Emma Shepley

I got on to the training after a few years of working as a support worker with young people and adults with learning disabilities and mental health issues, also a role working as a research intern within a clinical psychology service (which was set up for Leeds psychology graduates at the time I was graduating). This allowed me to get assistant psychologist posts, of which I had 3 different ones in learning disability, CAMHS, and older adult mental health. With this experience, I could apply for the course and was offered a place on the program here which I started in 2017 (5 years after graduating from Leeds).

A degree from the School of Psychology has benefited me in the workplace as given that I know work as an applied psychologist I couldn't have got here without my degree; the knowledge in psychological theory and models, along with skills in research and critical thinking.

My advice is to try to gain as much hands on experience as you can whilst still studying, be this volunteering or a part time job, anything working with clinical populations will be very helpful after graduating. Keep slogging away with the research stuff! It will help you in the long term, try to get your head around stats and research design as much as you can. Try to think about how psychological models such as behaviourism, attachment, neuropsychology, learning theory etc operate in the real world and in your own day to day life, this will help if you want to apply for clinical psychology training as it will help you to put these models into context.