Anyone ever get so bogged down that they hired a private/paid supervisor to use in addition to an existing supervisor? Was it effective? I need someone to kickstart my work after 2 years of little progress and not very good current supervisor. Anyone know how I would get a psychology supervisor familiar with IPA research methodology in London?

This sounds like a bad idea to me.

At the very least you need coherent supervision. Your current supervisors, however effective, should have a clear sense of what your work entails and the directions of your research.

An unofficial third party, who may have very different ideas to your appointed supervisors, could muddle things further.

Perhaps a meeting with your official supervisors, involving frank discussion of your project and progress, would be the most productive move at this point.

I would be very cautious about pursuing this approach, particularly without checking your university's guidelines first. There may be issues about having non-authorised people 'contributing' to your work. If there are any problems further down the line it could be difficult to work out who is accountable. And if your actual supervisors find out it could get very awkward with them. Besides, you should probably see what other help your uni has to offer (e.g. do you have a tutor/advisor apart from your supervisors?)

The idea of purchasing supervision, to me at least, is rather alarming. I hope this isn't actually offered anywhere, but who knows?! The Internet is the terrible place! :D

If what you're looking for is moral support; try looking for a journal club to get you reading? Or perhaps try to find a counsellor who can help you address your study issues?

Sorry to hear that you are struggling. Could it be that you might benefit from some outside input but not necessarily something as extreme sounding as 'private supervision'. There's a fellow research student in my department who was struggling due to her supervisors having different opinions on her research direction so she asked if she could talk it through with me over a coffee one afternoon as our theses have a theoretical overlap. Is there another student working with IPA who may be able to spend an hour with you, in return for coffee and cake or a similar small favour? :)

GM

We have all heard absolute horror stories of supervisors who are a total let-down. I heard of someone in Canada a few years ago whose supervisor went abroad for the duration of her MSc and wouldn't even answer any emails!! The university wasn't able to do anything concrete to help within the time frame of a 1-year MSC so the student paid for a private supervisor. As far as I can see, the problem here is not paying for supervision, but being let down by the official supervisor and university. The student justified this to the university pointing out that she was just seeking guidance and the 'private' supervisor wasn't writing her thesis or anything! She also asked for the university to pay but they refused. She moved on and did her PhD in the UK and dropped the payment issue.

These days there is more support available to women who have this sort of horrifying experience, and my advice is to contact your equality office and ask about signing up to workshops, networks, and mentorship schemes which are part of most institutions today (e.g. in the sciences Athena SWAN, WISE or project JUNO). Your institution will most likely have various mentoring schemes, but you need to ask your equality officer because different things are available at different institutions.