Thesis supervision for study issues and functional limitations
Nowadays, there are more and more students with study issues or a disability. Graduating, working on your research and writing your thesis can sometimes be more difficult if you have study issues or a disability. And of course, you want to make sure that you graduate on time!
Jouw Scriptiecoach can provide a thesis supervisor who will help you carry out your research and write your thesis, as well as giving you support on how to do this in combination with a study issue or a disability. Our thesis supervisors help you to look at the bigger picture so that you experience less stress and time pressure and get your thesis finished on time.
Need immediate help from our thesis coaches? Then request a free consultation now!
Thesis guidance and coaching for study issues
Study issues are becoming increasingly common among students. This can involve all kinds of problems that are often directly or indirectly related to your studies. Study issues are often due to a combination of factors and we take this into account in our thesis supervision and coaching.
Perfectionism
Studying with perfectionism is a real challenge. Perfectionism can be a very nice quality: you want to do what you do really well. The pitfall of perfectionism, however, is that you set the bar very high for yourself and others. When conducting your research and writing your thesis, you are always dependent on others. Your client plays a major role in providing guidance and information in the workplace and often wants a concrete solution, while your supervisor from college/university expects you to meet the requirements of the assessment. This is already a challenge for most students. If you are prone to perfectionism, however, you probably won’t be satisfied with your work and you’ll want to make that piece of text better and even more beautiful. When you’re graduating and writing a thesis, and you want to do everything really well, this can cause you to get stuck. You may feel that nothing you do is good enough, that you’re not making enough progress and, because you may be more sensitive to criticism from others, this can lead you into a negative spiral. Perfectionism is also linked to not being able to let go and wanting to stay in control, and this can eventually result in a fear of failure or procrastination.
Our thesis coaches will work with you to explore how you can deal with your perfectionism so that you can get moving again and successfully complete your thesis.
Concentration problems
Some students find it difficult to maintain concentration when writing their thesis. This can have multiple causes: Perhaps you are naturally easily distracted and therefore find it difficult to work on your thesis for long periods of time. It may also be that you don’t find the subject interesting and you find it difficult to motivate yourself. Or it could be that you’re showing signs of study avoidance behaviour and therefore find it difficult to get started.
In addition, you may have a disability such as ADHD and ADD, which will make it difficult for you to concentrate. Writing a thesis requires a lot of discipline and forces you to rely on your own abilities, and this can be difficult if you have concentration problems. Our thesis coaches work with you to investigate what is causing your concentration problems and how we can break this pattern.
Fear of failure
Fear of failure is mainly related to the way you think in a situation where you have to perform and where you feel enormous pressure. You might have limiting beliefs such as “I can’t do it!” and these thoughts and beliefs cause you to end up in a downward spiral.
Many students who ask for our help suffer from a fear of failure and feel enormous pressure to perform and not fail. Fear of failure is often accompanied by a high degree of perfectionism. If you want to do everything perfectly, you often set yourself unrealistic goals.
And with your thesis, this might lead to you being too afraid to put anything on paper because you don’t think it’s good enough. So the challenge is to break this pattern. Our thesis coaches work with you to investigate what causes your fear of failure and how we can break this pattern.
Thesis stress
Having stress is often portrayed as a negative problem, but there can be positive aspects: stress ensures that you meet your deadline and if the stress is short-lived, it can even you an adrenaline boost. However, if stress lasts longer, problems can arise and writing a thesis can suddenly cause extra stress.
Thesis stress is common and everyone deals with it differently: one student will procrastinate, while another will try even harder to graduate on time. Thesis stress is often accompanied by fear of failure and perfectionist behaviour: you want to do extra well and if that doesn’t happen, you experience thesis stress.
We work with you to investigate why you experience stress and how you can break this pattern. Sometimes all you need to do is plan well and ensure you take enough breaks. But every situation is different, of course. In any case, if you’re experiencing stress, we’ll get you moving again and help you avoid too much tension.
Procrastination, study avoidance behaviour and “sogging”
Procrastination means that you keep putting things off and then rushing to meet a deadline. Procrastination is often related to study avoidance behaviour (“sogging”). Usually, there are logical reasons such as too many distractions, not knowing how to shape your document in terms of structure, receiving too little guidance from your study programme or insufficient knowledge about your graduation topic.
However, you may also suffer from a dip in motivation that prevents you from getting started with your writing. The reason for procrastination is often personal, and we will investigate this together to see what you need in order to get moving.
Thesis supervision and coaching in case of a disability
By a disability, we mean any limitation that makes it structurally difficult for you to study and write a thesis. Functional limitations include all motor, sensory or psychological disabilities, but also dyslexia, ADHD, ADD, autism, chronic fatigue, depression and so on.
