The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - Forensic Psychology, ADHD & Dyslexia with Amy Jayne Needham

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi there, it's Marianne here. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to quickly let you know about something exciting that's happening right now. If you've ever wondered how to create income that works for you, rather than constantly trading your time for money, then you'll love the Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge with my business mentor, Lisa Johnson. This challenge is designed to help you build sustainable income streams. And whether you're an aspiring psychologist, a mental health professional, or in a completely different field,

Starting point is 00:00:32 the principles can work for you. There are also wonderful prizes to be won directly by Lisa herself. And if you join the challenge by my link, you can be in with a chance of winning a one-to-one hours coaching with me, Dr. Marianne Trent. Do you want to know more? Of course you do. Head to my link tree, Dr. Marianne Trent, or check out my social media channels, or send me a quick DM and I'll get you all the details. Right, let's get on with today's episode. If you're looking to become a psychologist, then let this be your guide. episode. with Dr. Marianne Trent.

Starting point is 00:01:35 Hi, welcome along to the Aspiring Psychologist podcast. I am Dr. Marianne Trent and I'm a qualified clinical psychologist. It is my aim in this podcast that we illuminate different areas of psychology and where you might find yourself working or want to work one day for that matter. I also like to introduce you to people behind the professional psychology hat and so today is a really useful opportunity for us to do just that. We're going to be looking at forensic psychology as a career today, but we're also going to be looking at issues of neurodiversity, specifically ADHD and dyslexia. So I hope you find this a really useful episode. I am joined by a guest today to talk us through all of this stuff. Please do come and connect with me on the Aspiring Psychologist community free Facebook group where we can discuss this episode and more.

Starting point is 00:02:35 And if you've got any questions or things you want help from the audience to answer, then you're welcome to post in the group as well so yeah i hope you find this a useful chat and i'll look forward to catching up with you on the other side hi just want to welcome along amy jane needham to the podcast hi amy hi thank you for joining us and you are currently a trainee forensic psychologist that's right isn't it? Yes it is yeah. Lovely and it's always lovely to introduce new branches of professional qualified psychology routes to our listeners. We've got lots that I want to talk to you about today but could we have a little bit of an overview of you you know how you got there and

Starting point is 00:03:26 um yeah why forensic would be really useful yeah so for me forensic psychology I've always been interested in sort of forensic settings um for me I just think there's so much good work that can be done there is a lot of people that win the services that have sustained trauma they've had lots of difficult life experiences and I think for me um it's a it's a field where I feel like I can do the most good and as well I just think it's really fascinating I never have two days that are the same and I think for me I kind of need that really sort of chaotic environment where two days are not the same I think if it's if things were the same day to day I think I'd become quite bored so I kind of like that it's that it is different and no two days are the same but also I work in professional I can help people as well. Brilliant and if people are listening and they're like I don't even know what a forensic psychologist is and what sort of

Starting point is 00:04:20 clients they'd work with and in which settings could you give us a little bit of an overview in that area as well please yeah so I think um forensic psychology is a really wide field and I think people will just think oh actually you just work in prisons so that is true some forensic psychologists do work in prisons um however we tend to work with people that present any sort of challenging behaviour or forensic behaviours. But also we can work with people on the other side, so we can work with victims, we can work within the court and the criminal justice system. It is such a wide area, so it isn't just prisons and hospitals. My preference is I like working in secure hospitals or working more sort of like on the healthcare side.

Starting point is 00:05:06 But yeah, it's such a wide variety. If you're interested within the criminal justice system and sort of forensic behaviour, whether it be the people that commit the crimes or kind of are involved with offending or kind of the other side sort of working with victims and it's such a huge field so you kind of can work wherever and also there's forensic positions and kind of work within the community prior to the job that I'm working at now because I currently work in a secure forensic hospital but prior to that I worked in the community for the NHS so I worked on the offender personality disorder pathway so there is a huge variety of positions a different place you can work within forensic psychology. There is and there's also quite an overlap between the relevant

