Surviving Clinical Psychology Navigating Personal, Professional and Political Selves on the Journey to Qualification

This vital new book navigates the personal, professional and political selves on the journey to training in clinical psychology. Readers will be able to explore a range of ways to enrich their practice through a focus on identities and differences, relationships and power within organisations, supervisory contexts, therapeutic conventions and community approaches.

This book includes a rich exploration of how we make sense of personal experiences as practitioners, including chapters on self-formulation, personal therapy, and using services. Through critical discussion, practice examples, shared accounts and exercises, individuals are invited to reflect on a range of topical issues in clinical psychology. Voices often marginalised within the profession write side-by-side with those more established in the field, offering a unique perspective on the issues faced in navigating clinical training and the profession more broadly. In coming together, the authors of this book explore what clinical psychology can become.

Surviving Clinical Psychology invites those early on in their careers to link ?the political? to personal and professional development in a way that is creative, critical and values-based, and will be of interest to pre-qualified psychologists and researchers, and those mentoring early-career practitioners.

Dedication

Notes on contributors

Acknowledgements

Foreword: The things that matter

Peter Kinderman

The context of clinical psychology

1. What clinical psychology can become: An introduction

James Randall

2. What do clinical psychologists do anyway?

Annabel Head, Amy Obradovic, Sasha Nagra and Neha Bharat Shah

3. Making the most of your supervision: Reflecting on selves in context

James Randall, Angie Cucchi and Vasiliki Stamatopoulou

4. Restorying the journey: Enriching practice before training

James Randall, Sarah Oliver, Jacqui Scott, Amy Lyons, Hannah Morgan, Jessica Saffer and Lizette Nolte

5. Everyone reflects……but some reflections are more risky than others

Romena Toki and Angela Byrne

The Personal: The selves as human

6. On being a practitioner and a client

Molly Rhinehart, Emma Johnson and Kirsty Killick

7. Values in practice: Bringing social justice to our lives and work

Jacqui Scott, Laura Cole, Vasiliki Stamatopoulou and Romena Toki

8. Reflections on the therapeutic journey: Opening up dialogues around personal therapy

Amy Lyons and Elizabeth Malpass, with thanks to Silan Gyane

9. On the reconciliation of selves: Reflections on navigating professional domains

Danielle Chadderton and Marta Isibor

The Professional: The use of self in clinical psychology

10. ‘Taking the plunge’: How reflecting on your personal and social GgRRAAAACCEEESSSS can tame your restraints and refresh your resources

John Burnham and Lizette Nolte

11. Self-formulation: Making sense of your own experiences

James Randall, Emma Johnson and Lucy Johnstone

12. Pebbles in Palms: Sustaining practices through training

Sarah Oliver, Hannah Morgan, James Randall, Amy Lyons, Jessica Saffer, Jacqui Scott and Lizette Nolte

13. Sustaining selfhood and embracing ‘selves’ in psychology: risks, vulnerabilities and sustaining relationships

Tanya Beetham and Kirstie Pope

The Political: Selves and politics in practice

14. Power in Practice: Questioning Psychiatric Diagnosis

Sasha Priddy and Katie Sydney

15. Power in context: Working within different organisational cultures and settings

Annabel Head, Jacqui Scott and Danielle Chadderton

16. It’s not just about therapy: Our ‘selves’ in our communities

Stephen Weatherhead, Ben Campbell, Cormac Duffy, Anna Duxbury, Hannah Iveson and Mary O’Reilly

17. The personal weight of political practice: A conversation between trainees

Farahnaaz Dauhoo, Lauren Canvin, Rosemary Kingston, Stella Mo and Sophie Stark

Epilogue: "Just stop talking and start to dance"

James Randall

James Randall is a tattooed, vegetarian clinical psychologist working with children and young people within the National Health Service (NHS). He previously represented aspiring psychologists for 4 years as the co-chair of the Pre-Qualification Group within the British Psychological Society.