The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - Travel, Identity & Becoming a Psychologist: Why the World Is Your Best Teacher

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, my name is Veronica Kassova. I live in Edinburgh and I just graduated with a master's in psychology of mental health. Marion recommended me the Clinical Psychologist Collective when I was networking on LinkedIn and I must say I love it. It is one of a kind. It's like a window into the lives of people on the path of becoming a psychologist. The stories are unique, honest and honest and filled with a kind of intangible wisdom only personal storytelling can uncover. A common thread in the stories I valued most was to be compassionate not only with others,

Starting point is 00:00:43 but with myself too. Also, not fixating on becoming a psychologist, but enjoying life, grow, and the final results will come as a by-product. Marian, thank you for taking the time to collate all the stories. The book is a true gem and I think every aspiring psychologist should have a copy on their shelf. Thank you. We don't talk about this enough, but travelling can shape a psychologist just as much as studying or supervision. Because when you backpack, get lost, meet strangers, experience joy and uncertainty. You build empathy, perspective, flexibility and the kind of emotional intelligence you often just can't learn in a classroom. So today, we are asking, what if the time you spend out

Starting point is 00:01:34 there in the world is not a detour from psychology, but one of the best trainings you'll ever have? Hope you'll love it. If you do, like and subscribe for more. Hi, welcome along to the aspiring psychologist podcast. I am Dr. Marianne Trent, a qualified clinical psychologist and I'm joined here by the very intrepid Ben. Hi Ben, welcome Malong. Hi Maryan, thanks very much for having me. I've been very excited to do this ever since you first got in touch. Oh well yeah thank you for responding to my emails because this is how this came about right so you is it is it okay to say which country you're currently in Ben? Yeah absolutely yeah I'm currently in Chile

Starting point is 00:02:18 travelling with my partner. Amazing and yeah like I said you are intrepid I think when I spoke to to you to plan the episode. You were in, were you in Canada? Have I imagined that? I was, yeah. We've been in Canada for the past year and a quarter-ish. We'll talk a little bit more about what I've been up to there, but went back to the UK for a few weeks and then came further south to escape for the freezing cold winter. And the idea of our episode really is to think about how travel can enrich you as an aspiring or qualified psychologist. And how it might not be, I guess, that narrative of I want to get there as soon as I can get there. I want to be qualified by the time I'm 27 or I want to get there before I'm 30. And actually how we might be able to release the pressure of that and think about what we might learn along the way.

Starting point is 00:03:15 If we don't go directly, you know, to pass go, collect 200 pounds to quote monopoly. But, you know, what we might learn about ourselves, what we might learn about the world, what we might learn about others and how some of the experiences we have when we're travelling will help us to bolster life when it unfolds later what are your thoughts around that then yeah absolutely i feel that pressure as well as there's any aspiring psychologist because the goal is the doctorate and then you feel like maybe once you get up to training that's your path all lined up even if you're not quite there yet um because it can feel a little bit muddy to get there so people often like myself want to rush through that um and i've

Starting point is 00:04:01 felt that pressure whilst travelling as well almost looking far too and far into the future and constantly thinking about what i'm going to do when i get home and forgetting what am i doing just now because you know i'm in this beautiful place and i've got all this free time to meet new people and experience new things and reflect on that and just take my time which is something i'm getting better at at the moment. And I'm probably in the most comfortable place I've ever been with not rushing and just taking a moment to absorb what's happening to me just now. So it really is an exercise in mindfulness, isn't it, of enjoying where you're at right now and maybe appreciating that without then feeling like you need to jump ahead to the next step, the next thing. So

Starting point is 00:04:53 it's not holding yourself accountable. Is there anyone holding you accountable? So I know that my mum was very keen for me to become a doctor. And if I'd had this protracted period of time, she might have been able to. When are you progressing your career? Or are you literally just living to your own timeline then? Yeah, I don't think I've got any pressure from family or friends or anything like that, which I'm extremely grateful for. And I'm a little bit later in coming to psychology as well. You know, I did an engineering degree out of school and men spent my 20s doing various kind of unrelated jobs. I'm 30 years old just now at time of filming. And I've not long finished my conversion degree. But my parents have always very much been of the mindset that

