Student siting outside near fountain area reading a book while sitting on a bench.

Resilience and Wellbeing

Join us on Engage

Graduate school can be an exciting and deeply rewarding journey that also brings challenges, uncertainties, and periods of stress. Resilience and well-being are crucial for your success and overall experience. Resilience and well-being are about more than buzz words—they're about thriving, growing, and finding balance throughout your academic and personal life.

Resilience is your ability to adapt and bounce back when things don’t go as planned. It’s the inner strength that helps you handle deadlines, setbacks, and change. It doesn’t mean never feeling overwhelmed; it means learning how to respond in ways that support your long-term growth and health. 

Well-being is about caring for your whole self—mentally, emotionally, physically, and socially. It’s the foundation for a fulfilling life inside and outside the classroom or lab. 

Programs and Initiatives

Creating inclusive spaces for our graduate students means helping you develop the tools, resources, and support systems that foster both resilience and well-being during your time in graduate school and beyond. The following programs, initiatives, and resources are open to all graduate students. Join us in-person or access resources on your own virtually.
Three graduate students listening at a workshop.

Resilient Graduate Student Series

The goal of this series is to help you develop the resilience you need to navigate challenging situations in school, work and life. The series will consist of six recorded videos, each followed by a small group discussion the following week. 

Meera Algaraja, CEHD researcher, who uncovered a Louisville link to the birth of yoga in the United States and the rise of feminism in India.

MediTEAtion

Come and relax with a cup of tea in community with fellow graduates followed by a guided mediation. Students will also learn meditation practices to employ in their everyday lives. 

Students take notes during a lecture

Write It Out: Graduate Monthly Journaling Club

Join other graduate students and journal at your own leisure or follow a few guiding questions and prompts. Journaling is known to be beneficial for managing stress levels, processing emotions and increasing overall mental wellbeing. Come for a quiet and thoughtful space to “Write it Out.” Offered in-person and virtually! 

Excited Grad Student

Graduate Student Support Group

Join the Counseling Center staff and meet other graduate students from a variety of disciplines with whom you can share your struggles and successes in both graduate school and life. The goal of this group is to provide a comfortable space to receive and offer support as you navigate through your graduate school journey. We will use fun videos and articles to help facilitate our discussion. This group is led by two licensed therapists. 

Student sitting on the front entrance steps to the Belknap Academic center in deep thought while typing on the computer.

Cards SPEAK Kognito Training

Kognito is an online, interactive training. Users can learn to identify students and peers exhibiting signs of psychological distress and motivate them to seek appropriate help. Users can also learn self-help strategies. Kognito training equips faculty, staff and students with the tools necessary to promote mental health and prevent suicide by practicing scenarios online. 

Student, Idaya Gager, sits in a red chair as she poses for campaign.

The Advocate

The Advocate is a newsletter that focuses exclusively on the events in the university and broader Louisville community related to inclusion and scholarship. Click here to access resilience content from past issues. 

About Our Approach

At the University of Louisville Graduate School, we are committed to supporting the mental health and well-being of all graduate students. While many of the resources we provide are informed by Western mental and medical models of care, we recognize that these approaches may not meet the needs of every student or reflect every student's values, experiences, or cultural frameworks.

Mental health is deeply personal and influenced by cultural, spiritual, and community-based understandings of wellness. We acknowledge that healing and support may take many forms, and what works for one person may not be helpful for another. We encourage individuals to explore a variety of resources and to seek out support systems that align with their beliefs and experiences.