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A lot of us think about career transitions and career changes during our working lives and especially towards the end and start of a new year. We consider what we want for the year ahead, where we want to be and what changes we want to make to our careers. This isn’t unique to psychology careers because everyone considers changes. Yet career changes are scary, intimidating and this fear can stop us from taking good opportunities and exploring what the job market has to offer us. Therefore, in this business psychology podcast episode, you’ll understand why is career change scary, what are the benefits of career transitioning with others and why social groups are critical during career changes. If you enjoy learning about careers, organisational psychology and social psychology, then you’ll love today’s episode. Today’s psychology podcast has been sponsored by Careers In Psychology: A Guide To Careers in Clinical Psychology, Forensic Psychology and More . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Brief Introduction To Career Changes I haven’t met a single person who hasn’t transitioned or changed career at some point in their life. My mum was a dental nurse for a few years and she loved it, then she changed her career when the rules changed and she’s been working in insurance for decades. My older brother started off in carpentry then he changed to something in construction and now he works for Southern Water maintaining the water system. Career change is simply part of life and that is hardly a bad thing. This is even more common and important for aspiring and qualified psychologists, because we all know the all-important assistant psychologist roles are next to impossible to get. This means the majority of aspiring psychologists need to start in a different career, build up their experience and then hopefully transition to the psychology career they’ve always wanted. For example, I am currently a teaching assistant at a special needs school but I have no intention of staying there for the long term. I want to be there for about a year, get a year of experience under me and hopefully transition to a different mental health career. I recently went to my graduation for my MSc in clinical psychology and from the conversations I had with other graduates, I am not alone in starting in non-psychology careers and hoping to transition over time. However, when we’re in the middle of a career change, it can be really disorienting, confusing and it can feel like we’re wandering through a dense forest without a map. This has a wide range of negative impacts on us that I’ll talk about later in this podcast episode. Yet it doesn’t matter if you’re switching industries, returning to the workforce after a long break or you’re stepping into an entirely new role. You are probably going to feel alone or doubt yourself. I know when I started my position as a teaching assistant, I doubted that I would be any good at it, I felt like a failure because this wasn’t the psychology career I wanted and I felt like everyone else was having amazing psychology jobs. And I was simply being left behind. On the other hand, as I found out at my graduation two days ago, whilst there are a good amount of people who somehow managed to land some psychology-related jobs, there are plenty more that didn’t. I was talking to a brilliant young woman who was working construction with her dad and brother. Another woman was working as a wellbeing practitioner and someone else was working as a neuro-something trainer. Some people are doing very well and other people are still struggling to find a psychology-related job, and that’s okay. Building upon this, when we’re in the middle of a career change, we tend to question and ask ourselves whether we’re the only person who feels unsure of their career change and whether we actually have the ability to make it to the other side. As an aspiring psychologist, this is definitely something that I’m concerned about. I really, really want a psychology job in the future because I love clinical psychology, I want to help people and I want to work in this amazing profession. And yes, I do acknowledge the profession has a lot of flaws but I want to work in clinical psychology regardless. Yet I do question whether I have the skills, the ability and the experience to ever break into this guarded profession that seems to be reserved for middle-class women. On the other hand, at the time of writing, I don’t really have any feelings of being unsure about a future career change from a teaching assistant to another role. I remember on my first day at the school, I was sitting in the staff room, the hard white plastic chair was making me a little uncomfortable and I was a little unsure of myself. Staff rooms are very cliquey, no one talks to each other and staff rooms are not nice places. Yet I remember listening to a group of women behind me and they were explaining how they just wanted out of this school. Throughout the course of my first day, I heard 5 people say how they just wanted out of this special needs school. As well as even a few days later, the brilliant teacher of my class said to me do not plan to stay in education for too long. Everyone wants to leave special education and after everyone I’ve experienced in my first four weeks, I don’t really blame them. Not at all. However, I know a lot of people can experience fear of failure, fear of judgment and fear of the unknown when it comes to a career change. This is normal, understandable and it’s okay that someone is feeling like this. On the whole, considering that our workplace culture celebrates self-reliance, we typically feel like we need to have all the answers. This is even more true if you come from a toxic workplace where any workplace mistake is seen as incompetence and you’re berated for it. I’ve heard a few horror stories like that over the years, especially from women. Therefore, one solution found by researchers is that we all might benefit from being able to ask for help as well as navigating career changes with other people. Why Do Career Changes Make Us Uncertain of Who We Are? Whenever we normally think about the challenges of career changes, we typically think about how they’ll impact our routines. I know as an author, podcaster and a million other things, any sort of career change will challenge my time and organisation even more. This is also true if you’re a parent, a carer or you do additional things outside of work (which I highly recommend you do. Your work being your life isn’t healthy). Yet career changes can also challenge our sense of self because according to Bridges’ model of transition published in 1991, career changes make it difficult to distinguish between internal transitions and external change. This means the “neutral zone” is psychologically challenging for us. This is the psychologically vulnerable period where our old identity has been removed and our new identity has yet to fully emerge. This is something I experienced shortly after leaving university and being a student ambassador. For six brilliant years, my identity was being a psychology student, researcher and a student ambassador. That identity got shredded after my last Outreach shift and because I was unemployed and didn’t have a clue what job I was going to get, my mental health dipped a little. I was unsure of who I was and what my identity would morph into because my new identity as a teaching assistant hadn’t emerged yet. In addition, during this psychologically vulnerable time, we can experience self-doubt, symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as uncertainty according to Goodman et al. (2006). This is even more common for people who experience layoffs, unemployment or they need to undergo a career change because of caring responsibilities. Also, according to Ibarra and Barbulescu (2010) identity discontinuity, when your current role doesn’t align with your sense of self, can continue to negatively impact your motivation and self-esteem. This is why group support can be so important during career changes. Why Can Groups Improve Your Confidence During Career Changes? Building upon what I mentioned earlier in the episode, one reason why I feel more confident about undergoing a career change in future is because I know lots of people don’t want to be a teaching assistant or work in special education for the long term. I unofficially say that there are only really three reasons why people work at my special needs school. Like me, they have been screwed over by the job market and cannot get another job regardless of their degrees. They are approaching retirement and simply want some pocket money. Or they like special education and are stuck in it, and they want other people to escape because they couldn’t. My point is that social groups give us a sense of normalisation, and this is especially true when it comes to career changes. In many healthy workplace environments, there is already a sense of “we’re in this together” and this can be applied to career changes too. I know that I am not the only teaching assistant wanting an out, looking for another job and will jump ship in the future. This helps to lessen my feeling of fear, like I am making a massive mistake and people will think less of me because of it. In addition, because social groups provide us with a sense of “we’re in this together”, this potentially creates a safe space for us to express the same fears about a career change that all of us have been secretly holding onto. For example, fears about whether we’re good enough, whether artificial intelligence will replace our skills so they aren’t relevant anymore, and whether you should go back to what you were doing before or try something new. We all have these fears and it is perfectly okay, understandable and healthy to express them. This is why undergoing a career change with other people can be useful because you can undergo this journey together. Building upon this, this is where co-regulation can come in because you and your fellow career-changers can create a safe, supportive group that allows you all to co-regulate. This is when your nervous system can stay calm because you’re with other people according to Porges (2011). Also, co-regulation allows you to stop only seeing yourself through the lens of self-doubt but through the strengths, insights as well as potential that other people see in you. Personally, I remember when I was feeling lost between me finishing my Masters and me finding my teaching assistant job. I was filled with self-doubt because I was getting assistant psychologist interviews, I was getting great feedback and lots of job rejections. I thought I couldn’t do this, I was a failure and I was never going to get a job. Yet everyone kept saying that I was good, I was kind, compassionate and clearly loved psychology. So I kept talking with university friends and family members, I focused and eventually I thankfully found a job. Forming supportive groups with other psychologists, graduates and friends can be a great idea. Especially, because you and your friends and peers can hype up each other and when someone has confidence in us, it’s so much easier for us to have confidence in ourselves. Why is Group Support A Protective Factor During A Career Change? A protective factor is something that acts as a buffer against stress as well as it helps us to cope more effectively, and research shows that group support is an effective protective factor during disruptive times (Cohen & Wills, 1985). I definitely think a career change, finishing university or becoming unemployed counts as a life disruption. This is why social groups are so important. Also, research, like Taylor (2011), shows that when people have supportive communities to rely on during major life changes, they report less psychological distress as well as greater wellbeing. This is why peer mentoring can be so effective, because Ensher et al. (2001) found that peer monitoring increases self-efficacy, opens more opportunities and provides emotional validation to employees. And being a part of a group with shared intentions can increase collective resilience and momentum. For example, Moen et al. (2008) found during a longitudinal study that women who were returning to work after caregiving and when they took part in a group-based re-entry programme reported stronger career identities and higher confidence compared to women who didn’t have these programmes. This applies to career changes because if you undergo a career change alone then your bouts of self-doubt, negative thoughts and fear will likely increase. Since you won’t have anyone to hype you up, no one to believe in you and no one will be able to spur you into action. Yet if you, your friends and maybe your peers want to undergo a career change at the same time then you can form a supportive group that can hype you up, inspire confidence when you have none and you can hold each other accountable. Personally, I definitely find the idea of being accountable to be flat out critical through the job hunt. When I was applying for jobs after my Masters, I will fully admit that I didn’t want to do it. I might have had rent, council tax and bills to pay on a house I wasn’t even living in (that’s a whole other story) so I needed the money, but the job hunt was just depressing. It was draining, I hated the job rejections and I hated feeling like I was nothing but a failure. Yet because my parents occasionally asked about jobs and they held me accountable because I lovingly wanted them off my back, they gave me the momentum to apply for jobs. If you and your friends form a supportive group, you can do the same for each other. And considering how hard finding a job is after university, I would really recommend towards the end of your BSc or MSc that you sit down with your friends, talk about wanting to form a supportive job-hunting group and you do it. I think this would have improved my mental health, my outlook and my confidence during my job hunt because I would have known I wasn’t alone. What Kinds of Groups Work To Support A Career Change? Throughout this podcast episode, I’ve mainly focused on the idea of a group of friends or peers coming together and forming a supportive community where they can support you, increase your confidence and you can check in with them from time to time. Yet there are other social groups too that might be useful during a career change. For example, a parent re-entry group so you can support each other in your return to work after caregiving, a one-off therapy support group, class or a focused retreat as well as a career transition circle for people changing careers. The most important things when it comes to social support during a career change are that the people come together with shared intentions, mutual respect and consistency. Since when we know we aren’t alone, it makes the prospect of finding a new job or changing careers a lot less scary. Business Psychology Conclusion As I mentioned near the beginning of the psychology podcast episode, at some point in our lives, all of us will want to change careers. Whilst traditional wisdom in the Western world would tell us to do everything by ourselves because the job market is competitive and by helping others we might allow them to succeed at the cost of our own, this isn’t true. We can only really change once we realise we need help and support from other people and that’s okay. Massive changes, like changing careers, are not meant to be done alone. This is why regardless of whether you’re changing careers, you’re re-entering the workforce after some timeout for whatever reason or if you’re starting up your own business, joining a group of likeminded people might be more useful, valuable and insightful than you could ever think of. Not only because you’re receiving support but because you’re supporting others too and that is wonderfully rewarding in its own right. I know sometimes in the race to become an assistant psychologist, a mental health professional or whatever psychology-related career we’re all striving for, we sometimes forget why we want it in the first place. We’re all so busy trying to write perfect cover letters, practice for interviews and more that we forget. However, seeing someone else, like a peer or friend, follow us in our psychology journey and see their excitement and delight when they get some success and they explain why they love clinical psychology or whatever area of psychology in a mock interview, it can be a powerful reminder of why we, ourselves, love this amazing, infuriating and sometimes elitist profession. And why we work hard every day to make our dreams of becoming a psychologist, a reality.