Starting point is 00:05:57 experience for clinical counselling and forensic psychology isn't there so I know both of my assistant posts actually were forensic settings so I was a an assistant clinical psychologist within forensic population so the first was a large psychiatric hospital and the second was a youth prison but I was very keen to carve out relevant clinical stuff but within within an offending population yeah sorry one second I I'm on mouse duty um but yeah I know that that is true um and I think before there used to be such more of a difference in terms of forensic psychology or if you kind of look in like old school prison psychology it used to be very separate but I think now there is a lot less overlap between oh sorry there's a lot

Starting point is 00:06:50 more overlap between the professions and so you kind of have forensic psychologists that work in clinical settings like in hospitals and prisons in the community you have clinical psychologists that work within prisons I do think the overlap between the professions is a lot less. I think overall, we do have an understanding of what assessment is, formulation, treatment, and kind of that sort of approach to working with patients. And that doesn't really differ too much, whether it's clinical or forensic or what sort of population that you're working with and I think probably in the forensic aspect there's a little bit more training around risk we do as part of our training

Starting point is 00:07:31 we um or my training anyway we had lectures specifically around violence risk assessments and sexual risk assessments and because I think stereotypically or historically that's a bit more of a forensic sort of aspect um but my supervisors have been both clinical and forensic psychologists working in hospitals so there's not really been that much of a difference. Brilliant thank you for illuminating our listeners awareness in those areas could you tell us a little bit about what your training's like and what was it really demanding is it really involved what does it what does it take from you um I find the training quite intense to be honest that there is so many different ways to kind of qualify in forensic psychology so I've chose to go down the doctoral route and so there is two universities that offer the

Starting point is 00:08:22 doctoral route there is University of Birmingham and the university of nottingham and they kind of are based on the bps route so um you do stage one which is the msc and then you have the equivalent of stage two which is the doctorate aspect um it's kind of encapsulated all in one course and um it does have a lot more of the research element and it's kind of the extra sort of research element which is why it's the doctoral route so some of the other routes are practitioner-based routes so there is the BPS route there is the forensic practitioner route at Cardiff where you'd have to I'm not I'm gonna say I'm I don't know as much about the routes I think it's like a postgraduate sort of diploma sort of route um and regardless of what route you take when you qualify as a forensic psychologist does that mean that you're able to

Starting point is 00:09:18 register as a forensic psychologist with the HCPC yes so whichever route you choose to take you are you can still register with hcpc and some of the routes um are not charted so i don't i don't think the cardiff route you can apply for charged it with the bps i'm not too sure there's a little bit of variation and obviously with the doctoral route um there is the doctorate aspect as well. And I say compared to like the other routes. So I have friends that have gone down the clinical route. They've gone down the educational route. It seems to be a lot more streamlined. So you have the doctorate and that's kind of the way of qualifying, whereas forensically seems to be a little bit more sort of variation. Personally, I found the doctorate quite demanding just because I was working four days a week. Some days I was working five because I chose to use paid placements.

Starting point is 00:10:18 So the doctoral route isn't funded. So I've used a doctoral loan to cover the cost of my course fees and the training is is expensive I will add that and so for me I wasn't able to do the course I wasn't able to find funded placements and so I've used assistant psychologist posts and kind of found my own sort of placements to kind of get me through the course so that had that added level of sort of a little bit of stress because I had to find posts um but the university was fine with as long as the post met the sort of criteria so they had to be with a forensic population and so I couldn't have like a post working say in an eating disorder um clinics it didn't have as much relevance in terms of forensic psychology um so yeah i had to find my place that she was quite stressful i was working a lot of

Starting point is 00:11:13 the time doing research at the weekends um so it is quite intense there isn't sort of a lot of time in terms of to write your reports to kind of do the extra sort of university work required so I I found it quite difficult and um we have a write-up year um which is so the placements are over two years so I've done four six-month placements and and within that time I've done the practitioner sort of side so I've um written placement reports have evidence competencies within the forensic psychology so they have core roles so like core one's assessment and formulation or all two's research three is like um educational there's within psychological knowledge and four is training so I've had to evidence all of that