Starting point is 00:05:41 as long as I'm enjoying what I'm doing and fulfilled, it's irrelevant how I'm doing that, which I feel very grateful for because I don't feel any pressure externally. I've got that intrinsic pressure but from the outside, I feel very comfortable that I don't need to do anything for the service of anyone else. Good, good. I'm pleased to hear it. And it might be a whole other episode, like thinking about moving from engineering to psychology, but we'll try and stick to travel. But that sounds fascinating as well. And, you know, I think when we first met, it was because you'd requested a psychology guide and you told me what your pressing concern was. And I seem to remember it was along the lines of how can I kind of get some relevant experience when I'm not, when I'm not in the UK, so that I can kind of try and keep moving along a little bit. How have you found that element or have you had to give yourself permission to just travel? A little bit of both, actually. So initially when we decided to travel to Canada, the initial plan was to perhaps do a bit of backpacking for a few months.

Starting point is 00:06:48 then find maybe a location we liked or a job that suited both of our career paths and then stay in one fixed location for a year to a year and a half and get that career progression. But then as time went on and sort of realization just how big the place was that we wanted to travel across, started to realize it was perhaps impractical and maybe not what we actually wanted out of it the most between the career progression and experience of traveling. So we decided to park that and focus on the backpacking side of it. But on the flip side, I did take on a voluntary research role whilst we were travelling, which was only three to five hours a week. So it was kind of perfect. You know, I could do that on a little fixed time slot that I'd set aside each week

Starting point is 00:07:35 and get to gain that experience while not having to focus on it and not having to be the centre of my, you know, thoughts. Yeah, absolutely. So have you had, to kind of have jobs in the UK to be able to fund your travel or are you kind of working in non-relevant roles as you go along um a little bit of both so i was working as a mental health support worker for a charity for three years um and then i did a part-time conversion degree which i actually did the final year of whilst we were travelling but after saving up um some money but not that much because initially our plan was to have enough money to get by for a few months We actually signed up for a work exchange program, which we've used in the past in other countries, called Workaway, which is fantastic.

Starting point is 00:08:26 So essentially the deal tends to be you work between 20 and 25 hours per week for someone, and that could be doing anything from helping them do up their kitchen, gardening. Maybe it's somebody who's trying to become self-sustaining, has a little bit of land, child care, whatever. And in exchange, you get accommodation and all of your food. So you're not earning, but you get to situate yourself in that place for a long time without spending anything. And we've had some really unique opportunities through that as well. We got to volunteer at a dementia social club in British Columbia in Canada. So that just came up and it was absolutely perfect. I got to get a little bit additional experience and the travel experience all compacted into one.

Starting point is 00:09:10 So, yeah, that was amazing. Work away. I will make sure that I link to them in the description and the show notes because that sounds amazing. I would have, I would have loved that actually. And I was thinking about how I did it. So I've travelled relatively extensively and I, my journey only really started after I'd done my undergraduate degree. So I graduated when I was 21 and then it was always the plan because my friend and I had always planned it that way that we'd, we'd save us. up. So we'd work our fingers to the bone so that we could go away and not work for six months and so that our, you know, travel insurance was paid for all of the flights, all of that jazz. And so that's what we did. So from the summer of 20, no, I've got the, when is it, 90, no, 2002, that's right. Until February 2003, I worked doing home care and then I worked doing temping and in call centres, literally trying to work every minute that God sent me to earn as much money as I could so that I could do that. And I did. And then by the time I got

Starting point is 00:10:22 back from six months around the world, which just to kind of very briefly go over what that looked like, it was Thailand for six weeks, Australia for 10 weeks, New Zealand for three weeks, I think Fiji for just 24 hours in and out and then San Diego and L.A. for a week. Yeah, scary experiences at the L.A. station where we were. Wow. And then from there it was Mexico for six weeks. And it's very quickly how six months. breaks down but by the time I got home in August 2003 you know but going via spending my 22nd birthday swimming with wild dolphins in New Zealand and then going out and whale watching like you know these are just not the sort of experiences I would have had if I had been an aspiring site like in Milton Keynes right not too many whales can be found in Milton Keynes but like by the

Starting point is 00:11:33 time I got home I literally had about I don't know, 20 quid in my bank account. I was going through on fumes. And I remember going back in to see my colleagues. I went shopping probably a couple of days after I got back. I went in to see my old colleagues and that was like on a Thursday or a Friday where I'd been doing my temping. And the manager said, okay, Marianne, you've had your fun now. Like you're back. Do you want to come and work for a starting Monday? And I was like, okay, yes, because I need some money and then you know then I was salaried so yeah I needed the money right but yeah I've definitely been intrepid as an aspiring psych since then as well but