We regularly hear from students who are struggling with a disability that writing a thesis is extra difficult. Many colleges and universities now offer extra support, but sometimes you need an extra helping hand when you’re about to write a thesis. Someone to bounce ideas off, someone who helps you divide your thesis into smaller chunks and so on.
Our thesis coaches will help you get back on track. Our thesis support is often very intensive and you’ll have a lot of contact with your thesis supervisor.
We can help you with the following functional limitations:
- ADHD and ADD
- Dyslexia
- Autism
You have ADHD and/or ADD
If you have ADHD or ADD, you may have many beneficial qualities, but maintaining structure and overview and setting realistic, concrete goals can be difficult. In addition, you are expected to be able to carry out your research independently.
Your supervisor or mentor from your study programme will take a much closer look at whether your thesis meets the guidelines of the programme. With ADHD and ADD, ensuring structure and demarcation in your thesis and research is particularly important. As a result, you’ll be able to work on your thesis with more focus. Our thesis coaches will help you with this.
You have dyslexia
Dyslexia can make graduating more difficult. In any case, we advise you to have your thesis read for language and spelling errors before you hand it in. In addition, it may be helpful to receive guidance when writing your thesis. At Jouw Scriptiecoach we understand that, if you have dyslexia, writing a research proposal or thesis can be a difficult process. We also know from experience that it helps if you have someone to support you in the task of writing, applying structure and maintaining a common thread. The knowledge is often in your head, but writing it down and formulating it in clear sentences is often difficult.
This is something we can help you with. Of course, you’ll also receive concrete advice and instructions. You’ll therefore be assigned a thesis coach who can help you with the content, structure and process.
You are autistic
Autism causes you to process information differently in your brain. This usually makes it easier for you to observe details, while people around you focus more on the main issues and are less concerned with the details.
If you’re autistic and are writing a thesis, it can be difficult to separate primary and secondary issues. In addition, there may be a great deal of knowledge in your head, but you may find it hard to justify your decisions sufficiently on paper and that’s exactly what your thesis supervisor from your study programme will be looking for.
You may also get bogged down in details that are not all relevant to your research. If you’re autistic, our thesis coaches can help you write your thesis.
Study issues or a disability? Here’s what our guidance and coaching looks like in concrete terms!
If you suffer from study issues or a disability, writing a thesis will probably take a lot of energy. At Jouw Scriptiecoach, we work with thesis coaches who can support you in writing your thesis and who can also deal with the challenge of your study issue or disability.
Our help is also practical: we help you with structure and overview so that you can get back on track. We help you plan realistically and divide your thesis into sections so that we can give you specific instructions and feedback for each component.
Do you have any questions? No problem: your thesis supervisor is your buddy and sounding board during the thesis process and also a source of support. We will also let you know if we think you’re taking on too much work or setting goals that are too optimistic and perhaps even unrealistic. The thesis process is often intensive and will generally consist of a combination of online guidance and supervision in person. In addition to the process and structure, we can also help you in terms of the content.
The way we guide you often differs according to your situation:
You’re planning to start but don’t know how
If you still need to start writing your thesis, we’ll work with you to look at why you’re finding it hard to get moving and what you need to break this pattern. We also look at the scope of your topic and the thesis structure. We look at the layout of your study programme and set out the structure in the form of a table of contents or mind map.
Then we also look at each chapter to determine what you can incorporate into each section. We’ll give you instructions chapter by chapter. In addition, we can help you make a schedule that includes all the deadlines and contact hours that you have with your study programme.
You’ve started but you are stuck or need to resubmit
We usually start by reading through your document, bearing in mind the feedback you have received and the assessment form provided by your study programme. This gives us a good idea of how you can improve your document. Then we get to work online or in person, dividing your thesis into smaller chunks and giving you instructions to improve each chapter.
We often work with you online and can give you practical instructions immediately. But you can also obtain a response by e-mail with tips and instructions in the document. Then you can send updates to the supervisor of your study programme and together we’ll take a look at his/her feedback. This will give you the clarity you need!
We give you tools for the future
Finally, we also look at your study behaviour. You may frequently repeat the same patterns that cause you to be distracted from your thesis or not make progress. By making these patterns transparent, we can start to break through them.
The ultimate goal of our thesis supervision is to teach you the necessary skills so that you can then continue to work on your thesis yourself. For example, we help you develop skills such as time management, effective planning, staying focused and studying more efficiently.
This will benefit you throughout your life. We offer separate individual coaching sessions with experienced coaches who specialise in problem-solving coaching and Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP).
Study issues or a disability? Get immediate support from our thesis supervisors!
At Jouw Scriptiecoach, you’ll find thesis supervision for every programme. In the Netherlands and Flanders, our thesis supervisors are ready to help you in person or online. If you have learning difficulties or a disability, we have specialised thesis supervisors in-house who can help. If you encounter any problems while writing your thesis, please contact us using the form at the bottom of this page for a free and non-binding consultation.