The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - The DClinPsy Application Season is Coming! Timeline & Tips!

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, episode. Aspiring Psychologist Podcast With Dr. Marianne Trent

Starting point is 00:01:27 Hi, welcome along to the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast. If you are listening on the day of release, which is Monday the 29th of August 2022, and you're in the UK, then today is a bank holiday, so enjoy. Does that mean that you get to stay in bed for a bit longer? Does that mean that you get to go and do something fun? Probably not in the sun. It is, it has been very sunny lately, but today it has started pouring with rain so there may not be sun around on that day but what does it mean for you when you get an extra bank holiday? I remember when I was growing up and I used to really like shopping, my friend and I were like what is the point in bank holidays because the shops at that time were not open. We were like,

Starting point is 00:02:25 we don't get it. So boring. Can't wait for the bank holiday to be over. And then once you start working, you're like, oh, okay, I get the point of the bank holidays now. I'm really sorry to all the bank holiday gods. I didn't get the point of you before because now it's about a bit of rest and recharge. You know know I think for me they really came into their own before I had children and when I was working full-time certainly when it's during the school holidays you don't really feel the benefit um certainly I don't because I usually have a Monday and a Friday off during the school holidays anyway so it's just a day, an extra day with the kids, which I know is a really nice thing as well. Okay, so if you are listening live or live-ish, then what you might well be aware of already

Starting point is 00:03:16 is that we have the 1st of September on the horizon. And the 1st of September is a pretty key date for aspiring psychologists. And in case you don't know, I'll tell you why. So for a long time now, the 1st of September has heralded the opening of the application process for the clearinghouse applications for aspiring trainee clinical psychologists. So the rough timeframe is it opens for applications in September, on the 1st of September. When I was applying, it was always open until the start of December. But I know during the pandemic, they scaled it back and sort of made it mid-November. They've made it a bit earlier. I think that was to give them more time to sort out the processes involved in interviews.

Starting point is 00:04:17 So if you are applying, please do check what the deadlines are. I did just have a little look online to see if there was any insider info ahead of the 1st of September. And actually the Clearinghouse Leeds website says that they're getting a brand new website from September and that you can't get the new website address until September. So my advice to you would be to give it a Google Clearinghouse Leeds and I would definitely think there'll be a redirect of their website address on their current website. So the address is in the show notes but just loosely speaking, it's www.leeds.ac.uk forward slash Charlie Hotel Papa, Charlie, Charlie Papa. And that should hopefully bring you roughly to the right area. But like I said,

Starting point is 00:05:15 if you give it a Google, it should come up and there might well be that new website address from September onwards. So I know we do have a pretty varied audience for this podcast. So we do of course have people who are wanting to apply to the doctorate in clinical psychology this year, but we also have people who don't study psychology and probably won't ever study psychology, but just enjoy learning a bit more about mental health mental health professionals and the nuts and bolts behind the scenes in creating and maintaining mental health services so let me just go over a little bit about what the processes are and what this application is all about so there are essential criteria criteria for applying for the doctorate schemes which

Starting point is 00:06:08 as a broad brush approach are largely funded courses. So you get funded by the local health education authority and employed by a local employing trust. That's certainly the case in England and I know that Scotland also offers funded places as do Wales but they aren't funded by Health Education England because they are not in England. If you're wanting to apply and you don't live in England there are options in other United Kingdom countries and there are also some self-funded places available too for some of the courses in England but the details of the amounts as of last year are in the Clinical Psychologist Collective book and it is quite expensive I think from memory it's about 30 grand a year plus of course you'd need to be able to have

Starting point is 00:07:05 some way to sustain yourself to be able to pay for your rent and your living fees as well food and travel and all of that so it's not it's not a small expense if you're looking to self fund that but some organizations do fund that for their employees as well so it's not always people coming from different countries to do self-funding it is possible to be self-funded via companies sponsoring you to do that as well which is worth bearing in mind so in the most part people will be will have a right to work in the UK and may well be British citizens already and will be applying for for training for the doctoral schemes to be funded by the NHS so so I'm going to be giving that as the main advice in this podcast but if you've got circumstances outside of this, then, you know, just let me know or, yeah, give it a

