The new kid on the block - The Aspiring Psychologist Collective Book - must read for aspiring psychologists

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Hi. Welcome along to The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast. I am Dr. Marianne Trent and thank you for listening or if you are on YouTube, thank you for watching. So today is episode 44 and it was supposed to be episode 43, which would've been rather magic except for life doesn't always run smoothly. So why it would've been super duper magic to have today be episode 43 is because The Aspiring Psychologist Collective Book is now available and that includes 43 individual personal accounts and reflections from aspiring psychologists.

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So it's like it was meant to be. It would've been a happy accident. But actually we do have more than 43 accounts in there because one of the contributors asked loads of people in her department to also write little snippet accounts and top tips and advice as well. So we've got loads more than 43 in there. But yes, a new baby has been born, The Aspiring Psychologist Collective and I'm so excited and so pleased that it's been here and it's not been an easy process.

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So if you are watching on YouTube, you might be like, "Marianne looks a bit rough today." I've got a bit of a cold. I was definitely squeezing my schedule more than I usually would, which meant less sleep, less recharge time. And I think as a result, my children's lurgies, which always kind of float around the edge having young children, have finally come and snuffled me. So I would hope that I'm on the way up out of it now. But as I said that, I had like a little bit of a sneeze in the back of my nose. I'm hoping I'm well and truly on the mend and by tomorrow I can be my usual perky, slightly irritating self.

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Yeah, so I've cancelled personal training this week just because I think that's maybe not the kindest thing I could be doing to myself when I'm not feeling well. So a bit of rest and recharge, some time to record podcasts and edit podcasts and look after myself. So let me tell you a little bit about this wonderful book and the people within it.

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So if you've previously caught the Clinical Psychologist Collective Book and you enjoyed it, then I'm going to say a hundred percent guaranteed that you are going to also enjoy the Aspiring Psychologist Collective. If you've never heard of either, then I'll just give you a little bit of background about what the books are and specifically what this new book is. So both books, in fact, the Grief Collective Book as well, are what's called autoethnographies. So they are people's words, reflective accounts, talking about their own life experiences and things they've experienced along the way.

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They are wonderful to read if you are looking to improve your own skills as an aspiring psychologist in reflection and in thinking about your own story and how you've grown over time. They're also really, really good for giving you ideas about how you could approach your career in a way that might help you get your foot in the door or get where you want to be or have ideas about jobs or roles to apply for. So that's certainly feedback that I've had about things that people have really enjoyed about the Clinical Psychologist Collective Book.

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But I recognised that getting on training, when you read the Clinical Psychologist Collective, getting on training feels like it's then inevitable because even though it was tricky, everybody managed it. And so I wanted to just introduce you to a stage before that. So within The Aspiring Psychologist Collective, spoiler alert, there are some trainees or now trainees that probably weren't trainees when they wrote their accounts because they got on to training during this most recent season. But there are also people who are yet to apply for professional psychology routes. There are also people who did apply and weren't successful and found out quite close to the wire that they weren't being offered places.

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And so it's kind of like a rollercoaster real life ride through professional psychology, not just clinical psychology, but I would say probably 95% is clinical psychology. So there's some PhD in there and some educational psychology. I don't think we've got any counselling or forensic that I can think about. I feel like I know the stories quite well and I don't think we've got that in the stories unless it's one of the ones that was submitted quite early and I therefore signed off on a long time ago. So I'm sorry if you're listening to this and you're like, "I am. I'm in it and she didn't mention me." I'm really sorry, but trying to juggle 43 stories as well as all of the publishing demands has been tricky.

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But yeah, so grateful for everybody who is within the Aspiring Psychologist Collective and they will all be getting a contributor copy as well. But you can now grab your copy. There's a link in the show notes for how to do that and it's via Amazon. But yeah, check the show notes or check any details on my social media for a direct link to the right book.

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So let's have a little bit of a think about some of the themes in the book. So one of the themes is most definitely self-care and reducing burnout and also with a lovely sprinkling of compassion in there too. We've got a forward in this book for the first time ever by Dr. Chris Irons, who's also a clinical psychologist and writes lots of lovely books on self-compassion and compassion focused therapy and the benefits for ourselves and our clients about introducing that into our world. So thank you very much, Chris. I will be sending you a copy to say a big thank you as well.

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But yeah, the idea of other aspiring psychologists almost talking to you in many cases in their accounts about how to remain compassionate to yourself and how to not burn out on the way to where you want to be is absolutely running throughout the stories within all of the collective I would say. It kind of feels like soul food for psychologists I think. It's not your average book. It's not a textbook. It's just a really nice connected experience where you feel like part of the process and you are rooting for people in their own journeys as well. So that's theme one I would say.