Starting point is 00:12:15 it sounds like you definitely are looking for what opportunities you can learn along the way yeah absolutely I mean there's no harm in getting as much out of it as you can and I think like I mentioned that work away platform is brilliant because there are you know we've seen lots of other opportunities that might be sort of indirectly or directly related to the skills a later need if I do get onto training etc so yeah it's nice to be able to do that but I am definitely um aware of the fact that I know I'm sometimes very goal focused and I'm just trying to slow down a little bit and enjoy it a little bit more because I always say to myself you know in 30 years time am I going to look

Starting point is 00:13:01 back and say, I wish I travelled less or I wish I travelled more. So yeah, I know what mine would be. Is your partner striving for a career as well or just seeing how life unfolds? Yes, but she's in a similar mindset and she works in nature conservation. It's a little bit of a different career path. You know, lots of different jobs, short-term contracts with everything. It's sort of underfunded charity organisations, etc. So there's maybe a little bit of a less of a rush or pressure for her to sort of take a next step which is nice because that helps that helps me level out a little bit and try to appreciate the

Starting point is 00:13:42 pace that she's taking into that yeah sounds like a really nice companion like that you you have such similar values and definitely seems to be kind of a mantra that life is for living right yeah i just feel very blessed in that regard yeah have you had a when you look back on kind of of civil travels have you had some really standout memories where you're just like god this is this is incredible like how how lucky am i yeah one of them was very recently in canada actually um so through the work away platform we got a couple of months of paid work um on an island on the northwest as it goes um and there's a total pain to get there you either fly or for half the price you take a 17-hour ferry, which also has a seven-hour ferry, the other side of it.

Starting point is 00:14:34 So we took that as a cheaper option, and everybody told us it was stunning. And I'm on this ferry, which is almost taken for convenience in terms of price, and lost count of the amount of whales that we saw on this journey, and the scenery was just like nothing I'd ever seen, you know, during a lot of years of travel. It was just absolutely spectacular. And I was sat on this ferry, you know, just blow. away and thinking you know there's cruises that come up this area and you'll pay thousands of thousands of pounds to come and do this and I've paid basically

Starting point is 00:15:06 the equivalent of a hundred quid for a couple of day of the trial and just one of the best experiences I've ever had and it was yeah totally unexpected yeah I hear you and I would have gone for the ferry as well because I think the difference is if you're just on a two-week holiday you're thinking I don't want to necessarily spend you know, 25 hours or whatever, you know, just on this bit of journey. Whereas I think what happens when you have an extended time away is that the journey becomes quite part of the experience in itself, doesn't it? Like I think back to the day that I spent trying to sleep in the doorway of a shop at Mexico City airport where the whole airport was then shut down due to

Starting point is 00:15:52 terrible weather. And at the time, it was horrendous. It's quite funny to look back on. It's quite the story, right? And then I've never felt so tight. At that time, I've a parent now, so I felt tired since. But I've never felt so tired as the next day when we finally managed to blag our way onto a flight. We were told we wouldn't get on this one, but we went in and we just checked in and they let us on and we were like, oh my God, just carry on walking. Go to the departure gate. And I sat on the plane. And before I buckled myself in, I don't remember. I was asleep by the time the takeoff went.

Starting point is 00:16:29 As soon as I sat down and buckled in and had my neck pillow on, I was gone. So yeah, we left Mexico City Airport, but I don't know what happened really until Cancun. To Cancun woke me up. But yeah, like really awful journeys or even just really, you know, lovely journeys. Like I have to confess, I love, I don't know if I have any experience of them, but I love a sleeper train. I've done them in Thailand. I've done them in Morocco.

Starting point is 00:16:59 I've done them in India. And again, like, you could fly or you could go somewhere a bit more expensive. You could have a better, well, the class of travel. But the people I've met there and just, I don't know, it's the romance of being on a sleeper train. Like, yes, you are a bit vulnerable. Yes, you'd have to padlock your bag to the rails. But it's just amazing.

