessions will not address specific individual medical perspectives. For this we would encourage you to speak to the College Wellbeing and Mental Health Service.
Contact name: Laurie McRae Andrew
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