Starting point is 00:12:03 uh but then obviously I don't have the time as such to write had to evidence all of that uh but then obviously I don't have the time as such to write the reports so all of that has been done so much kind of like in spare time so I've ended up using the write-up year which I'm still in now to um still be writing up my thesis so uh yeah I found it quite full-on to be honest it sounds it it sounds it but what it also sounds like is the end is in sight Amy yes so I um we have two uh theses I'm not sure what the plural is but I have two so um I have finished my um clinical one which is kind of our practice portfolio which is our practical skills and I was vibed earlier this year and I've just got amendments to write and I'm currently in the process of finishing my research so each thesis comprised of six chapters and I'm just writing

Starting point is 00:12:59 like my last sort of chapter and I have got the discussion which is chapter six but in my head that that's a small chapter so it it's and it's just an overall summary so I've got one actual full chapter to write and then it's on to the discussion amazing and then you start thinking about applying for qualified roles well I'm currently in a qualified position so um some some posts will kind of be open to trainees that are either at the end of their training or um within so many months of qualifying and so my last post i was in as well was for a qualified and they were kind of just offer extra sort of support um and i guess because where my route's a little bit different i have like this sort of um like interim period so i've finished all of my core roles i've kind of evidenced all the stuff that um i need in terms

Starting point is 00:14:00 of my clinical work but because i'm doing the doctoral route I don't get my HCPC registration I don't fully qualify till I've finished the research side of my course as well so I've kind of finished and had all my clinical work signed off but whilst I'm kind of writing up my research I'm qualified but not qualified if that makes sense I'm in like this interim period I'm with you sort of a bit of a middle ground yeah and then does your pay go up once you are fully HCPC registered as well and so a lot of positions either so I work in a private company at the moment um and what they do is they kind of pay you in terms of your core roles so because I've obviously submitted evidence for the core roles I'm just paid at the top of like a trainee band um and then obviously once i qualified i've got

Starting point is 00:14:50 my registration all that sort of stuff i would move on to a qualified salary and um within the nhs i know some of them will they will say um like band six until qualified or they will call it like a preceptorship psychologist role so it's for those that are kind of near the end of training and looking sort of to be in a post for when they qualify. I'm with you that's really useful to know and in terms of time frames so you probably know or might know that site the clinical psychology you tend to apply in autumn and then hope to get interviews in spring and then it starts in September. Is there any sort of predictable pattern for forensic or is it all just like throwing up things in the air and seeing what happens? So I guess it depends what route you

Starting point is 00:15:38 want to go down. I think within the prison service they have like national sort of recruiting drives where they recruit so many forensic psychologists and there's a waiting list. I'm not, I would say, very familiar with that sort of route, but I know that they do have that. And I've seen people post about that with the BPS route. I'm not too sure. I know that they have revamped it a little bit because it used to be um like kind of like how long is a piece of sort of string it would be when you've completed evidence for one core role you'd move on to the next but they've kind of um like added like deadlines and time frames because that was one of the issues in terms it was taking people such a long time to train and I think for me that was one thing that deterred me from the BPS route was because I feel like I needed that sort of structured sort

Starting point is 00:16:29 of timeline of this is when you have to get this done this is when you have to get that done just to keep me on track um so for the BPS I'm not actually sure there is information sort of um on on their route I think if to look if you look online with the with my route it's a similar sort of thing in terms of um i applied i think in february sort of time um and then i kind of had the interview and that sort of stuff and i was offered a place then for september and it was September obviously like then it follows like an academic term um so I'd say for mine it is a little bit similar to the clinical I had I did my application I had an interview um obviously from the outcome of the interview then I was offered a position to start in September um I think for the other routes because um at work we have other trainees as well and they're

