Working with diversity across the lifespan: a Counselling Psychologist's experience

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Dr Jaspreet Tehara talks of his journey in pursuing a career as a Counselling Psychologist. Along the way he speaks of his inspirations and also the amount of focus, determination and effort which have brought him a number of diverse roles working with clients across the lifespan, from a variety of backgrounds and heritages, and with various mental health needs. Dr Thehara also reflects on his own culture and heritage in shaping and informing his decisions related to his study and most importantly his Doctorate research thesis. Working within private practice and the NHS, Dr Tehara exemplifies the tenacity to remain resilient despite many twists and turns a career in Psychology may present with, and the skill set needed to flourish despite setbacks. We hope you will find reading Dr Tehara's blog entry inspirational.

I don’t really know where to begin or how formally I need to address you as a reader, so I’ll start off by thanking you for reading this blog. 

I embarked upon the Doctoral training to become a Counselling Psychologist in September 2014 and completed my studies in March 2020 just before the first lockdown. This is not the typical amount of time it takes to complete your PsychD, but due to personal circumstances I paused my studies for a year so it took a little longer than expected. 

Prior to embarking on the Counselling Psychology doctorate at the University of Roehampton, I graduated as an undergraduate with a 2:1 Hons in Psychology from Roehampton in 2010. Following the repercussions of the financial crisis in 2008, this was quite a difficult period to establish as someone entering the workforce and despite repeated attempts to gain access to an Assistant Psychologist post within the NHS, I was unsuccessful over a four-year period – I recall applying for approximately forty roles and received one interview in that time. 

I remember I was quite despondent coming towards the end of that experience having read numerous articles and publications on how to become a clinical psychologist and the breakdowns in data around the way people entered the field of clinical psychology, the demographics of who was typically chosen and how to enter if you’re offered honorary (non-paying) posts.

I found myself working firstly with looked-after children in a semi-independent living facility, followed by a role with Rethink Mental Illness in their BME services, and then within the NHS as a support worker in a Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team (CHRTT). In the early part of 2014, I had a conversation with one of my Consultant Psychiatrists, who took me to lunch one day following a home visit, and he asked me what I wanted from my career development – to which I spoke at length about how I wanted to be a Therapist or Psychologist. 

I wanted to work in the field of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and I was getting to the point where I thought that wouldn’t be possible due to the length of time it was taking to break into the field – I had started looking for graduate roles in marketing. We discussed Clinical Psychology and Counselling Psychology – which was an orientation I had no idea existed at that point and through subsequent research I found my alma mater, Roehampton, ran a BPS Accredited Counselling Psychology Doctoral degree. 

Concomitantly I was in discussion with my NHS trust about secondment roles and training as a CPN, however due to the geographic location of my role I was informed that I wouldn’t be able to apply for a secondment role unless I moved to another team in the trust. 

The decision to embark on the research degree was a calculated risk and I discussed this with my partner, and we decided together that this would be an opportunity to either take now (2014) or take in the long-term future as we had recently married and were beginning to settle as a couple. So, I bit the bullet and sent off the application and began the process to study. 

That’s a lot to disclose, I understand, but there is a lot of information in there about the landscape of the field at the time, biases, interviews, coming from a first-generation graduate background and having no mentoring opportunities, networking opportunities, and the peripheral decisions needed to be thought about before embarking on the self-funded route in to being a practitioner psychologist. A lot has changed in the last five years, especially in relation to the mentoring schemes and the drive to get a more diverse population into Practitioner Psychologist roles either through the paid or self-funded routes.

This was also one part of a multifaceted series of decisions around proceeding in a role as a Counselling Psychologist as the orientation of Counselling and Psychotherapy was a massive draw. Working in clinical practice was ideally where I wanted to be, and in the classical sense, working in 1:1, 2:1 (couples) and Group Psychotherapy were where I started to feel more “alive,” in my professional identity and essence. I wanted to dedicate time to studying the philosophies of different theoretical orientations and their underpinnings as well as looking towards experiencing human interactions in ways that developed growth for the benefit of my patients, often in mid-to-longer term therapeutic relationships. In that way, Counselling Psychology held far more of an appeal to me. 

Following successful application and interview with University of Roehampton I embarked upon three years of taught study, followed by a year of completing the doctoral research element, and then some further time waiting to complete the Viva Voce. (In total, this took approx. five years). The course was vibrant and engaging, yet completely terrifying in the same instance. There was a lot of information to process as well as lived experience to gain. 

Year One was focussed on Humanistic and Existential perspectives in clinical practice, Diversity, and Research Ethics. Concomitantly, we also were in an Experiential Group therapy on campus for a year, in order to offer us the embodied learning of what it meant to be in a group therapy. We engaged in reflective practice through this group therapy and our own personal therapy, which was a course requirement for 105 hours over three years.Year two was focussed on building from the previous knowledges, Psychodynamic theory and perspectives, Assessment and Diagnosis and preparation of literature for the research project. Year three was focussed on CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) theory and perspectives, your final year case study and the research project itself. 