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s business psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Careers In Psychology: A Guide To Careers in Clinical Psychology, Forensic Psychology and More . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Business Psychology References and Further Reading Applegate, J. M., & Janssen, M. A. (2022). Job mobility and wealth inequality. Computational Economics, 59(1), 1-25. Bhargava, A., Bester, M., & Bolton, L. (2021). Employees’ perceptions of the implementation of robotics, artificial intelligence, and automation (RAIA) on job satisfaction, job security, and employability. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 6(1), 106-113. Bridges, W. (1991). Managing transitions: Making the most of change. Perseus Books. Chao, G. T. (2009). Formal mentoring: Lessons learned from past practice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 40(3), 314–320. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012658 Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310–357. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.310 Ensher, E. A., Thomas, C., & Murphy, S. E. (2001). Comparison of traditional, step-ahead, and peer mentoring on protégés’ support, satisfaction, and perceptions of career success. Journal of Business and Psychology, 15(3), 419–438. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007870600459 Ghosh, R., & Reio, T. G. (2013). Career benefits associated with mentoring for mentors: A meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(1), 106–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.03.011 Goodman, J., Schlossberg, N. K., & Anderson, M. L. (2006). Counseling adults in transition: Linking practice with theory (3rd ed.). Springer. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/upward-spiral/202504/career-in-transition-heres-why-not-to-go-it-alone Ibarra, H. (2023). Working identity, updated edition, with a new preface: Unconventional strategies for reinventing your career. Harvard Business Press. Ibarra, H., & Barbulescu, R. (2010). Identity as narrative: Prevalence, effectiveness, and consequences of narrative identity work in macro work role transitions. Academy of Management Review, 35(1), 135–154. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.35.1.zok135 Moen, P., Kelly, E. L., & Huang, R. (2008). Fit inside the work–family black box: An ecology of the life course, cycles of control reframing. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 81(3), 411–433. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317908X325450 Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton & Company. Rachmad, Y. E. (2022). Career Development Theory. Taylor, S. E. (2011). Social support: A review. In H. S. Friedman (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of health psychology (pp. 189–214). Oxford University Press. van Hooft, E. A., Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D., Wanberg, C. R., Kanfer, R., & Basbug, G. (2021). Job search and employment success: A quantitative review and future research agenda. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(5), 674. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

Adoption is a brilliant topic that I've always wanted to cover on The Psychology World Podcast. It can be seen as an opportunity to give a child a new life, a new home and a great childhood that they might not have had otherwise. Yet similar to deciding whether or not to have a biological child, there are a lot of questions to think about. Ultimately, you need to decide is adopting right for you. Also, aspiring and qualified psychologists and other mental health professionals need to be aware of adoption because adoption concerns, fear or possibilities might be a maintaining factor for our clients regardless of their mental health conditions. I'll discuss this more in today's podcast episode. Lastly, as a gay person, adoption is the most likely choice for me to have a child. I would love to have a kid because I would care for them, give them the best life possible and I would love them like my own. Yet I am also aware that adoption isn't right for everyone. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, you'll learn why is adoption important for psychologists to be aware of, what are the questions people should answer before they adopt and much more. If you enjoy learning about development psychology, relationship psychology and more, then this will be a great episode for you.  Today's psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Developmental Psychology: A Guide To Developmental and Child Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Is Adoption Right For You? People tend to have a few fixed ideas about adoption that doesn't reflect the reality of the process. Since a lot of people believe that adoption is you "saving" the child from a horrible lifetime of being unwanted. Personally, I used to believe in this viewpoint because whenever you see adoption come up in entertainment media (and as much as we don't like to admit it, this is where a lot of knowledge comes from), adoption is always phrased as you saving the child from being unwanted. I have seen or heard the phrase "Don't worry. There are so many unwanted children in the world. We'll adopt" way more times than I want to admit.  However, in reality, adoption is way more complex than this, because whilst it's beyond the scope of this podcast episode. There's a wide range of reasons why people adopt and place their children into adoption. Some people argue that the entire process of adoption is a lifelong journey for searching for belonging as well as identity. Regardless of whether you're the birth parents, the adoptee or adopting parents.  As a result, whilst adoption is traditionally framed as an act of love, adopting is also a lifelong commitment that demands humility, self-awareness and emotional readiness. This is why as brilliant as adoption is, prospective parents should take the time they need to truly understand what adoption requires from the heart. As much as the child needs love, they also need other prospective things from parents. Most of which we'll cover in the rest of this podcast episode.  Additionally, I wanted to mention that the reason why I am mentioning this on a psychology podcast is not only because as an aspiring or qualified psychologist, you might consider adoption in the future. If that is the case then this will be a valuable podcast episode to help you understand whether adoption is right for you or not. Yet this is important for all psychologists and mental health professionals to be aware of, because we never know what a client is going to tell us in a therapy session. You might be supporting a person with intense anxiety, they are doing really well and then in the next session, the client reveals they’ve been really anxious this week because their partner mentions they really want to adopt a child. Then if this happens, the difficulties the client has around adoption might be a new focus or goal for the therapy. Furthermore, you might wonder if you would ever see this come in your mental health setting, because you might be working in a depression service and adoption difficulties or concerns might never cross your mind. Nonetheless, when I went for my anorexia counselling in early 2025, the brilliant counsellor was an eating disorder specialist, so she never intended to understand sexual violence, much less male sexual violence. Yet because there was a connection between my rape and my anorexia, it was something we needed to explore and I needed to educate her during the process. My point is that in clinical psychology and mental health work, it is flat out critical that we never ever dismiss learning about something because “we’ll never need it”. If my own mental health journey has taught me anything it is that you will never know what you need and what you won’t need until the moment comes. And when you need a critical piece of understanding, whilst you don’t need to be an expert on the topic, it is always good to have at least a brief understanding of the topic. It will make your client feel a lot more comfortable, relaxed and willing to have a difficult conversation with you. Ultimately, whether you're considering adoption or not, there are some questions grounded in lived experience and research that will help you to reflect on whether you're ready to not only “rescue” a child from the social care system but to raise a child regardless of their past. Are You Adopting A Child To Help Them Heal Or Yourself? A lot of prospective parents unfortunately experience their own history of trauma, infertility and loss before they consider adoption. As well as research shows that unresolved grief can complicate adoption outcomes by influencing the emotional attunement and expectations that prospective parents have. As a result, it might be a good idea for you to sit down with yourself or your partner and just talk about the real reasons why you want to adopt. I learnt a little trick from Miranda Hart’s book I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You. She recommends you keep asking yourself why until you literally can’t answer it anymore. This helps you understand the deeper reasons why you want to adopt instead of simply saying “you want kids”, and then this creates a safe open space for you and your partner to discuss whether you want to help a child heal or you want to heal yourself. A conversation might go something like this: Why do you want to adopt? Because I want kids. Why do you want kids? Because they’re fun, lovely and they’ll add something exciting to my life. Why do you feel the need to add something exciting to your life? Because me and my partner have been trying for about a decade, I’ve miscarried three times and I feel like a failure. I could easily go on with that line of questioning, but hopefully you can see how asking yourself why over and over can help you dig down into the roots and under the surface of why you really want to adopt. Building upon this for an aspiring or qualified psychologist, this might be something you need to explore in psychological therapy. If your client is really anxious, the idea of adopting is making them depressed or they are overly enthusiastic about it, then you might need to work with the client to understand why, and whether this is actually the best time for them to adopt. And whether the client is using this as a distraction from their maintaining factors of their mental health difficulties or whether adopting a child will actually improve their life and mental health for the long term. On the whole, true readiness to adopt means you can separate your needs from the needs of your adopted child and you are ready to commit to emotional growth alongside your adopted child’s. True readiness is not using your adopted child to fulfil a void because that will unconsciously make your child responsible for your healing. That isn’t fair on them. Can You Deal with Trauma? Traditionally, whenever we think about adoption in the media, in books and other forms of entertainment, there is always the idea that adopted children come with a blank slate. There is a common belief in society that adopted children aren’t influenced by their past, their birth parents or even being put up for adoption. However, the truth is every single adoption begins with loss because the adopted child will experience separation trauma. They are being ripped away from their biological family and this is an event that has a massive, massive impact on their nervous system as well as their worldview. Also, research shows that children adopted at birth or from the foster care system are significantly more likely to access mental health services than non-adopted children. This is why it is flat out critical that you acknowledge that children are not blank slates, at some point in your parenting journey you will have to find ways to deal with, address and support your adopted child as they come to terms with this trauma. Moreover, for aspiring or qualified psychologists, this is an important area to be aware of because you might be supporting a client with depression, trauma or another mental health difficulty, and one session they come in and want to spend the session focusing on their adopted child’s trauma. Of course, we cannot support the child if they are not in the room and if we are not trauma-informed ourselves, but in this session, you might need to calm down the client, help them regulate and come up with a plan to help them manage this very