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MHeNs Mental well-being during your PhD

Doing a PhD is an exciting journey, but can at times be challenging and/or stressful. At MHeNs you are not doing a PhD alone, you are embedded in a larger academic community. On this webpage you will find practical advice to help you manage and improve your mental well-being as a PhD candidate.
 

In case you are experiencing any problems, minor or major, we think talking to someone about it is an important first step. There is no easy fix, and while there are resources at MHeNs and Maastricht University available to PhD candidates, we realise it may be difficult to find out where to start. Therefore, we have assembled resources that focus on mental well-being. We hope that this may be helpful to you. If there is anything that you are missing, please feel free to reach out to us.

Contact persons and resources

Mental Support

Find more information regarding mental support at Maastricht University and in Maastricht:

*only for PhD candidates who are employed by UM / MUMC+.

Personal and professional development

By participating in lectures, workshops and training courses you get the chance to develop yourself personally and professionally. 

  • Staff Career Centre (SCC)*: The SCC offers courses on career management, transferable skills and personal development related to work & career in case you are employed at Maastricht University. Did you know the coaches Hanneke and Olga also offer individual coaching, which is free of charge?
  • GoodHabitz online training offers you a wide range of training courses, from short to longer, interactive, fun and with inspiring videos. E.g.: "

    A different way of working together", 
    "Physical and mental fitness", "Peak performance mode off" or "Self-reflection and resilience".

*only for PhD candidates who are employed by UM / MUMC+.

MHeNs contact persons

In case of questions or experienced difficulties, there is always a MHeNs colleague there for you:


Some colleagues are available if you come across integrity issues in the broad sense (e.g. work-related conflicts, undesirable behaviour). Each division has a confidential contact person and the MHeNs PhD coordinator is also available. You can contact the person where you feel most safe. That does not need to be the confidential contact person of your own division.

Sylvia Klinkenberg - Confidential person Division 1.
Maarten Bak - Confidential person Division 2.
Laurence de Nijs - Confidential person Division 3.
MHeNs PhD Coordinator.

Next to the internal confidential contact persons, you can also contact the FHML external confidential advisor if needed.

External confidential advisor (also see “other UM contact persons” at this page).
 

Resources & Inspiration

Buddy system

Recently, the MHeNs buddy system started. The MHeNs Buddy Programme seeks to facilitate an easy transition for new incoming PhD candidates into academia and life in the Netherlands. New incoming PhD students as well as volunteer PhD students who started earlier can sign up. More information read here.

Other UM contact persons

In case of work-related conflicts, undesirable behaviour or integrity issues, you can contact our MHeNs confidential persons or MHeNs PhD coordinator. It is also possible to approach the following (non-MHeNs) persons:

Road map 'scientific integrity and social safety' for PhD candidates.

 

External PhD support 

  • Online PhD support: Arjenne Louter, who has been supporting PhD students for over 12,5 years, offers completely free online PhD support. Register here.