Concomitant to the academic elements, we were also on placement and working clinically with patients. The expectation outlined was 70 contact hours in yr 1, and 380 in years 2 and 3 total (450 hours overall), with a supervisory ratio of 1:5 hours, as well as peer supervision and additional group supervision in placement. If I recall correctly, I ended the academic time with 540 clinical hours in total due to the nature of my placements, which were both in the NHS (NELFT NHS) and for North Kent MIND. 

Following completion of the academic elements, I paused for a year to complete my thesis and prepare it for Viva. During the second year, I chose a topic that was close to my heart and embarked on a research thesis that looked to explore the experiences of second and third generation men who identified as Bisexual from South Asian backgrounds. I spent time understanding Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis as a research methodology from a Critical Realist perspective, and really engaged with the data analysis in a way that I have never experienced previously. During this time, I studied and dedicated hours to understanding perspectives on sexuality, gender and masculinities from South Asian perspectives, intersecting through cultural and religious lenses across history, as well as all of the research data that I could find around Bisexuality from western academia and practice. I also spent time exploring and thinking about what it meant to be a second-generation minority ethnic person in the United Kingdom and what this meant in terms of the various identities that were held by the people I was fortunate enough to interview. 

During the academic pause year, I also completed the BACP Certificate of Proficiency and opened up a private psychotherapy practice with my own office and began to engage in all of the business side of running a private practice. Setting up an office, décor, advertising SEO and registering with the ICO, creating my assessment documentation, finding a supervisor – all of the things needed to fly solo. This was very exciting and offered me an opportunity to get engaged with everything I had been studying to date as a solo practitioner rather than as a trainee. 

As the thesis went to submission (Sept 2019) and Viva (March 2020), I applied for a role with NHFT NHS Trust as part of their joint strategy with the Offender Personality Disorder pathway, working with 18-24 yr old young men in the Establishment setting who had been screened as having an emerging personality issue (Anti-social personalities, Narcissistic personalities, Dissociative personalities and Borderline personalities) and began working with them; however, this was interrupted quite violently due to the pandemic; Lots of time was spent working through the interruption to service and the ways in which it disrupted therapeutic work, care and interactions with young men with already highly disorganised attachment patterns. During this time, I also guest lectured at the University of Coventry as part of their Forensic Psychology programme.

During the pandemic, I maintained the therapeutic interactions I had been having with my private practice and shifted to working entirely online – which meant closure of the physical space that had been created as an office; a process I am occasionally still mourning. This also included having premature endings with patients who were not able to work online due to issues of confidentiality, ethics, registration and the nature of the lockdown process. I may soon open another office, but the last two years have been a consistent state of flux and movement (understandably so for many people) and I am presently in a space where this may not be for the best. I think back to CFT perspectives (Compassion Focused Therapy) and wonder how much of this is desire to activate my drive system when really, all that is needed is some soothing. 

Subsequently, I have moved to a different service within the same NHS Trust and am now practicing as a Senior Counselling Psychologist under the Dementia and Older Persons Psychology Service (DOPPS) as part of the Older Adults CMHT. I am fortunate enough to have a caseload of five face to face patients, run a group intervention, conduct Extended Cognitive Assessment (ECA) for those with suspected memory issues or dementia, and hold supervisory responsibility for Trainees and Assistant Psychologists who are part of the DOPPS service. I am part of a cohort of Senior Psychologists across the trust that are tasked with the development of various pathways for Older Persons psychological care, and we are currently in the process of developing the Structured Clinical Management (SCM) pathway for patients with Borderline personality issues, a Bipolar pathway for patients with BPAD I / II and a Psychosis pathway for those patients with Psychosis and Schizophrenia. I am also working across the county with various Third Sector services on an Equity of Access project designed to engage with Older Persons from minority ethnic backgrounds that could be screened into the Older Persons CMHT (Community Mental Health Team) for Psychological input or Memory Assessment Service (MAS) for assessment of Memory / Dementia.

If you have anything you wish to discuss you can email me on: contact@jaspreettehara.org 

We hope learning a bit more about Dr Tehara can offer you inspiration and suggestions to pursue your own journey as a Practitioner Psychologist. Maybe learning about the field of Counselling Psychology specifically, has spurred you on to find out more. Each individual's journey is different, filled with choices, and a need to navigate a long period of training and practice, to carve out a rewarding career. Dr Tehara made mention of some useful books and websites in his blog, however we would encourage visiting your local library as a good place to start, to find some of these resources.

Take a moment to consider who inspired your own journey, and get in contact if you would like to write an entry for the blog, we would love to hear from you!

With kindness,

The Pathways team.