difficult home situation. Equally, you might be working in a children and young people mental health service and an adopted child comes into your therapy room and wants to talk about this. They might want to talk about the separation trauma itself, they might want to talk about the negative impact the trauma is having on their adoptive parents and how none of them know how to deal with it. You never know what you might face in clinical psychology and that is something I love about the profession. On the whole, being ready for adoption means that you accept that the child isn’t going to “start over”. By adopting them, you are joining the adopted child’s story that began long before you entered their lives. This story will include pain but a lot of potential for happiness too. Can You Embrace A Child’s Story Instead Of Erasing It? Building upon this in more depth, when you join an adopted child’s story, it’s important that you embrace it instead of wanting to erase their past because the identity of your adopted child will include their birth culture, family and their past. If you minimise or ignore it, by saying things like “you’re our child now, your birth family doesn’t matter,”. Then this can cause shame, identity struggles and a lot of confusion. Personally, whilst I am not adopted, I have had a lot of identity struggles over the years because of my intensely homophobic upbringing and the various traumas that have happened to me. I understand how trauma and not knowing who you are can really negatively impact your mental health. It makes you feel lost, isolated and like you don’t belong anywhere. It can lead to anxiety, depression and a whole host of other mental health difficulties that I do not wish on anyone. This is why I was so happy, grateful and thrilled to discover my core values, and I focused on who I was. Anyway, as aspiring or qualified psychologists, this is definitely a topic we need to be aware of. I actually have a book coming out at some point called “Your Unshakable Self” and it details out a lot of research, personal experiences and my healing journey towards understanding who I actually was. This realisation led to a massive improvement in my mental health. Therefore, it’s important that we’re aware of the challenges, the difficulties and the trauma that can pop up for adopted children and the importance of finding small, and sometimes large, ways to embrace their story so they don’t feel confused, shamed or struggle with their identity. This might include discussing with an adoptive parent about why they might struggle to embrace their child’s story. Is it related to fear of losing their child? Are they concerned their child will want to go back to their birth parents instead of them? And more fears that are probably more based on the client’s own past than the realities of their adopted child. Overall, being ready for adoption means that you are willing to honour an adopted child’s full story instead of erasing it. Your role as an adoptive parent is to integrate their past with a future with you with compassion. Can You Keep the Adoption Conversation Open? As someone who watches a lot of crime dramas, whenever adoption becomes a focus of an episode, it is nearly always revealed that the adoptive parents kept the fact that their child was adopted from them. Then somehow the adopted child finds out they were adopted and it makes them lash out and they start committing the crimes. Of course, this is fiction and it is utter rubbish to suggest that adopted children are any more violent than anyone else. Yet these dramatizations do reveal the immense pain, betrayal and trauma that adoption can cause a child, so it is important to keep the adoption conversation open. Since research shows that having an open, ongoing dialogue about adoption does support a healthier identity development as well as self-esteem for the adoptee. Also, this means that adoptive parents need to be open to working with an adoption competent therapist or attending adoption support groups. Obviously, as someone who’s had three different forms of counselling in their life because of different mental health struggles, I highly recommend that you always seek out a mental health professional trained and specialising in your mental health difficulty. Yet there will be times when there is crossover. For example, I went to see a counsellor for anorexia and we ended up exploring some more of my sexual violence and my insecure attachment styles at the time. This is no different for adopted people. An adopted child or an adoptive parent might go to a mental health professional for one reason then they realise they need to have the adoption conversation and they struggle with it and want some advice. It will always be difficult for mental health professionals to give advice in something they have no experience in. Sometimes it is always better for mental health professionals to simply say something along the lines of “I understand having the adoption conversation is causing you a lot of anxiety, fear and uncertainty. Yet I am not too familiar with this topic and I don’t want to say the wrong thing because of my lack of experience and make it worse,” Just a thought. On the whole, being ready for adoption means that you understand that adoption isn’t a one-time talk. It is a lifelong conversation because children need reassurance, permission to keep asking questions regardless of their age and they need honesty. As well as adopted children revisit their grief, sense of loss and questions at each new developmental stage. Not because they want to repeat the past but they want to understand it better. Are You Ready For Lifelong Learning? As someone who flat out loves learning and in fact, I am often happiest when I’m learning, I would say I am definitely ready for the lifelong learning that comes with adoption. Yet some prospective parents are not and that’s okay, it might just mean that you aren’t ready for adoption yet. Since adoption doesn’t end when all the paperwork is signed and everything is finalised. Since according to the American Psychological Association, families continue to need support as the child’s needs evolve throughout adolescence and into adulthood. This is another aspect where mental health professionals and aspiring or qualified psychologists might be useful because an adoptive parent might be really prepared and ready to adopt a child. Yet when the adopted child reaches adolescence or they become an adult, the adoptive parent might not know what to do, how to be a good parent and their mental health might struggle. Or the adoptive parents might start having relationship difficulties because they prepare for a child, they idealised the wonderful idea of having a child and they weren’t prepared for a teenager or an adult in the slightest. These potential relationship difficulties might be even more severe or pop up if the prospective parents’ main motivator for adoption was to fulfil a void, add new excitement to their relationship or have a kid so they could stay together. Just some ideas. On the whole, being ready for adoption means that you need to see adoption as a lifelong learning process and it is a journey full of empathy and resilience that hopefully deepens over time. Are You Ready to Partner with Birth Family When Possible? I will fully admit that this is something I might struggle with at this moment in time if I adopted a child. Thankfully, I have no adoption plans for a good few years and I don’t intend to adopt a child as a single parent, but if you want to, go for it and more power to you. Yet I am nervous about the ability to engage, share and interact with the birth family because whilst I understand that there are a wide range of reasons why birth families place their child into adoption. A small insecure part of me might be scared the adopted child, the child I had raised, cried over and supported for years, might prefer the birth family over me. This is something I’ll discuss in the next section. However, if it is appropriate, being open and having ongoing contact with the adopted child’s birth family has been linked to better emotional outcomes for the adopted child. And as prospective parents, our child being safe, loved and protecting their emotional wellbeing is the most important thing. As well as these are all concerns that a mental health professional can help us address. For instance, my mind goes towards the therapy technique of scaling and I’ll share an extract from a previous podcast episode below to explain it: “Scaling questions were introduced in the 1980s by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg for clients who want to measure change or progress. These scaling questions take about 5-15 minutes to do and they involve asking a client to rate their progress or feelings on a scale to assess change. For instance, a therapist might ask a client, On a Scale of 1 to 10, how confident do you feel about managing your depression? The benefit of scaling questions is that it gives clients a way to assess their progress within therapy, and this could help motivate them and see that the therapy is working. However, it could oversimplify their complex emotions. Furthermore, there is another scaling technique within counselling psychology that my counsellor did a lot with me in August 2023. This technique involved scaling the possible outcomes of an event from likely to most unlikely. Personally, I found this second technique very useful, insightful and it helped me to understand that a lot of my worries and concerns about a given situation weren’t likely to happen. Yet both types of scaling can be important therapeutic tools to use with clients.” This can be a useful therapy technique to do with adoptive parents because it can help them to understand the rationality and likelihood of their concerns and fears becoming true. Overall, being ready for adoption means you are willing to share space in your child’s heart as well as understanding that love isn’t decreased by connecting with the birth family. In fact, their love might expand because of inclusion. As well as on a personal note, my first ever relationship was with a polyamorous person, in addition to dating me, they had a boyfriend and a girlfriend, and I know their love for their two partners didn’t decrease because of me, and their liking, want to date and want to spend time with me didn’t decrease because of them. People can love more than one person so that’s another way to phrase it. Can You Manage Your Expectations Around Gratitude and Rejection? Especially, if you have an attitude that by adopting a child you are somehow saving them, some adoptive parents will report a lot of unexpected emotional strain after adopting their child. Since as I mentioned earlier, an adopted child has undergone a lot of separation trauma and there might be other trauma factors at play here that we do not know about straight away. For example, a child might be in the adoption system because they were physically, emotionally or sexually abused by their birth family and this all means that adopted children are likely to feel unsafe. This results in them wanting to test your love for them so they can determine whether this is a safe environment or whether or not you are likely to separate from them like their birth family has. This rejection can hurt the adoptive parents and impact them in ways they didn’t expect at the start of the adoption process. In addition, I’ve seen a lot of conversations or portrayals of adoption as a heroic and immensely brave act that saves a child from the evil clutches of the social care system and the birth family that didn’t want them in the slightest. This is not true in the slightest. Not because a lot of birth families never ever wanted to place their children into the adoption system, but also because there are a wide range of factors behind adoptions. A parent might not have had the finances to bring up a child, the child could have been the result of sexual violence, the single parent might not have felt like they could bring up a child and so on. Sometimes it has absolutely nothing to do with the birth family being “bad” people (whatever that subjective term means). As a result, adoption isn’t about saving a child and wanting to build a relationship with them. Instead of expecting your adopted child to be grateful for adopting them because this can create shame or obligation in a relationship and that never works out well. Try to focus on building a relationship with them based on safety, respect and connection. Also, research shows that unrealistic expectations are a key risk factor for family breakdown. Personally, I think when I come to adopt a child, this might be something I do not struggle with, because I might be able to manage my expectations well enough. And I would acknowledge that I need to build a relationship with this child because they don’t owe me anything, and if I want us all to be a happy family that love, support and are open and honest with each other. Then I need my child to realise that I will always be there for them and they can trust me. They are under no obligation to show me anything. In a way, trust, love and respect are all earned. It applies to all social relationships, and adoptive relationships too. Linking this to the main audience of The Psychology World Podcast, being aware of this aspect of adoption can be very useful to aspiring or qualified psychologists. Since we might be supporting a client throughout this adoption journey or for another mental health difficulty and one day, our client reveals they’re struggling with their “ungrateful” adopted child. Of course, we would need to be empathetic, compassionate and validating towards our client but we would need to understand where these feelings of obligation are coming from, how they’re impacting the client’s relationships at the moment and how could the client overcome these negative feelings. To use a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy perspective on this situation, you want to see how the client’s early experiences are impacting their feelings of obligation. For example, a client’s parents might have made them feel obligated to thank their parents for every little act of kindness, so the client believes this is what is needed in parental relationships. Then you might investigate the client’s core beliefs about themselves. For instance, “I am saving my adopted child. I am hardworking. I am a kind person.” Afterwards you can see what the client’s “Rules to Live By” are. Such as, if the client believes “I must work hard so others can approve of me. As long as I am selfless to others, they will