Professional identity development in early career Psychologists

About this event

Are you an aspiring Clinical Psychologist, looking to up your game? Are you ever told things like, ‘bring yourself into your work’….but you don’t know how? Or have you ever felt that your work has personally pulled you emotionally but not known where to take it how to reflect and learn from it? Well, I felt exactly the same in my early career! I am so excited and privileged to invite you into a space which I really hope I can offer something that might have a lasting impact upon you and help you to learn the skills needed to develop your personal selves into the emotionally challenging work that we do! My drive to offer this space is deeply personal and came from my own personal experiences of my early career.

A little bit about me and the context to this reflective space!

I am a 34-year-old woman, an identical twin, a mother to my wonderful Saoirse (that’s Ser sha, phonetically). I trained at Teesside where I was born and bread. I feel incredibly lucky to have trained at a University whose values about Psychology really aligned to my own, However, very early in my training, I felt incredibly confused about who I was meant to 'be', what I was trying to 'become' and how to process difficult thoughts and feelings about my professional development.

In our profession, we work hard to develop the right knowledge and skills to work with some of the most vulnerable people in society, because we want to help them. Our work inevitably pulls on our personal selves and who we are as people. The H.C.P.C specifically addresses this part of our professional identities by stating we should become self-aware, reflective practitioners. However, during my own professional training there was no available theory or model which considered how this process might impact on us, on both a personal and professional level. During training, I didn't know how to process the most challenging and emotionally sensitive parts, I felt extremely vulnerable sharing in our reflective practice sessions and most importantly, I held back in supervision as I wanted to appear competent. But this was an entirely flawed approach, and it was not possible to box myself up in this way.

As such, I chose to dedicate my thesis research to this area and after three strenuous years, I was able to produce a theoretical model which we can now use to understand and reflect on ourselves. The model answers questions like, how do we present ourselves in our early career, how does this change over time? How much do the different ways in which we present ourselves affect us both personally and professionally. What are the benefits to becoming more self-aware? What is the Psychological process we go through to navigate this and what does this help us to achieve?

In this workshop I will bring my authentic self, demonstrating the use of theory, applying it to my own pre training and professional training experiences. I will share how reflecting in this way is pertinent to 'bringing yourself' into your work, a key component to preparing for getting onto training but also during Clinical Psychology doctoral training.

what will happen in the workshop?

I will spend some time focusing on the grounded theory model to ensure you understand the key concepts, followed by a reflective space which considers my own personal and professional experiences to role model how to apply the theory to yourself.

We will work in very small and intimate groups whereby you will work together to share your experiences, applying the theory to yourself. We will then come back together in larger groups to share (what feels safe) reflections from this.

Emotional Wellbeing Considerations

I want to emphasize the importance of considering your emotional wellbeing during this workshop. Some aspects of the model may feel challenging to engage with, and that is perfectly okay. The model is designed to be a resource you can continue to explore in your ongoing supervision, or just in your own time. So, you will have plenty of other reflective spaces to engage with this area of development. You may choose to camouflage parts of yourself that feel intolerable to share, I know I certainly will! It’s important that you start where feels most comfortable, so you get the most out of the session.

Thank you for joining this reflective space and I look forward to exploring ourselves together and supporting you in your professional journey.

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