The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - Making the most of not that relevant experience as an aspiring 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, the principles can work for you.

Starting point is 00:00:34 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.

Starting point is 00:01:00 If you're looking to become a psychologist, then let this be your guide. episode. With Dr. Marianne Trent Hi, welcome along to this first ever Aspiring Psychologist podcast. I am Dr. Marianne Trent and I am hoping that you're going to find this a really useful resource. So I am a clinical psychologist and I know that in your position, when it was my time to be an aspiring clinical psychologist, that I would have found this really useful. So I hope you do too, but please do feel free to get in contact with me and shape this you know make this what you want um so i'm aiming that the podcasts are all going to be um you know similar length um not any longer really than than 20 minutes unless i've got interviews happening often as short as sort of 10 minutes um but they're not scripted um I've got ideas of what I will be talking about, but I'm going to be drawing on current themes in psychology and thinking about,

Starting point is 00:02:34 you know, current events and also issues are really pertinent to you as an aspiring psychologist. So who are you? You know, in my mind, you are quite possibly already graduated in your undergraduate psychology degree. And, you know, you are maybe working in some kind of relevant industry trying to gain some experience or you may be you know as I have been in the past you may be in something that doesn't feel terrifically relevant so I worked for quite a long time at Argos head office so I'm originally from the Milton Keynes area and that is where you could find me having a lovely time with my colleagues doing my job very well but actually punching into that phone system at you know 8.59am, seeing that clock tick over to 9am and thinking, oh dear lord, I cannot wait to see that clock say 5pm so I can punch out again. So I feel like I've always had the ability to make the most of whatever situation that I find myself in. So I did, you know, there are aspects of that job that I really enjoyed.

Starting point is 00:04:13 And it certainly showed me, you know, really useful skills about how to do the customer service role, but for stores. And so in stores are having a hard time or needed problems with, you know, stock or sorting something out, they would call me. I can't even remember what the team was called. It was a while ago. But, you know, I was decent at the job. I got good feedback from my managers and, you know, popular with my team. And, you know, the ability to play office chair Olympics was definitely around when the phone lines were quieter. So, you know, I made the most of it. And also at that time, Argos head office had free vend on their drinks vending machine and their hot chocolate was really rather good and also their vegetable soup and chicken soup was pretty good too so I'd often have a hot

Starting point is 00:05:13 chocolate or a little cup of soup um you know around 10 o'clock and I used to like a late lunch I used to like a late lunch I'd go to um lunch about two o'clock because of course if you've ever worked in a phone or customer service call center you have to stagger your lunches um because you need to make sure there's always enough people um to be able to answer the phone so I'd nominate myself to have a late lunch which would be two till three um and then I'd get back and I'd only have two hours left winning I think I also got a tea break um I think the breaks weren't paid I can't remember but um you know I had great fun and actually got really lovely memories of the day that um one of my managers wound up one of my friends who had C's, S's and T's in his name and actually prized off the keys and swapped them around because she knew that his typing wasn't that brilliant. And so every time he

Starting point is 00:06:16 typed his name at the end of a note that he'd recorded for a client call, it was wrong. So his name, I'm going to tell you you his name was Chris Arnott but it couldn't work out why every time he typed his name it was coming out as Crit Arnott and it still makes me smile to this day I still speak I still think about you Crit Arnott yeah so absolutely I think there's learning to make hay while the sun shines, as they say. So even if you're not in an industry that feels that relevant, it is important to think about how you can turn it to your advantage. How you can, you know, perhaps ask for some more responsibility. So I recognised actually, you know, my skills were perhaps a little bit above, you know, I wasn't firing on all cylinders, I wasn't using all of my

Starting point is 00:07:14 brain power in that role. And so I asked to have additional responsibilities of looking at the data for the calls and for looking at you know the data for the staff on duty and actually you know it meant that I was able to punch out of that phone system which meant that I was less traceable as well in my own data so when the manager was doing the data, you'd get things in your inbox saying that you'd been logged in for how many minutes and what your average call length was and how much gaps you were having between calls. But when I took on all this extra juicy, it actually meant that my data was completely bunkum it didn't make any sense because of course I wasn't logged in for large portions which skewed the data and so it meant my manager didn't really know what I was up to even though it was a shared office so they could see what I was doing but

Starting point is 00:08:16 it just allowed me to take my foot off that gas pedal you know a little bit and to find a little bit of breathing room. And, you know, those of you who are listening to this, you may find that you are in a really highly demanding role. So you might be, you know, perhaps in an IAPT service or something like that. You might have real, real high demands on your time and it's really hard to catch that breathing space. But you might still, regardless of your role, be able to think about how you could use your unique skills and talents, even if it is a relevant psychology role that you're working in to really, you know, be able to help yourself stand out and to help you to gain that relevant experience so this was supposed to be an introduction to the podcast and to to me and why

