Career conundrum

[Lifeisfullofsurprise]

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well! I am having a bit of a career conundrum at present. I have a previous career in broadcast journalism and TV production, which I parked when I started a family. In hindsight, sometimes I wonder if I should have secured another job before i had the kids, but I was experiencing burnout and a lack of motivation. I took many years out to raise my family, and had no desire to go back into media work whilst kids were little. In that time I expanded on my degree and gained a vocational post grad which has for the past 3 years allowed me to work as a fully qualified therapist. I have enjoyed this period, but because of service issues, usual budget cuts, lack of current jobs and feeling overlooked for accessing NHS training, I applied for the Clinical psychology doctorate. I have found myself in this privileged position and I feel very humbled to have been offered a place on what is widely known as a competitive recruitment process. Nevertheless, I feel a bit conflicted. I was done with studying after my MSc and was happy to settle at this. I am considered going back to doing some media work. I do have other interests outside CP. I think I felt pressurised to apply because of the current climate and because others were thinking of applying (although I am not sure if they did as they haven't said). I am just really confused. I am trying to work out if it's the service, working in mental health or not caring about career progression at my age. Im in my 40s.

I'm a CP. I guess there are a couple of things I'd be thinking about. Working as a CP opens up other specialities and so it's not always about working in a 'mental health' type role. I work with people with LD and neurodivergent people and it's a really enjoyable interesting and varied role. The other thing to consider is just how demanding the training can be. It's a pretty full on three years and so it's worth thinking about whether you're up for that.

good luck!

Thanks @barnish what kind of work are you currently doing in the service? Is it more systemic in nature? I have a very vague idea of what that actually means! Do you still deliver therapy?

It's a mixture of assessment (often using standardised tools) to build a good understanding of someone's functioning, gathering information and formulating when there are behaviours of concern or distress, and definitely doing some therapy but adapted and tailored for the person. I work as part of a multi disciplinary team so am almost always working collaboratively with nursing, ot, slt colleagues. I often deliver tailored training to the people in the system around the person to help make long lasting changes to how they are supported etc.

Ive been doing this for a few years so I also am involved in service design and development, which can also be really rewarding.

I can't really advise on the specific qualification other than to say I work in criminal justice and our clinical psychologists are invaluable and work with some really complex individuals.

DH worked in film and TV for more than ten years and burnt out too he became so disillusioned and just felt the industry isn't compatible with family life, he retrained and is now in a MH/youth criminal justice area he has progressed well and seems to enjoy what he does.

Thank you for the messages. @barnish are you an 8b? I’m still trying to understand the role of systemic practice and consultation. Do you find there’s still a lot of reading involved in your current role. I feel there’s never enough time to catch up with learning and new ways of working. I have realised over the past few months, I’d like to do less therapy if possible. Not sure what roles would be available which would allow this, maybe neuropsych.

@LifeisfullofsurpriseI'll send you a pm tomorrow and give you a bit more info about my role and what I do

Thanks @barnish x