Hello and Welcome to The Aspiring Psychologist Blog!
My name is Tanisha Kumar, and I have been working as an Assistant Psychologist since September 2019. I am also currently in the midst of completing a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London. This specific post is going to be focusing on my experience on how I became an Assistant Psychologist (AP) from being a Graduate, and some useful hints and tips I learnt along the way that may be beneficial when applying for a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.
My Final Year and Graduation:
During my final year at University, I realised that I had no idea where life would guide me after graduation. Some people talked about taking a gap year and travel, others decided to go onto completing a Master's degree or join the working world. At this point I had been working at Sainsbury's part-time for nearly 6 years, and knew that I did not want to continue working there forever (not that there is anything wrong with working in a supermarket, but it was not aligned with my values and goals at that time)! I had previously attended Psychology career workshops during my time at University, but found them quite vague and outdated - there was no real guidance on how to become a Clinical Psychologist. Yet, it wasn't until I had actually spoken to a relative who worked within the NHS, that gave me some guidance onto how I can utilise my degree within the workforce and gain some experience to end up where I currently am. He advised me:
To start applying for Support Worker roles whether that may be within the NHS or any other health sector - AP roles tend to look for at least 6 months prior experience as a Support Worker.
Once you have gained enough experience, start applying for AP roles (again either within the NHS or any other health sector) - if you are interested in becoming a Clinical Psychologist, you need at least 9 months experience as an AP in order to apply for the DClinPsy (Doctorate) programme, as well as achieving a 2:1 or above in your Undergraduate Degree.
And so it began, I started applying for Support Worker roles during my final year at University. Eventually I was hired as a Mental Health Support Worker within the NHS. I realised, my journey had only just begun, and perhaps it wasn't as easy becoming a Clinical Psychologist as I initially thought it would be...
Being a Mental Health Support Worker:
My Journey thus began in June 2019, working for a Crisis Team within the NHS as a Mental Health Support Worker. I can't lie and say it was one of the easiest jobs I ever had, but the benefit of being a Support Worker is that you learn a lot of transferrable skills, the way healthcare operates and guidance along the way. My role consisted of operating a telephone line for people in crisis, and supporting a multi-disciplinary team (something they look for in AP roles!) to contribute to the wellbeing of those with mental health disorders. It is important to note that there are various types of Support Worker roles (as you will find out in later blog posts), and each vary in regard to the type of work, team etc. Though, the main element of this, is that the skills you gain from these jobs are highly regarded in AP roles.
Whilst I was working as a Support Worker, I was advised by the AP's in that team to apply for Assistant roles whilst working, as they are reasonably competitive posts, and often some services may interview applicants far later than when the job was initially advertised. During the application process for AP positions, Psychologists are interested in your skill set, your experience working in a Healthcare setting such as the NHS, and being able to work in a multi-disciplinary team. I spoke to a Lead Clinical Psychologist within my service at the time for some advice in regard to applying for AP roles, and received the following suggestions:
Apply for as many AP roles as you can (especially for services you find interesting) - You can do so on the NHS job website.
Psychologists tend to recruit people who have already had experience in a work setting (not necessarily related to being an AP), and not just education - "we do not have the capacity to teach someone the basics of working life, but rather the skills on how to become a psychologist".
During the application process when writing your personal statement, it is often useful to bullet point your education/achievements/or skills rather than writing block paragraphs to capture main points, making it easier for recruiters to read and follow.
Interviews tend to focus on skill-based questions, and not solely prior experience.
Within 2/3 months of being a Support Worker and after receiving this advice, I decided to apply to as many AP roles as I could (top tip: make sure you have a draft personal statement which you are able to tailor to the specific service/role). This stage can be quite discouraging as these posts are so competitive and often have a high number of applicants. However, when speaking to other AP's and psychologists, this is actually reasonably normal! It wasn’t until a month later that I managed to bag two interviews for two different services for the role of an AP. One interview was related to Clinical Health Psychology (Bariatric team) and the other was for Mental Health Psychology (Mental Health Liaison Team). Both interviews varied as the Liaison Team had asked to prep an interview based on your skills prior to the interview, whereas the Bariatric interview was more skill-based questions. Admittedly, I ended up turning down the Liaison Team interview, primarily because I had my Bariatric interview first (which I found out I was successful a few hours later), and secondly because I wanted to experience what It was like working in Clinical Health, and not just Mental Health. However, I do recommend that when applying for AP roles, if you are able to get an interview with multiple services, then you should go ahead and do the interviews not only for your own practice, but to expand your job opportunity and likelihood of being successful!
The Experience of being an Assistant Psychologist:
From going from a Support Worker within a solely Mental Health-based environment, to an AP within Clinical Health was definitely comparatively different. For example, the size of team varied as Crisis consisted of a large team, whereas the Clinical Health team was relatively smaller. This is due to the fact that often Some Clinical/Counselling Psychologists work part-time within the NHS alongside private work. Nevertheless, I am still able to learn a lot of new skills and use my psychological knowledge from my degree and apply it to the work setting. One thing I definitely benefitted from was having a supportive manager who allowed me to be curious and explore what the service was really about, before starting on clinical work. Within the 9 months that I have been working as an AP in the Bariatric service, my role includes:
Working on audits, data collection and managing databases
Experience in conducting initial assessments
Running psychoeducation groups alongside dieticians prior and post surgery
One to One psychoeducation sessions with patients who are struggling with their mental health and eating behaviours
Weekly Supervision
Supervising a Master's student currently working on our audits
Attending multi-disciplinary meetings
Monitoring waitlists and updating patient records
As you can see, there is a lot of variety in what I do being an AP (in fact, there is probably a whole lot more to it than I listed)! It is important that you have a lot of different jobs as an AP, as it will equip you for the future (if you decide to become a Clinical Psychologist) in terms of what to expect, transferrable skills and knowledge. It may be beneficial to document what you do as an AP as well (which I was advised by my Supervisor), especially if you are looking to apply for the DClinPsy programme in the future, as this can help during the interview process! In fact, I am due to have a “practice DClinPsy interview” with my supervisor soon, to gain some experience of what to expect.
Useful tips when becoming an Assistant Psychologist:
Below I have conducted a list of some useful tips that may be useful to think about when you become an AP:
Be honest with your manager/supervisor in regard to how much time you need to learn and get to know the service before committing to certain tasks.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help, AP’s are allowed to be curious and we shouldn’t be expected to know all the answers as we are learning!
You should be able to shadow psychologists in their clinical work at least once a week and receive supervision weekly according to the BPS guidelines.
Your workload should be a combination of many things, so speak up if you feel like you aren’t receiving enough work in certain areas/ or you have too much work!
Write down everything you do as an AP (as mentioned previously), as creating a log can be helpful when applying for other roles in the future/DClinPsy if that is what you are interested in.
Apply for as many AP roles as you can, it is recommended to at least work in one AP role for about a year, before moving onto another service for experience.
Speak to other colleagues in terms of their process in becoming a Psychologist – I have spoken to many people who have either come from a Clinical Psychology or Counselling Psychology background, with a lot of useful tips!
Remember, everyone's journey is different just as mine is, so it is important to ensure that you are doing what you think is best for you in terms of your own goals and values!
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