Facilitated PhD support groups: an effective mental wellbeing intervention

In response to studies highlighting the prevalence of mental wellbeing issues among PhD researchers, in 2018 we introduced weekly support groups to combat isolation and provide peer support for emotional and academic issues. We co-facilitated 13 groups since, each running over 8 weeks, and have run 7 additional groups individually across two institutions. Our data indicates that these groups enhance participants’ mental wellbeing and reduce anxiety and loneliness, while also increasing participants’ confidence in completing their PhDs on time.
In this session, we will discuss our findings and offer practical advice for establishing similar support groups.

Fryni Panayidou is the Student Support and Wellbeing Lead at the Francis Crick Institute, where she supports doctoral students, and their supervisors, with any issues arising during the doctoral journey. Previously, she led on Postgraduate Researcher Development at Queen Mary University of London, contributing significantly to the Catalyst Fund project on supporting postgraduate researcher (PGR) mental health and wellbeing, through the launch of new initiatives and evaluation of the project.

Ben Priest is a counsellor with an interest in group work. In his role as a counsellor at Queen Mary University of London, in collaboration with Dr Fryni Panayidou, he has worked as co-facilitator of a support group for PhD students for the last four years. This group has achieved excellent outcomes as published in Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education and presented at several conferences. He has also worked with Dr Panayidou to deliver training for supervisors around supporting PGR wellbeing and mental health. In his previous career he devised and delivered interactive training in the public sector.