Fulfilling careers on show

The fascinating, and growing, variety of psychological careers was on show at the third British Psychological Society Careers Festival. A week-long online event across four stages, featuring 77 sessions, it featured speakers from a huge range of backgrounds who shared their stories and advice.

Among them was Forensic Psychologist Ieva Cechaviciute (Royal Holloway, University of London), who started her career working in New Zealand, with young offenders, sex offenders and gang offenders. After moving to the UK Cechaviciute worked in a medium-secure hospital in London and then in a high secure prison working with people with personality disorders. In 2014 she moved into working with terrorist offenders in the same prison, before transitioning into academia at the start of 2024. 

Cechaviciute said working with extremist offenders involved providing rehabilitative interventions, assessing risk of radicalisation of offenders in the prison, providing expert opinion to parole boards and analysing prison intelligence on whether radicalisation was going on within the prison. This work on counter-terrorism within the prison, she said, would involve a team meeting each week to assess intelligence provided by prisoners and staff. They would explore friendships which were developing to ensure these did not involve enforcement of violent ideologies, as well as protecting vulnerable prisoners who may be at risk of radicalisation. 

Cechaviciute said one day which she would always remember from her time at the prison was 29 November 2019 – the day of the so-called Fishmongers' Hall Terrorist Attack. Usman Khan had been attending an offender rehabilitation conference where he stabbed and killed two people and injured several more. 

Cechaviciute had worked with Khan and had carried out an assessment before he was released from prison – one year before the attacks. She said while it was a shock it had happened, she was not personally surprised that he had gone on to commit a violent attack. 

'My [risk] assessment was actually contrary to what everyone else believed. I thought his risk increased when he was in prison… though he didn't have a lot of violent history before prison, in prison he learned to use violence as part of his survival strategy. My assessment was that he was now capable of not just doing terrorist offending and planning, he was actually now capable of using violence as well.' 

Cechaviciute also gave evidence at the inquest following the terrorist attack a year and a half later. 'It was a very surreal experience, because a lot of the work that we do is quite secret, it's kept in prison where you work and you only speak to your colleagues. 

'The whole evidence took about two and a half hours and… [my assessment] was publicly analysed and judged. They were all quite praising of my assessment and asking how I saw through him and how I could see his risk when other people potentially couldn't see that? And it was very interesting to try to explain myself to the public so they could understand the complexities of the work that we are doing in prison.' 

Occupational psychology

Department for Work and Pensions' Chief Psychologist Dr Antonia Dietmann, also Head of the Government Occupational Psychology Profession, also spoke at the festival. She said the history of occupational psychology within the Civil Service stretched back to at least World War II and now there are at least 250 occupational psychologists working in dedicated psychology roles as well as in areas such as HR, social research, statistics and operational delivery in various government departments.

'Our [occupational psychologist] members, no matter what type of role, do a huge range of work, some really, really fascinating stuff. They might be involved in the assessment of the police officers, prison officers or military personnel, they might be looking after and indicating the safety of road, rail and air, they might be exploring and investigating employees' experiences of working in that particular organisation. Some of our members will be developing leadership programs, investigating and improving organisational culture. Many of our members are involved in supporting people to find work and help them secure appropriate training or work opportunities.' 

Dietmann, who has worked in the Civil Service since 2005, outlined the work of psychologists in the Department for Work and Pensions where she is Chief Psychologist. She said the Work Psychology Service, based in the department, employs 80 occupational psychologists – one of the largest groups of occupational psychologists in the UK. 

'They work with Social Security customers who are claiming UK benefits to support them to progress towards work. They primarily work with customers who have health conditions and disabilities, and the support they provide might be one-to-one or in groups, and the one to one work can include conducting something called the In-Depth Employment Assessment, which explores the person's motivation for work and barriers, particularly as they relate to their health, condition and disability, and then they co-develop solutions that help them progress towards work.'

Psychological professions in the NHS

Since the introduction of IAPT, now NHS Talking Therapies, England has seen a huge expansion in different psychological professions. Dr Adrian Whittington, NHS England National Clinical Lead for Psychological Professions explained the varied, interesting career paths these new professions offer. 

