Finding strength in our roots

Graduates often believe that an undergraduate Psychology degree isn't something we'll refer back to as we continue our professional development. For me, that couldn't be further from the truth. Studying Psychology at undergraduate level has provided me with the foundations to take on a wide variety of roles, and it has changed the way I see the world and those around me. 

Psychology is within everything. The work experiences we gain can be applied to more roles and responsibilities than we recognise, and can be the thing that helps us gain more psychology careers experience. The actual management of a university degree can also be a highly important skill that we draw upon as we continue our journey.

Transferable skills

I'll give you an example. I started off working in a hotel and in Greggs doing customer service. Customer service uses a variety of skills that map onto working with clients. As retail or store members those core skills of empathy, problem solving and innovative thinking are all still at play. Despite not yet having official experience within psychology, I was then able to gain a support worker role due to these skills. I think that as an undergraduate student with a passion for Psychology, they also saw someone who could use their learning to benefit the service. 

Being a support worker is one of the best roles you can have when it comes to gaining experience. You are faced with a variety of clients, caseloads to manage, risk and different organisations. It really gave me the best experience of figuring out where my next steps would be within psychology, and the types of clients I feel most suitable to work for. 

My experience as a support worker is what helped me secure a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner role after graduating in 2023 with a BSc in Psychology with Counselling and Psychotherapy from Manchester Metropolitan University. As a PWP, you're expected to manage deadlines just as you are during your studies. The degree also gave me knowledge of the many societal factors that impact mental health. For example, we had studied Bronfrenbrenner's ecological systems theory, and as a PWP I spend a lot of time exploring these different influences, helping clients find support in all areas of their wellbeing. 

Keeping all of my undergraduate assignments turned out to be the best decision I made – as you continue to develop within Psychology, the language and context becomes a bit more thorough and can appear to be quite complicated. My old essays allowed me to gather a basic understanding of what my new assignments were asking of me. 

Studying Psychology with counselling and psychotherapy specifically allowed me to practice roleplaying and triad work. Gaining practice in these areas helped benefit my trainee year, as I had already developed core skills needed to form a therapeutic alliance. It can be easy to feel we won't ever apply the things we've learnt in our undergraduate degree, but in reality most of what we have learnt can be used to open incredible doors in both psychological and non-psychological professions.  

As a psychology graduate, knowing where to take your first step when embarking on a career can be tough. It can be difficult to know how to be successful in interviews, or to know what experience needs to be gained. Perhaps this isn't discussed during the undergraduate years as much as it should be. It can feel disheartening to enter the working world not being prepared for what your next steps must be. Whilst I develop in my psychology career, I am passionate about providing current psychology students with as much guidance as possible when it comes to embarking on their career journeys. 

Strong Black Woman

As someone who comes from not only an underrepresented ethnic minority community but also a deprived area in West Yorkshire, pursuing a career in psychology isn't just something that I have embarked on for my own personal gain, but for the communities I am a part of too. Ethnic minority communities are heavily underrepresented in many areas of the NHS, with a Health and Care Professions Council survey in 2020 highlighting that only 4.3 per cent of psychologists are Asian and only 1.3 per cent Black. The consequence of this, is that ethnic minorities are not using NHS services as they should, due to multiple practical and subconscious barriers. 

In 2023 I conducted my undergrad research dissertation on the 'Strong Black Woman' (SBW) identity, and UK Black Women's perceptions on this and seeking mental health support. The SBW is an identity that all professionals should be aware of when working with the black community, in particular black women. It was created to support black women to be resilient and strong against oppression, but it pressurises black women to maintain a characteristic of strength and can act as a barrier for them reaching out and seeking support.

Understanding the history of the SBW is vital to understanding the experiences of black women and the black community. The identity can be linked back to Slavery and traced to the term 'Mammy.' The 'Mammy' is defined as a mothering, self-sacrificing black woman who takes care of everyone without showing weakness. A key characteristic of the Mammy is her strength, which has been passed down through generations and is still a key characteristic that many black women believe they must show in the modern day.

 Although the SBW identity has existed decades before our current generation's internalisation of it, research within community psychology highlights that individuals don't create their society – instead, it's something that exists before them. This reinforces why it's important to recognise the SBW identity and the strength-based coping mechanisms as part of the foundation for the internalisation of the Strong Black Woman today. Alongside this, Intergenerational Trauma research highlights that coping mechanisms are still passed through generations even once the trauma has stopped.

Around 2015, there was some reappropriation of the SBW which insists this identity is to prevent oppression and, instead, promotes solidarity. However, the key themes of resilience and strength are still the focus of the SBW Identity. The consequence of this is that black women who conform to this identity may be intolerant of themselves and other black women who show vulnerability or distress; the SBW identity can often cause black women to internalise strength and be self-sufficient.

Women who conform to the SBW Identity and internalise characteristics of strength and resilience can often struggle with navigating societal pressures and biases they face. There is also research that highlights that conforming to the SBW identity has an association with increased substance misuse and decreased self-care, due to black women having pressured expectations of the SBW.

What did I find?

Through semi-structured interviews for my dissertation, themes of 'barriers', 'societal pressures of the strong black woman' and 'reclamation' were uncovered. The analysis of these themes demonstrated that the Strong Black Woman identity does impact UK black women's perceptions of seeking mental health support, alongside other barriers within the black community and issues within healthcare services. My participants identified that the societal pressures and original identity of the strong black woman is something they no longer align with. Instead, a lot of them identified things like vulnerability to be signs of strength as well.

My participants identified that they share views on the SBW identity that deter from the original identity. The original SBW reappropriation was used to respond to oppression and build confidence (Davis, 2015). However, the current reclamation of the identity involved participants putting themselves first, asking for help and showing vulnerability. All participants identified that asking for help is even more important as a SBW. 

Participants highlighted that this new reclamation will not only help themselves as black women, but also inspire the next generation to not conform to the societal pressures presented to them. The outcome of this is that black women instead are reclaiming the SBW identity, with an emphasis on allowing themselves and other black women to seek and accept support to move towards community change.

As professionals, it's important that we recognise the history of the SBW identity. When we see it in the present, we must encourage black women to reclaim this identity and have conversations regarding what this identity means to them. By encouraging black women to see vulnerability as a sign of strength and reclaiming what the strong black woman means, we can hope that more black women will feel strong enough to access support.