Dissertation coach, Dr. Jen Harrison, explains how certain cultural and structural issues prevent professors and institutions from fully supporting their grad students in their writing process. She names a number of issues including an "inside-outside" problem whereby academia does not want to accept help from those outside institutions. In the end, both grad students and professors find themselves bearing the weight of such problems, but Jen offers recommendations to improve conditions for...

Michelle Grosser describes her journey toward a more regulated nervous system, explains how to communicate safety to our bodies so that we feel more whole, more alive, and more intentional in our lives, and describes simple strategies for regulation. Find Michelle Grosser at https://michellegrosser.com/.

After a 27-year career in academia where she had been promoted to full professor, served as chair, as well as served as Associate Dean of Research at her institution, Dr. Martha Mitchell explains that she was ready for something new. Currently working as a manager at a national laboratory for approximately one year now, she has found the new work and new environment to be energizing, inspiring, collaborative, and exciting. In this role, she is also able to continue doing parts of the work she...

In this authentic and inspiring conversation, Dr. Azucena Verdín tells us about how she once did not like the ways she moved in the world, struggled with self-compassion, and easily spiraled into rumination. For a time, she believed leaving her academic career was the answer until she realized--after identifying the role anxiety was playing in her life--that she was only running from herself. She now belongs more fully to herself and is able to work and live with a much quieter mind than in...

You're invited to feel into Fall 2024 and let the new season teach you something! In this episode, I acknowledge the heaviness of fall semester and describe how you can "tap" some of this heaviness away. As you widen your vision and see your life beyond your academic responsibilities and feel connected to something bigger, you are better able to welcome a new season and approach it with intention. Happy Equinox!

Dr. David Weill shares his story about quitting his job—at the prime of his career—as the Director of the Heart-Lung Transplant Program at Stanford. Wanting more balance and a more contemplative life, he says, “I had a real sense that it was time to go.” He now writes in the mornings and does consulting work with transplant hospitals in the afternoons. His new novel about a transplant doctor, All That Really Matters, just came out.   

Dr. Yvette Martinez-Vu shares her childhood realization that anything can happen and discusses how this insight has shaped her career and life. She describes difficult times where she felt unwell in her work and in her body, explaining that in each situation--from burnout to a covid-inspired career pivot--she continually chose her own wellness and wholeness. Yvette emphasizes the importance of self-trust, leaning on her own values, the strength embedded in her support system, and the...

Dr. Katharine Stewart shares her story about choosing to leave her position as Sr. Vice Provost and return to faculty, explaining that while she loves her administrative work, she also loves (and misses) her work as a teacher and scholar. Katharine urges academics to let their values lead, to bring their whole selves to their work, to honor the career seasons they find themselves in, and to foster trust among those they work with. From this place, she tells us, we thrive and our institutions...

Dr. Sheena Howard tells how the president of her institution called faculty into a room and announced the shut down of certain departments and the letting go of certain faculty. She describes the experience as scary and eye-opening, realizing that even though she was able to keep her job this time, that may not always be the case. From there, Sheena invested herself in building side hustles. She now teaches other faculty how to brand themselves for increased income. Find Sheena at on LinkedIn...

Happy Solstice! This episode kicks off the Summer 2024 season. I describe the importance of using the solstice as a natural stepping stone toward your career wellness destination--a time where you can reflect on where you are and where you're going. I offer one strategy to doing seasonal discernment and invite you to try it on for yourself: block off discernment time in your calendar, select a yes/no question about your career wellness destination, open space for answers to emerge, and once...

Dr. Jia urges us to create more space in our careers and lives: space for recovery, rest, compassion, self-compassion, and more. She shows us that space is not absence, but presence. Find Dr. Jia at publishedMD.com or email her at [email protected]

Dr. Felice Russell describes how she navigated the difficult relationship she has always had with academia, leaning on self-trust, leaps of faith, and one-degree shifts to make the many career decisions that have gotten her to the place she is now: a school librarian who feels settled and content both at work and at home. Find Dr. Felice Russell on LinkedIn. Sign up for coffee chats at https://danielledelamare.com/.