First Whittington busted some myths around working in psychological professions – he pointed out that clinical psychology was not the only destination and that it wasn't essential to have a psychology degree to work in many psychological professions. 

Finally, he said, while the NHS can be seen as too challenging a place to work, it also offers enormous opportunities to make a difference to people's lives. 'We need a more psychological NHS: it's very clear that this is what the public wants. Where the public are surveyed on this issue, by a ratio of three to one… people say they would prefer a psychological approach to mental health care than a purely biomedical approach. There's great evidence for the effectiveness of psychological ways of working, and many psychological therapies are recommended in NICE guidelines.'

To achieve this, Whittington said, the NHS needed more psychological professionals than it ever has. There are currently around 25,000 psychological professionals working for the NHS in England and Whittington said this number will need to double by 2034 – an aim which is written into the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. 

There are 21 different psychological roles within the NHS, and Whittington suggested those interested in exploring the various paths involved in this work can view the Psychological Professions Network interactive careers map. As well as Clinical, Counselling, Health and Forensic Psychologists the NHS also employs psychological practitioners including Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners and Education Mental Health Practitioners, who tend to work in specific settings providing psychological interventions. 

Speaking about career progression, Whittington pointed out these practitioner roles are not just stepping stones but can lead to a fulfilling careers in their own right. He pointed out that while the NHS funds training in many psychological professions, those who are funded for one training course cannot be funded for another until two years after they have completed the first. 

Research day

On Thursday the festival hosted a Research Day in association with Senate House Library which houses the BPS Library. Dr Rachael Skews, Director of Cognus Consulting Ltd, was among the speakers and looked at the current trends in technology in psychological research and interventions and what this could mean for psychologists' career paths. 

Skews started off in philosophy and moved into occupational psychology and a PhD in coaching before working as a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London for 10 years. Following this she moved into health technology as a behavioural scientists and now works with tech startups on using behavioural science and also does supervision and training for psychologists. 

There are many potential areas for psychologists to get involved with technology, Skews said, including in AI and machine learning, wearable technology and mobile phone apps. There are many strands of AI and Skews has been involved with machine learning specifically to help identify the help people may need and looking for signals among the noise of large data sets. 

The role of technology in interventions is of particular interest to Skews, and she said while there are important ethical questions when it comes to using technology with interventions, including environmental impacts and safeguarding issues, there are also good reasons to embrace technology. 

'One of the reasons that there is a lot of work being done in creating digital interventions is that the mental health or the wellbeing need of people across the world far outstrips the number of healthcare providers, whether they are psychologists or mental health practitioners, who can provide that support. One of the real motivations for creating these technology type interventions is to help meet that need and allow people to more effectively self-care. One of the things I'm very motivated to do as a psychologist is to help people to self-care more effectively.'

In her role supporting tech companies with behavioural science, Skews said she works in multidisciplinary teams. She has worked with meditation app Headspace on a randomised control trial of an app aimed at supporting people who live with chronic pain using principles from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).

Skews said this app did not aim to replace medication and provided participants with short pieces of content aimed at targeting psychological processes of change identified in ACT as well as a virtual coaching session. This trial saw good results with a reduction in pain people were feeling – both in terms of frequency and duration – as well as quality of life improvements. 

Skews pointed to other organisations and further reading which would be useful to those interested in a career in psychology and technology. These included the Human Behaviour Change Project, supported by the Wellcome Trust, and the books Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark, Reading Our Minds by Daniel Barron and Start at the End by Matt Wallaert. 

This is necessarily a brief snapshot of a massive programme – it is definitely worth checking out for yourself next year! Cat Bernet-Wilson, the BPS Careers Manager, said: 'The Psychology Careers Festival truly celebrated the diverse career paths and opportunities a psychology qualification can offer. Hearing first-hand accounts of how people achieved their career goals or what inspired them to pursue specific research or roles was incredibly valuable. It was an absolute privilege to be part of such an inspiring event. The festival had something for everyone, whether you're just starting out or already well-established in your career. Each talk was packed with stories and insights, not only motivating new and aspiring psychologists but also providing practitioners and professionals with fresh ideas and opportunities to grow and explore new directions.'