Starting point is 00:17:25 And I was recently looking at, I think, France, you think you can do a sleeper train from the UK to France and beyond. And I thought, oh, this would be a really nice grown-up way of me and the girl that I went travelling with doing this together because my husband would not be up for that. But the journeys are really part of it, I think. Yeah, absolutely. Sleeper train is something I've never done. but we would both love to do it. I've definitely been on plenty of coaches, etc., to go through the night,

Starting point is 00:17:55 and, as you say, some bus journeys, 18 hours plus and, you know, a bit of sore bum syndrome by the end of it, but you look back on them so fondly. Like you say, when you've got that extended time, I mean, the bus journeys or whatever, they take you to the most random places. You might end up at a little bus stop,

Starting point is 00:18:12 and, you know, they're serving beans and rice and plantain or whatever, and there's like a thousand people there, it feels like you can barely move. and at the time it's very stressful and sweaty and you're exhausted. But those are the moments he sort of looked back on almost more than all the things you predicted that were going to be amazing. Absolutely. I remember it was so hot on a train in Morocco and it was so busy and there was no space for us to sit down.

Starting point is 00:18:38 And so it was me with my friend Ruth at the time and then just a random chap that we'd ended up stood with and we were wedged in with our backpacks on our back and our day packs on our front standing for hours in the sweltering train by a toilet that stunk. Like it was a really difficult experience. But then as soon as the train cleared and we ended up sitting in a carriage and it was just, you know, all of that melts away. And even though we stunk, like it was really magical. Like, you know, stinky and magical. Like it's a good combo, right? I think we just, we do learn so much about ourselves and how to connect with others as well. Would you agree? Yeah, absolutely. Like traveling itself is all about

Starting point is 00:19:26 experience a new thing, experience in new cultures and people and places. And whether that's doing something like work away in a far off country or if you've grown up in the countryside, going to the city for the first time, you know, I was thinking about this the other day before filming and thinking about how travel might seem inaccessible to some people, but thinking about how lucky we are in the UK to have so many diverse cultures and so many different parts of the country that have, you know, different ways of life and different types of people living there. And it doesn't have to be about a flight abroad and spending money on accommodation for a few weeks. You know, you could go from a southern English city to the north

Starting point is 00:20:02 of Scotland to experience life in the highlands as a croftor or whatever. And the opportunities are all there at home and you can do that on a weekend away from work or but yeah i think the um one of the things we love about the work away experience is you know there's plenty of them in the UK all across europe it's a global platform and it means that you get to spend more time in perhaps a location that's actually off the beaten track a little bit and you get to spend that time with a family who lives there whether they're from the country or immigrated there and actually get a a real taste of daily life in that context so you really get a much deeper appreciation for it because you have to settle into their rhythm their way of doing things and working alongside them as well so it's a really special

Starting point is 00:20:46 way to travel and that's one of the reasons we love it so much it's not just the fact that it saves us loads of money which is of course really convenient as well but yeah it's something i think i'll continue to do for the rest of my life even if it's on shorter trips you know spend two weeks somewhere yeah i certainly continued to do that so even once i was back in the UK, I would go on. It helped that my friend was a trainee teacher and then she was a qualified teacher. So I was single for a lot of that time after I graduated. And so we would go off and spend the summers together. So it helped that she had more time. And yeah, that's kind of one of the reasons I was able to travel so extensively. But yeah, you make a really good point about

Starting point is 00:21:30 it doesn't need to be expensive. It also doesn't need to be, you know, international. So I was having to go down to work to London recently and I was looking at different accommodation options and I was travelling by myself and it was going to be night time that I was around so I did choose a slightly nicer hotel room because I need to be I need to be feeling safe in Kings Cross but it was interesting that I could have got hostel rooms from £17 and I used to be all over hostels so when I was travelling it was other hostels or guest houses and yeah like you could take a weekend so you could finish work on a Friday, choose to go, I don't know, to West Wales and, you know, go and stay wherever you want to stay for not that much money and then come

Starting point is 00:22:16 back to work and go to work on Monday. It doesn't need to be an extended period of time. You still can have travel. And interestingly, I don't know if you know, but there's a, there's a Caledonian sleeper service that goes from Houston to Scotland. So if you wanted to experience It's a probably quite much more expensive sleeper train. People could be like, oh, I could do that. But it doesn't need to cost a fortune. And I appreciate that if you are really struggling to make ends meet or you have mouths to feed or parents to look after, for example,

