Pearl's of wisdom from those who have studied psychology or counselling.

[Namechangegame123]

I am thinking of studying for a degree in psychology, unsure whether to apply through the OU or my local university.

I worked in a totally unrelated field for my 20's and now I'm a foster carer. As a foster carer we can choose various bits of training each year, and some have elements of child psychology, which I find really. I'm aware that the degree alone wont qualify me to work with people as a psychologist.

I'd like to know what do those with psychology degrees do as a job now? Did you use it?

I'm also looking into training as a counsellor, so if anyone has any experience working or training in that area I would love to hear about it.

I have a psychology degree. I particularly enjoyed the developmental psychology modules and did my dissertation research project in this area. It was my supervisor that actually suggested applying for a PGCE and I have now been teaching for over ten years. I did consider training as an educational psychologist (at the time you needed to have 3 years teaching experience to train) but changed my mind.

Thank you.

I’m a university lecturer, did my degree in psychology and now teach it to undergraduate and postgraduate students. It’s a great subject that has so many different aspects and applications but you do need to keep in mind that it is primarily a science subject. You will study a lot of research methods, statistics and neuroscience and these areas are often less appealing to people who have been drawn to developmental or counselling psychology. My PhD was in developmental psych and it was a longitudinal empirical project that involved a lot of very complex statistical analysis, which isn’t what people often think when they consider studying child development.

If that doesn’t put you off, I’d go for it! Even if you don’t end up working in psychology it is a good transferable degree.

Did you do a degree before? If yes, why not consider a conversion course which is only a year rather than 3.

If you want to be a counsellor, do counselling, you don't need a psychology degree. Same with eg CBT therapist training.

To be a chartered psychologist you need to be bright enough to do postgrad training and able to be flexible enough within your life to do the other aspects of the training.

People studying psychology go into stuff like HR. You can leverage the research side to go into market research type stuff. It really depends which aspect you are more interested in.

If you enjoyed foster caring how about psychiatric nursing, which is also very relationship based? Psychology grads often end up doing psychiatric HCA type roles - would have been better for them to go straight for the nursing training.

No previous degree, no. I have a diploma related to my pre-fostering career, totally unrelated to psychology.

Thanks for that info. I would much prefer to go into something that's very hands-on and that involves helping people rather than something office based.

I also did a pgce following a psychology degree and now teach science. People from my course went on to a range of careers, lots went into clinical but it took them a loooong time, some education, some carried on with academia and some went into totally unrelated fields, others retrained or converted to medicine/ allied health careers

I have a counselling qualification although I'm not doing that work now.

What do you want to do for work and how?

One thing to consider is that the majority of counsellors and psychotherapists work in private practice, self-employed. The training takes years and then it takes time to build up a practice so it's not an easy way to earn a steady income.
Actual employed jobs are rare and competitive although your experience as a foster carer may help you get work at a university or similar setting with young people if that's what you are interested in.

I always suggest people who want to become therapists have some therapy themselves first to get a feel for it. There are also lots of different theoretical approaches to counselling and therapy and you need to choose one that suits your personality and personal philosophy.

I would like to do something that's flexible and will fit around family commitments. I love being a foster carer, but I want something that I can really sink my teeth into and develop. I miss having a career. There's no real pressure on me to earn a certain amount or to become qualified to a certain level in x amount of years.

In my previous job I worked my up into a very niche, dead-end position and I really don't want to do that again.

Psychology degrees which are ‘accredited’ are science based (you get a BSc) as Rockettrain above said. Which means they have a lot of cellular level biology, neuroscience, as well as the theoretical side. You will be expected to complete a number of research projects which will require an understanding and use of high level statistics.

It rarely includes any modules for counselling. It should have modules for clinical psychology but again this is far more about understanding the theory, than actual practical applications.

It might not be the degree you expect it to be, but it will give you a very rounded view of child development.

I have a psychology degree, I work in accountancy. At the time (many moons ago) it was exceptionally difficult to do anything related to it (PhDs or as PP said become a teacher first). Mine had a lot of statistics in it too so accountancy seemed a nice fit. I’m still in to mentoring and coaching and lead a team and keep up to date on business psychology.

Glad you started this thread! I’m starting my OU degree this autumn hopefully but I can’t decide between psychology and psychology with counselling. Both are accredited.

I know I want to do some kind of therapeutic work but I don’t know what yet.

I’m a psychotherapist in private practice. It’s worth looking at the different modalities of therapy before you start training. I’m not a fan of CBT do while I incorporate some of the practice in my work, my core training is in a different modality. CBT is more recognised by the NHS so technically easier if you want to be employed.

In saying that, I have a busy part time practice which makes a good living. I also have a part time job which means if I have a slow period it doesn’t matter so much and I can keep my case load manageable. It’s very flexible in that you can set and adjust your hours to suit other commitments.

