Well-Being at UHasselt: From mental wealth to balanced health - 2023

Whether you are a starting PhD student or a more experienced postdoc, you might face certain challenges during your academic career. The main purpose of this online event is to provide information and tools that could help to get a better grip on your work-life balance and mental health. The programme starts with an introduction and presentation of various supportive services at UHasselt. Questions such as "Which courses could improve my stress management and resilience?", "Where can I apply for psychological guidance?", "Who can I contact if the collaboration between me and my supervisor is disturbed?", ... will be answered. Afterwards, Prof. Anja Van den Broeck will give an interesting talk on well-being and motivation. The afternoon will end with an interactive keynote by dr. Karolien Notebaert in which she will dwell upon self-regulation and resilience. 

Programme:

13:00-14:00    Introduction & presentation of supportive services at UHasselt 
14:00-14:15    Break
14:15-15:15    Taking matters in your own hands: how to boost motivation and well-being when doing a PhD (Prof. Anja Van den Broeck)
15:15-15:30    Break
15:30-16:30    YOUR BRAIN: Self-regulation and resilience as key competences for a healthy performance (Dr. Karolien Notebaert)
16:30-16:45    Final Q&A

Abstracts

Taking matters in your own hands: how to boost motivation and well-being when doing a PhD (Prof. Anja Van den Broeck)

Doing a PhD can be really challenging: there is lots of work to do, and maybe some pressure to do even more. You may have a good relationship with your supervisor and colleagues or might be facing a supervisor who is too busy to truly attend to your questions and get little support from your colleagues. It may come as no surprise that PhDs and postdocs may be highly engaged in their work, yet also feel burned-out, and even depressed and little motivated. Of course, the university system has a role to play here in providing high quality jobs, yet there are also some things you can do yourself to improve your work situation. In this presentation, we will focus on the different aspects of well-being and motivation. You will learn more about coping with the work situation as well as about the possibilities to change it through crafting and/or the negotiation of i-deals.

Prof. dr. Anja van den Broeck obtained a PhD in Psychology in 2010 at KU Leuven and is currently a professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business at KU Leuven.

YOUR BRAIN: Self-regulation and resilience as key competences for a healthy performance

Bringing a healthy performance and strengthening your resilience at the same time?! Is this even possible? Neuroscience provides us with answers. In this interactive keynote, participants will receive an insight in how the brain can increase the use of its potential in a realistic way by training self-regulation and at the same time strengthening resilience. Based on scientific studies, insights into how the brain works will be given in an interactive and humorous way. Participants will be taught powerful strategies that can lead to a significant increase of cognitive performance, self-regulation capacity, mental resilience and general life quality. All strategies can easily be implemented in daily life.

Dr Karolien Notebaert obtained a PhD in Psychology in 2009 at KU Leuven and is the founder and Managing Director of the Science and Leadership Academy.

Learning outcomes

After attending this event you will

• have knowledge about different supportive services at UHasselt
• gain insights into the stress system and its impact
• have knowledge about the development of possible new habits which could increase your resilience
• have improved knowledge about how we create our own mental life quality through new insights into how the brain processes information
• have insight into the neurological foundations of a healthy performance by training self-regulation and at the same time strengthening resilience
• understand cognitive and non-cognitive self-regulation as a key to a higher (cognitive) performance and stronger resilience

Competences

An important part of preparing for any further professional step is becoming (more) aware of the competences you have developed and/or want to develop. In the current workshop, the following competences from the UHasselt competency overview are actively dealt with:

• personal effectiveness:
  • self-development
  • responsiveness to change
  • stress management
  • self-confidence
• interpersonal competences:
  • assertiveness
  • (self-)coaching
    
    

For whom?

• PhD students & postdocs

When and where?

• February 6, 2023 - 13:00-16:45
• Online
• Participation in all afternoon sessions is required.

Registration?

• Registration is closed.
• Please cancel your registration at least one week in advance in case you cannot make it (cf. cancellation & no-show policy).

Acknowledged as?

• DS S&T: category 'career & personal development' – info session about personal development
• DS HLS: category 'transferable skills' – compulsory elective course
• DS BSH: category 'Career management & personal development' - session about personal development