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Theme two is that people have been really honest about their own impact and their own mental health journeys along the way, either as a result of stresses and strains at the job or due to non-job related things as well. So I know often I get asked questions, "Should I disclose about any mental health history that I've had?" And this kind of book will give you really useful insights for how people are thinking about it and talking about it and how they're actually quite proud about their experiences in the sense they've made of it and how in fact all of this reflecting and all of this growth and change and difficulties they've had along the way makes them a better psychologist and not a worse one.

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So if you are looking for top tips about how to think about that for your own professional psychology career, then I'd say this book is going to be especially wonderful for you too. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you will know that I love a jingle. So it's no surprise that I also have a jingle for the new book baby. So let you be the very first people to hear it and I will catch up with you on the other side of that. I hope you enjoy it.

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Oh my days. If you didn't find that rousing, are you even breathing? Jingle Guy, you're just so talented. Like, oh, just love it. The first version of that was also marvellous, but I was like Paul, because that's his name, I love it and I love Christmas as much as the next person and I love sleigh bells, but I think the sleigh bells might make it sound a little bit too Christmasy. And this book, this book baby, is a book for all seasons. It's not just a book for the winter Christmas season. So could we maybe not have the Christmasy one? But maybe I should do the Christmasy one around Christmas so you can hear this sleigh bell version. So perhaps I'll have ended up getting two jingles for the price of one. I'll have to give you a bit more money, Paul. But yeah, I love that. I just imagine you in your kitchens or your showers or out walking your dogs just yeah, being uplifted and energised. So yeah, I really like that.

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The Clinical Psychologist Collective Book is, it's a bit more mellowy isn't it? But this one is like, "Yeah guys, we've got it. We are on it. We are on this mission." So yeah, absolutely thrilled with that and hope you like it. Feedback about jingles is gratefully received. You may have noticed there's no audio testimonials yet because this book baby is so brand new that we don't have any. However, however, there is your chance to feature in audio testimonials, but also help yourself at the same time.

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So there's going to be information in the show notes about how you, yes you, can leave me an audio testimonial. So what is going to be happening is we've got a little competition running. Until midnight on Halloween 2022, so the 31st of October, 2022, so as not to exclude people that have bought the Clinical Psychologist Collective Book recently. If you have bought either book between the 1st of September and then midnight, 31st of October, 2022, and you send me your unique proof of purchase, so please don't use someone else's, your unique proof of purchase for either or both books, you can get an entry to win a one-to-one coaching session with me. And the coaching sessions will be happening on the first, second or 3rd of November.

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So if you can't do that day, you might want to think about perhaps not entering, but we could do daytime or we could do evening one of those days. So yeah, you can get your chance to then talk with me about your psychology career and if you've got a professional psychology application, we can use that time together to go through that together to think about really strengthening it and making it to have more bang for your buck.

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But if you're not applying this year, we can use that session to really think about professional skills and your next step, or if you are qualified already and you'd welcome using that session for professional coaching, for thinking about your way forward for stuff that might not just be one to one therapy, then please do submit your proof of purchase as well.

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But because we were speaking about audio testimonials, you can also get a bonus point by recording me an audio testimonial for either book. And there's a way you can do that that I will drop in the show notes and also pop out with my socials as well. Yes, because it's great to be able to demonstrate real readers and what they think to the book. So please do take a moment to do that.

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And when you submit your testimonial, if it's usable, no swearing in it and it's audible, et cetera, then I will give you a bonus point, a bonus entry into that prize draw. And if you want to do one for both books, you can get two bonus entries. And then last but not least, if you leave me a verified purchase review for either or both books, you can also get bonus points, bonus entries. So here's your chance to get one, two, three, four, five, potentially six entries to get a one-to-one with me. If you only wanted one book, then you can just do that related to one book.

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But if you've already read the Clinical Psychologist Collective and would like to leave me a testimonial for that, please do that as well because it's really lovely to be able to demonstrate people love it. People are really, really benefiting from the content within that. So yes, please do, please do do that.

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All right, so let's get back onto some of the themes for the new book, The Aspiring Psychologist Collective. Just looking at my list there, because I did write myself a little prompt list this time because I do usually freestyle for these episodes, but the old brains aren't working so well right now because they're just being a bit sleep deprived and a little bit muggy headed.

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Okay, so another theme which has developed really wonderfully within the APC, as we've been calling it when we've been publishing, The Aspiring Psychologist Collective, is that people are offering their top tips to you throughout. And that's just really, really great ways that you can think, "Oh yeah, I could totally do that. That's a bit of me. Yeah, that really resonates with me." So yeah, dive on in and discover those top tips for yourself.

