Advice needed on a career change into clinical pyschology or family therapy

[OldieMum]

I am seriously considering a career change into clinical psychology, as a child psychologist, or into family therapy. I have looked at the relevant professional web sites and so have a pretty good understanding of the formal training requirements. What I now need is to speak to people actually doing the job, in order to get a better sense of whether it's for me. I spoke to one, very helpful, clinical psychologist, whom I was referred to by the mother of one of his patients. Otherwise, however, I seem to have hit a brick wall. When I ring up the relevant NHS services locally, I seem to get stonewalled by receptionists who are, understandably, protective of their staff's time. The local university has a doctoral course in clinical psychology, but their staff have ignored my e-mails. Can anyone working in one of these fields suggest how I could go about finding someone to speak to?

[marialuisa]

What branch of Psychology are you working in at the moment? I think you're probably not getting much help because it's so competitive and people working in the field are constantly badgered by students wanting work experience, assistant psychologist jobs etc. Have you tried contacting the BPS?

[OldieMum]

I'm not currently working in Psychology. I have a DPhil in Sociology and a lot of research experience in the field of the family, but I understand that I would need to re-train. I am doing an OU course in Psychology as a first step. I have looked at the BPS web site, which is useful for giving general guidance on training, but I can't see how to go about finding out more about what it's actually like to do the job.

I also have two questions about clinical training. One is whether there would be any chance of someone of my age - I'm 45 - getting a place in a few years time, once I have gained the requisite qualifications and work experience. The other is about other openings for people who take the plunge and get the qualifications and work experience, but who fail to get onto a clinical psychology course. Giving up my current job in order to do this would be a big risk and I'm not clear what my options would be if I didn't get a place on a clinical programme.

I'd appreciate any advice you could give me about all this.

[OldieMum]

The Admissions tutor on the clinical programme has now finally responded and said he can meet me. I suppose I did 'badger' him a little - sometimes you have to ...

[marialuisa]

If you didn't get onto the clinical course your options would be limited (and not very well paid!). You could get short-term work as an RA or perhaps do some work with patients in the community. I know a lot of people with firsts from top departments and loads of work experience who have had to apply several times before getting onto a clinical course so it would potentially be a long haul.

[kayjayel]

Hi OM,

I'm a child clin psych. its a long process and somewhat tortuous. You need first degree in Psychology, 2.1, then relevant experience (you may already have this) - NHS work with people across age range, research work experience all good. This makes you eligible for course, but they are highly competitive - you need to get lots of 'points' on the application form and then jump through interview hoops. Plus the course is difficult, can be challenging personally, and recently there has been a jobs crisis with people qualifying and not having any jobs to apply for, let alone being able to choose speciality (e.g. adult versus child). Sorry for negatives! But its salaried, and has prestige and is an interesting and challenging job. This is probably just part and parcel of working for NHS. And there is the possibility of working privately if jobs are tough to come by. Some courses actively welcome older more experienced people as you can bring a lot more understanding and world knowledge and sometimes be more credible for clients.

Most areas have assistant psychologist groupings where people trying to get on courses meet up. These can be great source of info. Plus there are internet groupings. Currently courses are interviewing, so all groups are likely to be talking about is what to say at interview. If you can't find any on the net you should try to get hold of an assistant psych. Call mental health services teams and just ask to speak to assistant if they have them. Qualified psychologists normally too busy to be easy to get through to. As assistants work in wide range of settings they actually probably have a broader understanding of what jobs there are and what its like than many qualifieds.

Hope that is useful, do push for more information from people as I also went through this 'no-one will tell me anything' stage! You just have to get contacts. Good luck!