The Art of Self-Presenting
for female Scientists.
From Positive Language to Powerful Performance
Effective self-presenting in the way of showing your strength confidently and authentically at the right moment is an art - and a professional competence that can be learned.
Whether you are at conferences, in front of an academic committee, making a presentation or promoting a research project… the way you think about yourself and how you come across to others will deeply influence your success.
Starting with the concept of positive language and self-expression, we will move on to the “Queen-concept” of grace and flow – supported by mental training and bodywork like “meditation in movement”.
After an overview of classical Rhetoric and speech structure, you will be able to improve your presence and personal charisma in an academic setting/ context and effectively promote yourself with confidence and joy.
"The Art of Self-presentation"
Last week I went to an Arctrain self-presenting workshop. Before going I felt a little bit weird about the fact that it was just for women. Why should we get extra support in presenting ourselves? The workshop very quickly made clear to me that women think different about themselves than men. This expresses in signals we send to others by our body language. It was really nice to get an insight on what body language can do and on how your own body language is perceived by others.
Moreover, the workshop got us an insight into the concept of positive and negative language. Negative language includes for example the use of irony, double negotiations or negative prefixes and suffixes. Did you know that we tend to use much more negative than positive language in our daily life? We are so much more used to say “oh, this was not bad” instead of using positive words and – as we learned during the workshop - this has not only a strong influence on how we are perceived but also on how we make us feel ourselves.
Anouk Vlug and Hannah Nowitzki
The ‘The Art of Self-Presenting’ is a workshop within ArcTrain that was led by Dr. phil. Saskia Schottelius who is a mental trainer and teacher of meditation, martial arts and philosophy. The workshop was only for female Scientists. From our ArcTrain group Anouk, Myriel, Lina, Natalia, and Deniz attended.
The overall goal of this workshop was to improve our self-expression and present ourselves in a way that we leave a long lasting and positive impression on both individual persons and audiences. We acquired theoretical knowledge about the Impostor-Syndrome, positive language, how to empower our self, body language and classical Rhetoric. To all of these topics we had many very helpful exercises, role plays and group work. We did Qigong exercises, meditation and power poses to increase awareness in motion, relax our mind, feel more confident and get less stressed. We gave and received a lot of feedback and got the chance to practice presenting our PhD project authentically, confident and positive. We all enjoyed the nice and comfortable atmosphere in our group, learned a lot about ourselves and the impression we leave to others. We got aware about our strengths and where we still can improve.
Thanks a lot to our trainer Saskia Schottelius and to ArcTrain for making this workshop possible.
Myriel Horn, June 2017
Resilience Training for Female Scientists
How to transform a crisis into a challenge
Resilience is the ability to keep on going no matter what setback or struggle comes into your way. Highly resilient people are able to rebound successfully during challenging circumstances and are always open to new learnings and new opportunities. Strengthening your resilience muscle is a skill that can lead to more self-confidence, less stress and more effective work management in the academic context.
In this workshop we will focus on how resilience can be learned and how it can be used for your personal growth and academic success and solutions. The key will be a training in mindfulness, based on awareness in language and in motion. After a lot of practice, movement and experimenting we maybe will be able to look forward to our next crisis and handle our conflicts with generosity and grace.
You can say what you want!
Assertiveness-Training for public events
A strong impact, presence, individual expression, looking good, a calm and collected counter…, but also:defining your borders, retorting to verbal attacks, showing fighting spirit, reacting immediately, being courageous and trusting yourself… this and much more we will be training in our workshop “secure and self-confident”. We practise direct communication and self-presentation as much as assertiveness, mindfulness and meditation. After a lot of practice, motion, fun and experimenting it´s clear: These all go together to create a convincing self-expression and to support and encourage you when you are under pressure in your personal and professional life.
Topics
Positive language and mental power
Self-expression and body language
Crises- and conflict management
Verbal response training
Confrontation-training
Contents:
Body: Language in motion
Body language and self-expression for a solid status
Corresponding: Exercises from Martial Arts and meditation
Meditation in motion: Taoistic health exercises
Voice and mood
Self-expression
Find your individual shape; dare to be who you are
Awareness in language and motion
Positive language, self-esteem and self-advocacy
Relaxed counter: creative quick-wittedness
Responding like a tiger or a crane
Experimenting with ready-witted strategies
Office-Wendo: Assertiveness in 3 sentences
Clarity: Clearly formulating your desires and statements
Contour: Getting noticed and been taken seriously
Charisma: Authenticity, respect and dignity
Methods:
Brief theoretical inputs
Mental Training
Indiviual and group work
Role plays
Analyses, refecting, coaching
Exercises in awareness and meditation
Voice- and bodywork
Trainer:
Dr.' phil. Saskia Schottelius, M. A., born in 1963, studied German, Communications Research and General and Comparative Linguistics at the University of Bonn (M. A. 1988/ PhD 1994). She is a mental trainer (1993) and teacher of martial arts, meditation and philosophy. She gives courses and seminars on the subject of personality development and career training for women throughout Germany and promotes the dissemination of modern martial arts philosophy and the theory of communication awareness in her trainings and publications.
Co-trainer: Antje Meister, born 1966, police officer/ detective, martial artist, psychological counsellor and artist/ painter.