Starting point is 00:22:46 that that is going to impact on your decisions. But, yeah, we recognise that not everyone has six months a year to do this. So I hope this is not coming across as too privileged an episode because I definitely felt like I did it on a shoestring, but equally, equally well, I had a home to return to that my parents both lived in, so I do, I do recognise that. Yeah, absolutely. And like you say, the privilege of being able to travel is not just financial, because we've always done it on a shoestring as well. But like you say, it can be the privilege of time, the privilege of a safe house to come back to for a month while you find

Starting point is 00:23:23 a job and some accommodation. So I do appreciate that. And also, I think when you go to certain other countries as well, appreciating the privilege that you maybe have of being able to afford to go to a country where perhaps a lot of people can't afford to leave or to go elsewhere. And at least acknowledging that and, you know, bringing that into conversations or interactions that you have. We've all seen those people on holidays seem to be splashing the cash and talking about how cheap it is there. I'm number one experience in Croatia. We're at a bar and some people are kind of saying this to the chef at the bar saying, oh, we can't believe how incredibly cheap it is here. They were from England and he said, well, it's not

Starting point is 00:24:00 cheap for me, you know, and quite affrontly by that, because it was sort of rubbing it in his face that they could go there and have the time of their lives for him next to no money to them. So, yeah, it's always worth it. I hope they tipped him after, after mortally offending him. But I think people just don't, don't consider, do they? Like, you know, we can all think about wealthy American tourists and how brash that might seem at times. But we can also be quite similar but maybe not quite so overtly. Yeah, you can make a really good point. And I think my dad died in 2017 and I definitely thought had he died when I was younger, I don't know if I'd have felt as confident to go off around the world. You know what I mean, Ben? Because he was such a

Starting point is 00:24:47 stabilising factor for me and knowing that I could call, you know, and did call, you know, from Australian, but like, hi, Daddy, you know, was lovely. And knowing that he, he would always pick up the phone, no matter what time it was, like, and he was always happy to hear from me. And, yeah, that's a really lovely, a lovely kind of relationship to have, someone that's never going to, I don't know, like, you're never going to be in trouble, which is really nice. Whereas, yeah, I think not everyone would have that experience. And yeah, I do feel lucky that my parents were healthy when I was in my intrepid days. And so it did free me up. up to go off and scratch my own itches so to speak yeah totally and i feel exactly the same you know

Starting point is 00:25:31 when we went off to sort of central south america in 2017 and again now um i also just know like we were saying before that i don't feel any external pressure from family to get on with my career so i sort of have that comfort of even not just that i can go back to them but know that whilst i'm traveling they're in their minds they're just saying yeah go for it do it do whatever it's for you So yeah, I totally appreciate that if I didn't have that feeling, maybe I would feel a little bit differently about, you know, wandering off into my late 20s and now 30s, still meandering across the world without necessarily having a set career path when I get back. Absolutely. And I often think I just didn't know how lucky I was at the time. I hadn't really faced much adversity. I have to confess by the time I got to late 2020. 21, kind of early 22, how lucky I was just to be able to sit in a lovely bar in Kolanta in Thailand and I ended up spending, I think, a whole week, maybe slightly longer in this

Starting point is 00:26:39 one resort because it was so lovely and just being able to sit in a hammock and at the time we were listening to, they kept playing a Jack Johnson album and I'd never heard a Jack Johnson before. It was really weird when he became a big thing in the UK because I was like, but he's mine. I determined him first. And it was really, yeah, really just very relaxed, sitting in a hammock, watching the sea. And, you know, I don't know if I've ever quite been so carefree since, really. It's really, really lucky. Yeah. Yeah, the first time we did a big trip to South America, and it might be helpful for some listeners to know. I, I, I, I spent a lot of my teenage years struggling with anxiety and social anxiety was a big part of that

Starting point is 00:27:23 for me. And I was always quite social, but also inside I was really struggling. And I actually did a course of CBT prior to going to South America. And then going into that environment where I was forced to be social. Yes, I had my partner with me, but I was in an environment with lots of people I didn't really have a choice. And it was hugely beneficial for me to take what I'd learned during that CBT and then, you know, have almost that forced exposure once I was ready for it. And just let go a little bit more. And yeah, it did wonders for me and perhaps is one of the big reasons that I've continued to travel ever since. So it was quite a transformative six, seven months for quite a lot of different reasons. And again, having that time to travel after

