Supervised peer consultation for women scientists (intervisie voor vrouwelijke wetenschappers)

In Company Supervised peer consultation course especially for women scientists (intervisie voor vrouwelijke wetenschappers), e.g. employed as a Postdoc, Assistant Professor or Full Professor.
Would you like to offer your employed women scientists the opportunity together with other colleagues to discuss situations in their workplace, exchange experiences and exchange ideas on solutions to difficult work situations? Would you like them to make changes in their work situation or their work-life balance? Then a supervised peer consultation group might be just the thing for them.

The supervised peer consultation sessions will focus on topics beyond the content of their work, on topics related to creating the conditions for doing their work well and with pleasure. Peer consultation can help them with for example:

  • Work-life choices: participants make conscious choices in their private and professional life so that they experience less work pressure.
  • Future: participants have a clearer picture of which steps they will take in order to realize their ambitions.
  • Visibility: participants make themselves visible in their work in a way that best suits them, for example in networking situations.
  • Techniques for discussions: participants clarify more easily what they want in discussions with both their manager and their colleagues, and during negotiations, presentations, fund-raising or media interviews.

Note: These are only examples. Participants are free to determine the topic(s) that interest them.

Method

Peer consultation for women scientists (in Dutch: intervisie voor vrouwelijke wetenschappers) is a method in which colleagues advise each other periodically in solving work-related issues. Participant’s own work experience is essential.  In peer consultation meetings, there is no hierarchal relationship among the participants. Based on reflective assignments and other methods, they will enter a discussion with a fixed group of participants. If helpful, role play will be used to practice situations. To learn working with this method, the sessions will be supervised by Wouter Christiaens, an experienced supervisor, trainer and career coach of women scientists at Visible-ID’s label Vrouw in de Lift.

The effectiveness of peer consultation is dependent on the participation of all group members. If someone register for this program, we expect her to show up in all meetings.

Program and content

The supervised peer consultation program consists in average of eight meetings of two hours. You will work in a group of six colleagues, supervised by Visible-ID’s Wouter Christiaens. After the introductory meeting, in each of the following sessions of two hours a case, handed in by one of the participants, will be discussed in depth. Experience shows that the themes discussed in one participant’s case, apply to the lives and work of the other participants as well.

Target group

This course is for women scientists at Postdoc, Assistant Professor or Full Professor level.

Study load

Face-to-face instruction: 16 hours
Total study load: 24 hours