Starting point is 00:09:16 you might want to listen and already I can't help myself but share information with you so let me give you a typical day for someone that had contacted me recently. Because, you know, this shows us just what jobs you might be applying to, or what jobs you might be doing currently, whilst trying to further your career in psychology. 9am, an appointment which was complex, so finished at 10.30. 10.30, notes for that appointment. 11am, an appointment, so that would be a client appointment. 12pm, my manager wanted to talk about a supervisee who's on sick leave, 12.30, my own line management with another supervisee, 1pm supervision with another supervisee, 2 o'clock, same as above, 3pm personal counselling and 4.30 line management with a supervisee. And in the background, there was occupational health policy and stuff for looking after the well-being of this person's team

Starting point is 00:10:27 it's a busy job you know we are absolutely in the health service asking a lot of people working in you know in roles who are aspiring psychologists. So, of course, we know that as an aspiring psychologist, you do have unique skills and talents. But it's also important that we make sure that we're not being asked to work outside of our competencies. You know, anybody in that kind of demanding role would find that, you know, quite an ask, you know, even me, in my role as a qualified psychologist, would find that a pretty demanding day. So when I was in the NHS, I was able to structure my own time in my most recent job. So I'd manage my own diary so long as I was able to demonstrate that I was obviously seeing, you know, the number of clients per week and had enough clients on my caseload, but to kind of achieve 50% face to face time. So that's often

Starting point is 00:11:41 quite common. But I know that across the country roles more junior than mine are being expected to have a much higher face-to-face ratio but that's really challenging and we have to think about at what cost to you as an individual, you know, because actually, you know, one of my favourite things about my job is the ability to hold people in mind and to have, you know, those random moments of connection where I'll be, you know, doing something like some paperwork or writing up the notes or I might even be, you know, off duty chopping carrots for my children if you are a parent is it just me who seems to be perpetually peeling carrots and chopping peppers my children are not big vegetable eaters but one of them likes carrots and one of them likes peppers

Starting point is 00:12:41 I feel like it's just a constant groundhog day. If you've got any other advice for vegetables that are tolerated by children, also feel free to fling them at my way. So yeah, these are demanding roles. And actually, whilst chopping these carrots and peppers, I don't have to use my full brain capacity. I probably should as I might chop a finger off. But you know, I like the flexibility and the time and space that it gives me to be able to think about clients. So you know, if I'm out on a run, and I see someone, and it reminds me of something we've spoken about, you know, in a session, I like the ability to be able to join up the dots and to reflect on my client. And I actually do often tell my clients when I have done that.

Starting point is 00:13:34 And especially if I've been in supervision, sometimes I tell the client that I have spoken about them in supervision, but I tell them that, you know, that's not unique to them. This isn't me saying I can't do this work. It isn't me saying I don't know what to do. We're thinking about it as it being about, you know, trying to really advance this work to make it more optimal and thinking about actually for my own professional development, it is a requirement that I am supervised by somebody more senior and more experienced than myself. So I hope that's useful for you. And please, if you do want any more examples about how I talk to clients about certain things, do let me know and we can shape a podcast episode around that so before we finish for today I thought I

Starting point is 00:14:27 would tell you a little bit more about myself so you do know now that I'm Dr Marianne Trent clinical psychologist and have also worked in Argos head office but clearly I didn't get to be a clinical psychologist just from working in Argos head office. So I qualified in 2011 so my training started at a university in the Midlands in 2008. So I was filling out my declensi form for the clearinghouse programs in 2007 and I speak to you as the right now as the process for the 2021 forward slash 2022 applications are open so it's application season so application fever if you are looking for any support or guidance in how to complete your form, then do check out my YouTube videos on good thinking psychological services. And there are a series of live Q&A videos that I did in September this year, so 2021. And I also did some in the application season last year, so the 2020 season as well. So do check those out. And also, I am the lead author of the Clinical Psychologist

Starting point is 00:15:56 Collective, Advice and Guidance for Aspiring Clinical Psychologists. So you might not be an aspiring clinical psychologist, you might be be an aspiring clinical psychologist you might be a different sort of aspiring psychologist but my expertise is clinical psychology but of course there is lots of crossover in the things that we are talking about so I hope you will still find this useful and yeah do check out that book and check out those um those youtube videos if you would welcome some guidance from um you know from me but also a collective of um qualified and aspiring psychologists 600 years worth of cumulative experience on offer in those pages. Right, so my clinical specialty is working with trauma, depression, anxiety in adults. But I also do eating disorders work because I do find

