Surviving the PhD with Sarita Robinson

Dr Sarita Robinson (aka Dr Survival®) has spent the last 20 years researching how people respond to life-threatening situations. Using a psychobiological approach, Sarita has explored human behaviour in relation to preparedness, cognitive and physiological responses during stressful events, and recovery from trauma. 

 

In this episode Sarita applies what she has learnt from her survival research to help navigate the stresses of the PhD.

 

We talk about how a near fatal experience was the catalyst for Sarita’s own PhD journey.

 

We talk about the stressful nature of the PhD and how it is important to gather the right resources to support yourself.

 

Sarita talks about the importance of support and the experience of ‘trauma bonding’ - where people in extreme situations form very strong connections - and how this can happen on the PhD journey.

 

Sarita also challenges the conventional understanding of what it means to be resilient within your doctoral study and suggests that sometimes you need to make changes to a toxic environment rather than just enduring it.

 

You can find out more about Sarita’s work here: https://www.uclan.ac.uk/academics/sarita-robinson 

drsurvival – The psychology of survival

Email - SJRobinson1@uclan.ac.uk

The doors to The PhD Detox with Dr Emma Brodzinski are closing!  

6 weeks to de-toxify your PhD journey…

You can find out more here:  https://emmab.kartra.com/page/detoxyourphd