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When I was growing up, I was always taught we mustn't draw in books, Marianne, that's very bad, very bad behaviour. But there are some books that I have bent the rules for over my time and I've got highlighters out and I've added little sticky memos to pages that I knew I'd want to come back for. And I would definitely say that this book, The Aspiring Psychologist Collective, is a kind of book that you can bend the rules for, you can get your highlighters out and you can stick stickers in and help this be really bespoke to you. And you can write in it bits that resonate with you or spark ideas so that this becomes almost your own personal reflections as well as that of the contributors as well.

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And another theme is collaboration. It really feels like a collaborative effort. And I know when I was an aspiring psychologist, it very much felt like it was each man or each woman for themselves. And I think that it feels different to that these days. It feels like people really want you to succeed as well. They don't want to keep all these secrets to themselves. And by the very nature of all of the free content I've been producing with this podcast, with the Q and A's, and with the feedback that I've been getting from people as well, is just how refreshing it is to have this content put out there by a qualified psychologist, someone that's giving such useful, tangible, actionable advice and is demonstrating that this stuff is working.

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It's working for people within my world, it's working for people. People are watching the Q and A's, they're trying my tips and then they're messaging me to say, "Oh, that was really helpful, that really worked. I really got some good stuff there." So please, if you are enjoying what I'm doing, do consider leaving me a review on Apple Podcasts would be wonderful. So if you click on library, which is at the bottom of your podcast app, and then click on shows, hopefully you are following me already, then click on The Aspiring Psychologist Collective and then scroll down a little bit where it says episodes. And then currently at the bottom of episode 36, but it would depend when you are watching this is one that says trailer. And then below trailer you've got ratings and reviews. So if you've got just one moment, just click, hopefully five star review would be great.

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But if you've got a little while longer, just click the see all, you can't really see. Click the see all next to ratings and reviews and then the option there is write a review. So that would be really, really wonderful. I've had one most recently given me today, not today, Tuesday. So I haven't seen this one yet. So this is breaking news. Let me read this to you. "Thank you Marianne for sharing and recording these podcasts. They're an excellent resource full of helpful, compassionate, and insightful experiences and reflections which are useful when we're navigating the twisty world of clinical psychology. These topics are core to working in the field of psychology and highlight the importance of self compassion along your journey in and outside of psychology." I love that. Thank you so much.

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So yes, the ratings and reviews really help us to demonstrate that what we're doing is useful and then when shows have more ratings and reviews, they get shown more readily to other people. So they help us further that collaborative nature. So if you don't want to buy anything, if you don't want to leave me any reviews, please at least follow or subscribe because that helps me know that you are valuing what you are getting from us.

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So yeah, the themes of the book are just wonderful. And this time we have pictures and things in the book as well. So not photographs as such, but just different kind of infographics, different things to read, just to break up the text a bit and to kind of, yeah, help it feel like a really nice read. And it's yet to be finalised, but the plan is the hard back is going to be available in full colour as well. It was on my to-do list to get that sorted, but I don't feel very well. So this week it's been a little bit different than what was expected, but yes, within the book there is also an exclusive download for you for thinking about how to really understand the [inaudible 00:22:16] application season, giving you top tips as well.

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So yeah, grab your copy, come on in. Don't forget about that contest, that competition, which is closing midnight on Halloween, 31st of October. Please do come along and join us in the Facebook group as well, which is The Aspiring Psychologist Collective. That group is building nicely. We only launched that probably a month or so ago. But yeah, come on over, be part of my world. Also, please let me know what you'd like next, what would be useful for you in the podcast.

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I aim for this to be really useful stuff for you. So yes, it's here. It's my next book baby, and it's the one that I think I am proudest of yet, just because it's really lovely, really lovely. And I think it's that, that's me on the back on a good hair day. It's that collaborative nature, which feels so useful. And I think because if you are reading this as an aspiring psychologist or an aspiring mental health professional, it's just going to be talking to you where you are at right now. And so it's going to be wonderfully validating and normalising and nourishing.

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So I hope you really enjoy it. I can't wait. And also I'm a little bit nervous to see what people think of it. I hope that you really like it as much as I do and as much as my proofreader has done as well. Be kind and yeah, let me know what you think. But yes, until then, until I hear from you, I will look forward to catching up with you on our next episode, which is going to be landing with you 6:00 AM on Monday. But yeah, thank you very much. Enjoy this exit jingle. And yeah, if you want to listen back to the rousing Aspiring Psychologist Collective jingle, please do. But yeah, catch up with you soon. Thank you so much for being part of my world. Bye.

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