The role of faith and perseverance: becoming an Educational- and Child Psychologist
Hi everyone
We have the pleasure of a second blog post this month. Dr Selone Ajewole shares her reflections on the journey to becoming an Educational and Child Psychologist. Selone speaks about the role of faith and perseverance through challenging times, and draws on her own experiences to inform her practice and guide any future plans.
Hello all
My name is Dr Selone Ajewole and I work as an Educational and Child Psychologist for a local authority in London as well as an Integrative Psychotherapist in private practice.
My journey to this stage has been anything but linear, involving peaks and troughs still ultimately all leading me to the actualisation of these two roles of servitude.
After growing up in a community deprived of examples of academic excellence or “good success” I was sent to a predominantly White affluent secondary school in the hopes that it would change the potentially mediocre trajectory of my life. Unfortunately my secondary school experience was rife with overt and covert racism and discrimination from both staff and students. Even still, I was able to secure 9 very good A-C GCSE grades. In moving to a more multi-cultural sixth form college where difference didn’t warrant differential treatment, I applied myself diligently and attained 3 excellent A-Level grades (Psychology A, Sociology A and Performing Arts B). With this achievement my application to University College London to study a BSc in Psychology was accepted. These 3 years of my life as the only Black individual in a sizeable and middle class cohort were difficult to manage. Even so I persevered and achieved a 2:1. Before the end of the degree I would overhear conversations from upper class students who had perfectly mapped out their career paths discussing the competitive nature of applying for the Clinical or Educational Psychology Doctorate. I believe I subconsciously let such thoughts embed themselves and did not consider further study at this point, opting to experience the real world of work with no clear idea on where this Psychology degree could take someone like me.
After completing my degree this lack of direction meant that I spent a year as an Administrator, frustrated that I was photocopying paper, making tea for directors or filing documents rather than applying psychological knowledge to understand or problem solve. With what felt to be limited options, I moved into Welfare to Work, supposedly helping the unemployed back into the labour market by working through their barriers to employment. Spending more time on barrier management rather than shoving them into an unsuitable role as many of my colleagues did, I struggled to keep up with the targets and refused to see these people as a £6,000 briefcase (company payment for work placement) as our Head of Service advised. Being drawn more to the supportive side of this role enabled me to move into a Pastoral Support role in a Secondary School. The young people I worked with had various needs I knew only a little about as I did not yet have a firm grounding in Special Educational Needs, especially those pertaining to mental health.
Whilst spending 9 years within Welfare to Work and Education, my husband, who was previously saved from a near death experience, felt a call from God to start a church. As the Pastor’s wife I would often find that congregants frequently dropped their burdens at my feet, expecting me to be able to contain and move them forward. My husband and I then began to discuss the importance of sound and professional mental health counselling within the church and although I pledged I would never study again due to the many costly academic experiences to date, I began to search for an MSc in Counselling.
In being rejected from one university, due to a lack of experience, though accepted by another, I made plans to begin my studies that September. It seemed however that God had other another idea, blessing us with an unexpected second pregnancy. Seeing as I did not wish to waste the year (and took on the feedback from the University that did not offer me a place), I decided to undertake a year long, once a week Counselling Skills course, at Interpsyche in Kent. This firmly helped me understand that counselling was different from the advice and guidance field I had spent many years in. This course taught that counselling involved meeting people where they are at, and like Rogers (1980), without judgement, believing that they already had the answer and could figure things out in the presence of an understanding other. I then reapplied for the three year MSc in Therapeutic Counselling for the following year at the University of Greenwich (the university that initially declined to offer me a space) and was accepted. Throughout this course I was trained in the main schools of thought (Humanistic, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Psychodynamic) and also experienced personal therapy for 1 year to gain an understanding of how powerful the therapeutic relationship can be, especially as a person of colour for which culturally speaking, counselling can be taboo.
Although some candidates opted to finish this course at year 2 with a post-graduate diploma, I was determined (along with only 7 out of an initial 28 class members) to complete the course to MSc level. At my MSc graduation however, I remember looking at the front row at 3 ladies who had completed a Doctorate, feeling momentarily underwhelmed by my achievement (comparison is the joy stealer) and somewhat inspired to “one day” achieve similar.
After qualifying as an Integrative Psychotherapist I worked for the church as the Lead Psychotherapist, meeting the needs of the local community and eventually moved to online private practice during the pandemic. Whilst undertaking the community work, I was privileged to support a number of teens with additional needs, which again at this stage I had little understanding about, and was curious about how this impacted their way of being in different environments. Simultaneously I met 2 Black American individuals who were studying in London, both completing Doctorates in Education. I was again inspired to actualise this far off dream seeing as I hadn’t met many Black people who had studied to Doctorate level. By this stage my husband and I had been blessed with a third child who was only 1 year old at the time of application. Although I did not have extensive experience of working with children with Special Educational Needs, or as an Assistant Psychologist, and later found out that people are known to apply for this course for 5 years in a row without success, I know I was blessed by God to be accepted on the first attempt. I began my Professional Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology at the University of East London in 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic. Whilst much of our teaching and learning in year 1/2 occurred online whilst homeschooling our children, I was able to make good progress. I developed a hard work ethic which involved waking at 3am every morning, including weekends, to study before seeing a Psychotherapy client online at 6am on weekdays, and readying the children for school. Even though this was a very demanding process to undertake, I was sustained through prayer, discipline, a supportive husband and the idea that studying to Doctoral level was an important example I needed to set for our 3 Black sons whom the world often deems incapable of academic success.
In my final year I chose a thesis topic that was deeply meaningful for me, opting to explore the lived experiences of Black young people who attend a predominantly White school. Being that my University ethos encourages using our position to ensure social justice for those without a voice, the recommendations from the study enabled the creation and dissemination of a Cultural Sensitivity Conceptual Framework for schools to improve conditions for Black pupils.
At present I have begun working as an Educational and Child Psychologist for a local authority helping to reframe special needs children as “differently abled” rather than “not normal”. As a firm believer in Jesus Christ, I am certain that He directed my path into both fields in order to be present and advocate for marginalised members of society like myself.
Future plans include praying on how God would like me to use these qualifications to help those in need on a larger and more impactful scale.
As you journey to greatness, whilst the road may go up and down, hold on, better is coming.
I have attached some psychological and psychotherapeutic resources which may be of interest:
My doctoral research summary:
A Psychotherapy and faith book I penned for those in search of peace:
A podcast outlining cultural myths about counselling from a Black psychotherapist perspective:
My Psychotherapy website:
Feel free to message me on Linked In should you require any further information.
Kindest regards
Selone Ajewole
Thank you Selone for sharing such a reflective blog about your challenges and successes. I am certain you will be seen as an inspiration by very many aspirant Psychologists and Psychological Practitioners alike.
Please get in touch if you wish to add your own entry to our blog. We aim to inspire all future practitioners, considering a career in Psychology and its related fields.
Kind regards,
The Pathways Team.
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