The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - From Therapy to Best Selling Author: Dr Martha Deiros Collado’s Psychology Journey

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

Behind every bestselling psychology book is a story and a person. But what does it take to build a fulfilling psychology career and balance it with family life, writing, and impact beyond the therapy room? In this 199th episode of The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast, Dr Marianne Trent is joined by Dr Martha Deiros Collado, clinical psychologist and author of The Smartphone Solution and How to Be the Grown-Up.Martha shares her inspiring journey from struggling to secure AP posts to thriving in paediatrics, leaving the NHS after 12 years, and now combining private practice, public psychology, and authorship. We explore training, family therapy, multidisciplinary teamwork, resilience, and why perseverance pays off for aspiring psychologists.Whether you’re applying for AP roles, preparing for training, or curious about career journeys in psychology, this episode is packed with learning, encouragement, and real-world insight.This episode is filled with inspiration, resilience, and lessons for aspiring psychologists about perseverance, identity, and finding your own path — a perfect lead-in to the upcoming 200th episode celebrations!#PsychologyCareer #AspiringPsychologist #ClinicalPsychology⏱️ Highlights & Timestamps:00:00 – Introducing Dr Martha Deiros Collado and her journey into psychology01:14 – From wanting to be a doctor to discovering psychology03:11 – University, first interests in forensics and health psychology04:53 – Early AP role in paediatrics: epilepsy, brain injury, and brain surgery05:53 – Training placements: psychodynamic year, CBT, and paediatrics at UCLH07:45 – Discovering family therapy and blending approaches08:42 – How children and families shaped her values and practice10:49 – Leaving the NHS after 12 years: supervision, caseloads, and lessons learned12:39 – Loving the work: privilege, variety, and the power of stories14:26 – Balancing private practice, motherhood, and self-care15:39 – Struggles with securing AP posts, honorary roles, and resilience17:15 – Why unpaid roles were problematic and perseverance matters19:08 – Courage to change paths: friends who retrained in other professions20:58 – Valuing all roles in multidisciplinary teams22:13 – Martha’s books: How to Be the Grown-Up and The Smartphone Solution25:02 – Where to follow Dr Martha online25:46 – Reflections on consultation, public psychology, and widening impact26:46 – Thank you and a look ahead to episode 200 celebrationsCheck out Dr Martha's previous episode talking about smartphone boundaries: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/5342ebb9-2735-45e5-ade3-db687c4fa249/ or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mRs709Omu0o?si=VJTZzozXi5HpQIBvLinks:📚 Grab Dr Martha's Books: The Smartphone Solution: https://amzn.to/42BhcBZHow to be the Grownup: https://amzn.to/42ApOJ4🫶 To support me by donating to help cover my costs for the free resources I provide click here: https://the-aspiring-psychologist.captivate.fm/support📚 To check out The Clinical Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3jOplx0 📖 To check out The Aspiring Psychologist Collective Book:

Hi, I'm Max and a work as an assistant psychologist in a learning disability service in West Yorkshire. Like most people working in psychology, I'm slowly but surely working myself up to that seemingly impossible goal of getting onto the clinical doctorate. With that end goal in mind, I thought I'd have a look at what's out there and see what books might be helpful for this. I came across Marianne's book, The Clinical Psychologist Collective, and decided that this would be a great buy for me to help me on my journey. I found Marianne's book really informative, most insightful. I especially liked how the story has reassured me that you don't need to be academically perfect to become a psychologist, and that as long as you have good

interpersonal skills, such as compassion and empathy, you will get there. I would highly recommend this book to all aspiring psychologists, and also those who want to know a bit more about the world of clinical psychology and made me want to work in that field one day. Behind every best-selling psychology book is a story and a person. Today, we're hearing from Dr. Marta DeRos-Coyado. From her journey into clinical psychology to her passion for supporting families, Marta has built a career that bridges therapy, parenting and public psychology. In this very special episode, part of the 200 episode celebrations for the aspiring psychologist podcast, podcast. We'll explore what drew her into the field, what keeps her inspired and the lessons

aspiring psychologists can take from her path. Hope you find it really useful. If you do, please like and subscribe for more. Hi, I just want to welcome back to the podcast, Dr. Martha. Welcome back. Thank you so much for being here. Hi, thanks for having me again. Well, you're so welcome and I wanted to really, I guess, as part of our 200 episode celebration of the aspiring psychologist podcast. Think a little bit about you because I think sometimes when you've got a big social following like you have on your Instagram account, people are like, oh, I'd like to be a psychologist or they're like, how did Dr. Marta get to be this psychologist that I see before before me? Could you tell us a little bit about your career? Yeah, I think, I mean, I fell into

