By Dr. Noelle Sterne

Q: Should I join a dissertation support group?

— On-the-Fence Joiner

A: “I couldn’t write. I’d be in the library, staring at the portrait of the bearded benefactor, and the time would just tick by. That’s when I decided to join the group.”

Maybe you’ve had similar “work” sessions. If so, consider joining a dissertation group. They can help you with many dissertation-related issues, especially if you’re feeling stuck or really afraid. A group may be the remedy.

Are You a Loner?

When I suggested a group to Sandra, a client who couldn’t seem to get her proposal off the ground and into the computer, she burst out, “I’m a loner! I don’t want anyone telling me what to do!” I understood. A loner myself, I prefer working alone,

but . . . . Recently I joined writing and book study groups. They help me refine ideas, stop procrastinating, and provide needed emotional support. I told Sandra about my recent discoveries, and she tried a dissertation group. A few weeks later, she came back beaming. “I’ve got my first three chapters!”

Find a Group

Search your university’s website, visit the writing center or counseling center, and ask professors and other students about groups at the university. Often announcements will appear for meetings in a certain room on campus at a certain date and time.

Groups may be all women, all men, or mixed. In a same-sex group, members may have similar problems and feel comfortable talking about them (in women’s groups, for example, juggling childcare and balancing cooking and endless research for the literature review). A mixed group may more accurately reflect your later professional world.

The group may be closed or open. In a closed group, you register and the group closes when a certain number of people is reached or after a designated number of weeks or months. In an open group, you don’t have to register and can attend at any time. The group may continue for months or even years.

What Happens in the Group

Goals and procedures are decided on by members. For example, members report on their work and progress the previous week: number of pages written, chapters finished, emails with the chair, data collected. Members may read passages aloud and others offer (kind) critiques. Some members may talk about what’s interfering with their progress, and others may contribute suggestions that worked for them. At the end of each meeting, members declare their goals for the following week.

Pros

Topics may be any that plague graduate students, practical and emotional:  narrowing down your topic, stalled writing, stress, time management, goal setting, selecting and dealing with chair and committee, navigating the academic culture. The group can be excellent for “solace, support and motivation” (Axelrod, 2012, p. 101) and information sharing and writing techniques (Denman et al., 2018; Rockinson-Szapkiw & Spaulding, 2014). My former client Naomi, a new PhD, said, “The group helped my emotional and mental health and increased my self-confidence. The skills I learned in this group benefited me in graduate school—and will throughout life.”

The group can also give you much consolation, camaraderie, and acceptance of empathetic grousing in which everyone speaks dissertationese. Patricia said, “When I hear similar stories, setbacks, and disappointments to mine, I don’t get discouraged.”

Many people join dissertation groups for accountability. As Mike said, “It’s like having a gym workout partner. You’re much more likely to set goals and meet them. The accountability challenges me to have something new to report each week.”

Another reason for joining is to combat a sense of isolation. Kalubi et al. (2020) found that “most graduate students feel isolated at some point during their studies” (p.1). Communities of practice, such as dissertation groups, mitigate the all-too-common feelings of isolation and offer social, emotional, and technical support (Ciampa & Wolfe, 2023; McIlveen et al., 2006).

Oddone Paolucci et al. (2021) found that 91% of their grad student respondents reported that “support from other students was beneficial during the research and thesis/ dissertation writing phases of their degrees” (p. 79). One respondent also noted that peer support and social connectedness (individual and group) gave her “a community of belonging” (p. 80). My client Barb said after her group: “Now I don’t feel as intimidated or discouraged speaking with professors, administrators, and other graduate students. My feelings of isolation and lack of guidance have disappeared. This group has allowed me to find my way successfully at each point.”

Cons

Dissertation support groups can also have drawbacks (Ciampa & Wolfe, 2023). You, or other members, may whine incessantly about the difficulties, trot out personal problems, or expect other members to edit or even write the thing.

Members may also show off with constant one-upmanship, tear down everyone else’s work, burst into tears when their work is critiqued, monopolize the sessions, relate too many disastrous chair stories, or flirt inappropriately. Or they may actually steal others’ ideas. Early, make sure you trust the members.

In mixed groups, some members may feel overshadowed by more dominant ones (John et al., 2023). When I was in a dissertation group in grad school, I recall being intimidated, and muted, by a male student who constantly spouted his esoteric, vast, and very impressive knowledge.