Starting point is 00:17:25 on the cardiff route and they had interviews i think they do one or two intakes and it's a similar sort of thing you um will apply through the university you have an interview and then depending on the outcome start obviously when their term time starts. Brilliant, thank you. I know when I was working in an inpatient hospital, I was working with trainee forensic psychologists, and it wasn't a doctoral route at that stage, I don't think, not that they were doing anyway. And they found it really difficult, because it seemed like constantly, the goalposts were changing, they might be in the middle of a placement or in the middle of the unit, and then they'd suddenly rewrite what they wanted, or what the the expectations were and they'd have to sort of start again and it just sounded incredibly frustrating for these trainees is that still

Starting point is 00:18:13 going on or has it become a bit more uniform I think I think because my route I was through the university um all the routes kind of have a same sort of thing but they're all really different so when I'm hearing that the trainees that we're talking about um what do they call them SOPs and I'm not sure what that is something something of proficiency and I'm like I don't what's this like I feel like all the routes have um their own sort of way of going through it. And so I'm not... Yours has been uniform and fair and consistent, which is always good to hear. But yeah, other opinions may be available depending on which route people are doing their forensic. I think each does have like a little bit of variation in them.

Starting point is 00:19:02 But I do have to say like mine was quite we had a handbook which was kind of laid out I knew that I had the the four placements I knew I had to do placement reports so it was kind of it did feel very structured and laid out which I think for me I needed that structure so that's kind of what drew me towards that sort of that sort of training route brilliant thank you so um yeah we connected on linkedin and got chatting about your love of your love of rodents really um but also um more recently you've been sharing your journey about adhd assessment and treatment as well could you tell us a little bit about how you first started thinking about ADHD and what that's been like for you yeah um so for me I um I've always kind of known I had ADHD I um

Starting point is 00:19:56 was stereotypically when you think of um like a a boy child with adhd i was very disruptive i was having like meltdowns in supermarkets i was when you think stereotypically of what adhd is in a child i was kind of that child i was really disruptive um so i think from kind of like really early on my mum knew i was a little bit different to my sister she was like she's a she's a little bit of a challenge at times. And she doesn't play with rats I'm guessing? Well actually it's only when I moved out from home I had rodents but I've always had pets I've always grew up with pets so. Okay but you're just very different types of people. Yeah and I think growing up um to be honest I think in terms of the sort of assessment and diagnosis of ADHD especially within girls and women has improved a lot from when I was a child

Starting point is 00:20:57 I think my mum my mum spoke about when she took me for an assessment i think i was around four um so i mean i'm 30 now so 26 years ago um and she she just said that they um wasn't kind of sure i was really disruptive and so she kind of sought um support from her friend who was um she was a teacher but she taught children who were kind of um disruptive and she worked in a pupil referral unit and so I kind of she had a lot of support in terms of like behavioral interventions and in terms of structure keep myself really busy and so I've kind of grew up sort of knowing that I was a little bit different um so you didn't fulfill the diagnosis at four at that stage it's something you came back to it was it was when I was in secondary school um I

Starting point is 00:21:52 so it was kind of like everyone sort of knew even at school I was like Amy has definitely got ADHD like she doesn't sit still she constantly talks like I was always sat on my own on the desk because whoever was sat next to me I would just talk I'd be really disruptive um so I had kind of I had an assessment um I think I was around 13 or 14 and that kind of came they suggested that I had ADHD and then there was something around do I want to be do I want to go to a different school do I need to be sort of like go to a special school and my mom's like no she is fine like and I think that was kind of the where it's progressed a little bit it's if you have this diagnosis you have to be educated differently where she was like no she's she's fine um so I I then the school kind of provided

Starting point is 00:22:49 some extra support if it was because I kind of wasn't on like a a cd sort of borderline I was achieving kind of really well at school they didn't know what to do with me if I'm being honest it was like well she doesn't need a teaching assistant. She is just a bit chatty. So they, I don't know what, I had this person, I don't know what I did with them. I just kind of, it was like an hour a week, but I had that whilst I think it was in through GCSEs. But then it was actually my PE teacher was like,

Starting point is 00:23:21 Amy, I think you've got dyslexia. And he was like like your written work is good but like you can't spell and um so it wasn't until I went to university where I actually had a lot of formal assessments so um through I had to do an extra year at sixth form because I was a little bit disruptive I didn't go to some of my classes and I failed one year so um I kind of obviously then redid a lot of things at a level and for university I was like right I probably do need to have formal assessments and have a look at what sort of support can be offered because I've just kind of coasted through education because I'm gonna say because I was

