Psychiatry or psychology?

Hi, I’m currently a y11 trying to look for jobs that appeal to me. Is anyone that took the psychiatrist route/is a psychiatrist willing to share their journey of how they got to the position they’re in? (Alevels, uni courses, degrees etc) Any tips or advs/disvs would be appreciated too!

Hi there! So there is a clear distinction between a psychologist and a psychiatrist. Psychiatry is a specialisation of medicine, thus you'd need to do your medicine degree (ie., become a doctor) and then specialise in psychology. If its psychiatry you're after, its worth also asking in the Medicine sections of this site. Psychologists usually start off with a psychology degree, accredited by the BPS (British Psychological Society), then further clinical/research experience is needed to be considered for the doctorate. After a doctorate in psychology (as referred to as DClinPsy), that's when you can be registered as a clinical psychologist.

Just to clarify, was is psychiatry or psychology you were interested in?

~ Fatiha, Cardiff University Student Rep

Actually I was torn between the two- I’m aware both psychology and psychiatry have completely different routes and aspects to specialise in but after doing further research, I think psychology is more appealing to me!