appreciate and love me. If I show kindness to others, I must be thanked. Otherwise they don’t love me,” Then you could explore the client’s thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and other aspects of Beck’s Cognitive Model of Depression. I just wanted to include the above so you could see how you might explore this in a therapy session. It’s a loose example but it was only for illustrative purposes anyway. Overall, when you experience rejection in your adoption relationship, it’s important to remember that this isn’t about you. It is about the child wanting to prove to themselves that you can love them and whether this is temporary love or something that can last for a long, long time. As well as the goal of adopting a child isn’t to be thanked or hailed as some kind of saviour. You are wanting to create a sense of consistency, safety and connection to the child and gratitude grows out of trust, not obligation. Social Psychology Conclusion At the end of this fascinating psychology podcast episode, I am really happy that we’ve explored adoption. I think it is a brilliant topic, it’s really interesting and it does get me thinking about the future. At the time of writing, I’m 24 years old, my boyfriend recently broke up with me, even though he said I was wonderfully kind, patient and thoughtful and I deserved to be loved and cherished. Therefore, at some point, I will start looking for another partner, another date and I look forward to what those future relationships might bring. Children are definitely one possibility, so thinking and learning about adoption is always a good thing. Ultimately, adoption isn’t about saving a child so much as joining a child’s story with love, curiosity and humility. Since if you and/ or your partner can answer the questions we’ve looked at in this episode compassionately and honestly, then you might be ready to begin your adoption journey where you can become a safe, healing presence in the life of a child who’s already experienced more loss, separation trauma and love than any child should ever experience. You could help be the healing presence as they continue the lifelong process of discovering the wonderful person they really are.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s social psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Developmental Psychology: A Guide To Developmental and Child Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Social Psychology References and Further Reading Brodzinsky, D. M. (2011). Children's understanding of adoption: Developmental and clinical implications. Professional psychology: research and practice, 42(2), 200. Harris-Waller, J., Granger, C., & Hussain, M. (2018). Psychological interventions for adoptive parents: A systematic review. Adoption & Fostering, 42(1), 6-21. Hartinger-Saunders, R. M., Jones, A. S., & Rittner, B. (2019). Improving access to trauma-informed adoption services: Applying a developmental trauma framework. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 12(1), 119-130. Hornfeck, F., Bovenschen, I., Heene, S., Zimmermann, J., Zwönitzer, A., & Kindler, H. (2019). Emotional and behavior problems in adopted children–The role of early adversities and adoptive parents’ regulation and behavior. Child Abuse & Neglect, 98, 104221. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-inner-life-of-foster-care/202511/is-adoption-for-you Kohn, C., Pike, A., & de Visser, R. O. (2024). Parenting in the “extreme”: An exploration into the psychological well‐being of long‐term adoptive mothers. Family Relations, 73(3), 1989-2013. Levitt, H. M., Schuyler, S. W., Chickerella, R., Elber, A., White, L., Troeger, R. L., ... & Collins, K. M. (2020). How discrimination in adoptive, foster, and medical systems harms LGBTQ+ families: Research on the experiences of prospective parents. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 32(3), 261-282. Ní Chobhthaigh, S., & Duffy, F. (2019). The effectiveness of psychological interventions with adoptive parents on adopted children and adolescents’ outcomes: A systematic review. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 24(1), 69-94. Palacios, J., Adroher, S., Brodzinsky, D. M., Grotevant, H. D., Johnson, D. E., Juffer, F., ... & Tarren-Sweeney, M. (2019). Adoption in the service of child protection: An international interdisciplinary perspective. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 25(2), 57. Selwyn, J., Wijedasa, D. N., & Meakings, S. J. (2014). Beyond the Adoption Order: challenges, interventions and disruptions. Smith, S. L., Howard, J. A., & Monroe, A. D. (2000). Issues underlying behavior problems in at-risk adopted children. Children and youth services review, 22(7), 539-562. Von Korff, L., Grotevant, H. D., & McRoy, R. G. (2006). Openness arrangements and psychological adjustment in adolescent adoptees. Journal of Family Psychology, 20(3), 531. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

We know from social and cultural psychology that our attitudes and opinions towards different topics are largely informed by the world we live in. Everything from our culture of origin, our family, our friends and more can influence our attitudes. This extends into our beliefs and attitudes surrounding mental health conditions and the lived experience of others. For example, hearing voices is heavily stigmatised in the West but in certain cultures, hearing voices is often celebrated and seen as a sign of the gods. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you're going to learn how culture impacts attitudes towards learning disabilities across the world, why this is important and more. Whether you're an aspiring or qualified psychologist, a teaching assistant or a mental health professional, this will be a great episode for you.  Today's psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Gamification of Autism: A Guide to Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What Are Learning Disabilities? To ensure that we’re all on the same page about learning disabilities, we need to define the range of conditions. Therefore, learning disabilities can be neurological, neurodevelopmental or mental health conditions that negatively impact a person’s ability to pay attention, coordinate their movement, perform maths calculations or it can impact their spoken or written language abilities. As well as whilst we mainly talk about children and learning disabilities because they typically aren’t recognised until the child reaches school age. They can impact a person at any age of their life and learning disabilities can be lifelong. Why Is Learning about How Culture Impacts Attitudes Towards Learning Disabilities Important? Even if you never ever intend to work outside your country of origin, like the United Kingdom for me, it is still flat out critical that you learn how different cultures see the mental health condition that you support in your clinical setting. Since we never know who is going to come through our therapy doors and into our service. They might be white, black, be a second or third generation immigrant or they might have another ethnic or cultural background that is different from our own. And when this happens, because it probably will during our psychology career and that flat out isn’t a bad thing. We must never assume that their experience and social network will be the same as our other clients.  The cultural beliefs, attitudes and opinions of their culture of origin will impact how they see their own mental health experiences. As a result, we will need to bear this in mind when it comes to our psychological interventions.  In addition, I wanted to research this podcast episode because in episode 353 of the podcast I discussed in the psychology news section that different cultural beliefs about thinness and body image impact eating disorders in ethnic minorities. As well as in the special educational needs school I am currently working in, there are a handful of children from other cultures. Therefore, by learning about how their families might see their learning disabilities and other conditions, it might help me to better support them.  On the whole, the entire point of this psychology podcast episode is to enlighten you about what those cultural beliefs and attitudes might be towards learning disabilities. As well as I’ll suggest some ways how these beliefs might impact our clients and therapeutic work. What are Western Attitudes Towards Learning Disabilities? The first type of culture we need to understand is how the Western world generally perceives learning disabilities. Now, the main research is typically done in the United States of America and given how there are cultural differences between how the “West” and Europe see learning disabilities. This section might as well be termed how does the United States see learning disabilities. Yet I think a fair comparison would be to say that this first section covers how countries with a very, very strong American link perceives learning disabilities. Thankfully, over the decades, there has been a real shift in how the West sees learning disabilities. Instead of a lot of countries like the United States and some parts of Europe seeing learning disabilities as a range of conditions that need to be treated as diseases as dictated by the biomedical model. There has been a real shift in recent decades to move towards seeing learning disabilities through a lens of human rights as well as inclusivity. The focus in these cultures is to provide people with learning disabilities equal opportunities and access to learning, daily activities and society as much as possible, regardless of their condition and the severity of their condition. For instance, in the United States in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act makes it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities in all areas of public life. Such as, transportation, school, jobs and all private and public places that are open to the general public. In other words, you cannot legally treat two people differently just because one person has a disability and the other person hasn’t. Furthermore, in Western cultures, there is a strong focus on enabling people with learning disabilities to participate fully in society. This can be achieved through technological assistive devices, legislation and an inclusive education system. Since the overall goal in Western Cultures is to minimise the barriers that people with learning disabilities face, whether they’re social or physical barriers and empower these individuals to live more independently. One example of this empowerment and inclusive education system is the special needs school that I work at at the time of writing. The entire school focuses on decreasing barriers to education and empowering the students to be as independent as possible. For example, in my class, there is a great kid who struggles talking so he has a communicator (or a talker as we call it), and this allows us to communicate with him when we can’t understand what he’s verbally saying. Another student has selective mutism so she has communication aids. As well as the smaller class sizes and increased number of teaching assistants means that children with learning disabilities are able to receive better scaffolded support than they would if they were in a mainstream school. As a result, whether you’re a mental health professional, a teaching assistant or anyone who works with people with learning disabilities. It can be very useful to think about the benefits of the Western view of learning disabilities, and please rest assured this isn’t intentionally going to be cultural imperialism. I will point out the benefits of the other perspectives on learning disabilities too throughout the episode. Since the Western perspective stresses that we should be empowering people and this comes back to a very important fact about clinical psychology. We should never ever believe someone cannot do something just because of their mental health condition, until proven otherwise. For example, the brilliant kid in my class who uses a talker, whilst I am not going to write about his medical and mental health conditions. Just because he has a condition that makes it very difficult to walk and speak clearly, flat out doesn’t mean he is bad at communication. He actually is amazing at communication, typing stories on his talker and he is great at maths. Yet unless he’s empowered, supported and we scribe for him, no one would know just how brilliant he is. In addition, there’s another kid in my class who I essentially work one-on-one with and at first glance a lot of people would say is a massive pain in the backside. Yet because I’ve empowered him, I give him decisions and I want him to work independently, there has been a massive behavioural improvement. He is actually in class, he is actually doing work and he is a joy to be around. As well as because I was covering another class today at the time of writing, this particular kid was a little more troublesome today because I wasn’t in there. All of us have the potential to have a much greater impact on children with learning disabilities than we realise. Ultimately, the Western view of learning disabilities can be boiled down to having a strong focus on equal access as well as non-discrimination and this can be achieved through legislation. Like the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990). These cultures make use of technology to support independent living and inclusive education models. How Does The Middle East Perceive Learning Disabilities? Given how much the Middle East is on the news, I’m surprised that I very, very rarely cover it on the podcast because the Middle East does have some fascinating cultures, history and opinions. Therefore, the Middle East has a relatively different view of learning disabilities compared to the West because their perspectives on disability are complex as well as they are typically influenced by traditional values and religious beliefs. Traditionally, learning disabilities would have been viewed through a charity model where the person with the learning disability would have often relied on family support. That was it. Yet, there have been modern shifts in recent years in this geographical region because there are countries, like the United Arab Emirates, where governments and social groups are seeing learning disabilities as a social issue that needs government support and systemic intervention. Moreover, if we look at the United Arab Emirates in more depth then we can see that the country has been proactive in creating accessible environments and promoting awareness through dedicated policies, like the “National Policy for Empowering People with Disabilities”, as well as campaigns. What I find really interesting about these efforts is that the country actively wants to make Dubai a disability-friendly city. This is brilliant because it strikes a good balance between embracing modern inclusive practices and respecting traditions. Personally, what I think is flat out brilliant about the Middle-Eastern perspective on learning disabilities is that they’re trying to make their major cities disability-friendly. This I think is a great idea because in my batch of podcast episode ideas, I have something along the lines of ways to make society more autism friendly.  