Mourning the Queen and the new Clearing House Website

Dr Marianne Trent (: 00:28

Hi, welcome along to The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast. I am recording this at a time where the public are in mourning. So, I'm recording this the day after Her Majesty passed away. And it feels like a strange time to be a UK citizen, certainly a 41-year-old one who's never known a life without Her Majesty in it. It feels like quite a strange time to be a psychologist as well, certainly a psychologist with a grief book.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 01:03

Public mourning, and also how to go on providing mental health services and running businesses whilst there is public mourning going on can be tricky to assimilate. And of course, at the center of all of this, certainly on the day that she passed away was the same day that the Clearing House applications finally opened. And so your life as an aspiring psychologist must go on and certainly will go on if you are applying to professional qualifications. I believe it might already be, or is fast approaching application season for educational psychologists as well. I think that's usually around about mid-September.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 01:47

So, your life will also still need to progress if you do indeed want a place on training for Autumn 2023. So, as far as I'm aware, the deadlines, despite the delayed opening for the Clearing House website, the deadlines are still going to be occurring. I think it's 1:00 PM on Friday, the 16th of November 2022, for the DClinPsy, that is. The websites had a bit of a refresh. If you've previously registered on the Clearing House website, you're going to need to start again.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 02:28

So, log in to the new website. I think it's www.clearing-house.org.uk. But the details will be in the show notes or you can look at Google. But yeah, you'll need to register again. And it's quite an intuitive form once you're able to get in. But the first stage is they will send you a link that you need to be able to click on within 24 hours. And when that happens, you can then get on and start filling in new details, filling in your details for your personal details, your address, your email, all your identifiables, and then the details for your references as well.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 03:10

And then you can crack on with your form as well. So, I'm not sure if you were able to join me live. I did a live to support DClinPsy applications on the 1st of September, which is when we thought they would be opening, but they didn't. Thanks for that, Clearing House. And so I did a live that was really well received, and you can catch up with the replay of that by heading to my YouTube channel, Dr. Marianne Trent. And there will be a link for that in the show notes. But there's also a playlist as well, which includes all of the compassionate Q&A content that I have done over the years, which will help support you with your applications for the forms.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 04:00

So people have been in touch with me and they've been saying, "Well, what should I do next? What do I do now? How do I do that?" And you might well be considering whether you have the appropriate support around you right now, whether you've got qualified psychologist supervisor, and if you have, whether they are on board. This part of the process for your form, we need to make sure that you are within your form, that it's about you.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 04:32

I would want to read your form and think only you could have written this. It should be based on your unique life circumstances and your unique path through your career so far. So bear that in mind, but also support is important. Being able to be transparent with your supervisor is ideal that you plan to attend, that you plan to apply to the professional qualifications this year because I think it can be really useful to be reflecting on this and discussing this within your supervision.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 05:12

That's certainly what I did when I was an aspiring psychologist because being supported is so important. But if you don't have that or if you do have that and you'd welcome additional support, then do consider coming on board to the Aspiring Psychologist membership because we've got so much going on, and people are finding it so useful. Lots of great feedback coming in after each and every session. So come on board, sign up to the waiting list to find out more about it and when places become available, I will be in touch. But yeah, it's a lovely thing to be part of.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 05:49

With that in mind, we're just going to break for a little advert break, and I will be back along very shortly with some more top tips for this application season.