Starting point is 00:16:58 there is a great deal of crossover with trauma and eating disorders because of the nature of you know control which can be really key post-trauma. Before I was specialising in that and working with adults I worked for four years in a CAMHS service so that's what I did when I first qualified, worked in CAMHS which I loved but I became a mummy for the first time whilst I was working in that service. And it was, you know, 26 miles each way in really, really heavy traffic on the M6. And so a job came up closer to home that was a promotion. And it felt like a bit of a no-brainer, even though it meant moving from my beloved children's services to adults but actually I rose to the challenge and have really really enjoyed it and now would happily call myself you know an adult specialist

Starting point is 00:17:57 but it means I also feel really comfortable in working with young people but currently I am private practice only so in April 2021 so quite new I left the NHS and now work solely in private practice and I only see adults in my in my in my clinic or age 16 and above anyway I don't see any of the younger ones anymore and I am due to the pandemic I am online only but that is likely to continue because it works well for me and it works well for my family I have a great resource that I've created called the our tricky brain kit which is based on compassion-focused therapy theory for helping clients and staff teams to understand the role of trauma and depression on mental health. And I also am the lead author and put together the book, The Grief Collective,

Starting point is 00:19:01 stories of life, loss and learning to heal heal so if you would welcome learning some more about grief or you um you are grieving yourself then you might really find it useful um to check out um check out that as a resource um it's available in paperback and ebook and i'm working really hard on the ebook of the the Clean Psych Collective being available. So I'm hoping it will be available by the time you are listening to this. But it's not behaving itself at the moment. Right, we're just going to break for a short ad break. And I'll be back with the last part of this first podcast episode very soon. will help you get qualified. So come and take a look.

Starting point is 00:20:06 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. 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

Starting point is 00:21:05 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 because once you've started reading it's tough to put it down. Looking to become a psychologist? Then let this be your guide. Filled with lessons and experience that will help you get qualified. So come and take a look. It's right here in this book.

Starting point is 00:21:58 It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. Hi, welcome back. Thanks for sticking with me. I thought it would be useful to think about some of the upcoming themes that we've got scheduled for our our future podcast episodes so that you know what's coming and you are hopefully you know subscribing to this podcast and telling anyone you think might find it useful but yeah I understand and recall what it's like to be an aspiring psychologist, and it can feel incredibly competitive. So if you want to keep this as your own guilty pleasure, something that's useful, that's okay, too. So we are going to be thinking about using supervision

Starting point is 00:23:00 and supervisory relationship. We're going to be thinking about life events and psychology. We're going to be thinking about, you know, teaching and training. We're going to be thinking about, you know, conducting assessments and our relationships with clients. going to be thinking about issues of diversity and equality, thinking about, you know, research and other kind of ways of evaluating what might be going on within services as well. So this is a really broad brush of the things I'm hoping you guys will find really, really useful. But you know, I do need to know from you what you would like to listen to. I've also got some ideas for thinking about money and financial planning. So yeah, there's lots of cool stuff coming up. And actually, I wanted to put this podcast together because you know it can be really useful to have people that speak your language and hopefully in terms of practicalities I hope this is you can

Starting point is 00:24:16 understand me clear enough but yeah that's not really what I meant sorry we can be quite tricky with the way we speak can't we sometimes but you, someone that is on your page and kind of is getting you, you know, and the issues that are that are important and pertinent to you right now in order to, you know, progress your career. Because we are a breed, you know, not like many others you know I think our drive certainly my own recollection of my drive to get to where I wanted to be um could be pretty relentless you know and people would be like well I don't get it like well just get a different job or you know stay at Argos and you know go and be a buyer or something else that doesn't light my fire you know I really love this work and so if that is you if that describes you then I am on your page and I am you know so keen to help you advance in your work with people and And I'm gonna be running a free five-day challenge

Starting point is 00:25:25 to further super boost your incredible abilities as an aspiring psychologist. So look out for details about the free five-day challenge, which is coming very soon. And I will get the details to you on how you can register for that as soon as possible but the website address for the holding list for the mailing list is www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk and then forward slash the word aspire a-s-P-I-R-E.

Starting point is 00:26:07 And if you check that out, click on the link, you can get yourself on the mailing list for the next free five-day challenge that will continue to run and will be continually updated with the details of when the next challenge is. So I hope you found our first episode of the Aspiring Psychologist podcast really useful. Please don't be shy.

Starting point is 00:26:27 Do let me know if you've got any feedback and rate and review this podcast and subscribe, of course. And I will look forward to catching up with you for the next episode next week. Take care. become a psychologist, 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 Yana, 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

Starting point is 00:27:26 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 of 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'd definitely recommend this just to put yourself at ease and everything will be OK. But trust me, you will not put the book down once you start.

The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - Making the most of not that relevant experience as an aspiring psychologist

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