The world is nigh!

Noctu

I wanted to be a Clinical Psychologist and to that end, gained the relevant degree (and a MSc) and started to gain experience in secondary care adult mental health teams, volunteering, under a Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

Your daughter would need to get experience of this in order to get on the DClinPsy course (professional doctorate required). After a year of volunteering and seeing what clinical psychs have to deal with both from patients and the constraints from the NHS, I decided to cut my losses and run!

I'd strongly encourage your daughter to get as much experience as possible volunteering with the relevant patient group and under a psychologist as possible, as this will not only help her to make her mind up about it, but also will bolster her application significantly.

Noctu

Nat1990 wrote: »

She will then need to apply for a 3 year clinical doctorate (these are really hard to get on and require a first class degree, not a 2.1, and the mean age of acceptance is 33!).

Apart from two or three institutions I haven't come across any that offer the DClinPsy that stipulate a First class degree... in fact I know a few people who got on with a 2:1 and even a couple with a 2:2 and MSc!

stebiz

Thanks again. She was hoping to get involved in the Educational Psychology sector. It's so difficult get work experience, even voluntarily, at 17.

Nat1990

Noctu wrote: »

Apart from two or three institutions I haven't come across any that offer the DClinPsy that stipulate a First class degree... in fact I know a few people who got on with a 2:1 and even a couple with a 2:2 and MSc!

That must have been a while ago - without a shadow of a doubt a 2.2 would be out of the question! We conducted a research study as part of my uni - all uni's offering the course are now only accepting firsts, unless its a 2.1 with about 10 years work experience. I am at uni now, your experience may be a little outdated.

Fire_Fox

stebiz wrote: »

Thanks again. She was hoping to get involved in the Educational Psychology sector. It's so difficult get work experience, even voluntarily, at 17.

As in, working with children? If so start volunteering for any charity working with children - sports or health or theatre something seemingly irrelevant, she may need a CRB I don't know. One thing often opens the door to another, all work experience/ volunteering looks good on the CV it all demonstrates some sort of transferable skill or another. A lot of unis are doing key skills modules, so anything she does now is evidence for that.

https://www.gov.uk/volunteering/find-volunteer-placements
http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/
http://www.do-it.org.uk/wanttovolunteer

Dunroamin

stebiz wrote: »

Thanks again. She was hoping to get involved in the Educational Psychology sector. It's so difficult get work experience, even voluntarily, at 17.

The route into Educational Psychology is rather different from that into Clinical Psychology, although both would start by doing a BPS validated Psychology degree.

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/educational_psychologist_training.htm

There have been changes in this recently (eg, you no longer have to be a qualified teacher) although relevant experience is still mandatory.

"For acceptance onto a postgraduate course, you will need to be able to demonstrate that you have relevant experience of working with children in educational, childcare, or community settings. Usually you will be required to provide evidence of at least one year’s full-time experience and sometimes two years may be required."

I really think that your daughter needs to be doing lots of research for herself at this stage as she seems to keep switching her ideas and she could find herself offering the wrong kind of experience for her post graduate career.

Noctu

Nat1990 wrote: »

That must have been a while ago - without a shadow of a doubt a 2.2 would be out of the question! We conducted a research study as part of my uni - all uni's offering the course are now only accepting firsts, unless its a 2.1 with about 10 years work experience. I am at uni now, your experience may be a little outdated.

As far as I understand it - and my last application was two years ago - a First is (obviously) desirable, but 2:1 with 2/3/4 years experience can get onto the course in the right circumstances. I know two girls who got onto a local course a couple of years ago with a 2:1 and a couple of years of assistant posts, and two or three years ago I heard of a couple of people getting offers whilst still finishing their BSc. (which of course still happens...)

Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Teesside, Cardiff, Southampton, and Plymouth accept 2:2 with an MSc (and work experience) - it does make things harder but it is certainly not out of the question! (source: Clearing House website.) & I do know of others being accepted very recently with a 2:2 & MSc.

I still keep an eye on the DClinPsy as I'm now doing a PhD in health psychology and work with clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. I read a piece recently questioning the ridiculous lengths applicants must go to to demonstrate their ability and experience with the clinical population, often being expected to work a significant chunk of the week in voluntary roles for years on end (never mind paying the bills!), effectively putting their life on hold for a good 5 years. The author of the piece questioned the fairness and legitimacy of applying these constraining entry requirements and I would agree with them!

V_Chic_Chick

Somewhere along the way, it sounds as though she has become confused between a psychiatrist and a psychologist.

A psychiatrist is a medical doctor (i.e. someone who starts out with a degree in medicine) who then specialises in mental health. They are the ones who prescribe drugs, and they work as part of team with other mental health professionals.

A psychologist is not a doctor, and starts out with a psychology degree, not medicine, followed by a lot of postgrad study as others have described. She will need to make sure that any psychology degree she does is accredited by the BPS. If it's not, then she may as well not bother. Psychologists are the ones who do talking therapies with patients, and they also work as part of a wider team.

Another career option for her could be mental health nursing, and (though I don't want to state the bleeding obvious), she would need a degree in mental health nursing. MH nursing isn't particularly competitive as a degree, and you can get onto a course with C, and sometimes D grades depending on where you go. If she wants to work hands on in a mental healthcare setting, then it could be a good option for her. With regards to student finance, nursing is a funny one in that you can do another degree followed by nursing, and you will still get full student finance for the second degree. So, she could keep it as a back up option in case her career plans as a psychologist didn't pan out.

With regards to work experience, it's neither required nor particularly expected for a psychology degree. They do recognise that it can be very difficult to get relevant work experience as an A Level student. However, one option would be volunteering in a care home. Some residents will have dementia, and depression is also very common in older people.