ABSTRACT

This vital new book navigates the personal, professional and political selves on the journey to training in clinical psychology. Readers will be able to explore a range of ways to enrich their practice through a focus on identities and differences, relationships and power within organisations, supervisory contexts, therapeutic conventions and community approaches.

This book includes a rich exploration of how we make sense of personal experiences as practitioners, including chapters on self-formulation, personal therapy, and using services. Through critical discussion, practice examples, shared accounts and exercises, individuals are invited to reflect on a range of topical issues in clinical psychology. Voices often marginalised within the profession write side-by-side with those more established in the field, offering a unique perspective on the issues faced in navigating clinical training and the profession more broadly. In coming together, the authors of this book explore what clinical psychology can become.

Surviving Clinical Psychology invites those early on in their careers to link ‘the political’ to personal and professional development in a way that is creative, critical and values-based, and will be of interest to pre-qualified psychologists and researchers, and those mentoring early-career practitioners.

part I|66 pages

The context of clinical psychology

chapter Chapter 1|7 pages

What clinical psychology can become

An introduction

chapter Chapter 3|17 pages

Making the most of your supervision

Reflecting on selves in context

chapter Chapter 4|16 pages

Restorying the journey

Enriching practice before training

part II|52 pages

The personal

chapter Chapter 7|18 pages

Values in practice

Bringing social justice to our lives and work

chapter Chapter 8|12 pages

Reflections on the therapeutic journey

Opening up dialogues around personal therapy

chapter Chapter 9|4 pages

On the reconciliation of selves

Reflections on navigating professional domains

part III|69 pages

The professional

chapter Chapter 10|21 pages

‘Taking the plunge’

How reflecting on your personal and social GgRRAAAACCEEESSSS can tame your restraints and refresh your resources

chapter Chapter 11|23 pages

Self-formulation

Making sense of your own experiences

chapter Chapter 12|17 pages

Pebbles in palms

Sustaining practices through training

chapter Chapter 13|6 pages

Sustaining selfhood and embracing ‘selves’ in psychology

Risks, vulnerabilities and sustaining relationships

part IV|66 pages

The political

chapter Chapter 14|20 pages

Power in practice

Questioning psychiatric diagnosis

chapter Chapter 15|18 pages

Power in context

Working within different organisational cultures and settings

chapter Chapter 16|20 pages

It’s not just about therapy

Our ‘selves’ in our communities

chapter Chapter 17|6 pages

The personal weight of political practice

A conversation between trainees

part |5 pages

An ending [sic] 1 of sorts…

chapter |3 pages

Epilogue

“Just stop talking and start to dance”