Also, sometimes I feel like in the West, there is such a strong resistance to making major changes because people do not want to change the way they live their lives, the way their cities run and they want to protect their traditions as much as possible. In other words, I cannot imagine Western cities wanting to become more disability friendly. Because whilst we have things like dropped curbs, lifts and accessible entrances, as a number of conversations that I have had had with people in wheelchairs amongst other disabilities have proved to me, Western cities and life is nowhere near as disability friendly as the general public believes. Therefore, it might be extremely useful for Western cultures to learn from Middle Eastern cultures about how to make disability friendly cities. Moreover, as an aspiring or qualified psychologist or another type of mental health professional, understanding how the Middle East sees disabilities can be very useful. If you have a client from the Middle East then understanding that traditionally learning disabilities are seen to rely on family support can be useful. It might explain why the parents or social support network of a child or even an adult with learning disabilities are resistant to the idea of getting governmental support. They might not understand that in the West, families get more support and the accessing of government support is emphasized. In addition, if you’re working with a client from the Middle East then you might want to bear in mind that you might have to do more signposting and explaining of how government support works for learning disabilities than you normally would. Middle Eastern families might be brand-new to the idea of government support or specialist support for learning disabilities, so you might need to explain everything from scratch. Equally, as a teaching assistant at a special needs school, this information can be useful to me because whilst I do not deal with parents. Their traditional beliefs about a person with disabilities should only rely on family for support might rub off onto their child. Therefore, if I see a child struggling and trying to do something themselves and not wanting to ask help from a non-family member then I can do two things. I can empower the child like I normally would by providing scaffolded support so they can do the task themselves, and I could explain to them that it is perfectly okay, normal and understandable to ask for help from me or any staff member. Then I can work with the child over time to improve their ability to ask for help and undo the negative impact of some of these traditional beliefs. Ultimately, the Middle Eastern perspective on learning disabilities can be boiled down to influences of tradition and religion, but there is a trend towards governmental policies and support for those with learning disabilities and an effort to create accessible urban environments. Also, the government is helping to raise awareness and conduct inclusion campaigns. How Does Asia View Learning Disabilities? There are parallels between how the Middle East and Asia view disabilities more generally, because in several Asian countries, traditional attitudes towards disabilities are heavily influenced by historical contexts as well as religious beliefs. Yet more recently, these traditional attitudes have started to become more balanced with inclusivity but these traditional attitudes are still very much present. For example, in India, if someone has a learning disability or any disability for that matter then it links to karma and it is believed to be a punishment for their negative actions in a past life. Whereas in Japan, a learning disability brings a lot of shame on the family. Both of these cultural beliefs are rooted in certain historical and cultural narratives that are still present to this day. Nonetheless, it should be mentioned that Japan, whilst having stigmatising cultural traditions towards learning disabilities, it is making great strides towards becoming more inclusive. For example, Japan is developing accessible public transport as well as there are media campaigns to promote disability awareness. Furthermore, even in India where their traditional views stigmatise disabilities, there’s a growing movement in the country to empower and legally protect people with learning disabilities. For example, in 2016, India passed the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and this legislation aims to protect people with disabilities against discrimination and give them equality. As well as the legalisation supports India’s advancement of various support systems and educational reforms and seeks to change how Indian society perceives learning disabilities and ultimately dismantles outdated stigma. Personally, whilst I do admit, it is good that the Asian perspective on learning disabilities aims to balance modern inclusion efforts with people’s right to follow a religion. A lot of the religious and historical contexts that influence public attitudes are harmful and negatively impact the lives of people with learning disabilities. Since if you grow up in Japan, for example, and society teaches you that you, the person with the learning disability, is bringing shame to your family. As well as if you can see your family being treated badly because of you, then that is definitely going to impact your self-esteem, your wellbeing and your mental health. Also, this cultural shame and people treating your child differently and the rest of your family differently because your child has a disability is going to take its toll. The parents might blame the child for having a disability and that will impact the parent-child relationship that we know from developmental psychology is so critical to outcomes in adulthood. I hope over time that these traditional views that stigmatise people and families with disabilities continue to change. On a more practical note, as an aspiring or qualified psychologist or another mental health professional, understanding how Asian culture impacts learning disabilities can be immensely useful. If you’re supporting a client from an Asian country with a learning disability and they’re experiencing a lot of shame then this might be an explanation. Then in your therapeutic work, you can explore, rewrite and challenge these cultural beliefs. As well as if you’re supporting a child with a learning disability and the parents from an Asian background are blaming the child, wanting to keep the therapy a secret or their engagement isn’t what you would expect. Maybe these traditional attitudes rooted in cultural and historical narratives might provide an explanation for you. Just some thoughts. As a teaching assistant, if I’m ever working with an Asian child who struggles with their self-esteem, feelings of shame and if they apologise a lot when they struggle with something that they perceive is easy for other people. It might be useful for me to acknowledge that cultural and historical narratives might be at play here and then I can think about how to better support, empower and encourage independence in this child. Therefore, this would hopefully over time show the child that they don’t need to be ashamed of themselves, their learning disability isn’t something to be ashamed of and they are a brilliant person in their own right. On the whole, when it comes to how learning disabilities are perceived in Asia, attitudes coexist between inclusion and traditional beliefs, there are efforts to increase accessibility in urban planning and there is a growing legislative framework to support equality. Also, the media has a big role to play in changing the public’s perceptions of learning disabilities. What Are African Perspectives on Learning Disabilities? African perspectives on learning disabilities and disabilities are generally some of the most varied and diverse in the world. Sometimes this is a good thing because some countries and regions focus on the empowerment and supporting people with learning disabilities to become more independent. Whereas other regions do not work towards inclusivity in the slightest.  As a result, in many African countries, how cultures perceive disabilities can vary wildly from one region to the other. Yet generally speaking, the community plays the most important supporting role because the majority of African countries lack formal infrastructure for people with learning disabilities. Even though this is thankfully starting to change.  For instance, there are several grassroot organizations throughout Africa. Like in Uganda, there is the National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda (NUWODU) and this organisation works towards empowering women with disabilities, as well as advocating for their rights and fostering community support. Nonetheless, even though these countries are starting to develop more support, these African communities still face immense barriers on several fronts. For instance, these communities lack good quality healthcare, have limited access to education and there are low economic opportunities for people with disabilities.  These are major problems because you need good healthcare in place to give people with learning disabilities the support they need. Learning disabilities don't only impact a person's speech, reading and mental abilities. They also negatively impact their ability to walk, communicate and swallow. You need the expertise of healthcare professionals to recommend treatments, ideas on how to overcome the language and swallowing difficulties and more. Also, my special needs school is a brilliant example of how a child with a learning disability never ever only has one condition. I think the fewest number of mental health and physical conditions for a single child in my class is 3 or 4. Each of these conditions require a unique treatment. Therefore, if you lack healthcare services then your ability to care and support the person with learning disabilities is greatly reduced.  Similar to limited access to education, if you're a parent or supporter of someone with a given condition you need to be able to learn how best to support them. You need to learn a lot yourself about the condition, how it impacts a child and how best to support them at different stages of their life. If you don't have the local resources or ability to educate yourself then you will struggle to support a person with learning disabilities.  Whenever I want to learn something for my teaching assistant job or as an aspiring psychologist, I go online, look at websites and watch videos. If you don't have access to the internet, or if you don't have the technological skills to do research. Then again, you can't effectively support someone with a learning disability. Additionally, there are a wide range of cultural beliefs in African regions that sometimes hinder progress towards inclusion. Since in Africa, disabilities can be viewed as divine punishments or curses placed on individuals. This is a problem because no one wants to be associated or support someone punished by the gods and interfere with curses because it might negatively impact them too.  This is why it's important to focus on educating people as well as continue to challenge misconceptions about learning disabilities. Over time, this leads to African regions becoming more understanding and accepting. Whether you're a teaching assistant, an aspiring or qualified psychologist, knowing about African perspectives on learning disabilities are useful because these cultural beliefs might explain treatment resistance, why the client might be all for the treatment but their social support network is resistant and the negative treatment from others might explain the low self-esteem and other negative mental health outcomes for the client.  On the whole, African perspectives to learning disabilities can be boiled down to there are strong community networks that support people with disabilities. And even though there are brilliant grassroot organizations that advocate for change, there are challenges and cultural beliefs that negatively impact perceptions. What Are Latin American Perceptions of Learning Disabilities? Now, the Latin America perspective on learning disabilities, and disabilities more generally, is something I really want to learn about. In fact, the Latin America perspective was the main reason why I created this podcast episode because in my class, the boy I do one-on-one lessons with, his family is originally from a South American country. Of course, I do know which country it is but I don't want to include too many identifying features in this episode. Therefore, I want to understand how his family's culture of origin could impact his disabilities.  As a result, the main difficulty for Latin American countries when it comes to addressing disabilities is the immense struggle to overcome socioeconomic barriers. For instance, it is true that Brazil has passed several progressive laws that aim to support people with physical and learning disabilities. This is known as the Brazilian Law of Inclusion, or the LBI for short. This law aims to promote the fundamental freedoms and rights of people with disabilities in the country. As well as it encourages people with disabilities to get involved in society and social activities by making them more accessible. Nonetheless, part of me feels like this is a great example of a law being beyond brilliant in theory, but in practice, it isn't as effective as intended. This is because of the economic disparities as well as the different levels of implementation across different regions of Brazil. Since we know making places more accessible, giving people wheelchairs, talkers and other communication aids, all cost money. Money that is very hard to get in Brazil. Also, people with physical and learning disabilities experience a lot of barriers in employment and education in Brazil.  