psychology because my English teacher kind of suggested I should look into it, which I think is interesting. I don't know if anyone else has gone through that process, but you know, around 16, when you're trying to like think about what am I going to do with my future. We used to have, you know, careers, advisors or whatever they were called at my school. And I've talked about this with other of my friends. We've had such different experiences. But I, it was really interesting because I always wanted to work in medicine. I wanted to be a medical doctor. That was my calling, I felt. And then when I understood what it meant, which included surgery, I didn't want anything to do with it. So I'm not, I'm not into like, you know, cutting things off. You know, that was like, no,

I don't think I can do it. Like, I just, I don't think I'm cut for that. Like, pun intended, not for me. So then I was kind of stuck because I was really into science. I loved English, but I was really into biology and chemistry. Like they were my thing. So I didn't really know what to do with myself. I think I felt quite lost. And my English teacher said to me, you think and speak like a psychologist.

And we didn't have psychology at my school. It wasn't part of our curriculum. And I was like, I don't even know what they are. They're a bit weird. I remember having like a weird idea of like, especially in my school, you know, a shrink. Oh, God. I don't want to be one of those.

That sounds awful. And he was wonderful. a, you know, the power of teachers, I think, like definitely for me, something that influenced me. He then, you know, recommended I did some reading, so I did. I was then really interested when I realized that the core of psychology was that it was a science and I had no idea about it and that there was loads of areas, you know, really broad. And so I was really interested in things like forensics and addiction and definitely health. But like, you know, I had suddenly I was like, oh, I'm really interested in all these things, the brain.

I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This sounds great behavior. So I went to university. I picked a psychology course, and I also kind of had very good, which I think is helpful for young people. I had very good adults around me in my life who were very good at listening to me, very good at being curious with me.

And basically, the message I gathered was do something you think you might enjoy. And if you don't, don't worry about it. you can do something else like honestly i went to university thinking okay this is like a because otherwise i was going to do biochemistry i was going to go pure science and i decided i'll try it because if i hate it i can still go off and do you know pure science because i will have some skills etc which i think was a really good message to give a young person this isn't like your final decision went to uni i loved it i like i never look back um I really thought I would end up in forensics because I loved it.

And I actually really liked the idea of working in like, yeah, a prison. Sounds really weird, but it's true. But health won me over. I mean, my mom always says, how did you not know that? You wanted to be a medical doctor. I'm like, I don't know. I think I forgot. I think I forgot when I was in psychology that.

So I ended up in health. I ended up doing a master's in health sciences, which I absolutely loved. like health psychology. And then I became an assistant psychologist in pediatrics, which I only did about six months on because I got on the course. But I mean, that was it. I remember in that pediatric post being like, no, this is it. This is my calling. And at the time I was working in neurology, obviously under the supervision of a clinical psychologist, I was just an assistant, working with children with epilepsy and children had brain injuries. And they also had brain surgeries. It was like fascinating. I loved it. So I went into doctoral training with like

my mind absolutely focused on pediatrics. But it was really interesting because genuinely every single placement I went on in training, I loved. And I was so shocked. So I did psychodynamic for a year in my first year, which I think is rare, very rare. And I remember being angry because all my everybody else on my course apart from three of us and they're two of my best friends how interesting is that still now everybody else went on a CBT placement but I did not and I remember feeling rejected you know how you feel like oh I'm not a good fit why would that why me anyway it was meant to be a six month placement and then they kept the three of us for a full year which they've never done before again I think that's quite telling because the three of us

loved it and I think the three of us now work we all work with children that was an adult placement but we've all kept something I believe it I think that that year changed us the most or changed me the most for sure I learned skills and therapy that I don't think I would have learned anywhere else if I hadn't done psychodynamic you know therapy the way that I did I loved it I remember thinking this is it this is what I'm going to do for life and then obviously I had my My child placement was very CBT. CBT is not my calling. And it was so interesting to be like, oh yeah, this is not for me.

