Future Psychologists

I want to go into child psychology but m completely baffled about the process....Some1 help??

Hi All

There are a lot of people on here who want to become psychologists of some sort and I thought it would be good to have a thread to talk about our plans/work experience etc.

Part of my degree was in psychology but not enough to get GBC. I have starting studying for a degree with the OU and am considering counselling psychology in the future, or perhaps clinical, I've only seriously thought about it over the last year.

What are other people considering?

Psychiatry is a field of medicine so you would have to do a medical degree first. They do get paid a lot of money and it is a very easy field to go into as not many medics want to be psychiatrists. Perhaps post-graduate medicine is something to look into?
Hope this helps

Thanks, that is a lot of help! I shall give you rep. I suppose it's a matter of whether or not I want to spend half my life in a university, just for a well-paid job.. But I have 3 years to decide, it's all good

hey i really want to do forensic psychology, but one girl in my class was saying how there's not that many opportunities to be one in the UK.

and i can't find any related work experience! so i'm not sure if should do forensic psychology or just psychology on its own.

I want to go into child psychology but m completely baffled about the process....Some1 help??

Depends on where you go I guess! Friends of mine (in London and the South East) managed to obtain forensic placements relatively easy as they either lived near prisions or worked near forensic psychology units or near Chartered Forensic Psychologists work places.

I know someone who is a trainee forensic psychologist currently enrolled on the Professional Doctorate in Forensic Psychology. She will be a forensic psychologist relatively soon!

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/students/courses/postgraduate/combined/psychology/forensic-psych-practice-doctorate.aspx

Forensic psychology is a very specialist field (in comparision with fields like clinical psychology), but I find forensic psychology very interesting!

'Psychology on it's own' is very general though! Most professional psychologists work within particular specialisms

Best of luck.

Hello, I'm in my first year of a psychology degree at the moment but I've no idea what to do with it! I wanted to be an educational psychologist and then I wanted to specialise in eating disorders and then sleep disorders, and then I heard psychiatrists get paid a lot of money and that swayed me a little, but it's so difficult to get work experience with psychologists and psychiatrists because of confidentiality issues and such. So I'm really rather stuck!

Might be a good idea to start looking at gaining some experience as a care assistant and/or support worker supporting populations seen by a clinical psychologist (ie older people, people with mental health problems, people with learning disabilities, children, adolescents etc etc). Care homes are always looking for people! I managed to obtain two jobs - care assistant and a support worker job- with zero direct care experience (although I had to initially hide my educational background!)

If you want to be a clinical psychologist- experience is really very important, as is leaving with a good high 2.1/1st from a BPS accredited undergraduate degree in psychology.

Working with different client groups should help you make a decision as to whether clinical psychology is for you.

Thank you That was helpful. I recently worked in a Skills Development Centre for disabled people. I didn't get to actually watch or help in their therapy sessions since I am under 18, but I was able to help them out in lots of different ways and see what kind of physical and psychological difficulties they face. They've said that I can always come back and help out again whenever I'm free so I guess that's where I'll be going back to during the holidays.

I'll also find a care home where I can volunteer.

Do you think shadowing psychologists would be helpful? If they allow me anyway, since there areprobably confidentiality and privacy issues surrounding that.

I want to do a Psychology degree to become a CBT Psychologist, What should I do?

I'm in As atm, took Psychology, History, English Lit and Sociology

I want to do a Psychology degree to become a CBT Psychologist, What should I do?

I'm in As atm, took Psychology, History, English Lit and Sociology

Ok- if you're under 18, you may be limited in what you can do.......if you're thinking about working in a care home, I know with some care homes etc, you need to be over 18 in order to carry out personal care tasks......but I know some people have worked in care homes over the age of 16. You will probably need to go through the CRB process as well- which care homes should be checking for.

Sounds like your current /past position is very relevant and interesting!

I personally found shadowing a clinical psychologist (CP) (in 2-3 different voluntary posts and 2 paid posts) really very helpful. Gave me a really useful insight into clinical psychology, research and the NHS and also provided me with an all important reference from a clinical psychologist! (important for jobs and postgraduate courses!)

But yes, you're right, if the CP agreed in taking you on, you will have to abide by ethics, confidentiality and other professional issues by signing relevant honorary contracts.

Another option would be to look at doing an accredited Psychology degree and then training as a low intensity practitioner in an IAPT service( or high intensity if you had some other experience, e.g. a postgrad counselling course), which means you can practice CBT interventions with people with common mental health problems- but you're more of a generic mental health professional, not a psychologist.

I'm a PhD student, psychology background and doing clinical psychology research- not sure about the DClinPsy afterwards, thinking I may just stay in research- if possible. Happy to answer questions about what I'm doing if anyone else is considering this!

I will be 18 in June, so hopefully that will open a lot more opportunities for me in the summer. Yeah, I had to do a CRB check to volunteer at that skills centre. Hopefully, they'll let me help out during therapy sessions once I'm 18, or even watch.

Aah sounds exciting, would you have to be over 18 to shadow one? Or does this depend on the psychologist's preferences?

I think most places require a brand new crb for every change of position.....

In my experience, all chartered psychologists wanted psychology graduate volunteers, so over 18 with a psychology degree. Maybe worth contacting a few chartered psychologists and see how you go? Some may accept people without psychology degrees. The BPS website has a 'find a psychologist' webpage which lists psychologists according to specific postcodes (I shadowed a few clinical psychologists after obtaining their details from the bps website)....

Best of luck