Again, as I spoke about in the above section, if you can't have an education then you cannot learn the skills you need to become independent and empowered. As well as your parents, family and other supporters cannot learn how best to help you. Also, they cannot get an education, get a good job and earn the money needed to support those with learning disabilities. Thankfully, there are signs that advocacy groups and social movements across Brazil, and the rest of Latin America, are becoming increasingly active in pushing for policy changes and raising awareness about disabilities. Therefore, they can make Latin America more inclusive.  Personally, similar to what I've mentioned before, being aware of the Latin American perspective is useful because whether or not if you have a client who directly comes from Latin America or has strong family connections to the continent. These can be useful explanations and social factors that can maintain psychological distress, or explain treatment resistance. For instance, parents of your client might not have the education level needed to fully understand how to support their child's learning, they might have a very, very low income and struggle to earn enough to support themselves and their child. As someone living in the United Kingdom, we have a good welfare system, so support is available. Not all countries have this level of support.  Additionally, another reason why learning the Latin American perspective is useful is because your client might not be from Latin America. Yet they could live in an area with a high Latin American population and the comments, discrimination and negative attitudes from other people might decrease the mental health of your client. For example, other people in the community might be bullying your client with a learning disability because they lack the education and therefore, understanding that they have a learning disability, it isn't their fault and they need support.  Just a thought. The final fact for this section is that the Latin American perspective is a healthy reminder for all of us that all physical health and mental health conditions are holistic in nature. You can try to support people with learning disabilities legally, but your support means little if you don't have the education, healthcare and accessibility plans in place to support them. This is why it's flat out critical that we always remember to work with other disciplines, other professionals and with the community and social support networks. We'll only be able to support a client with the best support if we work together. Ultimately, the Latin America perspective on learning disabilities can be summarized as varied with different levels of success. There are countries like Brazil that have the legal framework to protect people with disabilities from discrimination and empower them. Yet economic disparities impact their implementation. Then there are challenges for people in Latin America to have access to an education and employment. Yet there are increasing advocacy groups and social movements fighting for positive change.  What are the Scandinavian Perceptions of Learning Disabilities? I’ve saved my favourite perspective until last because I am so excited to share the Scandinavian perceptions on learning disabilities, and disabilities more generally. I enjoy a lot of Scandinavian ideas on topics ranging from mental health to offender rehabilitation and a whole host of other brilliant topics. Now, I get to learn even more about their perceptions about disabilities and I get to share it with all of you. This is going to be a lot of fun. As a result, Sweden, Norway, Denmark amongst other Scandinavian countries are often seen as the best in the world when it comes to their approach to disability. Since Scandinavian countries have robust welfare systems as well as inclusive policies in place, because for Scandinavian countries, it isn’t about just empowerment or giving disabled people equal rights to able people. In Scandinavia, people with disabilities, whether they’re physical or learning disabilities, are integrated into all facets of public life. I just want to stop there for a moment because that very basic idea is fascinating to me, and it shows a massive difference between the Scandinavian and the Western view on disabilities. The West might focus on inclusion and empowerment, but this is always thought about after the fact. For example, after a building was built and designed, after a school was created and after a housing project was designed. In the Western world, it is always Able People first and disabled people are always an afterthought. Therefore, the very idea that disabled people are thought about in the first place, I think it is amazing, positive and it’s actually heartwarming. So many of the children in my special needs school do not only have mental health conditions, but they have physical disabilities too. Many of them live in situations, houses and more that are not made for people with disabilities and it is a nightmare for them. Yet if a housing project or another aspect of public life focused on people with disabilities first and foremost then I know so many of the children I see every day would have a much, much easier home life. In addition, Scandinavian countries focus on universal design principles so these environments as well as products are accessible to everyone, regardless of whether they have a disability or not, to the greatest possible extent. And this is what I want to focus on for a moment. Some critics would argue that there is no point thinking about disabled people from the start of a project because it is impossible to make it completely equal for them. Perhaps that is true. Perhaps that is false. Yet the entire point of becoming more inclusive and supporting people with disabilities is that we are trying. We are trying to make their lives better, empower them and we are trying to make them capable of participating and contributing to society as much as possible. If we can only get a little closer towards equality in a given project, then that is still fantastic. As long as we try to give people with disabilities the same opportunities as people without disabilities. Then that is okay. We have to try, and Scandinavian people understand this idea. This is something we should all be trying to understand better. Furthermore, in Sweden, there is the Swedish Discrimination Act and this includes direct support measures for people with disabilities and this ensures they have equal opportunities. Also, Sweden has a massive emphasis on educational inclusion so students with disabilities are integrated into regular classrooms and they’re supported by specialised staff as needed. That is mind-blowing to me as someone in the United Kingdom. I am speaking very generally here, but generally speaking in the United Kingdom, when we have someone with a learning disability, we rarely admit them to a mainstream school, or a “regular” classroom. They are sent to special needs schools where there are staff. Please note, I did not say that there are trained staff or specialised staff that are trained in how to support those with special educational needs. As I am still employed by a special needs school, I cannot say too much, but I am definitely not a learning disability specialist. I don’t really know many in the entire school. That is all I will say however, because I need money, I need the experience and I would like to keep my job. Anyway, the very idea that we would keep students with learning disabilities in a regular classroom is rather insane or flat out weird in the United Kingdom. We just wouldn’t do it, and I do feel like this creates a lot of spare room for misconceptions, lies and even misinformation to be spread about people with learning disabilities. Therefore, I certainly think we can learn from Scandinavian countries about integrating people with disabilities in the education system, all aspects of society and make them just a normal part of society. A group of people without shame, without separation and without exclusion. On the whole, Scandinavian perceptions of learning disabilities highlight the importance of systemic support and these ensure practical inclusion at all levels of society. Also, Scandinavian countries focus on universal design principles so they are accessible to everyone, they have a strong welfare system to support individuals with disabilities, they focus on integration in education, as well as there is legislation to promote inclusion and equality. Clinical Psychology Conclusion As you’ve seen throughout today’s psychology podcast episode, across the world and its different cultures, there are a lot of different thoughts and feelings towards physical and learning disabilities. These cultural attitudes are influenced by historical, social and religious contexts, but despite these differences, there is, thankfully, a positive global trend towards fostering equality and inclusion for people with disabilities. Largely, this is because there is greater awareness and this increased awareness grows support for policies, wider social acceptance as well as community-based programmes. Personally, I’ve really enjoyed learning about different cultures, their contexts and how they perceive learning disabilities, amongst disabilities more generally. Not only has it been important for my own awareness as an aspiring psychologist, but also as a teaching assistant at a special needs school. It’s given me new ideas, new perspectives and a greater understanding of the potential challenges and benefits that my students face in their wide social support networks. In addition, it is flat out critical that we learn about these global perspectives because to be able to be global citizens, it is important that all of us as aspiring or qualified psychologists or mental health professionals are able to recognise and respect cultural differences when working with people with disabilities. This understanding can lead to greater and more effective strategies in promoting mental health, physical health and any other therapeutic interventions we are doing with the client. As a result, an additional takeaway that all listeners and readers of the podcast can do is to start or continue to advocate for inclusive policies, support your local grassroot organisations and engage in cross-cultural dialogue and understanding so all of us can work towards improving the lives of people with disabilities everywhere. Also, I would add make sure you share your knowledge about disabilities with people, because knowledge empowers all of us to take active steps towards advocating for change within our local communities and beyond. For example, you could see what your mental health service, your employer or your local community is doing to support those with physical or learning disabilities. If you find something you like then support it, get involved and if there isn’t anything locally, make something. In my opinion, I understand that I have just asked a massive thing of all of you and you might be wondering what I’m doing. Not only do I work at a special needs school so I can support, empower and educate people with learning disabilities every working day. Yet I am doing podcast episodes and sharing my knowledge and experience with other people too. Even if you learn one thing about a learning disability and share it with someone every week for 52 weeks (one year), you would have made a massive positive impact compared to doing nothing at all. Just a thought. What small action could you take today to improve the life of someone with a learning disability?   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Gamification of Autism: A Guide to Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Psychotherapy. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Alnahdi, G. H., Saloviita, T., & Elhadi, A. (2019). Inclusive education in Saudi Arabia and Finland: pre‐service teachers’ attitudes. Support for learning, 34(1), 71-85. Artiles, A. J. (2023). Beyond responsiveness to identity badges: Future research on culture in disability and implications for response to intervention. In Mapping the field (pp. 310-331). Routledge. Grigorenko, E. L., Compton, D. L., Fuchs, L. S., Wagner, R. K., Willcutt, E. G., & Fletcher, J. M. (2020). Understanding, educating, and supporting children with specific learning disabilities: 50 years of science and practice. American psychologist, 75(1), 37. https://know-the-ada.com/cultural-perspectives-on-disability-from-various-countries/ Jansen-van Vuuren, J., & Aldersey, H. M. (2020). Stigma, acceptance and belonging for people with IDD across cultures. Current developmental disorders reports, 7(3), 163-172. Lipka, O., Khouri, M., & Shecter-Lerner, M. (2020). University faculty attitudes and knowledge about learning disabilities. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(5), 982-996. Moberg, S., Muta, E., Korenaga, K., Kuorelahti, M., & Savolainen, H. (2020). Struggling for inclusive education in Japan and Finland: teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education. European journal of special needs education, 35(1), 100-114. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

