Self-Compassionate Professor

Dr. Sanne Frandsen describes the power of narrative, explaining how many of our career problems manifest from the stories we tell ourselves. She offers two specific examples: how feelings of inadequacy and time poverty are often issues of mindset and can likely be managed by telling a new story. Sanne also explains that in career crises, people must navigate through messy and ongoing narrative cha...

I invite you to participate in the half-day retreat, "Academic Year Detox," where we'll help you to process the year's toxins, release them from your system, and create the space you have been craving: in body, mind, and community. Join us May 13, 2022 at 9:15am PDT/12:15pm EDT. Register here:  https://danielledelamare.com/?page_id=1023

Dr. Corey Latta discusses his experiences with toxic workplaces from corporate to higher education, explaining that while toxicity comes in different shapes and flavors, all such environments lack one major ingredient: people centeredness. He offers wise and empowering guidance for those navigating toxic workplaces and in the end, we discuss the ways healing, growth, and inner work (and lack there...

In this solo episode, I explain how self-pressure negatively impacts our relationship to self and to others as well as how it negatively impacts the trajectories of our daily lives and career development. For the sake of personal growth, career development, and a more peaceful existence, I advocate for a short period of doing nothing daily. First, I discuss how to begin a practice of doing nothing...

Dr. Shoba Subramanian demonstrates the power of mentorship on individuals, institutions, and society, arguing for environments where kindness, empathy, trust, and sharing are embraced, a “personal board of mentors” philosophy is normalized, great focus is placed on the professional growth of mentees, and space is made for a natural cycle of mentees eventually becoming mentors themselves. It is in...

It's spring break and I'm resting! In that spirit, I re-release my interview with Dr. Caitlin Faas. Caitlin tells a fascinating story about how she finally found peace in her job as a tenured professor--a job that once felt stifling. Interestingly, that peace opened up new opportunities for Caitlin and she eventually walked away from her academic job with grace and ease. In this episode, Caitlin d...

Dr. Shaun Marq Anderson offers a clear and compelling rationale about why saying no to extra university work is necessary, the importance of clarifying both your professional and personal values, and strategies he uses to say no with tact and kindness. Shaun explains that his upbringing and career journey showed him the power of his own vision and the need to play by his own rules. In this way, he...

Based on Dr. Kristin Neff's research in Mindful Self-Compassion, Dr. Matthew Goodman defines self-compassion, describes its power, the benefits and challenges of practicing self-compassion, and he even leads us in a self-compassion exercise! Dr. Goodman talks too about how he is using self-compassion and other daily practices to navigate the challenges he faces in his own academic career. Find his...

Dr. Pylin Chuapetcharasopon describes her journey from PhD to corporate, her career/health/life crisis, and the clear commitment she eventually made to herself to redesign her life so that she could live without regrets. Pylin has spent two years healing, growing, and building a foundation for the life she wants and today, she works with unfulfilled corporate humans to help them find purpose, pass...

Dr. Eliane Boucher discusses the ways academic institutions fail to support the health and wellness of faculty. We talk about the unaddressed mental health issues among professors, how the culture of academia often breeds toxic workplaces, as well as the ways parenthood often goes unacknowledged and unsupported. Eliane also talks pointedly about the issues facing academic single parents and the ne...

Dr. Jenn Berg explains how her work as a tenured math professor came to take over her life. After developing a meditation practice however, she started noticing patterns that indicated she had an unhealthy relationship to work. As she watched herself in a new way, she realized it was time to walk away and she made the bold decision to leave academia altogether. She's now working on "Project Jenn,"...

Dr. Patricia Bonnard explains how her career has been shaped by her multipotentialite tendencies, driving her to multidisciplinary studies, consultancy work around diverse issues, and later, energy healing, embodiment work, and coaching. She explains the importance for humans to find answers to life's questions by going inward, which as she notes, results in greater empowerment, authenticity, conn...

