I was lucky enough to observe Jackie’s Imposter Syndrome workshop, these types of psychotherapeutic workshops are part of the service offered by staff within the counselling and health team alongside 121 counselling. The aim of this workshop was to help students feel more confident and supported in their creative achievements.

Managing the session: Jackie encouraged the students to introduce themselves at the beginning as an ‘ice breaker’ and this allowed them to feel more comfortable sharing their experiences throughout the workshop. It was great to ask the students more about what they wanted to achieve from the session or what they were currently concerned about, I felt like this worked to get everyone involved initially and allow the students to realise there was no right or wrong answer. There was an overwhelming feeling of calm throughout the online session, which was only enhanced by Jackie’s ability to wait patiently for the students to respond and listening so effectively.

Outlining potential difficulties: I felt that Jackie was able to clearly outline the potential difficulties in her OB1 form, she stated that ‘students can feel shy to introduce themselves at the beginning. Also they might feel too comfortable to share their experience. also I will need to ‘contain’ the sharing as ‘oversharing’ can leave a student feeling vulnerable afterwards and others finding it too challenging or confronting.’. Although Jackie highlighted this as a potential issue she was able to listen to students and then offer a fantastic, reassuring, and personable response to their thoughts. I almost felt like each of the students was in their own 121 session with you because her responses were so thorough and thoughtful.

Future facing feedback: Overall I thought Jackie put on a brilliant session and that the students were very pleased with how she tackled some of their initial concerns and enlightened them about some possible work arounds. In future sessions Jackie could think about offering alternative ways for students to share their thoughts. For example, providing a whiteboard or Padlet page that would allow students to ask a question or share something anonymously. In this session most students were confident enough to share in the chat or using their microphone, but I wouldn’t want to assume that every student is comfortable sharing this way, in that sense providing something anonymous might be beneficial.