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You're learning how to do research.
But who is helping you become the researcher?
Maybe you’re deep in your PhD and constantly wondering whether you’re doing enough.
Maybe you know your research inside out, but still second-guess your decisions.
Maybe you’re making progress, but everything seems to take more energy than it should.
Maybe you’re nearing the end of your PhD/thesis and starting to wonder:
What happens next?
Or maybe you’ve already submitted and realised that finishing the thesis didn’t automatically answer the bigger questions about your career, your identity or where you want to go.
If any of this sounds familiar, you're not alone.
Because becoming a researcher involves much more than learning research methods, writing a thesis or getting your work published.
It's also about learning how to think, decide, communicate, navigate uncertainty, trust yourself, work sustainably and find your place in the wider research world.
And much of that development happens without anyone explicitly teaching you how to do it.
Introducing
What if you took at step back?
Meet The Researcher Experience
A free 2-day experience for PhD and other research students and early-career researchers who want to step out of the day-to-day demands of research and take a closer look at the researcher behind the research.
Over two days, we'll create a space toexplore:
Where you are now.
What you've already developed.
What feels difficult right now.
What you want to develop next.
And perhaps the most important question is:
What could become possible if you intentionally invested in yourself as a researcher?
This isn't about adding more to your already-full to-do list.
It's about stepping back, seeing the bigger picture, and becoming more intentional about the researcher you're becoming.
You'll leave with:
A Researcher Development Snapshot
A chance to see where you are across key areas of researcher development.
A clearer sense of what you need next
Not everything. Not all at once. Just the areas that matter most for you right now.
A framework for your development
A practical way to move from understanding to action.
Your 90-Day Researcher Development Plan
A clear focus and practical next steps for the months ahead.
And it's completely free.
2 live online sessions · October · Free
Register Free
DAY 1: Understand
The researcher you are becoming
Research has a way of changing you. But it's not always obvious what is changing, or what you are actually learning along the way.
Day 1 is about stepping back from the research itself and looking at you as the researcher.
We'll explore:
The hidden curriculum of research
The things researchers are often expected to figure out for themselves — from navigating uncertainty to making decisions, managing relationships and finding their way through an unfamiliar environment.
Researcher identity
The shift from being someone doing a PhD to developing your identity, voice and confidence as a researcher.
Self-trust
Research rarely gives you complete certainty.
How do you learn to make decisions, trust your thinking and keep moving when you don't have all the answers?
Research thinking
Moving beyond knowing information to questioning, synthesising, interpreting, connecting ideas and making judgements.
Sustainable performance
Because becoming a capable researcher isn't about seeing how much more you can fit into your day.
It's about learning how to do meaningful work in a way you can sustain.
Direction & possibility
Your research project is one part of your journey.
What becomes possible when you start thinking about the researcher — and professional — you want to become beyond it?
Your Researcher Development Snapshot
You'll have the opportunity to step back and reflect on where you are now.
Not to find everything that's "wrong."
But to recognise:
What you're already doing well.
Where you're growing.
What feels challenging.
And where a little intentional development could make a meaningful difference.
DAY 2: Develop
From awareness to action
It's one thing to realise what you want to change.
It's another thing to actually develop it.
Day 2 is about moving from insight into action.
We'll explore:
Why knowing isn't always enough
You can have the knowledge, the resources and even the best intentions — and still struggle to turn them into consistent action.
We'll explore why.
How capability actually develops
Through practice.
Feedback.
Reflection.
Application.
Accountability.
And the environments we place ourselves in.
The Researcher Development Cycle
UNDERSTAND → DEVELOP → APPLY → EXPAND
A simple framework for thinking about development as an ongoing process — not something that ends when your thesis is submitted.
Self-leadership
Moving from:
"What do I need to do?"
to:
"What do I need to develop?"
That shift can change how you approach your research, your career and your next chapter.
Your next 90 days
You'll finish the experience by creating your own 90-Day Researcher Development Plan.
A practical opportunity to turn what you've discovered over these two days into something you can actually carry forward.
You'll identify:
What you want to develop
Why it matters
What you'll practise
What support you need
And what your next steps will be
Because insight is valuable.
But insight that becomes action is where development begins.
Is this for you?
This experience is for:
✔ PhD, Masters, or other HDR research student
✔ Postdoctoral or early-career researcher
✔ Researchers curious about learning new tricks to success
✔ Research professional
You might be:
Capable, but uncertain.
Busy, but not always progressing.
Motivated, but stretched.
Confident in some areas and stuck in others.
Unsure what you actually need to develop.
Starting to think seriously about what comes after the PhD.
Or simply curious about what it would look like to become more intentional about your development as a researcher.
You don't need to be struggling to benefit.
You just need to be ready to step back, reflect and look at what's next.
This isn't another workshop
We're not going to tell you how to write another chapter.
And we're not going to pretend that two days can solve everything.
