CBT Therapist training as a Clinical Psychologist. Interests in clinical health, eating disorders and bariatric surgery. Turkish Cypriot. Views my own.
My horoscope this morning was “you’ve had to endure years to get here” and that’s about right.... I JUST GOT ACCEPTED INTO A CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY DOCTORATE after years and years of trying!
Apologies to those here for the psychology and dclinpsy chat. Life on the doctorate is not all the rainbows, sunshine and butterflies that we were promised/assumed I’m afraid. It’s tough and I’m exhausted. Its even harder if you envisioned doing the doctorate without a pandemic.
Over the last few years of teaching on DClinPsych, I’ve been getting quite frustrated at the constant CBT bashing and IAPT bashing I’ve heard from lecturers and course tutors, and sometimes colleagues on training and on placements. I get why IAPT gets stick, but CBT 🤨
Clinical psychology Courses which focus on grades of 2:1. In no particular order. I’ve collated this info from the Leeds clearing house website and from talking to admissions leads from courses. A lot of this is from my personal experience too.
#dclinpsy
£38k is band 6 and below, which are the jobs that keep the NHS going. I don’t even want to think of the consequences and impact this will have on the NHS.
🚨 BREAKING: Rishi Sunak will increase the salary threshold so that EVERY migrant has to earn over £38k before coming to Britain in a major plan to slash migration
He will also announce new limits on them bringing family
[
@JackElsom
]
To those applying for
#Dclinpsy
this year, please don’t feel you have to have it in ASAP. You have plenty of time and can submit it on the deadline day. Work to your own schedule and don’t feel pressured if you see many others who have completed & sent it before the end of Sept.
I have one more client left to see and discharge as a CBT therapist! 💃🏻🙌🏼 I’m sort of hoping that I won’t be back in an iapt service for a very, very long time. Whilst it’s been the best experience for my career and personal development, I’m done. I’ve served my time of 6 years.
I tried to convince my husband that for my next placement in order to practice CAT therapy (my next modality to learn) I need a cat. It took him a short while to catch on 😂
I’ve drafted a tweet about 20 times about how much I would like to not be a sensible, responsible adult/doctoral student and that I just want to download and play Sims like I did as a teen but alas I cannot as all this thesis work and placement stuff is not going to do itself.
The further along I get into my doctorate, the more it is reconfirmed that I am not brilliant academically but rather below the standard norms for a Dclin 😂 Just give me clients and therapy to do instead please - is that an option instead?
Constant bug bear and little rant incoming. Clinical psychologists say explicitly that they “don’t use CBT, but use ACT and CFT”… 🙃
I’m always in a bit of state of disbelief when psychologists don’t recognise they are 3rd wave CBT models.
I had planned to take 2 weeks off work before my mat leave started to work on thesis and relax a bit. I had less than one day (Saturday!) before I went into labour… cue baby on Sunday morning! Thankfully despite her coming 4.5 weeks early she’s healthy and happy.
We’ve just found out our first clinical placements and I am so excited! It’s a role and placement I’ve been waiting to do in a therapeutic context for YEARS!
There’s usually theme of feeling like “a imposter” going around for those starting training, however I have a constant of feeling of “being a know it all” at the moment. I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t need to let others know I know stuff and impede others learning🤦🏻♀️
I’m a way off qualifying roles, even though I’m a 3rd year, but either way, I will practice CBT, and good CBT because of my CBT training pre DClin. I’m still not impressed with the course training and we’ve not really covered CBT since semester 1, year 1 I think.
Really useful advice, once I started to do this with ap, Pwp and ra roles I started to get shortlisted for interviews. I think in general if you’re able to do this for applications you’ll have better opportunities :)
Okay, I am currently reviewing applicants for a research assistant position in our lab (specifically to work on psychological studies with patients), and I'm seeing common mistakes and missed opportunities so here are some tips for applicants:
[THREAD]
Today is my last day on placement 4. I can confirm I still do not like neuro (the assessment side of things) but has reassured me that clinical health is where I want to be if/when I finish this doctorate. Although let’s see where we are when I finish placement 5 (HIV service)!