But I loved it. I loved the kids, I loved the families. And then anyway, roll on to my third year, I asked for a pediatric placement. And I did, I had to be interviewed for it. It was at UCLA, and there was like loads of, you know, people from different courses being interviewed for it. And somehow, God knows why. they chose me, and I'm so grateful for it because it was the best year of my life.

I still think that those psychologists were so inspiring. I think that first year and that third year really cushioned something in who I am as a clinical psychologist, like my values, what I focus on, what I reflect on, what I think about. I'm still very much inspired by the psychologists I work with. I think they're amazing, but that I felt it was transformative for me and it very much became like, this is it. I knew this was what I wanted to do. And suddenly I had this insight into family therapy. So family therapy was, I don't know if they still do, fingers crossed they still do. Because it's a long, I trained a long time ago, but they used to embed family

therapy in the ward. It was beautiful. And so I trained in family therapy afterwards because because that's who I wanted, you know, that's what I wanted to be. It felt like, and interestingly, there's a lot, for me, there's some psychodynamic ideas. Like, you know, there's lots of blending. There's lots of blending in lots of models. But for me, the psychodynamic and the family therapy kind of became me. They shaped me. They shape how I think about mental health.

They shaped how I think about problems and problem behaviors and how I think about my interaction in therapy with families and children. They shaped how I think about my interactions with people around me as well. So I think that really shaped me. But ultimately, over time, without a doubt, it's the kids and the families that I've worked with, that I've shaped me the most. I have worked in so many, all my pediatric services have been chronic health, life limiting, life shortening conditions. It's what I have a calling for, I think. And I think if I ever go back into the NHS, that's where I'm going. There's no doubt.

But I think it's the kids and the families that have taught me the most. I think, you know, training was so invaluable in terms of the knowledge and the practice and the skill. And I think I miss it. I miss having live supervision, which is what I had in my third year because of family therapy. But I miss having that kind of very deep, very thoughtful supervision about every single case. Like when you qualify and you suddenly have 50 cases, 80 cases, and you're like, oh my God, I can't talk about all of them. You know, that it's so different. You know, the working NHS life is so different from the very nurturing for me, anyway, my personal experience of training. And I missed that.

I definitely missed that. I also missed being able to give enough emotional, thoughtful time. So I think saying this kind of also... doesn't surprise me, reflecting on it as I'm talking, that I've ended up leaving the NHS, but after a long time, like I worked full time for, I mean, post-qualification, I worked full time for 12 years before I, like, left. So it's a long time. But when I chose to leave, the one thing that I now have held on to is the knowledge, the skills. I think working in the NHS is so invaluable for, it's a word that one of my colleagues used all the time, but

she was right, consolidating your skills and really making you aware of like safeguarding and risk and, you know, issues that sometimes I think you might be blind to if you don't work in that environment. And I am so grateful for that because I feel like I can hold on to that knowledge and hold on to those skills. But I can also now do the thing I loved during training, which is offer my thought, emotional space in a much more nurturing way to the families I do hold because I don't hold 50 cases. I'm very careful about how many families I feel able to hold, and when I hold them, I hold them well. And I think what's allowed me to do that is having a supervisor who used to supervise me in the NHS. So, you know, I've,

I think when you work for so long, you build, obviously, relationships. You can hold, I've held on to them, and that grounds me. And I think, yeah, just consolidating the skills and the knowledge from training into practice and then being like, I'm on my own, but I don't feel on my own. I feel like, you know, all those years, I kind of carry them like a bit like a backpack. They're with me all the time. And I think with my supervisor, we've worked together in the NHS, my private supervisor. it really helps because we often reflect on things that, you know, we've experienced together

or we've experienced in that setting. So, yeah, so that's how I've landed here. I don't know what else to say. I guess I just wanted to react to what you'd said. Well, it really is a privilege, isn't it? When you get to do this work with, with whatever client group it is that lights you up, it's, I don't know, it's difficult to describe. Like my kids this morning said to me, oh, you're going off to boring old work. And I went, I'm going to work, but it's not boring. I love it. you know and i want them to know that actually when i'm when i'm when i'm in my office when i'm working i'm not like at the grindstone i'm really enjoying that and that is possible from your work and you don't just have to you don't just have to live live to earn your money a hundred

percent and when i left the NHS and people asked me on the time what would you do if you didn't do this and i was like i don't think i would do anything else like i i love my work And I know that's not true for every psychologist. But I love the variety. I love that there's never a dull moment. I love hearing people's stories. I love stories. I mean, English teacher, full circle.

