The Faculty of Arts has launched a pilot program offering confidential, one-on-one coaching for graduate students and post-docs.
Feeling overwhelmed by academic demands, or struggling with work-life balance? Challenges like procrastination, perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and uncertainty about career paths are common in academic life—but you don’t have to face them alone.
What is coaching?
Coaching is a well-established support modality with international professional credentialing that differs from mentoring, advising, and therapy. Rather than offering expert advice or mental health support, coaches are neutral, confidential thought partners who help you gain new perspectives, clarify goals, and develop meaningful, personalized action plans.
Coaching... holds transformative potential for everyone and enables a journey of self-discovery and growth, providing the tools for individuals to unlock their full potential. It has allowed me to become more observant of negative thought patterns, self-correct ingrained behaviours, and opened up a much more positive outlook on the future. In other words, coaching has helped me help myself.
Work with a coach
Coaching in this program is offered by learner coaches enrolled in UBC’s ICF-accredited Certificate in Organizational Coaching. You can access up to six free sessions as part of their training.
Curious? Here’s how to get started:
- Review the roster of coaches and reach out to a coach you’d like to work with via their scheduling link or email. Please only reach out to one coach at a time. Any communication you have with a coach, whether just reaching out or having ongoing sessions, is confidential between you and the coach.
- The coach will set up an initial no-obligation conversation to provide you with more information about the support they can provide and learn more about your goals. The two of you will decide whether to proceed with one or more coaching sessions after this initial exploratory conversation.
- If that coach is not the right match for you, you may then set up an initial conversation with another coach until you find the right fit.
Important details for participants
- Coaching is offered for up to six sessions at no cost. In exchange, you provide 5 minutes of your verbal feedback at the end of each session.
- All coaches operate in alignment with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) Code of Ethics, which includes commitments to confidentiality and privacy.
- Your coach will provide you with an agreement for you to review, sign, and return prior to first session.
- You must provide 24-hour notice in order to cancel or re-schedule a session.
- At the end of your sessions, your coach will ask you to share information with us through a voluntary and confidential survey that will ask you to provide us with valuable participation data and evidence of the impact of coaching for enhancing student success. Your responses will be anonymous and no personal details requested. The information you provide is very valuable to us in assessing this pilot project.
I had my first coaching experience in the months leading up to my Ph.D. defence, a day I approached with a lot of apprehension… My coach helped me explore the origins of my apprehension, thereby disarming it, and assisted me in building a step-by-step game plan to prepare for this big life event, as well as suggesting invaluable practical tips for the defence itself.
Get in touch
The coaching pilot is facilitated by Dr. Richard Price, Director of Graduate Studies, Faculty of Arts, Professor in Political Science, and Certified Associate Coach (ACC) with the International Coaching Federation, and Brian Taguchi, UBC Certificate in Organizational Coaching Lead, Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation.