The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - How to optimally prepare for presentations as a Psychologist

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 Welcome along to the Aspiring Psychologist podcast.

Starting point is 00:01:34 Let's think today about presentations. Now, presentations are something which can be a big part of your journey not only as an aspiring psychologist but as a qualified psychologist too so when I was working in in the NHS most recently we would present you know information at multidisciplinary team meetings about clients or, you know, situations that we were working with. And it's important that you're able to get your information across concisely and in a way that helps the audience to, you know, understand what it is you're telling them and why, know what the outcomes would be so it can be useful when we're doing case discussions in that way to perhaps think about opening up with

Starting point is 00:02:34 what you're looking for from this situation this can also be useful for supervision as well. So certainly as my career has advanced, you learn to use supervision for helping stuckness. You know, there might be a specific question that you want to answer from supervision. So I would often, you know, begin my presentation, my communication with what I'm looking to gain. So, you know, I'm really hoping that, you know, out of today, the outcome would be that I find a way to work through this problem that feels a bit stuck. So I'd welcome your opinion on why this stuckness might have cropped up and what I and we can do with the client to help shift that and to have a different outcome. You know, the same is true in MDT meetings as well. So if I want something specific, if I want, you know, for example, a referral to psychiatry, or I would like another member of the MDT to think about assessing them, then I'm, you know, I'm saying. They can be weighing up for themselves whether they think that is a useful intervention, a useful next step. So it's always useful to have that, yeah, the direction of travel, you know, the intended destination as you are, as you're starting it and other types of presentations of course will include something

Starting point is 00:04:29 a bit more powerpointy or a bit more canva-y I much prefer canva canva is so whizzy if you've not checked out canva yet then please do grab a link in my in my show notes. Okay, so why might you need to do a presentation as an aspiring psychologist? I hear you cry. Well, I have had a number of times when when I've been called to interview, I have been asked to prepare a presentation. And for some of you that may may leave you, you know, quaking in your boots and just thinking, no, I hate presentations. So what I'm hoping that we get out of today is to help you feel more confident, both in putting together your presentation, practicing it, and then, you know, smashing it out the park when you give it. I'm a little bit outside normal limits, because I actually really enjoy a presentation, which is

Starting point is 00:05:43 perhaps why I've ended up doing podcasts and things, because I don't mind speaking. You know, if you're in a group exercise and someone says, so who's going to feed back to the group? I'm like, I'll do it. I'm all right with that. People are like, oh, we've got Marianne in the group. She doesn't mind speaking. But there's, of course, something empowering about encouraging yourself to do things that might feel a little bit uncomfortable, you know, feeling the burn and doing it anyway. So let me help, you know, inspire you to be able to do presentations yourself so that you don't always have to ask the chatty one in the group to help support you with

Starting point is 00:06:26 that. So the first of my techniques is we're going to just put a little bit of structure together when we're creating the presentation. So what we're going to do is we're going to tell people what we're going to tell them before we then tell them it. So the first strategy is tell them what you're going to tell them. Obviously not in full detail, but you're just giving a little bit of structure. Even if it's a 10 minute presentation, you know, I'm taking people through what we're going to do. So if I was going to give you, you know, the plan for today's podcast episode, I'd be saying, you know, welcome along to this session on thinking about optimising your presentations. I'm just going to break down the structure of what to

Starting point is 00:07:18 expect from what we're going to achieve within our time together so the um the way that that's going to look is i'm going to share with you um three um sections three top tips um to be able to you know supercharge what you're doing um and get the maximum benefit from it and then there's going to be you know i don't know there'll be an opportunity for questions um i'm then going to summarize what we've spoken about think about the main take-home learning points and then there will be an opportunity for questions. I'm then going to summarise what we've spoken about, think about the main take-home learning points, and then there will be an opportunity for questions at the end. So I hope you'll find this a really useful overview. Now, of course, as a one-way communication device of a podcast, I'm not going to be able to get your feedback on whether this was useful,

Starting point is 00:08:02 but that's the kind of thing I'd be saying in in a presentation situation for real so yeah we're telling them what we're going to tell them and for the next two tips I'm going to come back to you just after this break hope you find it useful useful. Come and take a look. It's right here in this book. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. I'm Jo and I work as an assistant practitioner in a CAMS service in Lancashire. I bought and read Marianne's book, The Clinical Psychologist Collective, to accompany me while completing the clinical psychology training application. It proved to be really good company. I found it sparked ideas of how to build experience and skills but more than that it offered the chance to get lost in people's stories.

Starting point is 00:09:31 It provided a timely reminder not to get so caught up in an end goal and to value and enjoy each job we fulfill along the way because the work we do now is important and matters to those we sit alongside as well as ourselves. It also gave the reassurance that there are eclectic routes into clinical psychology, which is important for me as someone who's had a meandering journey and not a typical route to the profession. I wholeheartedly recommend the book for both personal and professional reasons. Be prepared to put evening tasks on hold for a while though, once you've started reading it's tough to put it down. guys filled with lessons and experience that will help you get qualified so come and take a look it's right here in this book it's the clinical psychologist collective

Starting point is 00:10:37 it's the clinical psychologist collective okay welcome back so we covered before the break we covered our first top tip for the structure of our presentations and that was we're going to tell them what we're going to tell them the second top tip is that we are then going to tell them we're gonna tell them the stuff that we're gonna we've told them we're gonna tell them this is a lot of telling isn isn't it? So I often think the best way to do this is not by putting all the information on every slide. That is the way to lose me. If you are standing in front of me reading what is on the slide, then I am going to be busy doing other stuff in my mind

