A trainee Educational Psychologist's journey- patience, perseverance and commitment pays off
Hello everyone
Here is another installment focusing on the excellent Applied psychology colleagues out there. Today we learn more about Annabel Stenning, trainee Educational Psychologist. She tells a story of perseverance, patience and commitment, all leading her closer to her goal to being a qualified Educational Psychologist.
Trainee Educational Psychologist, University College London
Annabel Stenning
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annabel-stenning-mbpss-457b43161
My voyage into Psychology actually began with my love of literature; as a teenager I really enjoyed reading and going to the theatre and English was always my favourite lesson. I liked how you could explore the perspectives of different characters, analyse their actions and understand their behaviours, emotions and experiences. I had a fantastic English GCSE teacher who taught us ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding and made links to infamous studies in Psychology such as Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment. It was then that I began to look into the subject of Psychology further.
The decision to study Psychology A level was a no brainer and I went on to study a BSc in Psychology at Loughborough University. As a part of my undergraduate degree I did a placement year and worked as an Assistant Psychologist. This involved being based in an outpatient clinic for adults with eating disorders two days a week, and in an inpatient unit for children and adolescents with mental health problems on the other two days. I had some very eye-opening experiences and learnt a huge amount from my two supervisors, one Counselling Psychologist and one Clinical Psychologist. Having these two experiences simultaneously made me appreciate how much more change and progress could be made with young people who are still growing and developing at a rapid rate. I soon realised my interests were in supporting children and young people over adults for the additional reason that being only 20 myself, I could understand and empathise with their experiences far more easily.
After graduating I was very interested in becoming a Clinical Psychologist but knowing how competitive getting onto doctorate training was I knew I would need lots of relevant experience before applying. After going travelling for a bit, I came home and threw myself in at the deep end taking a support worker role at another CAMHS (Child Adolescent Mental Health Service) unit, however this time in a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit. This was an intense experience to say the least and the children I met in that role made a huge impact on me and inspire me to this day. Again, my eyes were opened to the experiences of some children that were vastly different to my own and made me acutely aware of how fortunate my upbringing had been. In addition, being exposed to the severity of illness that these children were experiencing and working in such an acute setting began to affect my own health and I made the difficult decision to leave.
This was not an easy start into my life as a new graduate and I was left questioning my abilities and how much I wanted to pursue a career in Psychology. But I needed another job and I was still only really interested in working with children and young people. I ended up getting a job as a Learning Support Assistant at a local secondary school where I there was a significant number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). I am very grateful to the SENCo (Special Educational needs Co-ordinator) who interviewed me and could see that I was ambitious but inexperienced having never worked in a school before. I had worked with some children at CAMHS with SEND but as the predominant need was their mental health I didn’t feel I knew very much but was willing to learn. I supported children from years 7 to 11 with a wide variety of needs including Autism, speech, language and communication needs, and physical disabilities to access their lessons, exams and enjoy school as much as possible. As I had loved school, it felt quite natural to me to share my love of learning and be back in education.
This was the very first time I had ever really heard of an Educational Psychologist. As there were reports from Educational Psychologists (EPs) for some of the children I worked with I was intrigued by their work. I was also understanding so much more about the education system and felt like this was a setting where I could make a difference and support children and young people at an earlier stage with their social, and emotional mental health. This role was a huge turning point and I decided I wanted to see if this was the career path for me and decided to do a Masters in Psychology and Education at the University of Warwick.
Safe to say, the Masters was fantastic and having done a bit more work as a Teaching Assistant at a local secondary school I felt like this was the field where I belonged. During the start of the pandemic and after many failed applications to similar posts, I got offered a role as an Assistant Educational Psychologist back in my home county Buckinghamshire. This really was a taster of what it would be like to be a qualified Educational Psychologist as I could work alongside Educational Psychologists and be fully immersed in the realities and challenges of working in a Local Authority. After two amazing years in this role I was fortunate enough to be offered a place on two doctorate training courses on my second time applying.
I am currently half way through my first year of training at UCL and on placement in the London borough of Hackney. I still get to explore my interests in adolescent mental health and early intervention approaches as well as the wide range of other topics on the course – from working with youth offending services to supporting children in early years settings.
It’s already been ten years since the start of my Psychology journey and has required patience, resilience and a lot of hard work. But I truly feel I have found the role I am meant to do and this feels like only the beginning!
If you have any questions or would like advice about getting into Educational Psychology I would be happy to be contacted via LinkedIn.
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