Starting point is 00:28:11 having done that left me with a lot of space to be reflective and, you know, live out here instead of in here and do a lot of reading for the first time. So it was really special. And yeah, like I say, it probably is what drives me to keep doing it, because every time I do it, I learn more and more and you push yourself a little bit extra every time you go into a new environment. So pleased to hear you have become those struggles, but also that you've been able to go on and live such a free existence, you know, because you've been able to have that treatment and that therapy. So yeah, very pleased to hear that. And it also kind of made me think about actually when I, when I was even a trainee, I remember I was really

Starting point is 00:28:54 recommend actually still to people that if they can, if they're on a place, if they're on a trainee scheme where they have six-month placement, six-month placement, six-month placement, you know, followed by, followed by, that you try and take the last week of annual leave of your placement and maybe have a holiday or go and do something and then often my uni would kind of bolt on some study leave at the end of that so I would take the last week of placement as leave and then would be home to come and do the study right but what what that really freed me up to do was to go and do things like surfing in Newkey with my friends and things like but short trips that

Starting point is 00:29:33 were UK based because money was not too abundant at that time and still have just really nice way of looking forward to something. So that for me is really key. If you know you've got a holiday booked, it can help anything enjoyable really. It doesn't have to be a holiday, is it? But it helps you with some of the trickier days. You know, I've got to get through this

Starting point is 00:29:57 and then I can do this. And I think because of the end of placement, you know, and all that that entails, like end of placement of you and kind of shut down that period of your life before you then go and start something new, for me, travel was always a really lovely, a lovely way to do that and to kind of naturally help you bridge from one thing to another. So if people are like, how can I maybe think

Starting point is 00:30:21 about still having a traditional route, but include more travel, that's what I would, that's what I would recommend. Yeah, totally, like you say, that's something I've been thinking about as well. It's having that thing to look forward to, like you say, gets you through the harder days and you know that you can give yourself a little bit of time where you're not going to have that cognitive load. So you can still live in the stress. Maybe it can be useful sometimes, but it's great to know that you're going to have that little bit of relief. And one of the big things for travelling for me is being able to get out into nature as well, you know, getting out hiking, things like that. It's a huge hobby of night at home.

Starting point is 00:31:02 So again, it doesn't have to be getting too far away from home, but if you can get out into a new environment, you know, a set of hells you you've never been into before. It's still something new, getting physical exercise, and then you get all of the well-documented benefits of nature exposure and connectedness to nature, et cetera, as well. And I always try to make that a bit of a centrepiece of my travel because it just makes me look forward to it even more as well. Yeah, and you feel like you really then know something about the country

Starting point is 00:31:31 that you've visited if you've kind of gone and appreciated some of the landscape and, you know, some of the things that local people would see as well rather than just the monuments. So I have been to a fair few monuments and I have to say I was quite disappointed by the Sydney Opera House. In real life, I thought it was strangely underwhelming and kind of, I'd imagined it was going to be like this really vibrant white gleaning thing. And it looked a bit like a sort of brown armadillo when I saw it, sort of goldish colour. And I was like, this is not what I expected. But something that did blow me away was the Taj Mahal. That really was breathtaking, I have to say.

Starting point is 00:32:14 And I think because I'd already seen and been underwhelmed by the Sydney Opera House, I was expecting that I would be similarly underwhelmed by the Taj Mahal, but I really wasn't like that. That is magnificent. Are there any sites or things or countries that are on your bucket list, Ben? I mean, Chile was one of them, hence why I'm here just now, and so was Canada. I would love to get to Peru. I mean, I don't know necessarily why I've always had a bit of an affinity for sexual in South America.

Starting point is 00:32:47 It's why I went there in 2017 and why I've come back now. There's something about the sort of social nature of the culture, perhaps the food as well, that just seems to really chime with me. But yeah, I love hiking and I love the mountains. things like the Andes or I would love to get to Nepal and see the Himalayas as well. That would be, yeah, that's probably the next big bucket list item. But I think that will be quite a few years away after this trip. Yeah, one of my friends who I was on training with,

Starting point is 00:33:18 she was also similarly intrepid and she went and stayed in Nepal for a bit. I got back from travelling in India on a Friday. day, I think. My leaving party was in Milton Keynes on the Saturday. I moved house on the Sunday from Milton Keynes to Coventry and I started my doctorate on the Monday. I was not messing around. I was like ringing every little last bit out of that trip that I could. So yeah, I arrived on training very tanned, very skinny because I'd been vegetarian. when I was in India. Very happy, very excited and ready to learn. So yeah, like just really, really think about what is going to light you up, is what I would say, to our audience. So