Like a pp said, I went into mental health as a psychiatric nursing assistant and then a social work assistant. Would have been better just going for the nursing or social work course instead career wise. I then retrained as a probation officer which meant doing another undergraduate degree (fortunately I got on a salaried programme to train). Use my psychology degree a bit in my role as a probation officer, the skills I learned in mental health work are a lot more useful for this job though.

My daughter is in her final year studying psychology and has also done a counselling course. She will be training as a secondary teacher next year.

She is very interested in mental health, and in time she hopes to take on a pastoral role within a school. She's also interested in leading on some aspects of the PSHE curriculum and having some responsibility for staff well-being.

Thanks again everyone. Lots to think about.

jellycatspyjamas what academic route did you take to get to where you are?

After my degree I trained as a teacher (secondary school, I taught science and psychology), and am now an educational psychologist, which I adore! I think even if you don't go into psychology professionally, it's such a useful and interesting degree so I'd really recommend it from that point of view.

As others have said, particularly at undergraduate level there's a good amount of statistics and biology, but it's not unmanageable, and often as you get further into the degree and have met the accreditation requirements you can tailor what you're doing a bit more. I found that as I got further, because you have more choice and control over what you do, that statistical element can get less if you prefer - the (very limited!) statistics in my doctoral thesis are considerably less advanced than my undergraduate one because my focus moved onto more qualitative things!

I’m an educational psychologist. It’s a long haul, but your foster caring might be sufficient to fulfil the relevant work experience requirement for the training (especially if you also do a bit of voluntary school work) and the doctorate training is funded, and you get a salary. It’s an excellent job and I feel lucky to have chosen it. I have so many fabulous colleagues and working with the kids and adults I see is a privilege.

There are lots of opportunities for flexible working, both in local authorities and elsewhere. I’ve done part-time, term time only and had career breaks. I now run a busy independent practice. I mostly work to support neurodivegent children and young people, both through direct work and consulting with schools and families. I also do a bit of work in a residential children’s home and run training sessions for an adoption charity. I love the freedom of running my own practice, but I slogged hard to get the right experience as a jobbing EP first ( loved that too, to be fair).

biscuitcat hello to a fellow EP! And well done for using any statistics at all in your thesis ( I didn’t, although I was disproportionately proud of my snazzy diagrams 😉)

jellycatspyjamas what academic route did you take to get to where you are?

I have a social work degree, a Post Grad in counselling and psychotherapy and a Masters in Trauma Studies. While counselling and psychotherapy aren’t regulated profession, I think the better your core training and the more training you do, the better you’ll be. I’d also agree that extensive therapy is really important for therapists, the better you know yourself the more able you are to work at depth with your clients.

I did psychology conversion after a first degree and then a master's in my psychology subspecialism (business). I work for a large corporate but many people in my field are also self employed or work in consultancy.

Tbh the main thing that a psychology BSc does is lay the foundation for further study at postgraduate level in a subspecialism - educational, clinical, neuro, business, sport, forensic. The postgraduate study is generally necessary to really "go into" an area of psychology. There are other routes into counselling or mental health work such as mental health nursing, counselling diplomas etc although as Pp said many of these roles tend to be private practice/self employed and it takes a long time of training and working effectively for free or very little to build a viable practice. Nobody goes into it for the money but it can be very personally satisfying. But there is a reason that the cliché psychologist/therapist is a middle-aged, middle class woman.

Hi @BoogleMcGroogle! Another one of us! I think calling it statistics is a bit grandiose really 😂 a couple of chi squares and some means because my supervisors made me! Your work in the residential children's home sounds fabulous, so interesting and meaningful

Jelly I’d love to know a bit more about the therapy model you studied please? If it’s not outing or you wouldn’t mind a PM?

CBT being the main model in the NHS is something I’d wondered about as it’s something I have had myself extensively but for various reasons it’s not what I would want to do as a therapist.

Can anyone cast any light on whether a psychology degree would be best taken through the OU or at a bricks and mortar uni?

I find the flexibility of the OU appealing, but don't want to go down that route if it will disadvantage me in some other way.

@Namechangegame123

Can anyone cast any light on whether a psychology degree would be best taken through the OU or at a bricks and mortar uni?

I find the flexibility of the OU appealing, but don't want to go down that route if it will disadvantage me in some other way.

You can look at the rankings of universities on Psychology BSc to do a direct comparison: www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2020/sep/05/best-uk-universities-for-psychology-league-table

But in general, no it shouldn't. The OU is highly regarded as is the effort taken to get a good degree by distance study. I got into Cambridge to do postgrad with an OU Psychology PgDip.

Thank you scarface