The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - Why it's never too Late to become a Psychologist - Advice for Older Applicants
Episode Date: March 10, 2025In this episode of The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast, Dr. Marianne Trent explores why it’s never too late to pursue a psychology career. Whether you're considering a career change or thinking about ...applying for psychology training later in life, this episode is packed with encouragement, insights, and practical advice.Other Episodes mentioned in this one: How to start a psychology career in your 30's and beyond https://player.captivate.fm/episode/86fa5fe8-6ff6-4943-b781-b4c1a2e4ea06/The problem with Honorary / Voluntary Assistant Psychologist Roles https://player.captivate.fm/episode/3bb5fb2e-faba-4799-834b-d67625d56321/Psychology Distance Learning Masters: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/30b88817-6133-4231-8034-421eccdba61a/Timestamps00:00 - Introduction01:08 - Why older applicants matter03:03 - Breaking the "too late" myth04:57 - Data on success rates of older applicants07:14 - The unique strengths of mature applicants11:26 - Steps to begin your psychology journey later in life12:40 - Training options and entry routes14:31 - Gaining relevant experience in psychology16:20 - The financial considerations of training18:35 - Balancing psychology career goals with family & life21:13 - Asking for support from your community22:17 - Overcoming self-doubt and imposter syndrome23:16 - Why age is your advantage, not a setback25:31 - Encouragement for aspiring psychologists at any age26:44 - Closing remarks & how to get supportLinks:🫶 To support me by donating to help cover my costs for the free resources I provide click here: https://the-aspiring-psychologist.captivate.fm/support📚 To check out The Clinical Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3jOplx0 📖 To check out The Aspiring Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3CP2N97 💡 To check out or join the aspiring psychologist membership for just £30 per month head to: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/membership-interested🖥️ Check out my brand new short courses for aspiring psychologists and mental health professionals here: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/short-courses✍️ Get your Supervision Shaping Tool now: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/supervision📱Connect socially with Marianne and check out ways to work with her, including the Aspiring Psychologist Book, Clinical Psychologist book and The Aspiring Psychologist Membership on her Link tree: https://linktr.ee/drmariannetrent💬 To join my free Facebook group and discuss your thoughts on this episode and more:
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Hey there, it's Marianne here. If you've been thinking about creating a sustainable,
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Are you considering a career in psychology later in life,
but unsure if it's too late?
Spoiler alert, it's not.
In fact, your life experiences can give you a unique edge.
Today, we are diving into the practical steps,
the challenges, and the incredible opportunities
for older applicants who might either be starting or continuing
their journey into psychology.
Stay tuned as we explore why it's never too late
to follow your calling.
Hi, welcome along to the Aspiring Psychologist podcast.
I'm Dr. Marianne and I'm a qualified clinical psychologist. Now today's episode has been born out of lots of people contacting me via the DMs, talking
about how lovely it is to be shining a light on how important it is to consider diversifying
our workforce, but also, you know also really supporting the needs of older applicants.
And please don't tune out if you are a younger applicant,
because this is still relevant for you.
This is about how you can support others
in your workforce, in your teams,
perhaps people you will meet as you're a trainee.
Could be people in admin teams currently
who feel inspired
by the work that you do in your department and what your journey is like. So please do
stay tuned because there's so much to gain from this episode, whatever your age.
So you may already have watched the episode I did with Thomas Gourley. The title of the
episode was How to Start a Psychology Career in Your 30s and beyond. And that is my most popular psychology episode ever
on YouTube with at the time of recording
almost 3,000 views.
So this is clearly something that is resonating with you.
We've also spoken with Gavin about his experience
of being a slightly older applicant
and doing a conversion masters.
So that's a really good one to watch as well. And of course, we spoke to Rose quite early on in our journey about
her experience of already being a parent. So not necessarily super much older than the
rest of her cohort at that time, but you know, more life experienced in that she already
has children during training. And more recently, we've been thinking about the affordability of aspiring psychologist roles,
such as an assistant psychologist, especially if you're an older applicant.
