Rejections as detours on my road to becoming an Educational Psychologist

Hello everyone and welcome to our next blog entry. Today we meet Dr Grace Molloy, an Educational and Child Psychologist. Through reading Grace's experience we see the very may choices she had to make to ensure she was on the right pathway to support children and families. it also speaks to her grit and determination to stay the course, despite plenty of setbacks. We hope Grace will inspire your own decision to pursuing a Psychology career.  

Dr Grace Molloy, Educational and Child Psychologist

This time of year makes me reflect on the (often long!) journey to becoming a Psychologist. That is because for several years, the start of the new year was usually associated with application preparation for the training programmes and the anticipation associated with waiting to hear back from a University. I remember the constant refreshing of my emails and the horrible feeling which would hit my stomach when I received, what felt like, yet another rejection. It always made me wonder about how contradictory it felt to be applying to a profession that prioritises wellbeing, yet the process itself was such an anxiety provoking experience! So, any of you at this stage right now, I feel you. But having come out the other side, all I can say to you is don’t give up. You will get there. Trust the process, as difficult as it may be to hear and accept– timing is everything. 

Looking back, I feel lucky in the sense that from a very early age I was interested in Psychology and curious about people, so the decision to study Psychology at undergrad was an easy one. However, I don’t think I was ever prepared for the realisation of how vast the field of Psychology is. But, like a lot of Psychology students I set my sights early on becoming a Clinical Psychologist. The idea of applying Psychology across the lifespan with such a focus on mental health really appealed to me at the time. Plus, I always imagined myself working in a clinical setting, somewhere like a hospital, so the Clinical Psychology route seemed to make sense. Although as you will see, over the years that changed slightly as I was exposed to different contexts. 

As I had not gained the necessary grades to study what I would call ‘pure Psychology’ back in Ireland, I did a combined arts degree of Sociology, Psychology and Political Studies. This was an interesting course but due to the combined nature, it meant that afterwards I had to do a masters conversion to be accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS). I did this as soon as my Undergraduate Degree ended, and if I am being honest I was only doing it because ‘I had to’. However, looking back, the knowledge and skills I gained from doing the Masters stood me in good stead so much during the Doctorate training years later. This is because the Masters provided me with the opportunity to develop my critical thinking and research skills as the thesis component was such a big part. It also provided me with a deep dive into a broader range of Psychology modules that I hadn’t had the chance to study during my Undergraduate degree. So, for these reasons, the Masters really provided me with so much more than ‘just’ a steppingstone to accreditation. 

From there, at the age of 22, I entered the ‘real’ working world where I quickly realised that getting a ‘lucky break’ into a Psychology based job was much harder than I had anticipated. I felt so frustrated reading applications for Assistant Psychology jobs which seemed to be telling me that my qualifications alone weren’t enough. It felt as if I needed experience to get experience. But where do I start to get this experience, without experience? It was a confusing time and at this point some people I knew from Psychology, ended up going down different non-related paths. However, I kept reminding myself of how much I still wanted to be a Psychologist. So, I decided I would take a year to work in my part time cinema job and get involved in relevant volunteering opportunities to hopefully gain this much needed experience. 

I started volunteering at a local Community Mental Health Day Centre for older adults. The premise of the centre was focused on the notion of social prescribing and I observed the positive effect it had on those who attended. During this time, I also trained and volunteered with ChildLine... all the while continuing to apply for Assistant Psychology jobs. Again, facing lots of rejection. 

However, through my work at the Adult Mental Health Day Centre, an opportunity arose to work as a Residential Care Worker for young people with a diagnosis of autism. Although, this was more of a social care role, the learning and experience I gained from the job was invaluable and I still draw on this experience now as an EP (Educational Psychologist). This experience also led me onto my first Assistant Psychologist job, working in a specialist school for children with Autism. It meant leaving my family and friends to move to England but that did not phase me as I was so excited to get started.  

It was at that school where I became more familiar with Educational Psychology and the role of an Educational Psychologist. I loved learning about how Psychology could be applied in this context and it started to shift my focus away from only thinking about Clinical Psychology to now considering the Educational Psychology route too. I worked closely with Speech and Language Therapist and Occupational Therapists and this is when I developed my understanding of the power of multi-disciplinary working and how beneficial it can be. 

I moved from that job to another job as an Assistant Psychologist in a service supporting looked after children (LAC) and adopted children and their families. It provided the experience I was looking for in relation to understanding and applying attachment theory and trauma informed approaches. I also had the opportunity to work alongside both Clinical- and Educational Psychologists. This provided me with the chance to think about the different roles and how they compare and contrast – something I would recommend to anyone in a similar predicament regarding Clin Psych or Ed Psych. 

I realised that as much as I enjoyed the clinic based work, I was most fulfilled when working in schools. I was inspired by the way that working within a school system could help to bring about positive change that could have a widespread impact on many children. This helped to solidify my thoughts that an EP is what I wanted to be and some of these reflections are what I brought to my application that year. And finally.. in April 2019, one (yes only one, there were still 2 rejections that year too) University invited me to interview and I was later accepted onto their EP training programme. 

I think though, perhaps like a lot of people, because the journey of getting onto training is so long, I almost forgot that I still had a 3 years of training ahead of me. And what a wonderful, yet  intense, 3 years it was. And just like that, I finished training this year in July 2022, as a much different practitioner and in many ways person than when I started 3 years previously. All for the better though and with 15 extra friends for life too. 

I thought I would have an ‘I completed it’ moment when I finished but the truth is that never came and nor would I want it to. Instead, I now realise that from the moment I decided I wanted to be a Psychologist I was signing up to a lifelong learning process, which is one of the best parts of the job. And with that in mind, I can finally fully appreciate and understand that all of those ‘rejections’ before weren’t rejections, they were just detours. Detours that all combined to help shape my experience, the Psychologist I am and the Psychologist I want to be.  So, I would encourage anyone on the long journey to training to try and hold onto that, trust the process. Every extra year of experience and every new job is an opportunity to enrich your learning and readiness to start the course. It will work out, exactly when it is meant to. 

Thank you Grace for sharing your journey to date, we envisage you inspire, help and guide many children and families in your role!

If you were inspired reading about Grace, and had your own journey to share, please get in touch.

The pathways team.