Instead, we're creating space for a different conversation:
What does it actually take to develop as a researcher?
Because your research skills matter.
Your knowledge matters.
Your thesis matters.
But so does the person behind all of it.
WHY WE CREATED THIS
For more than a decade, Complete Thesis Support has worked alongside researchers through the intellectual, practical and human experience of research.
We've supported researchers through thesis development, writing, methodology, publishing, examination, career transitions and the many challenges that sit around the research itself.
And we've learned something along the way:
Better research starts with developing the researchers behind it.
That's why CTS is evolving beyond traditional thesis support into a broader researcher development ecosystem.
The Researcher Development Experience is an opportunity to experience that approach for yourself.
What You'll Walk Away With
By the end of the experience, you'll have:
A clearer understanding of why some do well and other researchers don't ever get there
You'll see the difference between acquiring research skills and developing the researcher behind those skills.
A new perspective
A chance to step out of the research and see yourself as the researcher behind it.
Greater clarity
A clearer understanding of what you're already developing — and what you want to focus on next.
A practical framework
A way to think about your development beyond simply collecting more knowledge.
Your 90-Day Plan
A clear direction for the next stage of your journey.
A community of researchers
An opportunity to connect with other people navigating their own research journeys.
Your Research Matters.
So Does The Researcher Behind It.
Join us for The Researcher Development Experience.
2 live online sessions · October · Free
Come for the experience.
Leave with greater clarity about where you are, what you want to develop, and where you want to go next.
About the Complete Thesis Support
For more than a decade, Complete Thesis Support has worked alongside researchers navigating the intellectual, practical and human experience of research.
We've supported hundreds of researchers through different stages of their research journey — from thesis development and writing through to researcher capability, confidence, career development and what comes next.
We've learned something along the way:
Better research starts with developing the researchers behind it.
That's why CTS is evolving beyond traditional thesis support into a broader researcher development ecosystem.
And this experience is an opportunity to experience that approach for yourself.
Hear What Some of Our Cohorts Have to Say...
"I take this opportunity to thank you and your team for the excellent presentations and the advice/tips on taking on PhD Thesis/Publications. I could not thank you all enough. Your teachings and documents will be a reference for me, not just for my PhD now, but a skill that will be carried on into the future." RM, PhD Student, The Univesity of Melbourne
"Could not be happier to belond to this group! Glad that I found a great team of professionals fully committed with their work and passionate about helping and supporting students in their thesis." BL, Masters Student, Universite catholique de Louvain, Belgium
"I have been working through stuff and Izelle, the slides have been very helpful to keep my structure I feel less stressed. Thank you so much. I don't know how many times I wanna quit but every time I talk to u, I see some light." JW, PhD Student, University of Sydney
"...have been reflecting today just how amazing and dedicated you are with helping students. Exceptional people like you, make all the difference to helping others reach their best selves. It's truly special and feel so grateful to have met you." JM, PhD Student, Monash University
"I am listening to some of the Q&A sessions, and I am getting so much out of them, I wish I had been confident to attend them earlier on - you have no idea how everything in these recordings is helping me so much." BM, PhD Student, RMIT
"10/10! In the last week - since starting this program 😉, I've achieved more clarity around my thesis and more confidence in my ability to achieve it than in the past three years of my PhD. Honestly. Stress levels have gone from 10 down to a 2." RH, PhD Student, The University of Melbourne
"You are truly an inspiration and always remind me to be positive. It's always amazing speaking to you. Keep doing what you are because it's fantastic." MK, PhD Student, The University of Bradford, UK
Meet Our Team
Dr. Izelle Labuschagne
Founder of Complete Thesis Support & the Thesis Mastermind
She is an accomplished researcher and neuroscientist, with over 16 years of experience. She brings a strong passion to support early-stage researchers. Her student supervision expertise has been the best, with some of her last PhD students passing without corrections, just like she did in her PhD.
Izelle is also a very experienced examiner of all other types of theses (Masters, Doctorate, and Honours) and has been a panel member or Chair of many student milestone reviews across many universities and institutes for over 12 years.
With a strong team around her, Izelle has a strong passion to empower and lead research students to achieve their thesis goals with ease and confidence so that they can start their dream careers.
Izelle has an impressive track record of publications and has recently published in Nature and Lancet journals.
Alexandra Gorelik
She brings 17 years of high-quality research experience as an analyst and research methodologist with a background in statistics/data science and quality assurance from an M.Sc. degree in Quality Assurance and Reliability.
She has experience in data management, analytics, and business intelligence, with an established reputation in study design and conduct of both qualitative and quantitative research.
As a passionate teacher, Alex enjoys seeing students excel and grow in their core research skills and in improving others' awareness of the value of the data, ways to maximise data captcha, and the use of existing and novel technologies to collect data. She's experienced in working with students on all various types of theses, especially Honours, Masters, and PhD.
Alex has an impressive track record of publications in top journals and national awards for clinical trails. She has recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