I’m still going to
#WearAMask
during my day to day outings, especially as I have to be in full PPE to see my clients or even meet with my supervisor face to face. I could still be at risk of catching covid again or passing it on.
Last thing I will say, I will always stick up for CBT and for IAPT because I’ve seen the benefits and good that can come from it. And even more so when IAPT is done well as demonstrated in the last service I worked in.
Just a thought, likely to be controversial but if you’re due to start Pwp training this year and got the news prior about changes to funding would you have pulled out from training? Would you considered consequences on services who are employing you & the impact on service users?
Today at the bank. Bank cashier: China is a very unusual name. Where is it from?
Me: It’s Chinar and it’s Turkish, I’m Turkish. BC: You speak Turkish? Me: yes I do. BC: That’s good because your English is very good! Me: I was born here. 😑😡
Despite being on mat leave and having my confidence completely knocked, and not finishing the course (due to finish this year now), I’ve managed my first interview in 4 years since the clinical interview and have secured a job post qualification! However, advice welcome 1/2
@DrHelenRodwell
And I think this is where the change needs to come in for bme and marginalised applicants - our experiences and narrative is what makes us valuable to the profession.
Adjusting to clinical training from being a cbt therapist has been quite hard for me. I also didn’t anticipate feeling so overwhelmed with the amount of work (and paperwork!!) that comes with training. Fellow trainees - how are you coping?
#dclinpsy
Follow on from yesterday, just to clarify, it’s not all “doom and gloom” on training. I feel incredibly privileged to be here and I am enjoying it, but as I said, it’s tough! Training comes with many transitions - eg qualified to trainee/student, moving, starting placements.
First placement, day one done! I’m completely looking forward to being forced out of my comfort zone and moving to working in a systemic, family therapy focused way.
The amount of times I’ve heard people say they have applied when not ready & not enough experience to do “a practise run”. Personally I don’t understand why you’d do a practice application, it’s like applying for a job you don’t meet any of the requirements for
#unpopularopinion
Thinking of submitting a practice application later this year? You can download templates of the form and draft without submitting (and paying the Clearing House fee). Please only send in your application when you think you're ready to apply.
Just a thought but it saddens me that not only has the Nhs been seen as a charity, but schools are also fundraising for food, technology and in the past I’ve seen them asking for toilet paper and other basic supplies. Schools aren’t a charity, why can’t we fund appropriately?!
I also sort of hope I don’t have to go back into iapt once qualified as a CP but it’s hard to say how psychology services will be in the future. There’s so much funding into iapt and subsequent defunding in other services that I might not have a choice.
I treated myself to a few more new books to read in the gap between now and starting clinical training, after I told myself to not buy any more books as I’ll have more things to move with me to Leeds 😅
I’m only 9 weeks into my mat leave and wondering how on Earth I’m going to be able to return to finish my thesis and DClin. I feel I’ve aged and lost brain capacity just from sleep deprivation.
I thought I’d put this thread together after many a conversation about grades for clinical courses and entry requirements over the years. As someone with a low 2:1, I’ve been limited in the courses I can apply to despite further study, publications & professional qualifications.
Today marks day one of the end! (Not referring to the Tory government, sorry, although I really hope it is the end of them). I am referring to the first day of the last year of DClin training.
My Husband suggested a walk today, estimating 10 miles. It was 14 miles, and took us 6 hours. It’s the longest we’ve ever done and I’m not sure how or why I haven’t collapsed from exhaustion yet. At least it was warm and sunny and we had lovely views of the Yorkshire Dales.
I got asked for my “Christian” name today. I responded by saying I wasn’t Christian and had the question asked twice again before they realised and explained it means my first name 🤦🏻♀️ proceeded by them spelling my name incorrectly. Why are people still asking for Christian names?
