Imposter Syndrome: Learning Self Compassion
Online, via Zoom, 20th February 2-5pm
Do you sometimes feel like a fraud? Or worry that your achievements are down to luck rather than your own expertise? If so, you’re not alone.
Imposter Syndrome is the belief that our success in life isn’t deserved or has been achieved through oversight or a stroke of luck, rather than as a result of our own efforts or skills.
When suffering from the Syndrome we tend to think of ourselves as a fraud and fear that at any moment, everyone else will realise our incompetence or inferiority too. This is especially common when we start a new role, following a promotion or when we are expected to perform at a very high level.
Research has shown that developing self-compassion is a useful and effective tool in building resilience to feeling like an imposter and boosting wellbeing and performance.
Dr Ashleigh McLellan (a Clinical Psychologist specializing in compassion-focused therapy) has created this unique 3-hour course for doctoral students to embrace compassion-focused techniques for tackling feelings of Imposter Syndrome.
In a world where behavioural change is no longer a choice but a daily demand, we are all likely to experience increased worries, anxiety, self-doubt and stress as uncertainty plays a greater part in all our lives. An article in the THES in Oct 2021 highlighted the results of recent research, a global survey of more than 6,000 PhD students conducted by Nature in 2019, which found that 36 per cent of respondents had sought help for anxiety or depression.
So, this workshop aims to help eliminate that feeling of self-doubt – a feeling often familiar to doctoral students who spend time working alone on projects, wondering if what they are doing is of value, and how they ‘fit in’ to the academy as an academic researcher.
What the workshop aims to do
Regularly the biggest challenge faced in behavioural change is our own self-critic, what it says, how it says it and the values and beliefs it forms in our deeply set unconscious behavioural habits.
The first step is to release our ability to bring about the change we want. This happens when we develop a compassionate mind.
Compassionate, people-centred leaders are ahead of the game and at the forefront of developing the new generation of competitive advantage. Far from being ‘soft and fluffy’ or a weakness, compassion guides leaders to be courageous, strong and emotionally intelligent.
This interactive workshop invites the audience to:
– explore their own experiences of imposter syndrome
– learn about the research supporting the development of self-compassion to manage imposter syndrome
– explore what compassion is
– take part in experiential learning to better understand the role of their self-critic and
– develop techniques to increase their ability to increase self-compassion
This workshop is funded by LAHP, and organised by Professor Samantha Rayner, Vice Dean Wellbeing, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, UCL. To sign up for free places, click on this link.
The Zoom details will be confirmed with all participants by the organisers.