But it's true. I love stories. And I love being witnessed to people's stories. I think that's an honour and a privilege. And people's stories sometimes shape how I think about my own stories or how I think about somebody else's stories. You know, I feel like they all end up interconnected, They didn't weave somewhere.

I think it is such an honor to sit in a room with someone and talk about things that maybe they've never shared with anybody else. I think, you know, I wouldn't do what I do if I didn't love it because it's hard. Like, it can also be incredibly emotionally draining. It can take up a lot of your thinking time, a lot of your emotional capacity,

especially if you're a parent and you've got children. And I think that's why I also feel very privileged that I can do this privately, now and I can kind of, like I said, kind of, you know, set really healthy limits for myself about how many people is healthy, particularly while I've got a tiny little one because I've got a young child because I need my emotional space for her and I'm aware that if it all goes into like the therapy room, I have nothing left when I come home. And I think I could do that when I didn't have children, but I can't do that anymore. Like that's something I became really

aware of that actually I need to look after me too in order to do good work clinically but also in order to be the mum I want to be to my kids. I think that's important like finding your balance as well not just in hours of working but the type of work that you do. I think you know some cases will take up a lot more space emotionally, you know, thinking space, all of that stuff than others. So I think it is important learning where is your limit and how do you protect yourself as well through supervision, through having strategies like exercising. So I love yoga. I always walk in the woods.

I got myself a dog. And he's like my therapy dog because I have to take him for a walk every day. And that is helpful. It helps my brain and my body disconnect from work, relax. And we go into nature. We go into the woods. Are we going to Parklands? And suddenly, you know, like, I just feel better when I get back into the house.

And he is my therapy dog, like fact. He's a gun dog. So he's, but he is perfect for me. Like, his energy and how he is is absolutely what I need to give me that break, to give me that release. So then when I do school pickup, I'm in mum mode rather than still in work mode. I think all those things are really important to learn. It really is. thanks for sharing that about your little kind of self-care rituals that sounds really important

but before we hit record you were kind of talking about the experience of trying to apply for an assistant psych role and you said i applied for 80 jobs i didn't even get interviews like it's not always it's not always easy is it these jobs don't always come to you and so if anyone is feeling like when will it come well will it come what's the point this is the point you know we are both qualified psychs we've both struggled to get AP roles we both had a lucky chance eventually that meant that we got second in an interview but then ended up getting the job and that we both shared that as a kind of mutual experience and that change the game for us both yeah i think it's really important to kind of i guess for me it's too to well there's a couple of things but if you really

want it, I think just keep going. And don't define your worth on whether or not you get through an interview. It's luck most of the time. It doesn't mean you're not going to be good at it. You know, look at you, look at me. And I guess people might see me on Instagram and be like, oh my gosh, she's got all these followers. I'm like, yeah, but that doesn't matter. Like, honestly, that doesn't matter. I think getting an assistant job nearly broke me. And I did ask myself, should I do this? I carried on because I was like, I feel like this is what I want to do,

so I'm not going to give up. And I even worked, I don't even know if they do this anymore. I really hope they don't, because I don't think it's appropriate. I'm going to use this word. It might be too big. Please don't hate me.

I think it's slightly abusive and it targets vulnerable young people who want to get into our profession. But I worked in honorary posts before I got my assistant job. I'm pretty sure that's how I ended up getting an assistant job. But I didn't get paid a penny and I worked full hours. I don't think that's okay.

Like I'm putting it out there into the world. I don't think that's okay because I then had to work in other jobs to get money because how else was I going to survive in London? So I think, you know, I think it's really unfair. I think we need to honour the fact that young people who, want to join a profession like ours are usually very hard working, very dedicated, very committed to what they want to do. Because, I mean, I'm going to say it now, but to me, the NHS is a vocational job. You're not going to be a multimillionaire. That's not why people

work in the NHS. People work in the NHS because they want to help and they care. Like, 100%. I have never met somebody in the NHS who's like, I'm in this for the money. You go work in a bank or you go and work for a big business you don't work for the NHS so yeah i think if this is your calling persevere keep going do not take any kind of you came second or you didn't make it as i'm a failure you're not somebody on that day just did a better job than you but one day it's going to be you but also too if you get to the point of going oh this is like breaking me definitely think about something else. Psychology is not the best thing in the world either, is kind of what I want to say. Even despite everything I've said, because I love it, it doesn't mean it's the only

job you can do. So I've got a friend who got on the course and he was so lovely. I think he would have been incredible in a therapy room. I was ever in a therapy room with him, but it's in my imagination and he quit. And that might sound like really harsh, but I think he had the courage to say, say, this job is not for me. And he's a social worker. He just said, this isn't for me. I know I got here. I know I worked hard to get here. Guess what? It's not what I want. That takes courage to kind of say, I've tried and I've worked hard, but there's something else I think is my calling. And there are so many different things out there. You know, so many other jobs that you can do that can still be, you know, psychology related or working alongside. And you're not.