Just a bit of reflection on A level results day. I did awfully at A levels, I even retook a year. I then went through clearing for undergrad as I didn’t do the best I could, but I’ve come so far since then. Grades shouldn’t stop you from achieving your potential.
Ok so I asked for recommendations for holiday locations in the uk, thanks for all your recommendations but the attraction of a hot destination and beach (with a sea I can actually go into!) was too attractive! I’m now on holiday in Turkey. Now to zone out and not check twitter!
I am thinking about how I practice therapy when I qualify and so much is dependent on the job I end up in. In clinical health, it’ll be CBT, ACT, some CFT, systemic and maybe CAT with narrative approaches. Eating disorders:CBT, systemic, maybe DBT?
Didn’t think I’d have this much engagement on a thread! I’m by no means an expert on this and my experience in getting to clincial has been marred by my grades. It’s something that has made me feel less than worthy, which is why I’ve applied myself in iapt (Pwp & cbt therapist).
Just remembered the days at undergrad where we had to physically hand in a printed copy of our assignments! I’m so thankful things have moved on and we now have the option to submit in the early hours of the morning now…
@ENT_UK
Are there any reports of sense of smell completely returning? I’ve had other covid-19 symptoms plus this (with no taste either). It’s hard to find any formal information on mild and asymptomatic cases given the focus on severe symptoms of constant cough and fever.
Feeling a bit sad and emosh that today is my last day of teaching and being with my peers for the next year because I’m off on mat leave now (& a bit of annual leave). Pregnancy has taken away finishing off my doctorate on time, and graduating with my friends.
We have 2 application events for applicants who are from a Minority background running online this year one with a focus on the more Northern courses - and the other with a focus on courses in the south and London (details to come asap).
I hit peak adulthood yesterday. I got very excited at my first ever brand new washing machine being installed. I’ve obviously had washing machines before (but never new). For the daughter and granddaughter of a large family of dry cleaners, it felt like a right of passage.
Regardless of what modality I end up working in, I will always use my CBT skills for trauma based work. In particular when working with feelings of guilt. Great paper!
New tCBT paper:
A cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) approach for working with strong feelings of guilt after traumatic events
Full free text at
@BABCP
@CurnowSteph
@rthwaites
@WCPsychMatt
I put my working class background & experiences in “relevant experience - other experience” section because it is relevant in my development and directly referred to my culture and nationality in the main ps. If you can reflect on how it makes you a better candidate do it!
I’ve not yet had a break this year, I’ve worked through out covid (at home). I’m desperate for a break (I’m off from next Weds until I start my doctorate), does anyone have recommendations for where to go? I usually go abroad but not sure it’s the best thing to do given covid!
Oh Hackney, I am forever grateful that you have independent coffee shops that know how to brew good coffee. And as I took my first sip I walked past Bill Nighy! (We exchanged smiles 😎)
I am deeply saddened by my below retweet. Something so integrally British and brilliant (our
#Nhs
) is no longer protected. I’m so frustrated by this government!
I don’t know why I still get quite disappointed and frustrated at the amount of people who are just not wearing masks on public transport and especially on trains. I think I’m the only person sat in this
@LNER
carriage wearing a mask.
Really useful post. It outlines what I struggle to articulate when asked why I've always been drawn to clinical!
"Unlike a therapist trained in a single modality of therapy, we can survey the landscape and assess the need, then design the intervention that best meets that need"
Spending my first day of annual leave this week working on a
#DClinPsy
assignment due soon. Does not feel great 🥲
Hoping it’s done by the end of tomorrow so I can switch off from work for the rest of the week 😅
So what time of day do you have dinner or supper? Are they the same thing? What is tea? The way meal times are defined outside of my culture and London-ness is really different to how they discuss it up North. Plus it’s defined differently in ED services. I’m so confused!