In a 2024 survey, Ainvest found that the global true crime podcast audience is worth over 3 billion US dollars and the podcast genre has experienced a major weekly increase of 20% since 2020. In addition, it's a common trope of the mystery genre to feature true crime fans, armchair detectives amongst other non-professionals involved in a crime story because they love true crime. This never would have happened a decade ago. Therefore, in this forensic psychology podcast episode, you'll learn why do people enjoy true crime, how does personality impact true crime consumption and more. If you enjoy learning about criminal psychology, the true crime phenomenon and social psychology, then you'll love today's episode.  Today's psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Criminal Profiling: A Forensic and Criminal Psychology Guide To FBI and Statistical Profiling. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Why Are People Obsessed with True Crime? In addition to the 2024 survey where Ainvest found that the global true crime podcast audience is worth over 3 billion US dollars and the podcast genre has experienced a major weekly increase of 20% since 2020. True crime podcasting is the largest genre across a wide range of platforms as well as it is a very popular book genre with multiple true crime books being international bestsellers.  Personally, I don't enjoy true crime, if you enjoy reading or listening about murder, sexual violence and other types of crimes in your free time then more power to you. And I want to take a moment to remind all of us that it's okay that we all have different hobbies and interests. I love anime, listening to writing podcasts and watching writing videos in my spare time as well as psychology podcasts and more. Some of you won't have the same interests as me and that's okay.  If you enjoy true crime podcasts then I'm happy for you.  Personally, the reason why I don't enjoy them is because I prefer fictional crimes compared to knowing exactly how dark people can be in the real world, and I have seen and experienced enough darkness, trauma and abuse over the years. I don't need to be reminded of the real world. I want to escape into fictional worlds, even when they are crime dramas.  Yet there are plenty of people that love the true crime genre. Originally, this seems counterintuitive because we have a basic instinct to survive, protect ourselves and protect our relatives. Although, learning about murder, kidnappings and other crimes might increase our anxiety, our positive view of the world and possibly our communities. You might think it's a good idea to actively avoid true crime entertainment.  Nonetheless, as I always say psychology is not common sense. Therefore, in the rest of this psychology podcast episode, we'll learn why people enjoy true crime based on the five reasons uncovered in a survey by Perchtold-Stefan et al. (2025). Why is True Crime a Coping Mechanism? At first, I thought the idea of people using true crime podcasts and media as a coping mechanism was strange, but I realised that people just want to cope, survive and protect their mental health at the end of the day. This can be seen across a wide range of mental health conditions, so whilst there is no relationship between true crime consumption and mental health conditions. It is a useful reminder that as aspiring or qualified psychologists that we shouldn’t judge others because of their coping mechanisms. Then again, we must ensure that our personal coping mechanisms are healthy, adaptive and they have a lot more benefits than negatives. Therefore, some people decide to engage in true crime entertainment because they want to learn how to engage in cognitive reframing of a bad situation. For example, getting kidnapped, robbed or mugged. Since true crime allows us to learn from the experience of other people. In addition, these people are more likely to acknowledge the emotions that true crime brings up without judgment, engage in problem-solving behaviour, accurately label their distressing emotions as well as practice mindful behaviours. For instance, staying present in an unpleasant emotional state. In my experience, this reminds me of something I did during the seven months after my rape when my own mental health was very severe. I occasionally engaged in rape-related content so I could learn from others and it was helpful to some extent to see how others dealt with their emotions, their PTSD and other negative mental health outcomes. How Does True Crime Lower Anxiety? This is definitely something I didn’t think would be a benefit of engaging with true crime. This is another example of psychology not being common sense. I firmly believed that true crime media would increase our anxiety but it can actually lower it. As a result of, similar to how you get less anxious the more you practise for a driving test, a job interview or subsequent dates with the same person, exposing yourself to true crime can help you feel “ready” for an important event. Since this sense of preparedness that true crime media provides people is called “defensive vigilance”. This means that a person aims to remain prepared, calm as well as responsive to the potential threat of others around them. Again, at first you might think that this “defensive vigilance” would make people feel constantly on edge, tense and unsafe going about their normal life because they “know” what other people are capable of because of true crime content. Yet in reality, there is evidence that suggests true crime consumption can actually reduce a person’s anxiety about possible fears of the outside world. Due to true crime consumption gives a person the illusion of being more prepared for the threat of a real-life attack. Of course, we don’t know if true crime consumption actually makes a person better prepared to defend themselves from the threat of a possible crime, but the ability to stay calm in a frightening situation is highly recommended. In my opinion, I would add that crime drama consumption at the very least (I understand this is different to true crime consumption but I think there are parallels) does not prepare you for crimes as much as you might believe. For example, whilst sexual violence isn’t a very common topic on crime dramas (yes, I’m ignoring Law and Order: Special Victims Unit) , the crime is still covered on different crime dramas from time to time. The survivor’s stories are told, their actions and the investigation around the crime reveal more details. I watched them, I enjoyed the programmes and yet it did not prepare me in the slightest for my own rape in 2024. Just my two-pence. How Does True Crime Consumption Distort Our Worldview? On the other hand, for other people, engaging in true crime content leads them to think that there’s an increased risk of them becoming victims of crimes. Since the more afraid you are of something, the more likely you are to believe that this will actually happen to you. For example, let’s say that you recently watched a true crime podcast episode on a mugging that ended in a homicide, and you believe because of various factors, like your neighbourhood, that you or your partner are likely to be mugged. Whether this is based on rational thinking doesn’t matter at the moment. You’re likely to be afraid that you’re partner and yourself are likely to be mugged so you’re also going to engage in various safety behaviours to “protect” yourself. When in reality, all these safety behaviours are doing is reinforcing your fear and anxiety about being mugged. Ultimately, often our fears create our beliefs of the facts. How is True Crime Consumption Linked To Aggression and Disagreeableness? Interestingly, if we step into personality psychology for a moment, it turns out that people who consume true crime media are more likely to score higher on measures of disagreeableness as well as aggression. Since disagreeable people tend to reflect lower levels of empathy and higher levels of hostility towards others. Therefore, disagreeable people are more confrontational and they can appear less concerned with the well-being of others. As well as aggressive people tend to view all situations through a lens of violence or anger so they tend to be more interested in confrontational or violent content. Furthermore, I’ll build upon this in more depth in a moment, but when I researched the above paragraph, my mind immediately went towards the realisation that people high in empathy would struggle to watch true crime content. I imagine myself as a person with an average level of empathy but honestly, I hate the idea knowing that real people had to experience these horrible, foul and twisted crimes. I think it’s outrageous that offenders inflicted these sort of illegal behaviours on others. Therefore, if a person had a higher level of empathy, I hate to imagine the sort of emotional pain they would experience watching true crime content. As a result, when it comes to engaging in true crime content, it’s healthy and recommended to maintain a healthy amount of denial and distancing. This is why a person’s own levels of aggressive impulses and hostility can help or harm their mental health when engaging in this acquired taste of media. How Is True Crime Consumption Impacted By Gender? There is a very clear gender split when it comes to true crime consumption because women make up the vast majority of the audience. This is even more true when it comes to consuming true crime podcasts. This is because women tend to engage more in true crime because it helps them to regulate their emotions as well as it makes them feel safe in an unpredictable world. My nan was a brilliant example of a woman who loved true crime. She used to watch all the murder, kidnapping and all sorts of other true crime programmes on TV. I remember going to her house as a child and we were looking through her recordings once and she had pages upon pages of true crime programmes. To say she was obsessed, I think would actually be fair. She didn’t go to a club, talk to anyone about true crime and she didn’t read lots of true crime books but she did love her programmes. Furthermore, the very fact that women are using true crime to regulate their emotions and provide a feeling of safety is even more tragic and heartbreaking when we consider that women are likely than men to be victimised and in the past few years, there has been great awareness raised about violence against women. You only need to look at sexual violence to see that the vast, vast majority of survivors are women. Therefore, it could be argued that true crime consumption could be a training exercise for women so if they are ever the victim of a crime, they know how to react. It's heart-breaking that in the 21 st  century this is even needed, and this is why it is important that we raise awareness, educate everyone and we do not tolerate violence or crimes against anyone at all. Nonetheless, just because women make up the majority of the true crime audience, it doesn’t mean that men do not engage in the genre at all. In fact, men who engage in true crime content tend to have a higher income bracket. This might be because these men have more disposable income, and in turn, time for leisure activities. Another reason for this might be because men in higher income brackets might have more access to available sources. On the whole, the men and women who engage in true crime content tend to do better with unexpected disappointments in their life as well as they’re better at overcoming fears of the unknown in situations that appear dangerous. Personally, I think this is a great benefit of true crime content because it teaches us that life is unexpected, things will sadly happen to you that you don’t expect and that’s okay. It will not feel great, okay or pleasant in the moment and it might take you weeks, months or years to recover, but you will be okay in the end. Being a victim of a crime can be traumatising and if all my trauma over the years has taught me anything, it is that if you take one day at a time, sometimes one minute at a time, and you keep moving forward with professional support to guide you. You can recover and you’ll survive, heal and thrive. Engaging in true crime content might help us with that. Forensic Psychology Conclusion When I originally thought of doing a psychology podcast episode on true crime, I really didn’t know what to expect because the world of true crime is so alien to me. Yet I have really enjoyed today’s episode. We got to learn how true crime consumption lowers anxiety, distorts our worldview, provides people with a coping skill, has a gender divide and how it is impacted by aggression and disagreeableness. It has been a lot of fun and I think this podcast episode is a reminder that it’s okay, it’s fun and it can be an absolute pleasure to explore topics that we would never ever normally engage in. On the whole, some people might see true crime content as a great chance to explore a niche world that hopefully very few of us will ever get to actually experience in our own lives, because hopefully very few of us will ever become victims or survivors of crimes. Yet if you are a reader or listener who enjoys true crime books, podcasts or other forms of media then this might be a great thing. And as I always say, you need to do what makes you happy, helps you to relax and helps you practice self-care. If you enjoy true crime content, then more power to you, and whether you enjoy true crime or not, ask yourself a little question. Why do you enjoy it or not?   I really hope you enjoyed today’s forensic psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Criminal Profiling: A Forensic and Criminal Psychology Guide To FBI and Statistical Profiling. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Forensic Psychology References and Further Reading Higgins, M. (2023). The Impact of True Crime Consumption on Violent Crime Victim’s Mental Health (Doctoral dissertation). Ingraham, J. (2022). The Relationship Between Gender Identity and True Crime Consumption (Bachelor's thesis, Ohio University). Karnes, J. L. (2025). Guilty Pleasures: The Psychological Effects of True Crime Media Consumption. Miller, K. (2022). The Effects Of True Crime Media Consumption On Jurors’ Criminal Justice Orientations. Pennicott, M. (2024). True crime consumption predicts biological sex and culture’s wellbeing: interlinking defensive behaviour and perceived victimisation (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin Business School). Perchtold‐Stefan, C., Rominger, C., Ceh, S., Sattler, K., Veit, S. V., & Fink, A. (2025). Out of the dark–Psychological perspectives on people's fascination with true crime. British Journal of Psychology. Rush, M. O. (2022). True Crime Media Consumption and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (Master's thesis, Purdue University Global). I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

