What career do I want to retrain as? Mental Health/Psychology related

[Honestlywtf]

Currently working almost FT in a finance role in industry. It's well paid but I am so fed up with it! Have got a History degree. Want to work in something completely different but not sure what.

Would want a salary of £25k minimum but potentially less for the right job.

Was looking at Psychology conversion courses but it seems you need to do that for 3 years, then a masters/PHD but which time I would be late forties/early fifties. Have read that it is extremely difficult to be accepted onto the PHD courses to qualify.

I would like to work with people who need support, and understanding and eg who are experiencing mental health problems. I would like to do something whereby you retrain for X amount of time and get a specific job at the end of it.

All thoughts/advice/warnings etc would be very welcome!

DClinPsy not a PHD. And your need years of experience after your conversion course to have a hope in hell of getting a place for one.

Why mental health? What is it you think you have that's suited to what people need? What do you want out of the job?

For instance, are you interested in the human mind? Do you want a warm fuzzy feeling? Do you want gratitude? Asking because some people go into it expecting to change lives every day and be thanked, then when it turns out not to be that simple take their frustrations out on service users.

Would you be happy being a nurse on a ward involved in restraining patients and forcibly medicating them? Responsible for taking people's freedom away as an AMHP? There's still a lot of coercive practices in mental health care, how comfortable are you with roles where you will be part of that coercion?

Would you like to work in the community supporting people to do everyday tasks and work on goals? Be a care coordinator providing regular practical support? A mental health social worker? Support worker? Psychotherapist? Community psychiatric nurse?

Do you want a role where there is time to build a relationship with service users? Or one where you only meet people briefly, for instance with a crisis team?

What kind of roles would you be comfortable with and good at?

Thanks for the thorough reply.

For instance, are you interested in the human mind?

• Yes - specifically how early life/trauma impacts the brain/body and has consequences for later life (have been doing so much reading into this lately).

Do you want a warm fuzzy feeling? Do you want gratitude?

• No, though I'm not sure what I do want.

Would you be happy being a nurse on a ward involved in restraining patients and forcibly medicating them? Responsible for taking people's freedom away as an AMHP? There's still a lot of coercive practices in mental health care, how comfortable are you with roles where you will be part of that coercion?

• Definitely not! I am not particularly assertive or forceful.

Would you like to work in the community supporting people to do everyday tasks and work on goals? Be a care coordinator providing regular practical support? A mental health social worker? Support worker? Psychotherapist? Community psychiatric nurse?

• Thank you for all of these ideas.

Do you want a role where there is time to build a relationship with service users? Or one where you only meet people briefly, for instance with a crisis team?

• I think I would prefer to develop a relationship over time.

What kind of roles would you be comfortable with and good at?

• I am a good listener and people tend to open up to me. I am very organised and like problem solving, also like drilling down to get to the bottom of things.

Thank you!

I have a history degree and also retrained after working FT in a non care related role. I am now a Social Worker. You can work as a Social Worker in mental health without being an AMHP, although you could do the AMHP training later. You have to have a few years experience behind you before they will also accept you on an AMHP course. Try looking up Think Ahead- it is a fast track Social work training programme with a focus on working in mental health post qualification. I think you also get some financial support to do it as well but I might be wrong on that. I am working with two Think Ahead students at the moment and they are both really good!

Maybe look into becoming a Counselling Psychologist. There should be information on the British Psychological Society (BPS) website.

Thanks both! I'm in Scotland but will see if there is an equivalent to the Think Ahead programme, and shall have a look at a Counselling Psychologist too.

Thank you :-)

Educational psychology. Still masters entry in Scotland. You'd need a conversion course and relevant experience. Competitive.

Thanks Tickledtrout, I see Dundee offers that and would need a conversion course plus experience.

Occupational therapist?

2 year masters used to be funded in Scotland (might still be). Graduate on 25k.

Option to range in a range of settings including community mental health, wards and 3rd sector.

Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner? Or Children's Wellbeing Practitioner if you'd rather work with children?

In England, training is 1 year and is paid, although I'm not sure how much. After training you'd start at Band 5 (starting about £24,900). Senior PWPs can theoretically earn up to Band 8a (about £46k) although I think posts that highly paid are rare. I'm not sure if these are the same for Scotland or not.

Tbh their are more nursing, social work, OT jobs out theor than counselling or psychology (in the public sector that is).

Social worker? Plenty of jobs! Lots of people wanting to be counsellors or therapists.

Just reread your comment about early trauma. Are you aware of the Aces aware nation and nurturing schools network in Scotland atm? Opportunities to pick up valuable experience and insight into the impact and systemic approaches to recovery from early trauma. Might be a good place to start volunteering. I think you're probably going to need relevant experience for any of the options you've looked at so far.
And the bottleneck for psychology is getting onto a doctoral or master's professional training course. Once you're trained there is no shortage of work, in the private or state sector.

Have read that it is extremely difficult to be accepted onto the PHD courses to qualify.

You've read correctly!
As a pp said, it's a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology that qualifies you to practice, not a PhD (although it's a PhD equivalent level qualification and you have to do a research thesis of PhD standard as part of it).
It takes some people the best part of 2-3 years of applying before they are accepted, and a lot of relevant experience is required as the competition is fierce.
You don't need a Masters to get a place - but it would massively strengthen your application and chances of success.
Happy for you to PM me for further info if you're interested in that particular route.

look at doing an MSc in psychology and then counselling. the BPS has lots of info on career paths on their website

www.bps.org.uk/public/become-psychologist/career-options-psychology

@Tickledtrout

Just reread your comment about early trauma. Are you aware of the Aces aware nation and nurturing schools network in Scotland atm? Opportunities to pick up valuable experience and insight into the impact and systemic approaches to recovery from early trauma. Might be a good place to start volunteering. I think you're probably going to need relevant experience for any of the options you've looked at so far. And the bottleneck for psychology is getting onto a doctoral or master's professional training course. Once you're trained there is no shortage of work, in the private or state sector.

I wasn't aware of this, thanks! I have so much reading and research to do.

Thank you for all the suggestions everyone, been so helpful to clarify what type of role I'm looking for and how much studying am willing to do.