Marny Requa explains that life transitions such as becoming a parent and menopause are not just short-term changes and then everything returns to "normal." They are major life transitions that deserve to be acknowledged, honored, and planned for. However, as Marny explains, we are not doing these things well on institutional, cultural, nor societal levels. She tells her own story about how she internalized these larger societal notions as a professor transitioning into parenthood, the...

"Time is so precious," says Dr. Martha Kenney. In this episode, Martha describes the importance of finding your why--a process of pausing, going inward, getting re-acquainted with yourself, and naming your values. Once you know your why, you can allocate your time accordingly, aligned to the intentions you have for your life. Martha explains that her faith softened her to this process. And ultimately, as she explains, time management cannot work well until you know your purpose.

Happy Equinox!! Welcome to the Spring 2024 Season of Self-Compassionate Professor! First, I talk about how honoring the change of seasons invites a more intentional approach to work and life generally: 1) helps us to see beyond the academic calendar, 2) opens us to a sense of spaciousness, 3) gives us a sense of "punctuation" between seasons, 4) gives us permission to let go and let the seasons inform our timelines, and 5) anchors our daily, weekly, and monthly planning in seasonal goals,...

Dr. Dan Lair, Associate Dean of Faculty and Student Affairs at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, talks about the benefits of perceiving our academic work as “just a job.” Specifically, Dan explains what work means to him, the pitfalls of tying your job to your identity, the impact overwork by his academic spouse (me!) has had on him, and surprising findings from his institution’s attempt to address faculty workload issues. He shares simple advice for dealing with overwhelm and...

Burnout and betrayal expert, Lora Cheadle, discusses how self-betrayal often masquerades as burnout, how we can begin the process of healing from self-betrayal, and how to "dance" our way to authenticity.

Dr. Cynthia Ganote describes hiding her artistic interests in graduate school, believing that if her academic community found out that she sang, acted, and danced, she would not be taken seriously. When she took her tenure-track job, she put all of her energy and effort into it, letting go of her artistic work completely. While on the outside, Cynthia’s academic career appeared incredibly successful, on the inside, her spirit was dying. Cynthia describes the messages her body was sending at...

No matter the career decisions in front of you--big or small--making choices from a place of wellness is key to paving a self-compassionate career path. We invite wellness when we invite slowness, connection to self, and connection to inner wisdom. Find your own self-compassionate career path in the Sabbatical Program, which begins September 1, 2023. Register here: https://danielledelamare.com/?page_id=1047

I explain how to know when boundary work is needed, how to use Christina Maslach's six sources of chronic stress (workload, values, reward, control, fairness, community) to find your boundary gaps, and I offer a meditation by Karla McLaren about how to feel an embodied sense of boundaries. Please remember to leave a review of the podcast!

As she prepares to leave one career behind and pivot full-time to another, Dr. Cara Jones describes experiencing a "busy season" in her career. In her academic job as a tenured associate professor, she sets strong boundaries to protect herself from excess nervous system dysregulation while also approaching her work with as much integrity as possible. In her blossoming work as an Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner, she experiences great spaciousness, a sense of timelessness, and a path...

Happy Solstice! Today I discuss why pausing and feeling into your career vision every solstice and equinox creates a solid structure on which your vision may take shape in the "real world." I also explain how to do your own summer solstice planning session this season and in the future. Find out more about the Sabbatical Program here: https://danielledelamare.com/?page_id=1047

Self-trust is an essential foundation on which one builds a self-compassionate career path. When we cannot trust ourselves to make decisions grounded in wellness, we can feel helpless, hyper-vigilant, or both, and get stuck in an unhealthy response cycle. In this episode, I discuss how we can break the cycle of distrust within ourselves in three major ways: 1) feeling the discomfort of unhealthy responses in our bodies, 2) choosing to connect deeply to something we care about, and in this...

In this episode, I explain how walking a self-compassionate career path is extremely difficult, but how doing the work can help you to feel supported in mind, body, and spirit. I also describe my list of "ingredients" for paving such a path: 1) naming honestly your wants/desires for your career, 2) connecting regularly to self, 3) noticing intent when you agree to do something new in your work, 4) setting boundaries, 5) welcoming rest, silence, and slowness in your life/career, 6) being...