Starting point is 00:24:03 still achieving like relatively good grades I got like A's and b's and like until i was at sixth form where it was a lot more kind of self-directed it wasn't too much of a problem as such like she's disruptive but can get but can still achieve and um so when i went to university they um did like a formal assessment it was through the disabled students allowance and they are really really good um so I had um a dyslexia assessment um they kind of looked at everything and put all of the things in place um in terms of what support I'd need at university and whilst I was at university I had then an undergrad uni. Yes. Sorry. Yeah. For my undergrad. And then I had another formal assessment for ADHD. And that's kind of the one which then is used, like I say, is now I've been seeking extra support. But it was from the stuff from the university and from the second sort of diagnostic opinion with what they use.

Starting point is 00:25:03 So that and again again but that was all through university so I found that quite helpful. And so initially you were sort of making lifestyle changes and giving yourself more structure and routine I'm guessing but more recently you have decided to explore medication options haven't you? Yeah and I was offered to be honest I was offered medication while I was completing my undergrad and I think it's something that I've always been really anxious about and I think as well a lot of people with ADHD me especially you kind of um internalize your difficulties and kind of feel like you're not as good so it's kind of like and you're trying to mask things and compensate and show that you're the same as everybody else.

Starting point is 00:25:46 And I think for me, taking medication at that point as well was admitting that there is something wrong or admitting that I'm not as good. I know that's not true, but that's kind of how it felt at that time. So because I was able to kind of sort of manage, I didn't't take medication then and it was more so in terms of completing my doctorate and I think it was I work full-time I do a full-time course um I bought a house with my partner so I've got obviously adult responsibilities um and I think it was just everything together was just too much for me to kind of manage with um I try and obviously use behavioral strategies I try and structure my day and things like that um I try and get a good night's sleep I say try it doesn't always work but I think it got to the point where

Starting point is 00:26:38 I was like actually I'm going home from work and I'm just completely exhausted and I'm just so burnt out like I'd go and sit on the sofa and I'd be like in like a taco of quilts um and like I need to be left for an hour and I'm like you're like highly functional but at what cost and the cost was all your own personal deficit yeah and I'm like actually this this this is not helpful. So I say, I initially started the medication thinking, actually, if it helps me get through my doctorate, I don't need to take it then again after. But actually, I found it really helpful. It does kind of help in terms of not feeling chronically overwhelmed or burnt out okay that's good because I think there's probably quite a high correlation between um ADHD and psychologists I believe I definitely think I've got traits of ADHD for sure so how has it been then taking meds I remember seeing you talking about headaches and stuff initially yeah I think um one of the things that I did notice was increased temperature

Starting point is 00:27:44 so I am always generally quite warm that I did notice was increased temperature. So I am always generally quite warm when I take my medication. Like I'm wearing a T-shirt today. But increased body temperature, like I did have headaches. I'd have quite a fuzzy head. But one of the things I would do is I'm really bad for forgetting to drink. And I'd go throughout the day and I wouldn't have drank much. And I think as well, that was part of it. I felt a lot better because I will kind of make myself drink. I'll have like a bottle of water and I'm like, right, I need to I need to drink as much as this as I can.

Starting point is 00:28:18 When I'm sat down at my desk, I will drink. And so I still do notice like the main thing is like my increased body temperature but the rest of the stuff i think i i don't know if i'm just learning to tolerate it or i've just become used to it um but it hasn't other than that i haven't been too bad i know some people have um really struggled to eat or feel sick um i haven't really noticed that I think maybe I don't eat as much crap but I think that's because when I'm bored I'm like right what can I do I'll go and eat some chocolate just because it's you get that obviously then then whatever chemicals released from eating chocolate and um you're getting that stimulation you know more stuff in you know more yeah all of that and I know some of the clients I've worked with when they've started taking meds have been like oh my god have other

