Psychology work experience????

im a second year psychology student...interested in a career in clinical psychology and want to do some work experience - but im having major problems finding anywhere that'll take on people who dont already have qualifications or are doing counselling training - but i need work experience to get onto a masters course, so does anyone know what the best work experience for me to do is????? help!!!

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Reply 1

Lolly-88

The best thing would be voluntary work to do with mental health. A good place to start would be your local hospital....if they have a mental health ward you could ask to work there. They won't require qualifications but you will need a CRB check and you won't be paid but that would be great experience.

You could also try looking in the yellow pages or yell.co.uk to try and find some mental health clinics in you area and see if you could work there....although some may not allow it for ethical reasons.

Also you could volunteer at the victims support unit if there's one in your area. I volunteer there and they give you loads of training which is useful and the experience is invaluable. Also the citizens advice bureau is really great aswell...although it can be quite distressing so be prepared.

If that fails you could ask the careers department at your uni they should have some contacts as there are probably loads of previous students who have had an interest in clinical psychology. You should also look on the websites for some uni's that offer the clinical psychology course as they will explain what kind of volunatry work/work experience they will accept.

Basically until you graduate voluntary work is the best way forward. Sorry to be nosey but what uni are you at?

Hope that helps a bit. Good luck! :smile:

Reply 2

fragile_halo

i'm still doing my last year of A-levels but i managed to secure a work placement at my local hospital. The Clinical psychologists there told me that for students, it is more likely that you will get a placement if you apply at an adult mental health service. basically because you will be working with older people it is highly unlikely that you'll meet someone you know unlike if you're dealing with teenagers where you might bump into one of your friends or something. It just makes it easier for them to organise the confidentiality aspects etc.

Just get the addresses of the services from your county's mental health service and write them. they should be similar to this: http://www.cambsmh.nhs.uk/

Reply 3

louisedotcom

Im not sure where you are studying but my Mum is a prison officer at a Prison in London, and they regually offer work experience placements within their psychology department to students.

I applied for one last year and they replied telling me that they offer summer placements for students (basically over the summer holidays)
Or year long placements.

If this is something you would be interested in I strongly advise you contact your local prison as I would expect most of their policies to be the same :biggrin:

Reply 4

8owman

Get a volountary position at your local "mind". That's what i do and although it's very basic work (e.g. getting tea and coffee for people etc), they send you on loads of courses about mental health issues and you get some experience working with people with real mental illness (e.g. there's a man who comes into where I volunteer with adhd and tourettes - it's really interesting to get to know people like this and it helps you see people for who they are as oppossed to unfairly labelling them as "ill")

Reply 5

Mandy88

fragile_halo

i'm still doing my last year of A-levels but i managed to secure a work placement at my local hospital.

What as and were I am in my last year at A-level too and have bee looking!

Reply 6

fragile_halo

Mandy88

What as and were I am in my last year at A-level too and have bee looking!

basically, i just shadowed the head clinical psychologist for 2 weeks. did a bit of admin work, sat in one-on-one 'sessions' with clients, went on home visits and sat in most team meetings and case referrals. i worked at this place called 'the bungalow' here in peterborough. it was really good especially since the people were really willing to answer my questions. the best bit really was when you got to speak to the clients, of course everything was under the confidentiality agreement which is why they were quite willing to talk to people like me.

hope that helps...btw the application process took me about 6 months as i applied in september then got to do it around the easter break. :smile:

Reply 7

Hot_Ice

hey i live near there too did you just phone up and ask? just finished my first year so interested to find out more for next year, thanks :smile:

Reply 8

LatinMachine

You might be able to get paid work in a hospital - I'm a Health Care Assistant in my holidays, and although I don't work in the mental health bit, it is possible to get extra training to allow you to do this. However, you'd need to be applying for this with a view to either working all year round, or during your holidays (if they're long enough to make it worthwhile), as they don't take people just for summer etc.

It's so annoying that the best work experience to do (summer placements etc) are unpaid. I'd love to do some, but I just can't afford to take a month off work!

Reply 9

fragile_halo

Jas4

hey i live near there too did you just phone up and ask? just finished my first year so interested to find out more for next year, thanks :smile:

basically i wrote them a letter with my cv attached to it xxx

Reply 10

momosan

to do a phd in clinical psych you need 1 years experience.