Not less than. I hate that idea. To me, they're all my colleagues. There's no like more than less than. Absolutely not. And I know the NHS lives on a hierarchy, but you don't have to follow it like in the way that you relate to people. You connect with people, the way they work with people. For me, working in a multidisciplinary team in the NHS was one of the most beautiful things and it is the biggest thing that I miss now. A thousand percent. No doubt about it. It's my team. The physios, the speech therapist, the dietitians, the doctors, I miss them all. We all brought different knowledge, different experiences, different, you know, insights about one family and together just brought such a rich picture. So if you're stuck and you think I'm not moving

forward and I've been trying and I'm really struggling, genuinely think where else would I fit in this picture? else would bring me joy, where else, you know, but I still get the things I want to get from psychology, but in a different profession. Because that profession might be just right for you. It might not be your second choice. It might actually have been the right choice. Like I believe that. I really believe that. And I have more than that friend that I talked about, I have other experiences of people who've done exactly that, become psychologists and then retrained and become physios and OTs and gone, this is what I wanted to do. But it's taken them becoming a psychologist to realize it's that job that I wanted. So, you know, it's okay. It's

okay to change your mind. The time you've spent applying for jobs or working as an assistant or whatever it is is not wasted. I hear that all the time. Young people going, I can't waste the last five years of mine. They're not wasted. You've got skills. You've got knowledge. You've got tons of experience. You can repackage it in a different shape and, you know, move forward with that. There's such an important message. Thank you so much for sharing that. I know that's going to be real comfort and food for thought for so many people. Just before we finish, could you tell us about your two books, which you have available and where we can get those? So my first book, which was a bestseller two years ago, is called How to Be the Grown Up. And it's a parenting book with a bit of a twist for me because it's about offering psychological,

knowledge on child development, brain development, you know, things that I feel should be general knowledge but are not. Things that I feel should probably be taught in schools, but they're not. And offering packaging it in a way that is kind of like a toolkit. So you can, you know, flick to the chapter that you want to look at, talking about sex, talking about death, you know, thinking about separation, whatever it is. And find strategies, ideas, all based on psychological theory and knowledge. and a lot of my clinical experience is in there. Lots of ideas that have been shaped through working with families are in there.

So some of them might not be like proved science, but they're things I've used in the therapy room and I use a lot of. And I've kind of repackaged them for parents, for families, for grandparents, for teachers. So hopefully that's useful as a kind of foundation from chilled little ones up to like teenage. And then my last chapter,

I slightly talk about adult children because I feel like I wanted to touch on that like when your kids become grown-ups, the relationship you might want to maintain with them. And my second book, which comes out on the 28th of August, probably will have come out when this podcast goes out, is called The Smart Phone Solution. And it feels like a big privilege to have written this book

because I wrote it to support parents with a different kind of toolkit and set of ideas around the fear that surrounds us with smartphones and how we offer them to our children, when we offer them to our children, should we just ban them? And instead, hopefully what I do is offer you some of the science, and I am critical of it because I think that's important. But hopefully builds awareness for you so that you can make healthy choices for you and your kids and hopefully embed them as healthy habits in your home.