Starting point is 00:11:40 because I've already read it probably before you've started even talking. So I've gained read it probably before you've started even talking so I've gained my important points and it feels like there's less need to listen to what you're saying so when you're structuring any visual aids with your presentation I would make them look engaging I would have a key word or two on there if only to aid your memory of what you're going to say but do not put all the content in the slides and do not read from the slides because that is gonna lead to a zoned out audience especially in these um zoom times that we've got so if you're doing it via zoom you're gonna have people in the background playing on their

Starting point is 00:12:25 ipads whilst listening to you and we want you to be communicating to your audience really well we want people to be really in tune and engaged with what you're saying and really wanting to be on board to learn what you're saying so So as you're talking, you might want to use any relevant references to help you back up your points, to demonstrate your theory. I often think even if it is, you know, for example, a presentation where you're talking about, you know, your clinical suitability for a role. So you might be talking about some work that you did with a client. I often think it's still useful to drop in the odd reference here and there, especially because you're, you know, you're striving to be

Starting point is 00:13:17 an academic. It shows that you are, you know, well versed in linking theory and practice. So that's another useful thing. If you've got, if it is linked to some outcomes that you did, it can be useful to think about, you know, putting together some graphs that demonstrate your progress with the client, demonstrate the effectiveness of whatever the intervention that you're discussing is. I'm a big fan of a beautiful presentation theme. So I used to have my go-to presentation theme for PowerPoint. But yeah, it's just a whole lot more beautiful and easier to to create in Canva. And you can still download as a PowerPoint from Canva if you need to, or you can just download it as PDF. So, yeah, just check out Canva if you haven't already.

Starting point is 00:14:16 Like I said, there's a link in the comments. It is ace. It's going to change your world. You can also put videos in there as well if you wanted to add snippets or jingles. You know, I love a jingle. So, yeah, thinking about engaging your audience and thinking about giving them something to look at, you know, something to listen to, which might those senses activated, you know, as you can to get them as engaged as possible. So we've told them what we're going to tell them. And then we've told them the stuff, you know, we've done it, we've told them it. And then the final point is we're going

Starting point is 00:15:02 to tell them what we've told them. We're going to just briefly summarize what we've spoken about. And if there was any question for the presentation, so, you know, demonstrate how you used an intervention to alleviate the distress of a client you worked with, then that's the point where I'm going to be really drawing their attention to to the changes so answering the question that you've been asked now of course if there is a specific question that you might well pepper the appropriate words throughout when you're telling them as well from the middle section but this summary is where you're demonstrating that you're answering the question and you're doing it in a succinct time balanced way that hopefully is enthusiastic and not too anxious as a presentation style to watch. So I think it can be really useful to have a practice by yourself in an empty room with a

Starting point is 00:16:08 timer on just to check how you're doing for time. And it can also be useful if it's a really important presentation. It can also be useful to practice that with someone else in the room so that you get used to people, you know, hearing the words as they come out of your mouth. You might, if that feels a bit too exposing or you haven't got someone to ask, you might find it helpful to record it on Zoom so that you can see what it is like to take away some of that eek moments that you might have about, you know, talking in public, standing up. So if you're going to be actually doing this presentation in person, it might be useful to just think about what you're going to be wearing, check that you're going to be comfortable, check that whatever you're wearing is going to help you bring your A game. It's going to help you, you know, like we

Starting point is 00:17:03 said about the millionaire, you know, millionaire interview experience. We going to help you you know like we said about the millionaire um you know the millionaire interview experience we want to help you think that things are going well so your hair is looking like on point you're feeling good because we don't want any reasons to be feeling you know like we're exposed or vulnerable um at that moment So just making sure that you're, you're feeling, you know, good enough, ideally, about the situation that you're in when you are giving that presentation. So it is short and sweet from us today. But this is a special request, someone had asked me to cover presentations and how they're important and how we can, you know, how we can optimize and maximize them. So if you have got any specific requests, then check out the link in the show notes for how you can get in

Starting point is 00:17:55 contact to nominate any podcast topics, because I want to make sure that this podcast is really useful for you, whatever stage of your career you are at. Thank you so much for listening. Please do come and connect with me on my socials, LinkedIn, Dr. Marianne Trent, YouTube, Good Thinking Psychological Services, Facebook, Good Thinking Psychological Services, Twitter, Good Thinking PS1, and Instagram, Dr. Marianne services twitter good thinking ps1 and instagram dr marianne trent thank you again for being part of my world and for listening right to the end we've just got a little bit coming up about the compassionate q and a series and then you can enjoy the jingle take care and like i said if you'd like to get involved with your own story for the aspiring

Starting point is 00:18:46 psychologist collective then do check out the details in the show notes for how you can request more information but if you head to my website which is goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk and then head to my books there will be information there for you being well supported during any interview season is so important i have therefore planned some compassionate question and answer support sessions for you you are absolutely welcome to come along to all of them, some of them, none of them. No need to book and here are the dates for you. Monday the 28th of February from 7.30pm, Monday the 21st of March 7.30pm, Monday the 4th of April 7.30pm and Monday, the 9th of May, 7.30pm. And they will all be live streaming via my socials,

Starting point is 00:19:51 which includes Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook. So you can absolutely pick your favourite platform and they'll all be available on replay as well. Hope you find it so useful. And I will look forward to catching up with some of you then. Take care. to 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

Starting point is 00:20:53 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. So if you're feeling a bit uneasy about becoming a clinical psychologist I 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 - How to optimally prepare for presentations as a Psychologist

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