Testimonial from Jess (: 05:58

I'm Jess, an assistant psychologist from Birmingham. The Aspiring Psychologist membership is the best step towards a clinical doctor that I've taken this year. Marianne's insight and knowledge is truly invaluable, and it's lovely having a friendly and supportive space aimed at people with the same goal. I feel that again a lot from the membership, it's absolutely worth every penny.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 06:38

Thank you so much for listening. Hope you found that helpful. Yeah, so there is the alternative handbook, which people find really useful. You can usually only access that if you are a BPS member, British Psychological Society. But what's really nice about the alternative handbook is that it gives you information about the courses from the people who are currently on them. So people are consulted. So it's the BPS that puts that together, but people on the courses are emailed once a year to ask for their feedback about what it really is like being on the course.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 07:51

And it is a useful read, but please bear in mind that because I wasn't a BPS member during my training that I was never sent a form once. So, I think it might tell you how many places are available on cohorts, but it might look like there's been not many responders. But it might be because they weren't BPS members. And so I would've absolutely been more than happy to give my feedback about my experiences during training, but I was never asked.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 08:24

So, bear in mind that you are only perhaps reading. It might have changed recently, it might have changed that it's open, but certainly when I was training it wasn't. I was not contacted at all. So bear in mind that you are reading the opinions of people who are paying members of the BPS. But out of that population, you are also reading the opinions of people who got their forms back to whoever was emailing them or contacting them. So yes, bear that in mind. It won't be all of the cohort.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 09:08

If you are a trainee psychologist and you have been contacted and you weren't a BPS member, please do let me know because it might be that it's changed. But like I said, all I can reflect on is that throughout the three years of training, I wasn't asked a single time to contribute. So, that certainly didn't come to me from my admin team, but it might be different on other admin teams. So yeah, I would love to fill in that gap in my knowledge. So please do contact me directly.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 09:42

I do respond to all my socials, so if you are wondering who it is, it's me, so LinkedIn. So yeah, I've got a virtual assistant who helps me on Instagram, but I respond to all the DMs. And I respond to the comments, so please do come and comment, Dr. Marianne Trent in most places. But LinkedIn, I'm on quite a lot. I do love celebrating with you for your wins and successes. So come and connect with me over on there.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 10:13

And whilst you're there, whilst you're talking about connecting and following and doing all good things, please do come and subscribe to my YouTube channel, Dr. Marianne Trent. And whilst you're there, click on a few videos, comment on some things, that would be really great. I'm still trying to get as many episodes as possible up onto my blog for goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk so that we can get these podcast episodes up on the blog. And if you prefer to read them or if some of them are quite long and you'd like to reflect back on them without listening, then we have probably about 10 of the 40 so far. But there are more coming.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 11:02

But I've been quite busy lately because I have been working every spare moment in the day on the imminently available Aspiring Psychologist Collective Book. And let me just tell you, it's going to be a great read. It's such a wonderful privilege to be part of so many of your journeys and to be trusted. And it's just really, really nice to see people reflecting on their journeys and just being able to see how people have grown and shaped, and talking about what's been important to them and how they've made sense of the world through the lens of an aspiring psychologist, through battles, through adversity, through challenges that might be linked to family circumstances, might be linked to physical health, mental health. Just the difficulty with trying to wade through so many people competing for the same goals.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 12:07

So yeah, do please come along. Follow me on my social, sign up to the mailing list because there are going to be exclusive competitions for people on my mailing lists who are helping out and buying copies of The Aspiring Psychologist Collective. So it pays to be on my mailing lists. There'll be a link in the show notes for that, how you can get yourself on that mailing list to be part of, to be first to be notified really about the publication, but also first to be there for being part of exclusive competition. So being on the mailing list.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 12:47

is my little way of giving back. Yes, so let me think about what else is useful, but I feel like I probably did also already say most of what I needed to say in episode 38, but then it didn't happen, did it? The applications didn't open, so I wanted to just create a little extra video just to pay lip service to that, so that it makes sense.

Dr Marianne Trent (: 13:16

Okay, so I think that will do for now. I'm going to switch on my TV, have some lunch, and see what King Charles has got to say about his new reign and the loss of his mother. So, however you are feeling right now, that's okay. If you're not that bothered, that's okay. If you are moved, that's okay too. Look after yourselves, be kind. Be kind to one another, be kind to yourselves. And thank you for being part of my world, and I'll look forward to catching up with you again very soon.

(: 13:49

(singing)