Starting point is 00:08:08 Google. There's a lot that can be found on Google. So I'm aware that for the last few years, there has been a fee, an application fee for the clearinghouse. certainly of last year if you submit your application and pay before the 20th of October the fee was £30 but if you submit your application between the 21st of October and the deadline which last year was the 17th of November then the fee was £40 and they call it a processing fee. And the deadline time was 1pm on the 17th last year. But please do check the dates for 2022 because they may well be different. My advice would actually be consider whether your options and your experiences might be changing between the 21st of october and the 17th of november so if you're waiting for new job offer perhaps or to start a

Starting point is 00:09:21 new job and there's something where you're waiting on publication details that you might be able to add to your dissemination section if there's something that might change between that first deadline time and the second that it's probably going to be in your interest to wait a little bit until you can put that on your form, because that might help you to score more points. But largely speaking, if you're confident that you are reflecting well, you've, you know, you've got enough experience that you've done a really good job on your form, or for that matter, if you're applying for a course where you just get invited to a selection test if you meet the criteria and so you're not so focused on the quality or the content of your form then you might

Starting point is 00:10:15 well want to do it early so that it gets looked at early so that you get you know just I don't think you get any special treatment there are only so many places available for interview and you'll only get notified whether you've been invited for interview at the same time you know as everybody else which will be springtime which is a general order of events so usually sort of February March time dates come out for different courses and they're staggered. The interview dates are staggered. Usually they're around April, May, June time but they are quite well organized so that there shouldn't be too much overlap for courses that are geographically close. So it could well be that if you're applying for courses in different areas of

Starting point is 00:11:07 the country that you're getting invites in the same week it's not unheard of but there is usually some flexibility I don't even know if they maybe do a little bit of collaboration to make sure they're not offering you on the same day but if you were in a position where you did get offered on the same day I think it would be absolutely reasonable that they that they accommodate that change especially if it if it is an in-person interview so yeah should you wait is question one I think that really depends on your own circumstances. And if you have been, some people really like the summer to just like do nothing, psychology at all. Some people will have learned that they hadn't been successful during the 2022 season. They may have learned that in February, as early as February, March. And so it can feel like quite a wait from very early spring, late winter, to the very start of autumn on the 1st of September. So they might well have made a head start or perhaps even written their application already and so they may be eager and raring to go especially if they haven't got new

Starting point is 00:12:27 experiences to pop on their form so I know when I was working as an assistant it could be fairly quick changing really you know in terms of the new opportunities and experiences that come up you know new groups that get offered to you to run or new research opportunities so for me I was also waiting on a job offer so I was able to put on my form that I was going to be starting a new job because I had a job start date then as well so by the time my form was reviewed I had actually started that job because I was due to start in the February so by the time I started by the time I did my interviews I'd already been working in that post for three-ish months so yeah it will be dependent on your unique factors you get to decide you get to choose there's no right

Starting point is 00:13:21 or wrong answer but it can be really useful to discuss that with your supervisor your clinical supervisor certainly if you are already being supervised by a qualified clinical psychologist to get a little bit of perspective a little bit of insight um also a really good idea to get someone qualified and also someone that's not anything to do with psychology to read your application form before you submit it because we want to be really sure that we're not using jargon so all the time when I've been screening forms and when I've looked at other people's forms and when I've even been reading and editing accounts for the upcoming aspiring psychologist book we can really heavily use jargon because we're so used to knowing what

Starting point is 00:14:13 that means or just using acronyms which might mean a different thing for me in my particular niche or specialty than it might mean for you so um sometimes we can't see our own jargon and it's only when someone who is not working in the area that you're working in says well what does that mean that you're like oh yeah okay i could perhaps do with not putting that um quite like that and explaining that a little bit more so So yeah, getting a little bit of advice about that is, so yeah, just getting some fresh eyes, some fresh perspective on your form can be a really good idea. And plus, because we often can't see our own typos. So getting some insider insight and reflection and opinion can be really useful. Let's just have a quick break here and I will be along to speak with you

