Psychologist takes a Taoist approach to mentoring

In psychologist Nirbhay N. Singh, PhD, Kristen McAleavey, PhD, has found a research mentor who looks beyond her publication tally. He checks to see that she eats and sleeps right, that she?s emotionally grounded.

'He wants to be sure that I?m happy in all parts of my life,' says McAleavey, a psychologist and postdoctoral fellow at the Virginia Commonwealth University. 'If something?s wrong, he helps me restore a balance.'

What?s more, McAleavey says she?s publishing more research than she ever has before. A clinician seeking to polish her research skills, McAlveavey has studied eating disorders and chemical dependency and has now broadened her interests. Over the past several months she?s published three studies on psychotropic medications and perpetrators of racial violence.

And that success she attributes largely to eight months of mentoring with Singh, a professor of psychiatry, pediatrics and psychology, whose research interests include mental health and alternative medicine, psychopharmacology and mental retardation. According to McAleavey, Singh?s other mentees also churn out a steady stream of research, benefiting, she says, from their hour long weekly meetings and steady e-mail correspondence with him.

Born on the Pacific island of Fiji and trained in New Zealand, Singh draws his mentoring style primarily from Eastern traditions, particularly the Buddhist notion that every person is simultaneously a teacher and a student?a mentor and mentee.

'The Eastern mentoring relationship is much like a dance in the sense that it?s an interaction between two actors,' says Singh. 'I make a movement, they make a movement and we move around. This differs from the traditional Western model where an older person passes on knowledge to a younger one.'

Singh also focuses on the whole human being 'rather than just the academic,' he says.

'With the competition for grants and the drive to publish, it?s easy for young researchers to forget about the rest of their lives?their families, friends and communities?to become centered in themselves instead of self-centered,' says Singh. 'I try to help them become more well-rounded in all parts of their lives, so they have more strength to proceed as academics.'

Tao mentors don?t impose a fixed set of teachings and requirements on the mentee, but instead familiarize themselves with the mentee?s needs, says Singh. 'They understand that everyone sees the world differently,' he says. They cultivate mutually beneficial relationships in which they learn from their mentees, while sharing what they themselves have learned, says Singh.

And, says McAleavey, mentees needn?t worry about Tao mentors overstepping personal boundaries, because mentees set the parameters of the relationship.

However, the mentor provides a structure that keeps the relationship moving forward: In applying Eastern principles in the Western context of cultivating young researchers, Singh:

? Works with each mentee to develop writing, editing, publishing and presentation skills for a successful academic career.

? Offers himself as a role model to demonstrate leadership and team-building skills.

? Teaches the mentee a flexible approach to problem-solving.

? Tailors the mentoring relationship to the mentee?s worldview and cultural background.

? Helps the mentee develop psychological strategies to manage stress and find satisfaction, personally and professionally.

Aside from McAleavey?s personal affirmation of the approach, Singh also offers outcome data showing that his mentees steadily produce more research papers during their years with him. 'We develop a plan of where they are and where they want to be, and then we get there,' says Singh.

?Bridget Murray