Reply 11

Lolly-88

momosan

to do a phd in clinical psych you need 1 years experience.

That's probably the minimum to realisticly stand a good chance you would need much more than that.

Reply 12

Tainturier

appleshampoo

I'm currently taking time out to work before applying for a DClinPsych, and I've looked in great detail, at the kind of experience required. I contacted clearing house who deal with all of the clinical psych applications for the UK and the best type of experience is a Researh Assistant. Obviously, you will need to have finished your degree for such work, but at my uni for example they had just developed a new reserch centre for autism, and they were offering lots of voluntary research positions to students.

If I were you I'd have a chat with lecturers and see what you can get within your uni's research. Particuarly useful, is the fact that if you do get such a job you'll get especially good references for the postgrad training from whichever lecturers you work with.

(A guy on my course has slaved away working as a mental nurse for near minimum wage for the last 6 years, and didn't get into the clinical psych postgrad, another spent all of his summers in a mental hospital in Sweden, and again got rejected, so make sure you investigate your options properly!)

EDIT: Figure out which type of postgrad training you want to do, a DClinPsych is more medically relevant and is funded compeltely by the NHS within clinical settings plus a wage, I'm not so sure about the Phd but it is apaprently not as well regarded in relation to medically linked clinical research.

Reply 13

befskulls

I know it's not completely relevant but I'll add my two pence incase it helps!

I've just finished my first year of Psych and spent the summer holidays working as a Home Support Worker with people with learning disabilities. I worked with a range from Downs to Autism to Alzheimers to dual sensory impairment. There's council run departments for it, or private healthcare agencies. You'll need a CRB check but at 19 its the best paid experience I can get and they've asked me to go back at Christmas.

The agency I worked for had branches up and down the country, some dealt with learning difficulties, some mental health, some the elderly etc. I don't really want to say too much in the way of specifics about them because of confidentiality etc, but if you want to know more PM me. They happily took me at 18 and trained me up as a Support Worker. All experience I guess.

Reply 14

jetgreeneyes

how do you go about getting a home support worker position?

Reply 15

Laura25

Could you be a samaritans volunteer? That would give some experience with working with people with difficulties and although they're not trained counsellors you will get similar training.

Reply 16

Amandeep_Psych07

I'm thinking about sending a letter with a copy of my CV to various local psychologists and mental health hospitals to see if they can offer me any work experience, paid or unpaid! I was wondering how likely they are to offer me anything if I approach them in this way? I know shadowing is out of the question due to confidentiality etc... but a clinical psychologist I spoke to, told me he started off doing filing for a psychologist!

Reply 17

GodspeedGehenna

Nice thread from 2007.

Reply 18

LatinMachine

Amandeep_Psych07

You can only try, but I doubt you'll get anything paid by using that route (unless you try for the admin route of course, but I doubt anyone's going to be impressed by filing these days). There is a very good wiki on a website here:

http://www.clinpsy.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=341

which has loads of tips to about becoming a ClinPsych - PLEASE READ IT. Now to distill some quick facts from that article for you. The writer's estimate (based on stats) of the average age of a PhD student doing clinical training is 28, yes 28. This is because places are not often awarded to students straight out of university. You have to do a least a year of work experience, probably many more, before you get a place. And what is the best way to do this? Become a Research Assistant, which is a paid job. Most people underestimate the importance of research in clinical psychology, and think that they have to do volunteering work with Mind/Mencap/something similar while at university to get a place on a PhD programme. Your best bet is to forget about the PhD at the moment, and try and get yourself a research assistant position. Tips to do this:
1) Make sure your degree result is as good as it can be
2) Make sure your 3rd year research project is awesome (perhaps clinically relevent if possible)
3) Ask your lecturers/tutors at university if they take on summer research assistants, and get these jobs if possible.

http://www.clinpsy.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1747 - good advice on which kind of job or other degree to do after graduation.

http://www.clinpsy.org.uk/forum/index.php - this website has lots of fabulous information in general, I think it would be very helpful to you.

Reply 19

amywil

hi i have just finished my AS levels and really want to do some work experience this year before I start university to study psychology. Does anyone know anywhere I could try or look? I really would like to do something with downs children or people with disabilities but any psychology related work experience will do if you know anything?? Thank you x