Just seen this and been through the line up 🤯 looks like there will be some incredible presentations and debates on. If you’re able to, do go! I’ll definitely be trying to follow the live coverage.
@Jessicaproctor_
I’d argue that CBT is holistic! If you do a quick Google - there’s even holistic cbt by Dr Hilary Garraway which is “strengths based, exploring the persons wider context and focuses on developing a persons identity to help people reach their potential”.
I saw a post yesterday by a Dr requesting the Nhs staff stop asking for discounts in stores. It stuck with me particularly when I reflect on how many Nhs staff are on lower salaries, such as our cleaners, admin, hca, and nurses. Not everyone’s circumstances are the same.
I suppose this is more of a general thought that has been bothering me, rather than something I want to debate in detail. I don’t think there are many others that feel similarly on training either.
You can always do better, you can always learn new skills, don’t limit yourself, throw yourself at new opportunities, take a risk and challenge yourself. Make something of yourself for yourself. Never let someone tell you can’t.
I’m having a rubbish time with buses in Leeds this morning. Nothing has come on time, and the bus drivers seem to have no agency in getting us to locations. Also, why are they so expensive and why are the bus stop signs so small and hard to read?
Thank you
@sheevsb
for writing this piece: so much of this resonates with my experiences in iapt. I’ve worked with many a Karen &male equivalent in inner London iapt services and have been privy to and witnessed similar. I’m looking forward to part 2 and how we can take action.
What the fresh hell is this? No reference to the strong evidence base of cbt for long term health conditions, but bashing of iapt providing treatment where many often don’t get any support. Where’s the data for outcomes from iapt LTC pathway? Poor effort on writers behalf 😡
Annual leave day so I decided to treat myself to a trip to Waitrose. Purchased something to make espresso martinis with. At the till I got asked to see my face, to which I asked, “surely you’d want to see my ID?”. She saw my face and immediately asked for my ID. 🤦🏻♀️
As an ex UCL Pwp trainee graduate - I highly recommend applying! I really enjoyed my training and got so much out of it. Not to mention I met so many great people along the way.
In the essence of country living, I can now say that I have successfully chased after a dog chasing a chicken. I saved the chicken from being killed and managed to grab the dog after launching myself over a fence. My lunch break ran over because of chasing said dog. 🥲
#yorkshire
?
First doctorate group presentation at done, and surprisingly we managed to get by with a picture of Arnie, a cat, a pug in a party hat and a group zoom photo featuring moustaches. Not sure if we lowered the tone or nailed it. 😂 (Thankfully it’s a formative presentation)
Noreen gave me support during previous years interviews and I can vouch for this! Also think about the practicalities - where you would sit to interview; what’s on screen, and are you comfortable?
@MinoritiesGroup
thank you so much for your support over the years. I’ve been a lurker and even much more of a follower of
@KGuilaine
. Guilaine might not remember me but I met her when she was a student still and she gave me so much encouragement as a minority to get to here!
This my friends, is procrastination at its finest. I am sat here thinking about procrastinating. I remember just building sims houses to procrastinate from playing the game. 🤦🏻♀️
Despite it being my new course and home for the next three years,
@UoL_DClinPsy
also focus on a upper 2:1 (65% or above) or 1st at undergrad but will accept a Masters with clinical relevance. There is nothing relating to what grade you should have attained on masters to qualify.
Whelp, essay writing has floored me. How do I string words together to make paragraphs, which in turn becomes a 5000 word essay with references again? 🤷🏻♀️
@charley_psych
I’m always with a hot drink (although it’s usually cold by the time I drink it) in my iapt clinic sessions. I’ve never had a client make negative comments about it. Sometimes it’s a talking point and I have been given flavoured teas as a thank you at end of treatment 😬
You’re starting a new job, becoming a student, researcher/academic and therapist all in one go! The transitions are just part of adjusting to training and that can add to how “tough/ difficult” starting training is. You’re starting placements not fully knowing what you’re doing!