Career change - Psychology

[Corilee2806]

Looking for some advice from anyone who’s made a change mid career and particularly in the field of psychology!

As background, I’m mid 30s with a baby and toddler so this isn’t imminent but I’m on mat leave and would like to start doing some planning and seeing what’s feasible. I have a 2:1 BSc degree from a good university but never went down that route at the time. I have gone into the Civil Service and developed specialisms in communications and policy, reaching a mid management level, but ultimately I know this isn’t what I want to do forever and see a second career for myself.

My question is, how do I go about this? I’m particularly interested in perinatal mental health since becoming a mum and seeing many friends and women struggling with such a huge range of issues connected to parenthood - I feel really passionate about making a difference in this area. A quick Google suggests clinical psychology is the route but I don’t think I have the time or stomach for the competitive nature - probably what put me off first time round! What other routes could I potentially look at bearing in mind my degree but total lack of work experience? I realise getting experience and further training or study likely to be required...

Any thoughts or ideas welcome!

I think lots of people decide to go for counselling psychology as clinical is so competitive. Have you looked at the BPS careers section? It's quite comprehensive.

Have you looked into training as a Psychological well being practitioner with the NHS?

Thanks @TabbyStar - will head to the BPS website now!

I'm interested in this myself but when I looked into it, it seems very expensive to train in!

Well, clinical is really the only field of psychology which is going to give you the chance to work in perinatal mental health, except maybe counselling psych. Either way, you'll need to do a psychology conversion degree, if your first degree isn't in psychology, and then a doctorate. Basically self funded in the case of counselling psych, and it's extremely competitive to get onto the clinical psych doctorate and usually involves working for free for some time and applying several times.

There are other routes into mental health without necessarily becoming a psychologist - mental health nursing or becoming a psychological therapist - but none of them are quick or easy (or cheap, in the case of counselling/therapy). Pretty much all branches of psychology are oversubscribed and you will have to excel academically, work for free or very cheap, or both, to be competitive.

Is your first degree actually in psychology? Can you afford to not really have an income for a bit? If the answer to the first is no, you will need to look at psych conversion courses. If it is, you could look at assistant psychologist posts in the NHS, but they usually come with a lot of responsibility and shit or no pay.

Have a look at the entry level jobs on jobsinpsychology.co.uk and at assistant psychologist roles.

Thanks @BuffySummersReportingforSanity - really good to have a realistic picture of what would be involved! I have a good first degree in Psychology, yes. I know it’s insanely competitive. I can’t work for no income just now but I might be able to in the next few years. The other issue I need to be realistic about is time with my children being so young. Lots to consider...

I don't mean to put you off, but getting into the field does require a fair amount of commitment, time, and money in most cases, and your prospects for making decent money afterwards are variable dependent on area and field. I'm in a different field of psych but most of the people I did my conversion course with did it with the aim of taking a run at clinical.

I'm doing a conversion course (though I don't want to actually be a psychologist) and lots of people thought they were going to take a run at clinical but soon decided not when they found out what was involved!

The best way to guarantee working for perinatal mental health would be to train as a MH nurse. 3 years training and study. Perinatal teams will have one psychologist each, so it would be really hard to find one near where you live that has a vacancy. Some trusts don't have specialist perinatal teams so do check out what's in your area.

Clinical psychology training is incredibly competitive, you would need to get loads of experience in MH settings before you would be considered to get onto the doctorate training. A lot of applicants already have research doctorates before applying.

The pay for a graduate psychologist ends up at one grade above a community MH nurse. (The same as a nurse manager or senior community nurse).

Another way to get into perninatal would be to work for IAPT, train as a PWP and then access the CBT training, you could then do extra courses to specialise in perinatal anxiety and depression.

Good luck. Sorry it's negative about clinical psychology but

... sorry didn't finish. So many people have psychology degrees it means the competition is high.

Thanks all, really interesting advice and options to explore. I don’t think clinical is the right choice for me at this stage of my life - I think it could have been if I was more ambitious and competitive in my 20s!

Interesting suggestion re PWP. It would be a big pay cut but I guess that’s something I need to consider if I’m going to make a complete change.

Something else to consider might be parent - infant psychotherapy, a specialist psychotherapy that looks at enhancing the relationship between mothers and babies. Or indeed other kinds of psychotherapy training. Usually less time and money commitment than clinical / counselling psychology training. Or MH nursing is a good idea.