Starting point is 00:34:18 don't think about what someone else's ideal path would be. Really think about what living to your values would look like. And if you gave yourself a mission to do that, it could be transformational is what I would say, Ben. Yeah, absolutely. And on this trip, you know, for a little bit now, I've been, I always say 99% sure that I wanted to be a clinical psychologist because I've been kind of sure of other things in the past, whether it's currently related or not, and then change your mind and almost felt a little bit of guilt and shame around that. So I've given myself that little 1% space ever since I decided to follow this path so that if I do change my mind at any point, then I know I've already

Starting point is 00:34:59 the lift room to be okay with that and accept that, you know, it's okay to change your mind. I still feel 99, I'm going to say 0.9% sure now, but doing other things I enjoy on this trip like gardening the work and outdoors work, you know, has allowed me to reflect on that and go, yes, I do really enjoy this and I'm enjoying having some time away from my career and studying. But I'm definitely sure I still want to go back and do that. I'm loving this, but it's given me that little bit of time space to have a little bit of clarity on that goal. And it's been very reaffirming for me

Starting point is 00:35:33 that I am on the path that's going to be right for me. But I'm still going to give myself 0.1% space, just in case. Yeah, and actually, I think you will really enjoy an episode that I've got coming up. I think it's just before this episode, if not two before this episode, with, no, it's after this episode. It's after this one.

Starting point is 00:35:54 It's Dr. Matt Slavin. in and I think it's episode 112 and we're talking about the kind of what it's like to have a human brain and kind of the evolution of being human and we talk about kind of timelines and self-actualization and stuff in that and I think that will really resonate with you so if anyone else is interested in what in that section look out for that episode as well then thank you so much for your time is there only thing we haven't covered that you think that we should not necessarily no I mean We could talk on and on and on. I'm sure there's plenty of things that might be of interest to us and interest to others, but there are nothing in particular things. Okay, thank you. And I know that I'm going to try and dig out some of my travelling photos, and you're going to send across some of yours.

Starting point is 00:36:40 So if people are watching on YouTube, there's maybe a chance to see some kind of nice inspirational travel shots. Mine are probably all on actual film camera, so I'm going to have to try and rummage in the loft for that one, I think. Amazing. Thank you so much for. your time ban and sharing your wisdom and your precious time when you're away with our audience as well yes thank you very much for having me on it's been a pleasure oh you're so welcome thank you again

Starting point is 00:37:08 oh thank you so much again for ben's time in speaking to us from his actual travels in chili how marvellous i would love to know in the comments on youtube or you can drop me a question or a comment on spotify if you're on apple you can rate and review the show and I'd be so grateful if you did. This all came about because Ben had requested his free psychology success guide where he had let me know his most pressing concern in his career journey. And you can do the same as well and I will send you an actual email from my actual fingers sitting on my sofa usually responding to make you some bespoke guidance. And you get the great success guide as well. So why not come along to www.wespiring hyphen

Starting point is 00:38:03 psychologist.co.org scroll right to the bottom of that first page you will get to and you will see the free psychology success guide. Thank you so much for being part of my world. If you are interested in the stories of other aspiring psychologists, please do check out the clinical Psychologist Collective and the aspiring Psychologist Collective books. Thank you for being a watcher or a listener to this content. There is brand new kid on the block and it is a way to subscribe to my channel or for that matter to the podcast. So you can pay to be a subscriber or you get some sneak peek behind the scenes, kind of thinking about each of the episodes unfolding. You get some thoughts from me in the planning stages of the episode, you get some thoughts

Starting point is 00:39:07 before I record the episode, and you get some thoughts afterwards. And you get to see other areas of my house as well. There's no minimum term, I don't think, but I'm yet to actually sort that out by the time. But by the time this episode lands, wherever you're watching or listening, this service will be available on Spotify, on Apple and on YouTube. So do check that out. And that is all money that goes towards helping me provide this content, which does cost me many hundred pounds a month. So, yeah, if you fancy just, it's a bit like a Patreon, but you're getting a little bit of an extra thank you. You're getting an exclusive subscriber.

Starting point is 00:39:50 content so yeah i hope you'll really love it and i've welcome any feedback 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 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. It just amazed me how many different routes there are to get there

Starting point is 00:40:50 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. Thank you.

The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - Travel, Identity & Becoming a Psychologist: Why the World Is Your Best Teacher

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