Different members may be at different stages of dissertation production, with different problems surfacing. My client Rachel, who was at her choosing-a-topic stage, said she was “swearing off the group.” Why? I asked. “They’re all talking about data analysis this, data analysis that, and spouting all kinds of statistical jargon. What the heck is the Goodman-Kruskal? Sounds like a wedding announcement.”

The group may also veer off completely from its declared or implicit purpose. Clients have told me of deterioration into gossip fests, especially about professors’ alleged infidelities. Margie said, “I liked the group and the people and learned a lot that helped me get through. But too much time was spent gossiping about other students and complaining about professors.” Trevor vividly described how his group became a party, with too many donuts and too much sugary punch. Marguerite related that her members almost came to blows over a night-long passionate comparison of Netflix offerings. Pleasant or steam-releasing as these activities may be, they are not why you joined the group.

Bowing Out

After a few sessions, you may tire of the gossip or feel you’ve exhausted the group’s value. Announce your decision to leave, thank everyone, and use the time for more productive (dissertation) activities.

More positively, you may realize that you’ve already gained what you need from the group in support, direction, and confidence. Keep in contact if you wish with one or two members for mutual encouragement, but now you know you can work better solo. Congratulations—you’ve just become your own dissertation support group!

References

Axelrod, B. N. (2012). Dissertation solutions: A concise guide to planning, implementing, and surviving the dissertation process. Rowman & Littlefield.

Ciampa, K., & Wolfe, Z. M. (2023). From isolation to collaboration: Creating an intentional community of practice within the doctoral dissertation proposal writing process. Teaching in Higher Education, 28(3), 487-503. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1822313

Denman, P. M., Corrales, J. M., Smyth, S., & Craven, K. (2018). From ABD to PhD: A qualitative study examining the benefits of a support group during dissertation in an online doctoral program. Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 66(2), 106-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/07377363.2018.1469067

John, P. E., Hill, O. C., Wooden, O. S., & Pasque, P. A. (2023). Breaking through racial and gender barriers: Reflections on dissertation mentorship and peer support. In C. Sotello, V. Turner, & J. C. Gonzalez (Eds.), Mentoring across race/ethnicity and gender (pp. 77-105). Routledge.

Kalubi, J., Bertrand, Y., Dagenais, B., Houde, R., Marcoux, S., & Bujold, M. (2020). Graduate students’ mental health: Exploring experiences of isolation and loneliness. European Journal of Public Health, 30(Suppl. 5), ckaa165-340. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa165.340

McIlveen, P. J., George, M. R., Voss, S. L., & Laguardia, A. (2006). Surviving the doctoral dissertation experience: The NW sisters’ study. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 7(4), 168-185. https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol7/iss4/11

Oddone Paolucci, E., Jacobsen, M., Nowell, L., Freeman, G., Lorenzetti, L., Clancy, T., Paolucci, A., Pethrick, H., & Lorenzetti, D. L. (2021). An exploration of graduate student peer mentorship, social connectedness and well-being across four disciplines of study. Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, 12(1 , 73-88. doi:10.1108/SGPE-07-2020-0041

Rockinson-Szapkiw, A. J., & Spaulding, L. S. (Eds.) (2014). Navigating the doctoral journey: A handbook of strategies for success. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

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Dissertation coach, nurturer, bolsterer, handholder, and editor; scholarly and mainstream writing consultant; author of writing craft, spiritual, and academic articles; and spiritual and motivational counselor, Noelle Sterne has published many pieces in print and online venues, including Author Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Children’s Book Insider, Graduate Schools Magazine, GradShare, InnerSelf, Inspire Me Today, Transformation Magazine, Unity Magazine, Women in Higher Education, Women on Writing, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer. Noelle’s ninth story for Chicken Soup for the Soul appears in June 2025 in the volume Self-Care Isn’t Selfish. With a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Noelle has for 30 years helped doctoral candidates wrestle their dissertations to completion (finally). Based on her practice, her Challenges in Writing Your Dissertation: Coping with the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Spiritual Struggles (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2015) addresses students’ often overlooked or ignored but crucial nonacademic difficulties that can seriously prolong their agony. See the PowerPoint teaser here. In Noelle`s Trust Your Life: Forgive Yourself and Go After Your Dreams (Unity Books, 2011), she draws examples from her academic consulting and other aspects of life to help readers release regrets and reach lifelong yearnings. Following one of her own, she is currently working on her third novel. Visit Noelle at www.trustyourlifenow.com