Hello,

I am in my first year of my PhD and I am having some issues with my supervisors. They are all smart and nice people but the problem lies in our backgrounds. I have a pscyhology background. The backgrounds of my supervisors are engineering and physiotherapy. I am to assess a health technology but I am looking at it from a perspective of psychology and I feel like my ideas are hitting a wall when I try to communicate them to my supervisors. They often go on tangents either inbetween or after I talk about my ideas and end up speaking to each other rather than me. I'm not sure how to go about this but this is cauing a lot of stress for me and I feel like crying. The more this goes one, the more I feel like I need validation from them, and this is just increasing my stress.
Any advice will help, thank you.

Hi, somthingsomethingtired,

You're in your first year. If the supervisors and project are poor matches for you, consider jumping ship to a better matched project and supervisor. You should be able to take your scholarship with you if you change within the same uni. You can read in this forum all the horrible stories from bad projects and supervisors. If you think that you have a high chance of being part of the bad statistics, you might as well take actions now to prevent that. Talk to your postgraduate coordinator in confidence to voice your concerns and see what he/she can suggest. Have a look around and talk to students from other groups or departments to see if there is potential vacancy, and importantly ask about the student-supervisor relationship. You want to go to a good supervisor, not another ill-fitting one.

Hello Tru,

Thank you for the reply and I've thought about what you said. I talked to my supervisors about it and they felt that while there is no need to switch supervisors or take on another one, they said that it would be good to have someone from my area to consult with, which I agree. They said I can pick who I am comfortable with but to first pass it by them just so they know.
Hopefully, this sorts everything out. So far, so good, and I am feeling a lot better now.