The Early Years as a Psychologist: Experiences and challenges that shaped my career

Provisional Psychologist Hub's Director Susie Upton is sharing with us the experiences and challenges that shaped her career as a Psychologist. 

Commencing a role in occupational rehabilitation was my first role as a provisional psychologist. The role was to provide return to work services and brief psychological intervention to those that had received a work place injury. These roles are still readily available. The key learnings and skills developed in this role were effective time management and ethics associated with key stakeholders involved with the clients treatment. This role gave me experience and communication skills when working with adults.

The second half of my internship (4+2 internship pathway) was spent working in a non-for – profit community organisation. My role was direct service delivery and coordinating a team of social workers, provisional psychologists and youth workers to support young parents and their children at risk of homelessness. This was a frontline role where I ‘jumped in the deep end’ to either ‘sink or swim’. Having to mould and adapt my skills and transfer these to a different population and demographic of clients. The key learnings and skills learnt during this role were invaluable and oftentimes coming out of challenging experiences. Seeing the very pointy end of social issues affecting young families was challenging, inspiring, raw and shaped my psychological practice. Spending the formative years of my career in this role and within this organisation for 4 years provided experiences with high risk clients, child protection services, interpersonal trauma, substance abuse, acute mental health issues, domestic violence and ethical decision making to name just a few. Although all aspects of this role encompassed difficult areas to work with, having seen and experienced so many presenting issues within a marginalised population set me up for my future roles. 

After receiving my general registration it was time to move into a more clinical role as a psychologist. Again, I changed roles to a completely different demographic and client population. Working in a Private Practice within an affluent neighbourhood. One lesson that always stands out from my time in this role was that mental health issues, trauma and interpersonal abuse (domestic violence, sexual abuse, physical abuse), risk and self harm do not discriminate. Communication skills and ability to rapport build has been key in all roles and again I needed to adjust and adapt how I communicated with children, parents and families who were attending a private clinic and paying for their psychological services.

Tips for provisional psychologists developing their skills and building their career 

• Work in areas that challenge you, with adequate supervision
• Access professional development and upskill in areas that are outside your area of competence
• Understand and apply ethics to your daily psychological practice
• Learn from others and observe how they work so you can take bits and pieces from lots of other professionals and apply to your own practice
• Know and understand your professional obligations
• Engage in reflective practice to learn your own personal limitations and establish professional boundaries

To learn more about the team at Provisional Psychologist Hub, click HERE

To learn more about Supervision for Board Approved Supervisors, click HERE