Breaking Barriers
Release the psychological barriers to your academic success
Psychological stressors present as increasingly common reasons for students struggling to cope (Hong & Lee, 2021). High levels of perfectionism, procrastination or anxiety in college students can compromise academic performance and psychological well-being (Fernández-García et al., 2023).
What I offer are science-based solutions to increasingly common symptoms and psychological blockers to student success.
About You …
You’re a student who has done everything right—you got your grades and got into university… But somehow what you thought university life would be like doesn’t fit with reality.
- Perhaps you find yourself sitting in front of your laptop for hours without a break, achieving no quality work of any kind. The less advancement you make, the more anxious you’re becoming, and the longer you force yourself to stay at your desk. You’re getting more and more isolated, and spiralling into depression.
- Maybe you feel like everything in your future is riding on your success, but no matter how hard you try, you’re failing to meet deadlines (or pulling all-nighters). At times you’re feeling distracted, and unable to perform at all. As the days become months, and your grade point average slumps, you freeze and disengage.
- Perhaps you spend everyday continuously scrutinising every failure, and projecting a dismal future. This makes you lose the ability to make decisions of any kind. You feel trapped, and want to give up.
- Maybe you feel like you just don’t fit in, you’re used to having friends that “get you,” and everyone here seems to have already formed friend groups. You feel left out and confused about where you fit in or how to get involved.
- Or perhaps you are just plain unmotivated. Everything seems boring and pointless, and you’d rather go to the pub.
Assess the Blocks in 1-3 sessions, we’ll explore your daily habits and routines. We will also look at the experiences that have influenced your belief system—and the ways that they may be keeping you stuck. Once we uncover the root of where you started to buy into limitations and misunderstandings about who you are, we can take steps to release these blockers. Some of the most common ones are anxiety, procrastination and perfectinism. Others are loneliness, self-management, digital health (to social media/gaming/partying), nutrition, lack of routine.
Rewrite your Story in another 1-2 sessions, I’ll powerfully facilitate you in rewriting the story you hold in your mind. This means undergoing a process of forgiving yourself for the core beliefs we’ve identified that are no longer serving you, and exploring what new stories you’d like to be telling yourself about who you are and what’s possible for you. This new story will be empowered, authentic and inspiring. I’ll share some mental exercises and tools that you can take with you into your daily life as a way to honour this new mindset you hold for who you are and how you’ll be in the world.
Clarify your Vision as Einstein says, “you can’t solve problems from the same level of thinking that created them.” And now that our coaching relationship has inspired a new level of thinking for you, it’s important we spend 1-2 sessions coming up with a vision that matches your highest self, both with your inner goals (your confidence, and how you feel about yourself) and your outer goals (your grades, relationships and/or finances). The work we do to bring you into alignment is so deep that it is likely to influence your career pathways and relationships, which means coming up with an ideal scene for both of those categories in your life… And an action plan to get there (see step #4!).
Take Action: Change your Behaviors one of the biggest blockers to getting the results you’re looking for, is saying “yes,” to doing things differently. Like any muscle our brain responds to repetition. That’s why we’ll spend 2-3 sessions on practising these techniques until they become second nature.
Reach for the Stars! The combination of your new mindset, and my coaching tools will be key in laying a foundation for you to perform at your optimal level, and living a happier, healthier life… Which is why it’s time to talk about HOW you’ll take action! Next, we’ll cover exactly strategies for how you’ll reach those big academic goals and future career you’re setting up in the wake of this new empowerment. It’s time to be you, boldly.
I’m a University of Cambridge trained Psychologist. I’ve run tests, surveys, and interviews with 100s of students which has strengthened my coaching approach. I’m also a fan of Positive Psychology which feeds into most of what I do! Take action now to take back control over your future!
Mission
MVP for Xsrted
Get involved, and by signing up to programs with me you’ll be contributing to the design of our MVP for Xsrted to optimise ways to reduce student disengagement, and improve positive learning outcomes for all.