Emily Beck

During my placement I was lucky enough to spend time shadowing all the Clinical Psychologists in the team, allowing me to build up an array of experience of Clinical health psychology. I have also had the opportunity to attend meetings with a wider multidisciplinary team on the stroke ward (Consultants, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, and Dieticians) and have attended a psychological training day with intensive care staff. I have also been to psychology talks for cardiac and cancer patients.

Furthermore, I have sat in on assessments, intervention sessions and helped to facilitate group sessions. Additionally, I have observed neuropsychological assessments where tests such as the MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment), WAIS-IV (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), BADS (Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome), TOPK-UK (Test of Premorbid Functioning) were administered, and learnt how to score these up. I have produced several service evaluations, looking at both outcome measures and qualitative patient feedback.

Supervision sessions were weekly during my placement, in which some of these were spent going over patient cases and developing formulations using the 5P’s CBT model (Johnstone & Dallos, 2010). Supervision was also used to cement my understanding of how many psychological theories inform the daily work of a Clinical Psychologist. These have included the Panic Model (Clark, 1986), the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980), and the Grief Cycle (Kubler-Ross, 1969), to name a few. These models have also helped me understand the transdiagnostic principles used across the different services.

My placement has allowed me to apply the psychological theories I have learnt in my first two years at University to real life and has developed my ability to be a reflective and scientific thinker. I have learnt vital skills that I know will help me in the future and I am even more sure in my decision of wanting to become a Clinical Psychologist.