Starting point is 00:29:11 people been like this all the time and I just didn't know have you had that level of kind of ah or not so much yeah I guess it's I my head is really busy so I have lots of thoughts and sometimes I feel like I can't keep up with them so it'd be like one thought and then another and then another and that has slowed down a little bit so I'll be writing something I'll be like writing a sentence I'm like oh the next bit oh the next bit and I just can't keep up and or I'll be having a conversation with somebody and then something will pop into my head or I'll be distracted a conversation with somebody and then something will pop into my head or I'll be distracted by something and I'm fully gone like I really struggle to filter what my attention goes to it'll be something in my environment they'll be like okay it's there

Starting point is 00:29:56 it's there someone's talking over there and I think with the medication it's quieter like I don't notice as many um sort of thoughts I feel like it's it feels quieter I don't know how to explain it more than that but um yeah I think that's the thing I struggle with most is that I'll come on to the laptop for a very specific reason or I'll open a new web page um because I'll need to for example do something on LinkedIn or send a message to someone or do something on my mailing list software. But my homepage is just a random feed of news and things. I don't even know what page it is. But it's really interesting. And it's got like new, you know, breaking news headlines and stories from around the country and locally. And sometimes 10 minutes will go by and I'll be like oh god I still haven't done that thing um and yeah so I think it is about being really bounded and recognizing when the thoughts

Starting point is 00:30:52 come that want to drag you in different directions and then being a bit like hold on a minute no you can do that later yeah definitely and I I'll go into the kitchen and I'll go in for a cup of tea and then I'll see something on the way like I've left a plate here I'll pick that plate up then I've gone into the kitchen oh I might have some chocolate coins or I've done something else and then I'll come back and I'll have forgot my drink and I'm like what did I go in for oh my tea go back and get the cup of tea and it's just my attention can go everywhere but I do feel like it is a lot easier to kind of focus on what I what I need to focus on rather than being so distracted by everything and I think just the ability to be able to sit and do something.

Starting point is 00:31:50 So I use an app called Forest because I really struggle to sit and do my work. My phone is my enemy. I'll be like, oh, I can go on LinkedIn. Oh, I can go on WhatsApp. Oh, there's TikTok. I'll just watch two videos like an hour later. I'm like, well, that was helpful. So this app disables everything. And I grow like well that was helpful um so this app disables everything and I grow like a little tree but if I go on to the apps it will kill my tree and I'll have a dead like a wilting tree in my

Starting point is 00:32:13 forest really don't want a wilting tree in my forest so it will stop me from kind of going off topic because I can't um but I will notice when I'm picking my phone up and it'll say um stop fubbing like get back to what you're doing your phone is distracting you um but I'd set it for 15 minutes and then I'd be still picking my phone up but I can set it for I could probably set it for about half an hour to 45 minutes now and I've had it where my time has gone off and I'm still kind of doing my work and going from being able to concentrate probably 15 minutes to like an hour so it has it has made like a positive difference um yeah and how does that crop up for you when you're in client sessions or when you're doing clinical work with people um I think it's it's definitely

Starting point is 00:33:08 because it's work that I'm like kind of prepping and kind of stuff like that I'm I'm okay but I struggle more in sort of like long meetings so if we have like um ward round and it's like three hours and we've got we're seeing six people and I'm like I'm just going to go to the toilet a minute or when there's a gap between when we've seen people or sometimes we'll have like a meeting before ward round I'm like it's gonna be a long day and I'd come back and I did for me on my ward ward round was at the end of the day so I'd come back up and I'd be like it's five o'clock I've got an hour and I literally I wouldn't be doing anything that functional it'd be do I need to type something up do I need to tidy my desk do I need to sort some files because

Starting point is 00:33:56 I'd literally be fried um and so I found the meeting side a lot harder. But again, that's been a lot easier with the medication. I still kind of get up and walk around and like, I'm just going to go to the toilet because it just breaks it up a little bit more. But I think that's where it kind of affects me, obviously, is long meetings. Oh, I hated meetings. Honestly, the way to kill my soul was to invite me to a meeting. And often I used to find that meetings could have just been an email as well.

