Feeling stressed?  We are here to help.

Resources for Easing Friction and Stress for EAPS (EAPS REFS) is a program that provides confidential conflict coaching to students and post-doctoral researchers within the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at MIT.

Our Mission

We are a support network of graduate student mediators (REFS) who have completed extensive training with Conflict Management@MIT to provide low barrier, confidential peer-to-peer coaching, listening, de-escalation, and informal mentoring and mediation. This means that if you have a problem — big or small, in lab or at home — we are prepared to listen and talk through possible solutions, all in a strictly confidential manner. If you need more support, we can direct you to one of the many additional resources available on the MIT campus.

As REFS, our mission is to help our peers deal with difficult situations and increase the overall well-being of all members within the EAPS community. Primary emphasis is on graduate student support, but we are also available to undergraduates, post-doctoral researchers, faculty, and staff in EAPS.

What is confidential?

Any conversation you have with a REF can be confidential under Massachusetts state law. REFS won’t share any information without your consent (except in circumstances of imminent risk of serious harm to yourself or others).

What is conflict? 

Perhaps you feel that you and your advisor aren’t seeing eye-to-eye. Maybe you’re frustrated with your roommate. Or perhaps, you feel like things aren’t going right and you don’t know how to get back on track.

What is coaching?

We can hear what you have to say and help you work out strategies that will help you get you to where you want to be.

The contents of this page borrow heavily from the BE REFS and ChemREFS.