Dr. Alex Ketchum, author of Engage in Public Scholarship: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication , explains the value of engaging in public scholarship, offering much hope and a sense of possibility for individual academics, the academy generally, as well as society at large. Alex describes her own experiences doing public scholarship, the need for broader engagement with academic re...

In this solo episode, I discuss the need to unpack the values embedded in your career goals and notice, in micro-moments, how your mind will often tell you lies that derail you from aligning with your values. I encourage listeners to notice such lies so they can free themselves to pave a career and life path with meaning and intention as well as expand their capacities to do what they want to do a...

In this solo episode, I discuss the challenges of the holiday season and how to begin practicing self-compassion during this time. I argue that the deep inner work of self-compassion is essential to processing emotion and re-orienting along a self-compassionate career path. Drawing on Dr. Kristin Neff's work, I discuss the essential elements of taking a self-compassion break: a) acknowledging your...

In this solo episode, drawing on elements of Polyvagal Theory, I discuss how self-care anchors you in a calm and connected nervous system state. I also discuss how for many of us, after a long semester, our nervous systems become dysregulated and as a result, we become not only disconnected from our bodies and from others, but we also become disconnected from our career visions: we either cannot s...

Dr. Olga Vvedenskaya is a co-founder of Dragonfly Mental Health where she and her colleagues offer mental health support to academics. She tells about her own struggle with depression and explains how the disease distorts reality, convincing a person that they are totally alone. Olga reassures listeners who are struggling with depression and other mental health issues that they are indeed not alon...

Dr. James Hardt discusses his exit from academia, the founding of the Biocybernaut Institute, as well as the help he and his team provide to people who go through his neurofeedback training. He explains that such training changes people's brain waves so that they experience much greater creativity and calm--similar to long-time meditators. Apply for Dr. Hardt's neurofeedback training at https://ww...

Dr. Melva Robertson describes both her research about Covid and the Great Resignation as well as her own career pivot into academia after the Covid pause provided ample reflection time and insight. Melva explains that self-care, mental health, and finding calm are foundational pieces to career transition. Find her at http://www.melvarobertson.com/.

In the spirit of self-care, self-compassion, and wellness, I re-release my interview with Dr. Özgün Ünver. Dr. Özgün Ünver explains how academics may be at greater risk of burnout compared to the rest of the population. She also describes how burnout manifests differently for different people, types of support one might want to seek when in burnout, as well as her own experience with  burnout...

In the spirit of self-care, self-compassion, and wellness, I re-release my interview with Dr. Laura Froyen.  Dr. Laura Froyen discusses a powerful moment where she was flooded with compassion for herself and in that moment, she realized leaving academia would be in her family's and her own best interests. She talks also about her life purpose: helping families to make respectful parenting &nb...

In the spirit of self-care, self-compassion, and wellness, I re-release my interview with Dr. Rebecca Shisler Marshall.  An Associate Professor at University of Georgia, Dr. Rebecca Shisler Marshall introduces herself not just by academic title, but also as "a  life coach, a Reike practitioner, a mindfulness instructor, and a  Shamanic practitioner." In this episode, she explains fe...

Cheryl Lau is a PhD student who runs a six-figure business as a side-hustle coach. She explains how learning how to take care of herself was an important first step to building a strong and thriving business and she argues that people with a lot of other responsibilities from full-time jobs to caring for children can build their own side-hustle businesses with very little time by keeping it simple...

Dr. Sarah Hutchinson once felt stuck in her academic job, but began exploring her options and trying out different positions. And as she followed her curiosity over the years, she gained a unique set of skills. Now, after having moved from Toronto to Oregon for family reasons, she was excited and surprised to find the job search much easier than it had been in the past, noticing that her expertise...

Dr. Anna Clemens describes the differences she felt in her PhD program between her lab work and her writing work, realizing that when she was writing, she felt happier and more accomplished. It was at this point, after completing her PhD and taking some time to reflect on where her career might go, that she realized writing would be a center piece. Over the next three years, Anna tried on many dif...