That was a really interesting chat that I had with Sam,
who is a trained counselor and also ideally wants to get onto the paid
NHS doctorate. Wherever you are here, listening or watching,
you are so welcome and I hope that you will find this
to be some inspiration, some advice, some insights
into what could be a life-changing path for you
and for those that you end up working with.
So our first point to explore is why would someone
consider a psychology
career later in life? I think it's really important that we think about breaking
that myth of it's too late, you know, I'm too old. So I think we really need to
really take a look at that myth, you know, of it being too late. Is it ever too late?
Do we need to listen to that narrative at all?
And I think sometimes case studies can be really, really interesting and really inspiring.
You know, when we see it, we can be it. And so I want to be part of that narrative, helping to
shed light on the fact that older applicants are being successful and we've seen that during my podcasts
already but let's have a look at the data the equal opportunities data that's provided by the
clearinghouse. I can only find the 2023 entry data at the moment but it might well be that the 2024
entry data is coming and as and when it does you, perhaps I'll do another episode on that. So let me know if you'd find that helpful.
If you are on MP3, then please do connect with me
on socials or if you're on Spotify,
you can drop a question or a comment in there too.
So it may not come as any surprise
that the biggest chunk of applicants
is in the 25 to 29 year old category
with 51.2% of applicants being in that age bracket.
But if we're thinking about perhaps what starts to become maybe a slightly older
applicant, certainly in my time on training, I think one person was 24,
everybody else bar five applicants was in the 25 to 29.
Already the data is starting to become
a little bit more top heavy,
which I think is really exciting
because I gained so much from the experience
and the wisdom and I think also the compassionate nurturing
of the people that were slightly older than me
on the cohort.
So the data we're looking at is how many applicants
are applying and how many applicants
have been offered accepted places.
So if we were to, for example, to look at the data
for 30 to 34 year olds, which I think, you know,
starts to be slightly older than average,
then it was 687 people, which was 13.8% applied. 170
people were offered places and accepted. That was 14.4% of the places offered were actually for
people in the 30 to 34 years age bracket. So perhaps what's interesting there is that they
also give us a column for percentage success of the applicants to be accepted
and actually the 30 to 34 camp was 24.7% likelihood of being accepted which is
only just below the 28% of the 25 to 29 year olds, which is quite exciting I think.
For the 35 to 39 year olds in 2023, 275 people applied, which was 5.5%, 43 were offered places,
but of course 15.6% chance of being accepted. So we're already starting to see that maybe
there's something in the skills and experiences of our older applicants which
is making them a little bit more likely to get places. In 2023 165 people who
were 40 to 44 years applied and 20 of those were offered places. 45 to 49 year olds, 80
people applied which I love. I love that. This is so exciting to me. And nine of
those were offered places. 50 to 54 years old, 25 people applied and similarly for
55 and over, 12 people applied. it looks like either none of those people were offered places
or that they've grouped together the 45 to 49 or there's a sort of gap in the data.
So I'm not quite sure what's happened with that.
I would have hoped there'd be a zero if it was a zero.
But I wonder if actually a really interesting point to consider here is maybe some of the
older applicants hadn't necessarily understood what the requirements were. Perhaps they hadn't done a conversion
masters, perhaps they hadn't done enough relevant skills experience, perhaps the people they
were asking to be references or suitability statements were not ideal. And so perhaps
this kind of content is really helpful for everybody,
people of all ages, to be able to really think about what experience they have, whether they
meet the minimum requirements, because we can't know whether some of the people who are applying,
you know, were kind of screened out at the first chance. And it might just be that because we have
to report on the people who have applied, we might also be getting people that maybe haven't done the best applications or haven't fulfilled
the minimum requirements for application.
So I don't mean to discredit anybody, older applicant or not, to suggest that you maybe
haven't done the best of applications, but it could be a potential reason.
I feel like I need to apologise if you can hear anything noisy.
Someone has started doing some tree felling near me, which is always fun when you're on a podcast,
right? So I think further breaking that taboo and thinking about it never being too late.
