PhD Coaching & Mentoring
Structured, informed support at every stage of your doctoral journey
Embarking on a PhD is a significant intellectual and personal undertaking — and it’s not uncommon to feel uncertain, isolated, or under-supported, especially in the early stages. This is particularly true for students navigating academia for the first time (first-generation doctoral students), or those working without consistent guidance from supervisors, or support from friends and family.
I offer PhD coaching and mentoring grounded in extensive academic training and teaching qualifications, including a PhD in the social sciences from the University of Cambridge and extensive experience supervising students there. My approach combines clear, practical strategies with thoughtful, personalised support, helping you gain clarity, build momentum, and move forward with confidence.
Whether you’re just beginning your PhD or preparing for your viva, I can support you with:
- Clarifying your research direction and structuring your project
- Thinking through your ideas and bringing them together usefully
- Developing a strong and appropriate methodology; designing your research to be logical, rigorous and coherent
- Staying accountable and managing your time effectively
- Finding tools to help you work efficiently
- Handling your PhD study as a part-time student, and/or a carer
- Focusing your time as a person with neurodivergence, including autism and ADHD
- Navigating supervision difficulties, including relationship, power and status issues, and institutional challenges
- Strengthening your academic writing and argumentation
- Moving through academia as a woman, queer or non-gender conforming researcher
- Editorial feedback and help editing text
- Support with referencing including using Zotero
- Preparing for thesis submission and the viva (UK format; either your registration viva or your final viva), and post-PhD plans
- Making corrections after your viva, including checking references, adding auto-contents, and restructuring
While emotional and moral support is part of the process, my focus is on providing practical, rigorous guidance that is tailored to your research and your goals. I work with students across disciplines, with a particular interest in supporting first-generation doctoral candidates and those without established networks in academia.
If you’re looking for professional, informed, and constructive support at any stage of your PhD, I’d be pleased to hear from you. You’re welcome to get in touch to arrange an initial conversation. I offer the first 20-minute discussion for free, after which you can decide if you’d like to arrange a weekly, two-weekly or monthly coaching session with me. I also offer one-off strategic days (7 hours, with breaks) or half-days (3 hours, with a break) if you have a larger, more complex issue to work through.
All sessions are online, through Zoom.
I am most well versed in UK doctoral formats but am happy to take international clients, convenient time permitting.
Which Session is Right for Me?
Coaching Sessions (regular or one-off): 50 minutes
In this session we can solve a problem that is currently blocking you from moving forwards in your PhD work. This might be related to literature review, study design, conducting the research itself, writing up, editing or viva preparation. We can also use this time to discuss any social, mental or emotional issues that are blocking your progress and how I can help you move forward with them. Most clients benefit from weekly 50 minute sessions, which allows us to work in-depth on making impactful progress.
Troubleshooting: 3 hours, inclusive of a break
In this session we can tackle an issue in slightly more depth. This could be related to your method of synthesising literature, your conceptual or theoretical framework (including exploring the difference between the two), tweaking your abstract to make it exceptional, or making an outstanding graph, chart or infographic. We can also use this time to discuss in more detail any social, mental or emotional issues that are blocking your progress and how I can help you move forward with them.
Intensive Clinic: 7 hours, inclusive of breaks
In this all-day session we can take the time to explore one large or thorny issue in depth, or several issues. This could be editing a large section of text together; creating several high-quality graphs, charts or infographics; considering coherence across the chapters/sections of your thesis; ensuring your conceptual or theoretical framework is used coherently; working on referencing issues or learning how to use a reference manager such as Zotero; checking or adding table and figure captions properly so they can be included in an automatic table; improving your literature review to be more critical or logically ordered; or improving your conclusion and implications. We can also use this time to discuss in more detail any particularly tricky social, mental or emotional issues that are blocking your progress and how I can help you move forward with them.
Practice/Mock Viva: 3 hour online session plus 7 hours paid preparation time for me to read your thesis
In this session I will fully prepare and administer a bespoke mock/practice viva session for you (either a registration viva or full viva). I will spend some time briefing you and checking your goals, then move into the practice viva session, after which I will give you thorough feedback and tips for improvement/success. Please note: you will need to send your thesis to me a minimum of seven working days beforehand. If you are unable to find a slot please email me for further flexibility.
Book a Free Consultation
A free 20-minute discussion, after which you can decide if PhD Coaching & Mentoring is right for you and if you’d like to arrange a weekly, two-weekly or monthly coaching session with me.
Pricing
Coaching Session
£60
50 minutes.
In this session we can solve a problem that is currently blocking you from moving forwards in your PhD work.
Troubleshooting
£216
3 hours, with a break.
In this session we can tackle an issue in slightly more depth.
Intensive Clinic
£504
7 hours, with breaks.
In this all-day session we can take the time to explore one large or thorny issue in depth, or several issues.
Practice / Mock Viva
£720
3 hours session + 7 hours prep.
In this session I will fully prepare and administer a bespoke mock/practice viva session for you
Booking
If you can’t find a convenient available slot, please get in touch via the Contact Me page to see if we can arrange something that works for you.
Testimonials
Previous clients/students have said:
“Lucy always manages to tease out the things that I am most struggling with, and help me see the options in front of me more clearly.”
“Feels very much like therapy!”
“I love that the supervision space feels really comfortable and supportive”
“It was wonderful to work with Lucy who provided excellent support and was always calm, professional and encouraging. She had much insight and improved my book by noticing things I’d never have seen and no one else spotted. I’d definitely make sure I worked with her again on any non-fiction project. She has a unique skill set and a warm can-do attitude. Delightful and insightful.”