Starting point is 00:15:06 about some more of my top tips on the other side. Hi, I'm Emily, an assistant psychologist from Surrey. I love being a part of the Aspiring Psychologist membership as Marianne and the group are really supportive and it has rekindled my love for psychology outside of work. I always look forward to Monday evenings when we have Zoom calls from different psychology specialists, such as CBT or cat therapists, as I always learn something new. I would recommend the Aspiring Psychologist membership to anyone who is feeling a little stuck on their psychology journey and can afford to invest in developing themselves outside of work so that is the first of our audio testimonials for the aspiring psychologist membership

Starting point is 00:15:59 it really is a lovely place good things things are happening um and we do actually open for 15 more members on the 2nd of September as well so if you feel like adding some more compassion and some more hand-over-hand guidance and getting up close and personal with um qualified clinical psychologists from a variety of perspectives and also coming this September we have got a free mindfulness course happening as well for the members. We've also got lots of other well-being activities coming up, we've got a research clinic, we have got regular CBT teaching and we've got other disciplines as well to help really exacerbate, to help really bring on your formulation skills and your confidence in talking about considering and weighing up different options for treatment. So, yeah, it's exceptional value as well as just £30 a month for as long as you want to remain a member.

Starting point is 00:17:04 So any price changes in future, if you are on board, will remain the same for you. Your price won't increase. So yeah, if you'd like any more information, have a look at the details on my website, which are in my show notes, or feel free to slip into my DMs as well. But the place is open at 8am on friday the 2nd of september but only if you're on the waiting list that's the only way you can get in so do sneak in and pop yourself on that waiting list and i'll see you there um it's all good stuff but i will always create free content for you um that is you know i firmly believe there should be qualified free access for anybody wanting to further their career in psychology and it shouldn't be like some big mystery okay so

Starting point is 00:17:54 so my pledge to you is there will always be free content and it's probably a good time to just give you the dates for this year's compassionate Q&A to support the application process. The first one is on the day that I think it will be opening, which will be the 1st of September 2022. I will be streaming across my socials, but do come and join the Aspiring Psychologist community on Facebook if you're on Facebook. I will also be streaming across my other socials which are now pretty much all Dr Marianne Trent including YouTube so yeah wherever you like to hang out the only place it won't be streaming is TikTok because I can't stream via TikTok I don't think I've got enough followers yet but you could come and follow me on there um because there's other stuff that goes on there too um so yeah if you're a TikToker

Starting point is 00:18:50 is that a thing I think so um yeah I'm on there with Dr Marianne Trent anyway so the first one as I said is the 1st of September 2022 at 7 30 p.m and then the second one is the 10th of October also at 7 30 p.m they will be on my socials on those dates so the 1st of September and the 10th of October and there's also the replays that you can watch on my YouTube playlist as well so Dr Marianne Trent and you can find the playlist there as well if you can't make the lives but you'd like me to answer a question for you then feel free to get in contact with me via any of my socials and i will take a little screenshot and keep it in a special folder to be able to answer for you on any one of those dates and if you'd rather me not

Starting point is 00:19:46 use your name do let me know that's okay too but obviously people have found them really useful in the past and it can just feel nice to be part of something this will be our third year I started doing these sessions for people across my socials in September 2020. And it's been lovely to be there for you, alongside you, with you, and also to grow with you. You know, first came the free Q&A's, then came the this podcast this very podcast then is coming imminently I've got lots and lots of work to do the aspiring psychologist collective book and if you'd like any information about when that's published you can jump on to the details in the show notes to register to be on the right mailing list for that.

Starting point is 00:20:54 So what can be useful when you are looking at getting a bit of you down on paper for your form? I think actually doing things on paper can be really useful, but also recording yourself speak can be really helpful because you get your own unique turns of phrase as well which can be really helpful so could you just like get over listening to the sound of your own voice trust me the more you do it the easier it gets and just start answering those questions aloud could that be really useful because the whole website's changing it might be that the whole process for applications is changing. HEE, Health Education England, threw us a bit of a curveball last year on the 1st of September, which was also the date of the publication of the ClinPsych Collective book, when they announced there were going to be funding changes for anybody that had had HEE funding for the last couple of years before.