For me, I speak as a 43 year old woman and I have children who are, I record 11 and 8 years of age and I've
really noticed certainly over the last couple of years this idea of kind of a
second spring. I am out the other side of the very young and very exhausting
parenting stage. My children were not sleepers. At worst, my eldest woke up 31 times a night and I
was going to work so when I went back to work following my maternity leave for
both children, sometimes they were waking 7 to 13 times a night really
regularly and I was holding down you know either a four day a week job or a
three day a week job with that
level of chronic exhaustion. That really did take its toll on my available
emotional resources really to be able to think about drive. And so if someone is
in that kind of tricky stage of their life, once things settle down, I think
that's when this second spring idea
comes around. And certainly it's over the last couple of years that I've been able to
focus more time and more energy on other pursuits that interest me, like this podcast, like
the Aspiring Psychologist membership, like writing and publishing
books. And so if I was still the same age, still with my same husband, still with my
same children, but I hadn't yet become a qualified psychologist, some of that
energy, some of that, you know, striving and drive would and could have been
used by me to focus on developing my career. So
you may be watching this and I don't know what your gender is but whatever
your gender is it might be that you're now at a stage where you know your
dependents don't need you quite as much and perhaps hopefully your parents are
healthy and so they're able to be kind of quite independent still. As I'm recording this my 75 year old mother is flying back from Vietnam
after spending 10 days there so we're starting to really bust that myth of
what age looks like and yes she is not pursuing a career in psychology and I
don't know currently of anyone in their 70s who is doing that but if you are I
would love to hear from you.
But yeah, like age is just a number.
If you're healthy, if you're happy, if you're thriving,
you know, you have something to offer, so really, it's okay.
If you've got the energy, if you've got the determination,
and even if your parents or, you know,
your children are not as independent
as you would like them to be,
you might still be like, no, this is still right for me. I've got room for developing this psychology career in my life.
And I, I salute you.
So our second consideration are the practical steps.
If you haven't already done a British Psychological Society approved
undergraduate psychology degree or joint honors which confers that
British Psychological Society approval. I'm obviously speaking from a UK
perspective here. Then you will need to do a conversion masters that is approved
by the British Psychological Society. They can be done as distance learning
masters so you might still be
able to work full-time or part-time around those. You don't necessarily have
to kind of stop your life, stop your career, stop earning money, but of course
you're going to need to be thinking about how you are going to do justice to
that master's so that you do really well in it and how you're going to be able to weave in
any research aspect of that masters too so that it fits in your life because what I know is when
you're trying to fit too many things into you know a finite resource such as the 24 hours that you
have in the day your well-being can take a really big hit and you know it might be that you have in the day, your well-being can take a really big hit. And you know, it might be
that you can do that for a very fixed period of time. What I think is really useful to bear in
mind is if we're thinking about a whole year or two years or maybe even three years, that is a
big chunk of your life. And it might feel doable. You know, we think about it with commutes. You think, oh, I can commute, you know, 90 minutes each way.
That'll be fine.
Yeah, it might be fine for a week,
but are you gonna wanna do that for three years?
So we just need to be mindful.
We really need to be tuning in to what's realistic,
what's reasonable for us to do, for us to achieve,
but also for those who might be supporting us
around our home, around our families, around ourselves really, to asking them to put up with as
well. But if you have an open frank conversation with those people and
hopefully get their buy-in as well, that's a really great place to start.
Please do catch up on the Gavin distance learning masters episode as well if that
would be useful. Also as part of our practical steps considerations it's likely that you might well need to
gain some more relevant clinical experience. Of course you might not be
watching this as an aspiring clinical psychologist if you're for example an
aspiring educational psychologist or forensic psychologist or a counselling
psychologist. The same applies you're going to need some relevant experience. That usually involves being supervised by an HCPC practitioner psychologist, but not
always. You don't always need to have had that, but it is advantageous because it really helps shape
your thinking about the kind of work that you're doing and applies that psychology lens specifically to what you're
doing. So those roles where you might find yourself working under qualified psychologists
might be assistant psychologists, you know, could be psychological well-being practitioners,
it could be that you're doing honorary work, although there's a whole can of worms that you
could get into on that. There's another video, another episode that you
can listen to on the considerations that we need to take on board for honorary roles. It might be
that you're even working as a qualified CBT practitioner. Something that hopefully gives
you access to a psychologist in your team or you're working closely with them is really usually
the best way to help advance your skills.
