Challenges During the Doctorate

Your doctorate can be a challenging phase: Sooner or later, most doctoral candidates encounter writer's block, conflicts, or the feeling of simply not being able to do it. But sometimes there are also completely different challenges to overcome, such as balancing a career, care work, and working on your dissertation, or doing a doctorate with disabilities. Here you will find a list of the most important counselling and support services available to help you overcome such challenges.

Peer coachings for international doctoral candidates

Whether you have just arrived or whether you have been part of the German research community for a while: each phase comes with its own challenges. It often helps to exchange ideas with like-minded people and seek advice from colleagues. Our peer coaching formats bring you together with other international doctoral candidates who are in a similar situation - together you can discuss topics that are currently on your mind and support each other.

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Support With Challenges in the Writing Process

Writing Challenges

How do I overcome the fear of the blank page? What do I do when I have writer's block? How do I finish? The Writing Centre "Kompetenzzentrum Schreiben" can help you with these and similar questions relating to challenges in the writing process.

Go to the Writing Centre

Procrastination

The doctoral period requires a high degree of self-organisation. Supposedly more urgent tasks sometimes take centre stage, while work on the doctoral dissertation is postponed. The ProLernen procrastination counselling service helps you to overcome procrastination.

Go to ProLernen

Conflict Situations

As in all interpersonal relationships, conflicts, disputes, and communication problems can also arise with colleagues, supervisors, or superiors. If these can no longer be resolved within the team, the conflict counselling service offered by the Staff Development provides support through individual or group discussions.

Conflict counselling

(Virtual) Attacks and Unobjective Conflicts

Have you been subjected to (virtual) attacks against you as a researcher? Unfortunately, you are not alone. The national contact point for attacks and unobjective conflicts in science communication, Scicomm, offers personal counselling.

Zu Scicomm

Support With Personal Challenges

Doctorate & Care Responsibility

Doctoral students with responsibility for children and/or relatives in need of care can find support at the FamilyServiceOffice. The FamilyServiceOffice supports members of Paderborn University in reconciling work and family life.

Go to FamilyServiceOffice

Doctorate with Disability

Various contact points and contact persons help with questions and offer support for doctoral students with disabilities.

Contact Persons

Doctorate & Mental Health

Various offices at Paderborn University provide help when the doctoral phase becomes a psychological challenge (e.g. in the case of motivational crises, feelings of excessive demands and stress, but also mental illness, addiction and depression).

Go to Staff Development

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