Starting point is 00:34:28 Like this didn't this didn't need to happen. And obviously when you're is slightly different in forensic services and when you're trying to make team decisions as well, because you need to have that MDT input. It is really tricky to have that sustained attention and to hold all those different ideas and different opinions in mind. And they are long, you know, and that's why when I was in psychiatric hospital they used to get nice biscuits for us to make that attention more likely but I definitely did have a slightly you know enlarged waistline when I was working in services with nice biscuits. I do have to say uh the psychiatrist on our ward she always brings lovely biscuits

Starting point is 00:35:06 and there's always nice teas and coffees um and I'm like yeah this is a good ward round yeah I hear you thank you so much for sharing your insight and information so freely and warmly with us is there anything I haven't asked you, Amy, that you think would be useful for the audience to know, or that you wish I had asked you? I guess for me, one of the things which I found helpful is being a lot more open about having ADHD and neurodiversity. And I guess for me, it's one of the things that I've always kind of been a lot more kind of resistant about sharing due to kind of, I guess it's the fears of the negative connotations of ADHD. And especially working in forensic settings, I'd be like, like we work with patients who have ADHD.

Starting point is 00:35:56 Do they think that I'm going to do something? People who employ me think I'm going to do something impulsive. Do you think it's going to affect my ability to do my job and I think this is something I was really kind of concerned about and was kind of a barrier to me kind of being a lot more open but actually I've found kind of the opposite so um um I've shared that I have ADHD and dyslexia with my team and um my supervisor is incredibly supportive and actually it's been really beneficial because there's that kind of like shared then understanding of um say for example if i go to a session and or i'm doing sort of group work with it and i'm working with somebody else and just kind of that extra have we got everything because i might forget it and i think sometimes symptoms of ADHD can be perceived negatively and I think if people

Starting point is 00:36:49 aren't aware it could be perceived as I'm just not prepared or I'm not I don't care about doing work with other people because I've forgot the materials I've not prepped and which actually isn't the case like sometimes I've just genuinely forgot or my organization isn't as good um but I found it been really helpful sort of being open and sharing that with my team and they've actually said well actually no it's really beneficial because you have that added insight in terms of um how ADHD affects you is the only way that I can alter sessions and make them a bit more sort of user-friendly for for patients who can't focus for an hour so yeah I found that it has been positive being a lot more open with my team um I do get that sometimes that there is also the flip side you may not have such

Starting point is 00:37:36 a supportive work environment but um as a whole I've found more people are supportive than not supportive good I'm really pleased to hear that. And I guess this is some of the considerations for the pathologizing nature of certain kind of conditions, really, because it doesn't make you any different. It's a framework for understanding the things that you struggle with and the things that are more effortless for you. And actually, as we increase people's knowledge and understanding about a variety of presentations, including ADHD,

Starting point is 00:38:11 people would understand that this is an area, you know, in forensic psychology that you're highly interested in. And so you're going to have more ability to be able to, you know, to do those tasks and see things through from beginning to end. Whereas if there's something you really had no interest in then that's going to be really much more of a struggle to to make yourself engage with and make yourself follow through on yeah I think that is one of the things that I struggle with the most if it's something which I don't like or it is boring it is like pulling teeth but I guess if it's something that you're interested in,

Starting point is 00:38:49 I don't know, like I can sit and go through stuff. I can like plan something for hours. If it's something that I'm interested in, like you've got my full attention. Brilliant, ditto. And if someone's listening to this and thinking oh I wonder if I might you know this rings a bell you know this is resonating with me there are adult neurodiversity services in the UK isn't there is that the best thing to do or

Starting point is 00:39:19 do people go to their GP what would be your advice I I think one of the difficulties with the NHS services is they do have incredibly long wait times and I do know that is is a difficulty for people who obviously I wanted to seek support so I already had a diagnosis so when I went through the service and they was just able to look at my previous notes and all the other things um and i still had to wait around five or six months um and i think for a diagnosis i think the waiting times are it is so i'm nottinghamshire and i think it's around 18 months for adhd and over two years for autism um i would definitely recommend kind of going to seek the support if if you need to because i do think it's beneficial um there is always the option to go private but the difficulty i found is that some nhs services will not accept private diagnoses and so i'm saying mine was through the nhs

