One on One with Educational and Child Psychologist Dr Grace Molloy

Tell me a bit about your background and what inspired you to pursue a career in Psychology?

I have always been curious about people, probably for as long as I remember. I put a lot down to my amazing mum and my aunt who always nurtured that curiosity and helped to instil my empathy for others. I used to be fascinated by the BBC show Child of Our Time. It was a show that aimed to track the lives of 20 babies born in the year 2000, all from different family contexts and background. I was only about 9 or 10 at the time when it came out but  that's when my mum told me about psychologists, particularly child psychologists and what they do. So, from that point, I decided I wanted to be a psychologist. It really was as simple as that but, of course, once I started studying I realised how vast the field of psychology is. But that realisation, at about 9 or 10 years old was my initial reason for wanting to pursue a career in psychology later on. 

What spurred your interest in educational psychology?

As mentioned, I always had an interest in children and child development. And that stayed with me throughout my undergraduate degree and masters. However, I spent some time debating between clinical or educational psychology but settled on educational in the end. This was because my work as an assistant psychologist in school based settings helped me to understand the role of an educational psychologist and I was inspired by their creative and systemic ways of working. It struck me how powerful it was to work at the whole system level and how this could lead to positive change for not just one but many children. Plus, I realised that for some of the most vulnerable children, school is often the catalyst for positive change, so the thoughts of pursuing a career that supports the school system to foster that change is what made me certain about going down the EP route.  

What was your journey like leading up to getting on the educational psychology doctorate?

It was quite long and I had to really think about different ways of gaining the experience needed to get a place on the doctorate course. I completed a masters which gave me full BPS accreditation to pursue the doctorate but that alone was not enough and I spent several years gaining relevant experience before being accepted onto the course. I started doing some voluntary work with older adults and with ChildLine before working as a residential support worker supporting young teenagers with autism. From there, I then worked as an assistant psychologist in a specialist school supporting children and young people with autism. I then gained an assistant psychologist job within a local authority supporting looked after children, adopted children and their families. Here I worked alongside both clinical psychologists, social workers and an Educational Psychologists. This allowed me to carefully compare and contrast the different roles, which was really beneficial in terms of helping me to settle on pursuing Educational Psychology. 

Can you tell me a bit about what the educational psychology doctorate entailed?

It was a three year commitment to a taught doctorate programme. It was structured in three parts: university teaching, placement and the thesis research. In year 1 the main focus was on the university teaching. We typically had 2 full days of teaching a week, 1 placement day and 2 study days. Although it varied a little at times. The study days were when we could plan for placement, complete work linked to our problem-based analysis units, complete assignments and start working on developing our research ideas. In year 2 and 3 the focus was much more on placement and our thesis research. We had to complete at least 130 placement days each year and most people did this within the same local authority for year 2 and 3. In year 2, university teaching was for 3 days every month but this went down to 3 days every second month in year 3. In terms of research, year 2 for me was about getting my ethical approval, recruitment and carrying out the research. Whereas year 3 was about writing it up. We submitted our first full draft in the January of year 3 and the final submission was in the April. My thesis, assignments and case studies, along with my placement reviews and evidence of my competencies is what was needed to finish and be able to register with the HCPC as a qualified Educational Psychologist. 

Now that you have completed your training; what does your day-to-day role as an educational psychologist look like?

In the local authority, we do a lot of Education, Health Care Plans and Educational Psychology needs assessments so that takes up quite a bit of my week. Usually this looks like visiting a school, holding a consultation with the parent/carer and relevant school staff to gain assessment information and to help think about outcomes and provision need to support the child to reach these outcomes. Then a classroom observation and some individual assessment work with the child. The type of work I do within the child assessment can vary a lot, depending on what I am wanting to understand further. I will always make sure to do some activities to gather their views about school, themselves and their lives. I like to draw on personal construct psychology approaches for this. I usually keep my afternoons free for things such as report writing, admin and clinical supervision. However, we also do other work on different days and in the past this has included things such as whole school project work, sometimes longer pieces of intervention work with children, drop-in sessions with staff using solution focussed approaches, family work using different therapeutic approaches and staff training. 

Tell me one thing you most enjoy about your role, and one thing you find challenging?

Genuinely, there is so much I enjoy. But if I had to pick one thing it would be the daily opportunities I have to provide a safe space to facilitate conversations, be that with parents, teachers or the child, that allows them to stop and reflect on themselves and the situation. I feel that by facilitating this space it empowers them to identify their own solutions that can lead to positive change. For me, a good day at work is when I feel that I have not 'given' a solution but when a solution has been co-created through a rich psychologically informed conversation with the teacher/parent/child. 

I sometimes find one-off assessment work quite challenging, especially when the work is in the context of an EHCP needs assessment only. This not because I don't think it is important work but is because I think that during the assessment process, children and their families often open up and share a lot. Therefore, it can feel quite difficult to say to them thank you for sharing but not being able to necessarily offer any further involvement with me, despite developing a rapport and relationship within that assessment context. But I have learnt to manage this by what I say at the start of the assessment so that I can be as transparent as possible in terms of my role within that context. 

Can you share a piece of work or research that has really changed or shaped your practice?

I think my training in Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) had massive impact on my practice. VIG is a strengths based intervention that applies the principles of attuned interaction to promote positive interactions. This is usually child-parent interactions however, it has been applied in various relational contexts and has shaped my practice in a lot of ways. To start, it helped me to think about my own interactions with others and how I apply principles of attunement within this. Doing so, has helped to develop my therapeutic and consultation skill, which I draw on daily. It also helped me to develop my skills in being able to support others to recognise principles of this within their own interactions with children and to use this as a way of promoting secure attachment. Particularly with children who have experienced difficulties within their early attachment experiences. Finally, seeing the power of using a strengths-based approach has inspired me to bring this way of working into everything I do as an EP.  There are always strengths, we just need to make sure we are asking the right questions to reveal them. 

What advice would you give to others that are interested in pursuing a career in Educational Psychology?

Try to get as much experience with working with children in a range of contexts as possible early on, as this will help your application once you are ready to apply. In addition, I think it is important not only to gain the experience but also to reflect on this closely in terms of how you feel you have applied psychology and what you have learnt from this. So maybe keeping a journal of your experience and things you could draw on in an application and interview. If you are in a similar predicament to how I was about pursuing the clinical psychology or educational psychology route, I would suggest trying to get experience in both areas e.g., working on a team with clinical and educational psychologists. This will help you to really think closely about the two roles and hopefully help you with any uncertainties you may have. 

Fauzia Khan is an Assistant Psychologist currently working within the NHS, whilst completing her Doctorate in Counselling Psychology.

On Twitter: Fauzia = @itsFauziaKhan / Grace = @DrGrace_EP