Starting point is 00:21:46 And they did it as a blanket policy at that point and said, you can't do that. You can't apply. You're no longer eligible. And there was lots of lobbying and surveys. And that was then later reversed largely through the work of Erkan, who calls himself Jason, his name is Erkan, and he did sterling work. So if you have indeed got a place on the clinical training this year, as indeed Erkan has, that is thanks to Erkan and to the people in his world that really helped, you know, lobby for that change. So if you wouldn't have been eligible, but you were able to apply them because of the rule change, you know, raise a little toast to him and the work that he did. He was not taking no for an answer. And I think he's i think he's very very inspiring commendable stuff

Starting point is 00:22:47 um so uh yeah well done to him and well done to you if you've got into training this year too and you might well be listening to this approaching starting your first few days and weeks as a trainee clinical psychologist that's what your badge is going to say um you know that's what your id card's going to say and it's a really amazing thing to see it printed for the first time first few times um you know catch yourself looking at it just thinking god that's me it's my photo on there it's really really good so um you know i also think it can be really useful to imagine that imagine you with that name badge around your neck your photo probably not the ideal photo you'd like mine was always a bit dodgy and bit grainy um not not a great hair day that day um imagine slightly less than ideal photo um or maybe you're knocking out the park and

Starting point is 00:23:46 you're just like on point with your photos but mine would never great um just imagine your photo your name um and the title trainee clinical psychologist can you dare to imagine that what blocks come up for you does it make you cringe does it make you excited does it make you think oh it's never going to happen know, just explore and note down and work through any blocks that come up for you. Right. I've kind of waffled on and not said a super amount, I feel, but I hope it's been useful for you. I wanted to record an episode. The kids have gone out um for the afternoon um i'm also going to be live on berkshire radio bbc radio berkshire um this coming week as well it's going to be wednesday the 31st of august so if you have access to digital radio um even if you're not in berkshire

Starting point is 00:24:41 please do tune into that um and they're going to be just talking to me about me. They want to talk about the podcast, which is really cool. So yeah, very, very nice to be contacted by them and invited onto there. So if you are local to Buckshire, or if you just want to listen to me waffling on a bit more, then do tune into that. I believe it's 12.30. And I hope hope you can listen to that on catch up and if you're already on my mailing list I will likely send a little um a little replay of that as well so if you don't want to miss out do head to my website www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk if you scroll to the bottom you'll see the mailing list option and if whilst you're

Starting point is 00:25:25 there you fancied downloading my free supervision guide you absolutely could by just going to forward slash supervision at the end and then you can have that land in your inbox and there's been some really nice feedback about that as a free resource too so yeah i hope to catch up with you on this um first q a replays will be available across all of my socials um so the first of september at 7 30 p.m be there or be square and i'm just smiling to myself as i say that because i saw something on socials today that really made me laugh um it was a i think it was what probably a viral tweet um uh by a guy called rich neville so full full accountability there um and he'd posted this picture of some cheese bags um stay fresh cheese bags and with that he'd um put i found something new to say when i leave a room and it's just been making me laugh,

Starting point is 00:26:26 just as even as I say it to myself, stay fresh cheese bags. Oh, so yeah, could I make that my new sign off rather than thanks for being part of my world? Stay fresh cheese bags. Probably not. I might stick with my more compassionate approach. But yeah, if you want to adopt stay fresh cheese bags please do so thanks to rich neville whoever you are for bringing that to my ears and my consciousness right be kind to yourself enjoy this bank holiday if you are indeed listening on the monday of your if you're listening um on catch-up replay it's all all fresh, it's all good, then I hope you had a good bank holiday. And I'm fully aware, not everyone gets bank holidays off as well. Many of us have to work when we're in supporting roles. So if you've been doing that, then I hope you

Starting point is 00:27:20 enjoy your day off, hopefully in lieu at a later stage. So yeah, I will see you very soon. Get to see my face as well, which is good. I will be available on the Q&A, the Compassionate Q&A, 1st of September. So until then, thanks for being part of my world. And I will look forward to catching up with you for our next episode, if not before. Take care. Then let this be your guide With this podcast I feel sad You're beyond your weight 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

Starting point is 00:28:34 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 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 okay but trust me you will not put the book down once you start.

The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - The DClinPsy Application Season is Coming! Timeline & Tips!

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