Starting point is 00:40:17 anyway so they was obviously they was quite happy to accept my diagnosis um but they said as well if i had if i had gone privately and i had a private diagnosis they would have had to reassess through the nhs so i don't know if that's just my service but i think that's something to be aware about because okay the assessments are expensive the medication's expensive it's not through the nhs so i definitely would recommend going and seeking that extra support and if you can persevere i I would go through the NHS just because I'd hate for somebody to spend thousands and then still have to go back through the NHS. One bit of advice I would recommend is if you are within education is to go through either disabled students allowance or to go through your university um to the gp because i found that a lot lot quicker that's how i got my diagnosis thank you um recently um i'm aware of some clients

Starting point is 00:41:17 that had gone um for assessment for adhd via a psychiatrist actually. And once they was diagnosed and had started and tolerated medication, the NHS did then agree to do, you know, to issue their prescriptions to take over their care. So it might well be a difference depending, you know, on where you live. But yeah, it's, I think if you can afford to go private or someone to help fund that private it's it's definitely worth exploring um yeah because it can be transformational when we're looking especially aspiring psychologists you know 18 months is a long time to wait isn't it when you're trying to progress your career and get on with your life yeah definitely and um from one of the private services that i

Starting point is 00:42:07 looked at they they had that sort of option in terms of when you was on a stable sort of dose and your medication was stable they would transfer you back to your gp um so i think it is solely dependent on kind of your location what your uh gp or nhs service locally will provide because if I I found it really hard waiting six months and so I can't imagine how difficult it would be to wait the two years and then you've got it is such a long time so yeah yeah I do I do sympathize with people going through that process absolutely thank you so much for your time today, Amy. I am so looking forward to seeing when you become Dr. Amy Jane Needham on LinkedIn. I'm sure you are as well.

Starting point is 00:42:53 Thank you. Wow. Wasn't that lovely? Amy wanted me to let you know that she had a poorly mouse with her because she's a rodent mama. And so she was having to keep a an eye and half a brain on this mouse um who keeps um keeps hurting themselves um accidentally um so yes um she really enjoyed the chat with us but she was slightly mouse aware at times as well um so if you've got any ideas or thoughts or insights into this episode or it's evoked anything for you, then come and chat with us in the Aspiring Psychologist community group and let us know how it felt for you, how it landed for you. And if you enjoyed the episode, please do take a moment to rate and review it on Apple Podcasts.

Starting point is 00:43:47 And if you're watching on YouTube, which is a possibility, it's Dr. Marianne Trent, then please, whilst you're there, like the video, subscribe to the channel, and why not drop a comment in there to let me know how you found it. I will look forward to catching up with you for our next episode of the Aspiring Psychologist podcast, which is available at 6am every Monday morning. Thank you so much for being part of my world and I'll catch up with you very soon. Take care. Thank you. The Aspiring Psychologist Collective The Aspiring Psychologist Collective If you're looking to become a psychologist

Starting point is 00:45:00 Then let this be your guide. With this podcast at your side, you'll be on your way to being qualified. It's the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast with Dr. Marianne Trent. My name's Jana and I'm a trainee psychological well-being practitioner. I read the Clinical Psychologist Collective book. I found it really interesting about all the different stories and how people got to become a clinical psychologist. It just amazed me how many different routes there are to get there and there's no perfect way to become one and this kind of filled me with confidence that no I'm not doing it wrong and put less pressure on myself.

Starting point is 00:46:09 So if you're feeling a bit uneasy about becoming a clinical psychologist, I'd definitely recommend this just to put yourself at ease and everything will be okay. But trust me, you will not put the book down once you start.

The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - Forensic Psychology, ADHD & Dyslexia with Amy Jayne Needham

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