Laura Durkin, in fulfilling the requirements for a PhD in Counselor Education & Supervision at Antioch University Seattle, has written and published a dissertation titled Experiences of Dissertating Students: What Works?
Durkin investigates how CES doctoral programs can better support dissertating students. Guided by frameworks on student attrition and institutional racism, she examines the dissertation-specific program factors that influence the time to completion and identifies the interventions that most effectively foster social belonging and academic confidence. Using anonymous online surveys with demographic and open-ended items, she gathered responses from twelve graduates and conducted a thematic analysis. Seven themes emerged: intersectionality and identity, attrition, relational support within institutions, incorporation of programmatic structure, programmatic barriers, academic-life balance, and emotional and mental health. Durkin translates these findings into strategies for counselor education, including strengthening advising and peer networks, formalizing dissertation milestones and transparent expectations, addressing structural barriers that differentially affect marginalized students, and embedding wellness supports to reduce attrition and accelerate completion.
Durkin is a counselor educator, supervisor, and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist based in Seattle, WA. Her clinical work centers on somatic therapy for individuals and couples navigating complex identity intersections. She focuses on accessibility in higher education—especially dissertation-phase interventions—and teaches and supervises with a transparent, relational approach that promotes sustainability for clinicians from diverse backgrounds.
Read and download Durkin’s dissertation, Experiences of Dissertating Students: What Works?, here.
