Testimonials

When I first contacted Dr. Alison Miller, in October of 2010, I was completely overwhelmed and doubted whether I could finish my dissertation while working full-time and managing a busy family life. I found Dr. Miller’s website, after doing an Internet search for “dissertation coach”. I was looking for someone to help get me on the right track and hold me accountable. I was also seeking guidance and support to address the tremendous amount of self-doubt and anxiety I was experiencing about writing. After our first telephone conversation, she related her experience with getting through her doctoral program and I was intrigued by the fact that she too at one time was a student trying to complete her doctoral program. I knew she understood what I was going through. She put into words what I had been experiencing. That is, I was paradoxically in a constant state of either procrastination or perfectionism and this was impeding my ability to write. As soon as we started working together she helped me to develop a reasonable timeline and she also helped me break down the writing process into manageable steps.  She taught me tools to be a more effective writer. We set up a system where she could check my progress daily and she communicated with me by phone and email almost daily giving me positive encouragement and constructive feedback. She helped me to work through those internal blocks (fear, procrastination, perfectionism) that were inhibiting my progress and preventing me from finishing and she taught me tangible tools to remove those blocks. I worked with Dr. Miller for 6 months and she empowered me to stay focused and productive. The tools I learned from her not only helped me with finishing my dissertation, but I continue to use these tools in my professional and personal life. I am extremely grateful for her help and I highly recommend the Dissertation Coach for anyone who is struggling to finish.

Like so many other ABD students, I allowed the frustrations and uncertainties of the dissertation process to permit too much time to elapse and created giant crevices of self-doubt in the path to completion that truly seemed to be unbridgeable.  With a looming, non-negotiable deadline, I was fortunate enough to discover Dissertation Coach and, through Dr. Miller, work with Dr. Stephanie Latkovski. Beginning with our first meeting on Skype and continuing through submission of the completed dissertation, Dr. Latkovski was either with me or available to me every step of the way.  While her title may be coach, she became an indispensible advisor, supporter, counselor, mentor, teacher, and a bright beacon of light in what began as a very dark tunnel of uncertainty.  At the onset of working with Dr. Latkovski, a plan leading to dissertation completion was quickly constructed and composed of manageable components.  With the successful conclusion of each bite size component she offered further guidance and encouragement, and I felt more confidence and the ability to see with greater clarity the end of the dissertation process.  Dr. Latkovski’s contribution to me achieving my lifelong academic goal of a PhD cannot be adequately expressed in this testimonial and I am forever grateful to her.

The dissertation writing journey has been a long road for me. I had reached a point where I was completely overwhelmed. Even worse, I didn’t believe in myself as a writer. When I received dissertation coaching and consulting as a birthday present, I was relieved to feel that someone would be there for me. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was tired of feeling I was on my own to figure it all out. Working with Dr. Stephanie Latkovski was an amazing gift. She reminded me to celebrate small accomplishments, helped me keep things in perspective by maintaining a sense of humor, and offered empathy and encouragement when I needed it. She held me accountable, yet she was compassionate when I didn’t meet my own expectations and deadlines. Stephanie worked with me to break the task into manageable chunks and create an action plan. At the end of each phone meeting, I had insightful feedback about the strengths and weaknesses of my argument, as well as very tangible steps toward improving the overall logic and coherence of my writing. I am especially grateful that Stephanie somehow always found the time to talk or be in touch with me when I had to make a critical push to meet a deadline. She made me feel like a priority (even over country music and Letterman’s top ten!). When giving suggestions about what needed improvement, she also reminded me of what I had done well. It was nice to feel like someone was really on my side. She believed that I could and would get my dissertation done and that it would be good. Most importantly, working with Stephanie has restored my confidence as a writer. Thank you so much for the support and collaboration

