‘I could do my bit in improving access to the profession’

Can you tell me a bit about your background and journey as a psychologist?

As a child, I loved performing, and spent much of my younger years training to be in musical theatre. I actually went to a theatre school full time for secondary school to train up these skills. So being a Clinical Psychologist now would be a massive shock to younger me, and send all of my performing arts teachers into wild confusion! 

My interest in Psychology came from my experience of caring for a loved one with dementia. During the start of college, my grandma – who me and my mum lived with – got dementia. We were all so clueless and at the time, it felt like there wasn't much help from services. My mum did not want my grandma going into a care home and so we looked after her until the very end at home. Seeing how a dementia altered my grandma and how it impacted the lives of those around her got me thinking about the brain, the mind and essentially what it means to be human. My grandma, Helen, always used to say 'no one lives forever, but your good deeds do'. So this value of helping others, coupled with the new found interest in what I now know to be neuropsychology, led me to study Psychology for my undergraduate degree. 

Like most university students, I began to calculate how I could delay being a proper adult in the big world for as long as possible. So I thought I would try to do a placement year in a clinical setting to see if Clinical Psychology was for me. I worked in a community learning disability team doing dementia assessments and learnt that Clinical Psychology was the path for me! The rest is history and all is documented on my social media. 

What was it about clinical psychology that you were drawn to?

My family holds a strong narrative around the importance of helping others. Many of my family members are nurses, like many Filipinos are. But much to their dismay, I am very squeamish, so I couldn't go down a medical route. After seeing how much of a difference a Clinical Psychologist can make to a person's life on my placement year, I thought, this is a place I could make a difference. Clinical Psychologists are constantly asking 'why?' and this is very much in line with my natural way of thinking. Clinical Psychology training in particular teaches you to work with people across the lifespan, using different models. This means that as a Clinical Psychologist I can be flexible with how I work to best suit the person I am working with. I also love that as a Clinical Psychologist we are trained to do research. This is where the big changes happen. Research leads to recommendations for policy making, which leads to real world change. 

You recently completed your clinical psychology doctoral training. What was your experience of training like?

Where do I begin?! First year was a massive eye opener for me. I think a lot of people go into training thinking they will get a step-by-step guide on 'how to become a clinical psychologist' – this is absolutely not the case. Yes, you learn a lot in teaching but actually much of the learning takes place when you're on placement. Second year was probably the hardest due to the dip many trainees have in energy and motivation. It's no wonder why people call it the second-year slump! The energy you got from starting the course has worn off and the end of the course seems like an eternity away. The biggest challenge of training is how difficult it is to balance work and personal home life. In second year, you have oral exams, written assessments and your thesis to do! It's a lot. My final year felt a lot easier as we could focus all of our attention on the thesis and the end was in sight!

Everyone says training is hard, and it is. It will challenge you in ways you did not know possible and change you in many ways. Every course also has its difficulties because of the amount of work you need to complete while training and the increase in the size of courses. Because of this, make sure to choose a course that truly aligns with your values. If you're on a course that isn't aligned with your personal identity, these difficulties will be more strongly felt and I reckon you'll feel less resilient to these stressors.

What was your experiences prior to getting onto the doctorate?

During my undergraduate degree, I worked in a care home for people with dementia, as a personal assistant for a young lady with Down's syndrome and as a playworker in a service for young people with moderate to severe learning disabilities. All of these roles gave me a chance to learn how to work directly with service users and their families. After graduating, I continued to work as a personal assistant and then got a job working as an Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) Tutor for an Autistic young adult. The ABA approach gets a lot of criticism for its rigidity and is often misused. For this family, it was the approach that worked best for them and the ABA leads were very gentle and flexible with their approach. After 19 failed applications and three interviews, I finally got my first assistant psychologist post! This was a split post, working in a stroke psychology service and in a memory assessment team. 

You will notice a lot of my experience is with the dementia and learning disability sphere. This is due to my experience of caring for my grandma with dementia and due to my cousin with Down's syndrome. These personal experiences not only created interest in these areas but also gave me the confidence to work with these groups of people who are often marginalised. So never underestimate the implications of lived experience on your professional development.

Anyway, back to my career timeline. After about a year of working as an Assistant Psychologist, I applied to the DClinPsy. As it was my first time applying, I really was using it as a practice run but luckily, I got on! 

And what do you plan to do now that you've completed your training?

First and foremost, I plan to rest. Training took a massive toll on my mind and body. Right now, I'm actually sitting on a boat travelling between islands in Bali. There are no clouds in the sky, I'm not worrying about deadlines and I don't feel guilty for just dawdling around. It's lovely! I also plan to reconnect with my hobbies and passion projects like my YouTube channel, podcast and I hope to do some more writing. 

In terms of work, my first qualified role is in a community CAMHS team. I will be working across the neuro-developmental pathway doing assessments for ADHD / Autism and in the emotional difficulties pathway for the more typical secondary mental health service presentations. I'm very excited to start and feel so blessed to be on the other side of training! 

Tell me about your YouTube Channel. How did it all start?

When I graduated, there was basically no information out there about how to become a clinical psychologist that felt accessible to me and then I stumbled across PsychAssist on YouTube. Abdi explained the whole process and provided tips for applications and interviews. Honestly, without him, I doubt I would have ever got that first AP post. When I was going through the process of applying for AP jobs and failing again and again, I thought 'this feels so crap but I bet so many other people feel the same way'. I thought sharing my experiences and reflections along the way would help others to not feel alone in the same way I did. When I got my first AP role, I got tons of questions about how I did it so naturally my content shifted towards sharing my knowledge. I've always been motivated to use social media to demystify the route to becoming a Clinical Psychologist because it's free for people to access. The field of Clinical Psychology is dominated by middle class white women and as a mixed-heritage, working class individual, I wanted to see more people like me in the profession. Diversity in our field is so important and so I thought through documenting my journey and providing information for free, I could do my bit in improving access to the profession!

And what about your PsychYourselfUp Newsletter and podcast?

In a similar way, the newsletter and podcast are all about making Psychology accessible to everyone. A lot of research and books about psychological theory uses lengthy words and jargon. I hoped to create easy to access psychological information for the public through the letter and podcast. I also noticed that a lot of people in the wellness sphere online were sharing mental-health tips that were not backed by research, or sharing tips without providing the reasoning for why these things work. Whenever I consumed this type of content, I felt unfulfilled or frustrated when said tip didn't work. But little did I know, that actually it wasn't me, it was just the advice being provided that was incorrect. So, I aimed to do the opposite and provide evidence-based tips to improve mental health and explain why these things work. 

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

This is a tricky question to answer because so much shapes my work! But I have to say the narrative therapy ideas shared in the Ted Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie "The Danger of a Single Story" has strongly influenced all of the work that I do. It has changed the language I use in therapy, refocuses my assessments to also look for strengths of the person and encourages me to use community approaches in therapy. So, if you haven't already, go watch that Ted Talk. 

What advice would you give to other aspiring psychologists who may be interested in pursuing a career within psychology?

Enjoy the ride! A lot of the journey to becoming a clinical psychologist can be focused on yearning for the next step. As an undergraduate, you want the AP post. As an AP, you want to get onto the DClinPsy and be a Trainee Clinical Psychologist. As a Trainee, you want training to be over as quickly as possible and be a qualified. However, every stage is important and you learn so much that will impact the Clinical Psychologist you become. By constantly focusing on the next step, you fail to realise how far you've come and how many learning opportunities you have in the place you are now! So, expect a long journey, but don't forget to stop and take it all in.