Transitioning to University
Short circuit the stresses of assimilating into student life
Results from a 2011 study at Stanford University on the effectiveness of Student Success Coaching yielded statistically significant differences in retention and completion rates: coached students were five percentage points more likely to persist than non-coached students (Bettinger & Baker, 2011).
Whether you’ve never lived away from your parents, you’ve moved to a new place, or even a new country. Every student starting university experiences culture shock. There are distinctive aspects to university life which distinguish it from school, and your journey to independence converges with this seismic change. Together we find a way to make learning happen, and create actionable strategies to enable you to thrive.
About You …
You expected to feel sad and lonely at times at university, because you knew you’d miss your home, friends, and family. But the stress of adapting to academic and campus culture has reached a level where:
- feeling homesick most or all of the time
- feeling lonely much of the time
- feeling sad or anxious much of the time
- crying more often; sometimes for no reason
- experiencing a marked change in sleeping and/or appetite
- experiencing increased unexplained physical problems
- having more “minor illnesses” such as colds, headaches, or stomach pains
- having difficulty concentrating
- experiencing academic difficulties not experienced before
- feeling tension and pressure much of the time
- feeling out-of-control in many aspects of your life
The System For you
the stresses of student life
Some students adjust to settling in with little hesitation, while others experience varying degrees of culture shock (and note that even if you do settle in easily at first, it’s common for culture shock to hit ‘out of the blue’ at around the three month mark). Many students experience it halfway through their first semester when the excitement and novelty has worn off, and academic expectations are harder than anticipated.
It takes time to settle in, and to navigate cultural differences. The good news is there are many things we can work on together to minimise these uncomfortable effects of culture shock. I’ve crafted an #6 stage process that can run for an academic year or semester by semester, whichever fits your needs (and budget). It goes without saying it’s such an individualistic journey, that my framework is just that and the particulars of what you need to concentrate on to thrive will be specific to your unique personality and gifts.
Understanding and Assessing Culture Shock in 3-4 sessions, we take a look at your motivations for signing up to this degree course. Did you want to come, or did you feel pushed into this decision? We also explore the support you’ve been offered on arrival, and how strange or familiar the environment is for you personally. The feelings you have about your new surroundings, and the ease with which you adapt, are also likely to be influenced by earlier experiences and learnings in your life, including during your formative years. Once we uncover the root of where you started to get triggered, we can take steps to release these blockers. Some of the most common ones are learned habits in the face of change, a loss of routine, self isolation, inadequate nutrition, issues to do with self-efficacy, reignited traumatic memories, irregular sleeping, and self management.
Identifying Ways to Adapt in another 2-4 sessions, I’ll powerfully facilitate you in tackling the practical and psychological aspects of culture shock.
- We focus on building new social networks (clubs, societies, sports, etc)
- We create systems to keep in touch with those back home
- We set realistic goals (remind yourself it’s a normal process of adjustment)
- We talk to others who have gone through it (former students, online forums, expat groups)
- We learn stress relieving activities (yoga, meditation, mindfulness)
- We learn to eat at regular intervals/prepare meals to maintain good health (eat well, watch alcohol intake)
- We make efforts to recognise positives, instead of just negatives
- We create a routine (and make a timetable) to give you structure (and/or set realistic goals)
- We question your assumptions (is everyone unfriendly, or just some people? Are all the classes awful, or do you like some?)
- We look at the options you have, and the university resources there are, so you have future plans to look forward to (try to learn how things work on campus a little more each day)
- We schedule fun! Ensuring you do not to withdraw (schedule in social activities weekly)
We build you a new way of seeing change that will make it exciting and invigorating, rather than frightening.
The Inner Work in another 1-2 sessions, I’ll powerfully facilitate you in forgiving yourself, and learn to curb the self criticism for not meeting your own expectations in this transition. We explore new ways of empowering yourself about who you are, and what’s possible for you. This new mindset will be liberating, 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 way of thinking you hold for who you are and how you’ll be in the world.
Create a Powerful Strategy now that you are crystal clear on what’s holding you back from assimilating, it’s crucial that we learn how to accept the process of adjustment. In another 1-2 sessions, we will construct a realistic plan, which includes all the steps you’ll need to take in order to start to feel more a part of academic and campus life. The idea here is for you to have actionable tasks to complete which will bring you one step closer to feeling more like you “fit in.” And I’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines every step of the way. Believe me, this is possible.
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 practicing these techniques until they become second nature.
Playing Big! The combination of your new mindset, and my coaching tools will be key in laying a foundation for you to embrace academic and campus life, and living a happier, healthier life… We’ll revisit where you were when we started at the beginning of our work so that we can see how far we’ve come! This session helps you to put it all together, so that the practices become habits, and these habits become a daily routine, and that daily routine becomes a weekly schedule…you see where I’m going with this! I’ll give you practical tips to help to make these habits stick, and offer you effective ways to manage these new additions into your already hectic timetable.
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.
Success Stories