I began working with Alison Miller in Feb. 2008. I was at the stage in my dissertation where I had defended my proposal, collected my data, done some preliminary statistical analysis and written up the beginning of my methods section. In short, enough work that I thought I did not have that much to do and should certainly be able to keep going on my own, but enough still that I felt completely overwhelmed and uncertain of how to begin to take the next step forward. I began to toy with the idea of a coach after a friend in another city had used one with successful results (a degree) and when I began to take an honest, hard look at how long I had been at the point of “only have to run the rest of my stats, write up the results and the discussion” going on a couple of years! Recognizing I was stuck and acknowledging to myself that I did really want to finish was the first step. The hardest part, for me, was overcoming the shame I placed on myself for needing extra help when my friends and colleagues did not need this help to finish their degree. One of the many wonderful aspects of working with Alison is that she helped me address this block to completing my dissertation project as much as she helped with the block caused by my lack of stat knowledge needed to move forward. As a result of working with Alison I defended my dissertation and received my degree in August 2008 (and in all fairness it probably would have been May except for outside committee circumstances), but not only do I have the degree, I have more knowledge and awareness of personal, self-inflicted “road blocks,” organization, scheduling and creating a daily structure that make me more successful in all areas of my life. She gave me many “tools” throughout the process of completing my dissertation which definitely have made me a better person and mother today than I was before working with her! She is incredibly supportive, timely, persistent, practical, non judgmental and knowledgeable about what it takes to complete a dissertation, and, for me, more importantly, what can get in the way of completing any large project and how to effectively deal with those impediments, large and small. I have no shame now in sharing with anyone that I used a dissertation coach, and in fact, am quite pleased to publicly share how rewarding the experience was (obviously).

The skills and weekly support I received from my coach helped me complete my dissertation close to schedule while still maintaining balance in my life. The time and task management skills I learned from her are valuable and transferable to my postdoctoral work. She has a great sense of humor and she provides excellent perspective, both of which made some of the toughest moments of the process more manageable.

Dr. Colleen Halliday-Boykins is an excellent dissertation consultant and is highly recommended. I contacted Colleen when I reached Chapter 4 in my dissertation. I had collected data and was now on a tight timeline. I knew I couldn’t complete all of the necessary analysis alone in time. From the very first phone call with Colleen I knew she was a confident and highly experienced professional in the area of statistics. She immediately put my mind at ease, was consistently professional in all communication, and quickly responsive to all questions I had throughout the process. I was never left wondering if I would get a response – she was that quick at addressing any questions or concerns I had. I was provided with high-quality work that exceeded all of my expectations. Everything was explained so very clearly and I completely understood the how and why of the entire process. Colleen remained engaged in this process completely through my defense answering any question, no matter how small, almost immediately. In our final email conversations, Colleen asked to be notified as soon as I had completed my defense call so she could be one of the first to call me Dr. Kaiser! That shows that Colleen is interested in her clients not just for business reasons but also as real people. I have since referred Colleen to several of my colleagues who have also given me thanks for the referral as their experiences were just as stellar. Thank you so very much Dr. Colleen Halliday-Boykins for a superior job not only in the service you provide but for your excellence in customer service as well.

With literally a few emails and two short phone calls, Colleen was able to provide me with the guidance and direction that my committee collectively had not provided over the course of the two years I had been working on my dissertation. I had already defended my proposal, collected data, and written several complete drafts of my dissertation. Even though it seemed I was close to the end, I could not get past this part of the dissertation process due to several challenges with lack of support from my university, as well as various struggles with my committee. Colleen was able to provide me with the support and guidance one would expect from a dissertation chair. I worked with several dissertation coaches who honestly were a waste of my money and added to my frustration, so by the time I had the initial consultation with Colleen, I was very discouraged that my project would ever be completed and was quite frankly exhausted.  From the start, Colleen provided me with what I needed…someone with specific experience and know-how in my field, realistic goals and flexibility, and the right attitude…that ”in spite of” the challenges I was facing with my actual committee, I was going to be successful in creating a solid finished product.   In essence, she acted as my pseudo-chair. I really appreciated her direct approach and was very happy with her efficiency with product turn around and concise feedback. What I was most surprised about was that she actually corrected very little of my actual writing, but rather she taught me how to approach things differently, and empowered me to be a more skilled writer.  So in essence, I am much more competent in compiling literature reviews and writing up research. By the time I submitted a completed paper to my actual committee, my confidence surrounding my project was unbelievably improved. Not only was I confident in my product, but my passion for my project was renewed which definitely helped facilitate getting to the final defense and then successfully defending.  Wholeheartedly, I feel every penny spent for Colleen’s services was well worth it. I have recommended and will continue to recommend Colleen to other colleagues in need of something more than what they are getting from their actual committee members.