Of course people facing roles where you are working alongside people who are distressed or
you know overcoming challenges like nursing can be really useful as well and you know that could be
mental health nursing that could be physical health nursing and of course people in teaching
are uniquely placed to be able to think about making that leap to educational psychology but also
sometimes to clinical psychology as well. When I was on my cohort we had someone
who had previously been a teacher. We also had someone who had been a physical
health nurse and it might be that you can go straight from your masters to
apply and get places on your chosen doctorate course, but it might be that you
need to do something where you are having more exposure to qualified psychologists too.
And the step three of our point about practical steps is about the affordability of some of
these routes. And of course, Sam's chat with me where we're thinking about whether assistant
psychologist roles are affordable for anybody,
especially older applicants is a really useful watch or listen.
Okay.
Our third consideration area is the effort.
And we need to think about acknowledging that,
but also hopefully inspiring you too.
So it is a challenge.
You know, I get that.
I absolutely, you know, bow down to that. It's a lot, you know, I get that. I absolutely, you know, bow down to that.
It's a lot, you know, if you're thinking about
doing a master's or an undergraduate course,
you know, some sort of conversion, you know,
really taking your career in a different direction
from where you are now, that can feel a lot.
It can feel daunting, you know, it's tricky,
but I think it's worth it, you know, if you've got that idea,
if you're feeling unfulfilled in what you're doing currently, really speaking as someone who
vibrantly and passionately loves being a qualified psychologist fills me up, you know,
fills my cup. I love it and I want you to feel similarly fulfilled in your career too,
whatever that might be. So it is a lot of effort but it might be really that
you're investing in your future self and and this you know your children as well
or the people around you. You're showing them what can be done when you when you
need to start afresh or that you deserve to to be happy, you deserve to
thrive, you deserve to have this, you deserve to thrive, you deserve
to have this time for yourself, maybe especially if you had your children earlier or if life
was complicated and chaotic when you were younger, but you found more predictability,
you found more kind of solid steps and you've built a life around yourself that supports
you now to optimally engage, to begin to think about what
might make you happy. You know, maybe you've got those things in place now
that you didn't have when you were younger and why shouldn't you use those
as a springboard to, you know, to get somewhere fabulous for your future. So
our fourth consideration is really thinking about balancing our lives as
perhaps older applicants.
And I feel like I really resonate with this topic
because I'm 43 now.
And it really gets me thinking about
what would I be doing if I wasn't a qualified psychologist?
And I think I would be like,
well, I'd be the number one listener to this podcast.
I would be my own biggest fan. I'd be commenting on all of my social posts.
I'd be like, oh, Marianne.
So please feel free to be my groupie
if that's helpful as well.
You can come and follow me on all of my social platforms
where I am Dr. Marianne Trent.
But you know, I love to know more about you.
I love to know why this content resonates with you.
I love to see your comments on YouTube. I love to know why this content resonates with you. I love to see your comments on YouTube,
I love to see your likes, I love it when you say how inspiring this content is and you know the
same goes for the books as well. I love seeing your reviews of the clinical psychologist collective,
of the aspiring psychologist collective, of the grief collective, of an autistic anthology and of talking heads. So if those books have meant something to you please do take a
moment to leave me a review on Amazon or Goodreads. So I think you know what we
learned about from Rose's episode was really thinking about how you can
support older applicants, you know how you can acknowledge that they might have
some additional struggles, some additional know, how you can acknowledge that they might have some
additional struggles, some additional challenges, how you can be a really great friend, a really
great colleague to somebody who is an older applicant, you know, how you could think about
what social events you're creating and whether it kind of matches with bedtimes for children
or kind of getting home for supporting parents, maybe ask them to help you to plan something
that kind of gives them the best chance
of being able to engage and take part.
But you might well need to be a time management ninja.
And you know, I think absolutely when I was training,
my experiences were those with children
would kind of have a tendency to go out to the library
or to a coffee shop to get work done and
Really made sure they used that time incredibly effectively to get those essays done to get things written
Often ahead of time so they knew it was done
They knew it was done to the best of their ability
Whereas someone like me who had all the time in the world and often didn't have a partner certainly until the second year, you know, I just I'd get the same amount of work done
but in a way longer time because I allowed myself more procrastination.
