Public Health Doctoral Student Resilience Growth Group (matriculated Gillings School doctoral students only); on the first Thursday of the month, beginning on September 2, 2021-May 5, 2022 from 4-5pm EST.  Group facilitated by Gregory Bocchino, EdD/Gillings School Senior Executive Director for Academic Advising & Student Affairs.

Do you want to explore your thoughts and feelings, learn positive coping strategies and deepen personal insights all while having fun in a positive and creative way?  Is fear, perfectionism, or your esteem or confidence getting in the way of you becoming your best self?  This personal growth group is an activity based virtual group for Gillings School doctoral students who want to gain a better understanding of themselves and how they relate towards others.  Sharing ideas is so important to personal growth and it's learning from others that really helps us grow both personally and professionally.  Active participation in this growth group will provide you with a meaningful level of connection with other doctoral students across disciplines, an efficient way to find solutions, and a stronger path to your individual growth and success.  This group will meet monthly for 1 hour and explore a different topic each week through a structured activity (see examples below) where students will voluntarily provide personal reflection and feedback individually and in small groups.  Please note that this growth group is not a counseling therapy support group. 


Sample monthly activities may include:

• Implement a goals self-contract
• Use your values to build resilience
• Create a personal coping mantra
• Adopt a growth mindset to personal criticism
• Extract your strengths from problems
• Find silver linings in situations
• Develop pathways and a hope map
• Identify emotional avoidance strategies
• Use inspiration in dealing with challenges
• Optimize your window of tolerance
• Build self-efficacy by taking small steps
• Construct a priority matrix

The Gillings School Student Affairs Team is committed to helping you grow and develop so that you can achieve positive personal results as you pursue your professional goals to bring hope for a better tomorrow.