Role: Consultant Clinical Psychologist for Staff Wellbeing
Company: Northern Health and Social Care Trust
Track Record: Clinical psychologist Emma Carroll uses her own past experiences to help others.
Give a brief outline of your career to date.
I qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 2010 and my first post was in Belfast Trust Adult Health Service. Within this post, I began providing input into the Occupational Health Service, supporting the psychological well-being of staff. I was struck by how the approaches we used to help patients of the health service also had relevance with staff. I later moved into a Specialist post working across these two services and increasingly bringing approaches such as mindfulness, acceptance and compassion focused therapies into the work I did with staff.
In February 2017, I started working in the Northern Trust, as Consultant Clinical Psychologist for Staff Wellbeing, the first post of its kind in Northern Ireland.
What was your favourite subject at school?
I loved English – I have a thing for words and stories about people!
Did you go on to further/higher education, if so what did you study and where?
I completed a BSc (Hons) in Social Psychology at University of Ulster, Coleraine and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Bangor University, Wales. I also trained as a mindfulness teacher with Bangor CMRP.
How did you get into your area of work?
I worked as a Behaviour Support Worker for children with learning disabilities; and as an Assistant Psychologist in an Addictions Service and a Community Brain Injury Service before beginning clinical training. Becoming a Clinical Psychologist was a process of gaining a broad range of relevant experience alongside a process of personal development. Moving into staff wellbeing has sprung from a combination of my experiences, interests and opportunities.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
It was having had my own mental health difficulties and working through them that first made me think about becoming a clinical psychologist. I wanted to help other people help themselves. I remember feeling this was something that might be seen as a weakness and that I would need to keep hidden.
Maybe it is from the safety of distance and having obtained the qualification it is easier to speak about but this is something I remember clearly, remain aware of and still want to help people with.
As a health professional there can be a very real sense of unease, maybe even shame attached to struggling emotionally. At the same time we are all human and put under enough pressure, we can all struggle.
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
All of the above. I have never completed a qualification that I didn’t need to do!
Are there alternative routes into the job?
Most people will have a degree in psychology and spend time building up experience in an area of health care working alongside a Clinical Psychologist before applying for a place on a Doctoral Programme.
Some may have a degree in another area of health care and complete an MSc in applied psychology to be eligible for Doctoral training.
What are the main personal skills your job requires?
The ability to connect with people at a personal level and helping them to feel heard, understood, and valued as a person is essential.
You need to develop your own self-awareness and be willing to invest effort in looking after your own wellbeing. A good sense of humour is always helpful.
What does a typical day entail?
This post is unique in Northern Ireland at the moment as it adopts an organisational and pro-active approach to staff wellbeing, alongside the traditional approach of supporting in a responsive nature to staff already having difficulties.
I work across a spectrum moving from preventative to restorative input at an individual and organisational level and through existing systems including the Occupational Health Service and the Organisation Development team, sitting within HR. I also have partnerships with the psychology department.
A typical day could involve running a workshop or a therapeutic group to staff experiencing stress, offering training or supervision, providing input to teams or working with an individual experiencing significant distress because of a work-related issue.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
One of the best things about the job is that it brings an opportunity to be creative, and draw from a broad range of models and theories in developing initiatives. I am learning to think on a whole new level about how psychology can be of benefit at an organisational as well as an individual level.
The challenges comes as service is in its infancy, so everything needs to be thought through for the first time. Another challenge is finding the balance between raising awareness of the service while setting realistic expectations to avoid the potential risk of becoming unfocused, ineffective or overwhelmed. This is where I find myself practising what I preach and drawing from mindfulness or acceptance and commitment therapy as my own wellbeing resources.
Why is what you do important?
Health and Social Care staff work incredibly hard, above and beyond what is asked of them, under huge pressures to provide essential services.
They do this in the context of staff shortages, financial cuts, and uncertainty about the future.
Staff are exposed to significant levels of stress and distress on a daily basis, sometimes able to make a difference and sometimes not. We often forget or neglect to take care of ourselves, and have unrealistic expectations about our ability to cope with things. This in itself is a vulnerability factor and the risks of burnout are huge.
This role is a fantastic opportunity to encourage staff to remember themselves in the midst of caring for others.
I want to make it a bit easier for people to recognise and respond to their vulnerabilities without feeling that it prevents them from having a worthwhile contribution to make. It also makes me happy to think that in helping a member of staff, this has the potential to have benefits not only for them but for the people that they also support.
What advice would you give anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
It can take time to move through the different stages, so try not to let the pursuit of a career interfere with making the most of other areas of your life. It’s all relevant and it all matters. No matter how important your career is to you, your job is something that you do, not who you are.
What is the one piece of advice you would give to yourself on your first day?
There will never be less expected of you than on day one; so smile, take in what you can and find out what the tea/coffee situation is.
And finally, what’s the key to any successful job search?
Apply for anything you feel interested in and eligible for. Think about what makes you want this job and why you would be the best person for it. Be genuine.
Apparently, the most successful people are the ones who play to their own strengths rather than trying to be someone they think they should be.
Remember that it’s all learning and if you don’t get the job, get feedback. Dust yourself off and try again.