I was ready to drop my dissertation before I started working with Joy Koesten last January. This was my last shot to see whether I could actually complete the task. I had very little faith in the program and myself that I could get this done. It is two months later and with the suggestions, positivity, and motivating words of Joyce, I have made so much progress. I highly recommend Joy Koesten to any one who is working on a PhD dissertation and feels stuck and overwhelmed by it. Thanks to Joy Koesten and the Dissertation Coach organization for connecting me to Joy Koesten.

As I floundered in the dissertation process, the seemingly greatest insurmountable obstacle was full development of the qualitative methodology and research effort set forth in the dissertation proposal.  Then, as part of my association with Dissertation Coach, I had the very good fortune to work with Dr. Joy Koesten.  From our first meeting on Skype, Dr. Koesten proved to be an invaluable coach, mentor, advisor, teacher, and supporter.  She was truly committed to understanding the scope and intent of my research, helping me understand qualitative methodology to a much greater degree than my classroom exposure, and then in a coaching role gently guided my efforts to conduct and report on the heart of the dissertation – my qualitative research effort.  Every step of the way in formulating and conducting the research was only possible because of the clarity Dr. Koesten brought to the qualitative process. From development of the coding manual, through the analysis and discussion of the results, Dr. Koesten provided timely and effective feedback that made me feel pride and resoluteness in my efforts. Without the coaching and encouragement of Dr. Koesten, I know that I would not have completed my dissertation.  For her extremely important role in making this lifelong academic goal a reality for me, I am eternally grateful.

I am currently a student in a Psychology doctoral program in the final phases of my dissertation. I was stuck on the Data Analysis and Results section of my dissertation and was not receiving any help from my advisor. Colleen Halliday-Boykins, PhD worked with me on completing this section of my dissertation. She was absolutely amazing! She was very professional and really knows her stuff. She was patient with me and took her time explaining complex concepts, making even the most complicated seem effortless and easy to understand. On many occasions, after refusing to provide assistance, my advisor would say that I should know all of this stuff on my own. I felt incompetent and questioned my abilities and skills and even questioned whether I could see this through and graduate. Colleen not only helped me understand statistical analyses and concepts, but she also offered me support and encouragement when I really needed it. Her expertise and support made it possible for me to get through this section and move forward with my dissertation. Because of her help I will be graduating this December. As a native New Yorker who questions everything, I was skeptical at first and wary about using a service like the The Dissertation Coach. I wish I could tell every graduate student that it was absolutely the best decision I ever made and it is what made it possible for me to graduate. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

I just successfully completed my dissertation defense in the fall of 2011.  It went extremely well, with few revisions and I owe a large part of that to the guidance and support of Dr. Charles Parekh and your team.   I contacted your company after extensive research of dissertation coaches and it paid off!  I never dreamt that Dr. Parekh could provide so much encouragement and guidance throughout the last two chapters.  Keep up the good work and be assured your service is a vital one to all us new scholars.

Chang-ming Hsieh has been a tremendous help. Not only is he extremely knowledgeable but he explains everything step by step. I feel much more confident about my project having worked with him on the analysis and findings.

Dr. Hsieh is thorough, efficient and presents results in a way that is easy to comprehend.  He has a knack for making complicated analyses understandable.  He has addressed my many questions with clear, quick responses and seems genuinely concerned that I grasp the details of the methods and analyses.  He has been a pleasure to work with.

My direct experience with the leadership and subject matter-experts of Ms. Alison Miller’s “The Dissertation Coach’ was genuinely extraordinary and highly beneficial to me during the pivotal pre-defense stage of my dissertation. The level of customer care provided was characterized by rapid responsiveness, beginning with my initial query and continuing throughout our interaction together.  Special recognition of the statistical acumen and interpersonal skills of Mr. Jeremy Taylor is richly deserved.  Importantly, Mr. Taylor approached statistical treatment of my dataset in the context of my overall dissertation and the associated research questions and hypotheses—going far beyond treating the data as merely “input” for SPSS statistical software.  Patiently and steadily, he assisted me in understanding the strengths and constraints of specific statistical approaches.  He helped me gain knowledge and confidence in “thinking” and “speaking” in a statistically sound and defensible manner.  Jeremy was there when I needed his expertise and guidance the most.  I reserve for him my highest praise and appreciation.

Jeremy provided excellent statistical analysis and explained the analyses he used and why he used them.  He was able to explain the results. He answered any questions I had and was available at any time.  He also provided a disc that tracked his actions in SPSS so that the person can actually see what he had done.