So it's likely that this is going to hyper focus you if you are an older applicant because
you might well have more things that you've got to compartmentalize into your life.
So self-care, looking after yourself is really important.
Still important that you've got time and money to eat,
gotta be able to move that lovely body of yours
if you are physically able to do so
because I honestly believe
that really does keep us so well.
And I think the power of asking for help,
you know, from your community, from those around you,
from your friends, from your family,
it's okay to draw down on that as well as give back to people, which is something you may have
been doing for the last few years. I'll pick those up for you from the school run, I'll do that for
you, come around, drop them off, that's fine. But it's okay to ask for help as well. And people are
not mind readers. They don't know that you might want them
to pick up your child or to keep them
for an hour or so after school.
But if you ask for what you want,
you are so much more likely to have your needs met.
And similarly with your partner as well,
actually, would it be okay if we thought about
what days I cooked, what days you cooked?
Because that actually will really free me up
to do my masters, to do my essays,
to think about doing what I need to do
in a way that gives me that protected time.
So I think our fifth point is thinking about encouragement.
You are uniquely qualified, you know,
you've got the wisdom,, you've got the wisdom,
hopefully you've got the resilience, you've got that determination in being an older applicant,
which is going to be such a key asset to yourself,
but also to those that you work alongside and to the clients that you work with as well.
You're going to be a source of inspiration, you know?
At any time, somebody can decide to turn their career
in a different direction and that they matter, you know?
That their needs for fulfillment are important.
This, you know, this psychology career of ours,
it isn't just a job, you know?
I, for me, like I said, I find it a privilege but
it's a calling. I love, I love talking to people. I love helping people to
alleviate distress in their lives and to find balance and perspective and
compassion and to acknowledge, you know, what they've been through, why it's had
an impact on them, to help them to make sense of what they've experienced and to acknowledge you know what they've been through, why it's had an impact on them, to help them to make sense of what they've experienced and to
know that it doesn't always need to be this way. Like I honestly feel like I've
just got the best job in the world and you know if you don't feel like that
currently I want you to feel like that about what you do whatever it is. So
you're not starting from scratch, you are starting with all
of your experience and you get to build upon that. Let's think about your experience, your wisdom,
your years of training, experience, your, you know, your parenting, your being a friend,
your being a sibling, your being a child. That is all things that you bring to the table that helps make you relatable, that helps you to
to draw down on your wisdom. Also a really great psychologist, colleague and friend too.
You'll get to be a supervisor, you'll get to inspire the next generation
regardless of their age. Of course in one of our episodes we were speaking about
how it feels to be supervised by somebody that's younger than you
or that you're a similar age to and that's all useful, grist for the mill as they say,
really important reflection points and it's okay. We don't necessarily need to think about people
as an age but you know it's okay to be less experienced than somebody that is younger than
you because they got there quicker or they've had more opportunities,
they've had more privilege perhaps.
So yeah, don't let your age and your beliefs about your age
and maybe, you know, some embarrassment or some shame
or, you know, your thoughts around imposter syndrome, you know?
Get in your way.
Don't try and... Don't let chips on your shoulder get in your way don't try don't let chips on your
shoulder get in your way either like if you want to do this then please do let
me know I'd love to know what this episode has evoked for you please do if
watching on YouTube let me know in the comments like subscribe you know share
this episode with your friends it would be so appreciated I'd love your stories
as well regardless whatever your age I'd love your stories as well, regardless,
whatever your age, I'd love to know your individual story,
you know, why it matters to you,
why you started your career in psychology
and what age you were when you started it.
So I hope that's been really useful.
If it is your time and you're ready for the next step,
please do consider the aspiring psychologist membership
where we will help you to develop
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that's really thinking about tailor making your career and how we're gonna get you to where you want to be. There's also loads of inspiration in
the clinical psychologist collective book and the aspiring psychologist
collective book too. Then let this be your guide
With this podcast that you'll set You'll be on your way to being qualified
It's the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast
With Dr. Mary Antrim
My name is Yana and I'm a trainee psychological wellbeing 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 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.