through what I call the family phone pledge. So you're all in it together. You're all promising. A pledge is a promise, not a contract. You're all promising that the most important part in your home is being together, not having your phone on you. And I think from that place, you can start to make small tweaks that might make you as a parent feel better about your phone usage, but also, I'm hoping, in control and empowered of what your child gets to do with their phone. Amazing. Thank you so much. And where can people follow you on Instagram? Give us your Instagram handle. It's Dr. Marta, psychologist. And yeah, my name is spelt Martha because my dad thought,

oh, a silent age would be so interesting, not realising I'd speak English one day. Okay. Amazing. And you are, you know, we talk about consultation in psychology, don't we? This is what you're doing with your books, you're offering your knowledge in a consultation model so that it reaches a wider audience. And even even your time in speaking to my audience today, the aspiring psych podcast, you know, we're so grateful for your time and you've got, you know, so many wise words. So thank you for doing what you do. Keep doing what you do and wishing you the very best of luck with your second books and beyond. Thank you. It's been lovely talking to you. Thank you so much. you too. Thank you again so much for Dr. Marta de Roscoiardo's time. Really enjoyed our chat and we

we chatted for hours. We just we just gave you those bits. We probably could have recorded all the intro chat as well and that would have been really interesting. Maybe one day I'll do a behind the scenes and you'll get to listen into the bits where yeah we're just you know shooting the breeze. Let me know in the comments if you'd find that helpful too. Thank you. so much for being here. Honestly, part of this 200th episode celebration. It means the world to me that you guys like what we do and that you say such lovely things about the podcast. You know, it's a labour of love. It really is, but I do love it. And you guys help keep me accountable as well because, as you know, it's a weekly podcast and, you know, podcasts are

hungry beasts and I do it all myself at my own expense too. So thank you for for sure. showing up for listening. Please do like and subscribe. Please do drop me a comment if you're watching on YouTube and you can also comment on episodes on Spotify too. I promise you I respond to every comment I receive wherever I see them. So yeah, please don't be a stranger. If you love something, let me know. If you don't like something, let me know too. So let me take a moment to share some of the lovely feedback that I've been receiving about the podcast. Over on YouTube, we had Caroline O'Leary about the new identity through psychology, the police officer to training equal insight with Claire Dunn. This was very interesting and inspiring. I would love to hear

more non-conventional stories like this. So thank you so much for your comment, Caroline, and for watching. And to you, dear listener and dear watcher, would you find that helpful as well? Do let me know in the comments. And on the episode I did with Jack about kind of job crafting and making the most of your non-psychology experience. And a lovely comment from Catherine key with job crafting is such a helpful concept as someone contemplating a radical career change into psychology this is the perfect inspiration to reflect on my existing work experience with a new lens and help me highlight my relevant skills to a potential employer thank you jack and marianne for introducing me to a really helpful new approach to facilitating a

career change you are so welcome katherine and over on spotify i've had some lovely comments coming through most recently for the episode i did with kelly lovesie about what happened if you start your job and you hate it. Gene Al said, in the same situation now, for me it's the culture, been at a new job for a month but really struggling with the way nobody speaks to each other. No one takes lunch breaks and work overtime daily. Feels like a silent judgment if you don't. It feels like it's not the fit for me. And Rabby alone says I left my job a few months ago after only being there for a couple of months and so much of this resonates with me. I really love this episode. It's so nice hearing someone talk about this topic.

You are so welcome, Rabby Alone. So yeah, don't be a stranger. Let me know what you think to this content. And like I said, thank you so much for being here. What would you want the next 100 episodes of the podcast to look like? What guests would you love to learn more about? What topic areas would you love to kind of explore? Do you have an idea you'd like to pitch to the podcast so that you could come on?

Do let me know. Come and follow me on socials where I'm Dr. Marianne Trent everywhere. Do check out the Aspiring Psychologist Collective Book, the Clinical Psychologist Collective book. And if it's your time and you're ready for the next step in your career, do check out the aspiring psychologist membership and the Ready to Rise program. Don't forget to grab your free psychology success guide by heading to my website, www.Aspiring hyphen psychologist.co.com. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for being here. Please do follow the show.

Please do subscribe to the show. Don't be a stranger. Comment, like. Share your favorite episodes with your friends. If you're looking to become a psychologist, then let this be your guide. With this podcast, that's your side. You'll be on your way to being qualified. It's the aspiring psychologist podcast.

enter is Hi, my name is Emily. I am a master's student studying clinical psychology at Southampton. I bought the book of the Clinical Psychologist Collective to help myself prepare for my first round of doctorate applications, and I'm so glad I did. Seeing how others have reflected on their journeys has been so insightful and it's given me a lot to reflect about with my own journey and skills. It's also helped to put things into perspective and reminded me that if I don't get onto the doctor at this year, that's okay. I think the most

unexpected pleasure of this book, however, was just how inspirational each and every person's journey was. And using these stories as my morning motivation each day has been such a pleasure. I'm almost reluctant to come to the end. Thank you.