As a psychology Masters student at the time of writing with a massive interest in clinical psychology, I really like looking into therapies. This is even more true when I’m undergoing therapy and counselling for trauma, so when I found out my rape counselling was based on the Three-Stage Recovery Model by Judith Herman, I wanted to learn more. Granted, it took me 9 weeks to finally get round to researching the model in-depth but better late than never. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what are the three stages included in this recovery model, why are they useful and how does the model work to treat trauma. If you enjoy learning about mental health, clinical trauma work and psychotherapy then this is a brilliant podcast episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Healing As A Survivor: A Personal and Clinical Psychology Guide to Healing From Sexual Violence.  Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What Is The Three-Stage Recovery Model By Judith Herman? The more I read about trauma work and the psychological models designed to explain how to treat trauma, the more I realise how important American psychiatrist Judith Herman’s recovery model actually is. This model forms the foundation of a lot of psychotherapies as well as it is the basis of the specialist rape counselling that I underwent between September and December 2024. I technically have one session left at the time of writing but we’ve done all the therapeutic work. Personally, whilst I’ll explain this model in a moment, as a psychology student, podcaster and writer, I find this model immensely useful. Since it explains how to deal with the trauma responses and gradually helps a client to return to a clinically normal life where they can control their actions, do the activities they want to do and they can enjoy life again. As a client with sexual trauma, I found this model even more useful. It isn’t a linear model which bugged me and my autistic brain, but it is very helpful. It allowed me to basically get rid of my Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, decrease my triggers dramatically and I can actually do things again with my life. For example, last week, I went out with a new friend one-on-one for the first time since my rape. That was amazing and so major for me because before the very notion of spending one-on-one time with anyone but my best friend would cause me to have a mental health crisis. Ultimately, the three stages of the recovery model are: ·       Safety and Stabilisation ·       Remembrance and Mourning ·       Reconnection and Integration During each of these stages, the therapist works with the client to create an environment where the client can safely process what happened to them without any sense of urgency. This helps to ensure the recovery is sustainable as well as empowering. What Is the Safety and Stabilisation Stage? The first stage of the recovery model is the “Safety and Stabilisation” stage and when I’ve looked into trauma work in a psychotherapy context I’ve always heard rumours about stabilisation work, but it is only through my counselling that I was able to see what that looks like. Therefore, stabilisation work is the very bedrock and foundation of all the therapy work that happens afterwards. The client absolutely needs to feel physically and emotionally safe before they can ever hope to engage with their trauma. There is a real-world caveat here but I’ll address it later. In addition, a large focus for the therapist during stabilisation work is to build a rapport and ensure that clients feel comfortable with them. I always say how as therapists we are asking clients to reveal their own personal, dark moments to us, people who are effectively strangers. That takes a lot of courage and a lot of trust, so we need to earn that trust quickly and effectively. One technique of helping clients feel comfortable is that trauma-informed counsellors must be prepared to disclose small amounts of personal information about themselves if the client asks a question. This is useful in building trust. Especially, as there is a relationship between the client and therapist called the therapeutic alliance, and if I adopt a marketing term “we buy from people we know, like and trust”. We can adapt this idea to psychology because “we like working with therapists, we know, like and trust”. Therefore, having a therapist open up to us about themselves helps us to know them so we can hopefully like them and trust them after a while too. Judith Herman herself uses the comparison that clients like to know who’s “holding the rope” during their therapy sessions so they can develop their sense of safety. Just like how a climber likes to know who’s holding their rope (safety line) during a climbing challenge. Moreover, stabilisation work involves reducing chaos and crisis in a client’s life so this might involve helping them to create a sense or environment of normalcy within the therapeutic environment. This helps the client to feel secure enough to explore their trauma. Especially, because trauma survivors typically feel unsafe internally (within themselves) as well as externally (in the physical world). This is why trauma-informed therapists work with clients to understand the difference between their internal and external realities and help them to learn techniques to manage hyperarousal and other trauma responses. In another podcast episode, you’ll learn about Window of Tolerance for this reason. On the whole, stabilisation work focuses on stabilisation techniques like psychoeducation, self-regulation and boundary-setting strategies. As well as therapists don’t force disclosures or force progress too quickly because clients need to be able to progress their trauma at their own speed. Also, therapists help clients during stabilisation work to reduce chaos and crisis in their life, create a safe space and give the clients tools to help them separate their internal and external realities. Something that is highly useful for dealing with flashbacks and other trauma responses. What Is The Remembrance and Mourning Stage? The second stage of Herman’s recovery model is the Remembrance and Mourning stage that focuses on reconstructing the trauma through remembrance and then mourning. Unfortunately, clients can experience this stage as a timeless descent with no clear endpoint. Interestingly enough, I actually experienced this sense and it was painful because it felt like I was processing things, remembering a lot of awful details about my rape but I didn’t know what I was working towards. I didn’t even know where the counselling was heading towards and I felt confused that I wasn’t expressively telling her what happened during my rape. Additionally, during this second stage, it isn’t unusual for clients to experience grief over various losses in their lives. For example, their loss of innocence, some failed relationships and even loss of family support or friends. This is important to remember when we consider that a lot of survivors, even more so for survivors abused within families, are often rejected or are faced with disbelief when they disclose their trauma. This leads clients to feel isolated as trauma can sever family ties. This connects to the topic of Rape Grief that I talk about in another episode. Moving onto the mourning aspect of this stage, I was no exception to this issue, a lot of clients mourn over the loss of years (or months) that their trauma has controlled their life. Clients feel like the trauma has robbed them of time that could have been spent in healthy relationships, personal growth and fulfilling careers. This is why it’s important that therapists support clients with empathy and without judgment so the client isn’t rushed. Personally, when it came to my childhood trauma, I was angry for so long that I wasn’t able to form healthy friendships, relationships, get a boyfriend, kiss and enjoy so many normal things that normal teenagers are allowed to do. I mourned that loss for so, so long. Equally, when it came to my sexual trauma, I mourned for months that I was going through my PTSD, intense social anxiety, depression and all my other trauma responses. I mourned for the lost friendships, the lost ability to do fun things and I mourned for the impact it had/ has (still present tenses to be fair) on my writing, podcasting and everything else that I flat out love. During this second stage, the therapist’s main job is to help a client process these losses and provide a safe space for a client to recount their trauma without the pressure of time or any expectations. Clarity, courage and trust are all needed for therapists and clients throughout this stage. What is The Reconnection and Integration Stage of The Recovery Model? In the final stage of the model, therapists work with clients to help them work towards reconnecting with their world as well as integrating their trauma into a new sense of self. For example, during this stage, clients regain trust in their relationships because they’ve learnt how to extend their trust and when it’s best not to extend trust to someone. As well as this stage involves something called “reparenting”. I first came across this term in my counselling during August 2023 and this is a term that describes the therapist’s role in modelling healthy boundaries as well as relationships. When it comes to trauma survivors, this can include relearning what are, how to have and how to recognise healthy sexual relationships. Something that myself and a lot of different survivors find immensely difficult, because this “reparenting” is often the first time that someone has spoken to us about what on Earth healthy relationships look like. In addition, a major part of reconnection during this stage is the survivor developing and maintaining their ability to form and sustain healthy relationships. This doesn’t only mean sexual relationships, but it can include friendships and familial relationships too. I talk a lot about these aspects of my trauma recovery in my book Healing As A Survivor . Also, for survivors of sexual abuse and sexual violence, a lot of survivors have to rediscover their sexual identity and sexual preferences, which is immensely challenging, because this only adds to the struggle that survivors have around their sense of self. Furthermore, you tend to be able to see progress in this stage of trauma recovery in a few different ways. For instance, as clients progress, they can enjoy intimacy or new experiences without associating it with their abuser or feeling like they need to be protected from their abuser. And the reason why these are amazing, wonderful moments for survivors is because they show the client is growing in their autonomy and ability to live with the fear and trauma responses that have ruled their life for so long. I know for me, being able to go out with a newish friend one-on-one was an amazing experience, because for the past 7 months that would have been flat out impossible. It would have caused me to have a panic attack, a breakdown and I would have had constant trauma responses. That had happened a good few times. However, this is a difficult and scary stage of trauma recovery because it’s an immensely weird and disorienting feeling to know that you don’t need to be protected from your attacker. Also, it is so disorienting to feel safe secure to experience life and pleasure without trauma responses. I talk more about this in my healing book, but I found it weird because I had been having severe PTSD for 7 months and then it wasn’t. It was weird to experience such an extreme change. Clinical Psychology Conclusion As much as I love the trauma recovery model because I have experienced it in the real world and I know how it can transform lives for the better, it isn’t the best applied psychological model. Since the model itself proposes that these stages are very linear, but in reality, you tend to work through all these stages at the same time to different extents. When I was talking to my counsellor about this model, she explained how we work a lot on Stage 1 at the beginning but during stabilization work, you are processing the trauma too, and doing a little integration work too. Whereas towards the end of the therapy, you’re working more on integration work and less on processing trauma and stabilisation work, but those stages are still present too. Ultimately, the Three-Stage Recovery Model is a humane and thorough model that provides a helpful framework for trauma therapy. It focuses on client safety and respecting client autonomy during the healing process because the model stresses it is the client that controls their pace, not the therapist. Then the therapist facilitates the client’s recovery by respecting the complex nature of trauma and provides the client with a safe space. As well as therapists and clients need to understand what can be achieved in the limited number of sessions that a mental health service provides so it’s easier to maintain realistic therapeutic goals. Yet we need to remember as aspiring and qualified psychologists that trauma work is not easier on us . I know I always talk about how important focusing on our clients are but honestly, we are so important too. We cannot help people if we don’t look after ourselves and if our mental health isn’t as good as it could be. Therefore, clinical supervision and self-care are critical for therapists because trauma work takes an emotional toll on us so we need to practice good self-care and we need to balance what our clients need with our capacity. As well as trauma-informed therapists should receive ongoing professional support so regular discussions in supervision and peer consultations can be useful in maintaining their effectiveness and well-being. Finally, a supportive work environment is important too so therapists and clients can work in a safe environment and have the time needed for meaningful, sustained healing. That will ultimately change our client’s life for the better.     I really hope you enjoyed today’s forensic psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Healing As A Survivor: A Personal and Clinical Psychology Guide to Healing From Sexual Violence.  Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Herman, J. L. (1998). Recovery from psychological trauma. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 52(S1), S98-S103. Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence--from domestic abuse to political terror. Hachette uK. Herman, J. L., & van der Kolk, B. A. (2020). Treating complex traumatic stress disorders in adults: Scientific foundations and therapeutic models. Guilford Publications. Mendelsohn, M., Herman, J. L., Schatzow, E., Coco, M., Kallivayalil, D., & Levitan, J. (2011). The trauma recovery group: A guide for practitioners. Guilford Press. Zaleski, K. L., Johnson, D. K., & Klein, J. T. (2016). Grounding Judith Herman’s trauma theory within interpersonal neuroscience and evidence-based practice modalities for trauma treatment. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 86(4), 377-393. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

Returning to The Psychology World Podcast this week is the brilliant Leanne Al-Mrayat. In this careers in psychology podcast episode, we talk about her experience as a psychology research assistant working in rare genetic disorders and behaviour. By the end of this psychology podcast episode, you’ll understand how to become a research assistant, what a typical day is like as a research assistant, tips for becoming one and so much more. If you have an interest in psychological research, careers in academia and becoming a researcher, you’ll love today’s episode. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by A Year In Psychology: A Psychology Student’s Guide to Placement Years, Working in Academia and More . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Who is Leanne Al-Mrayat? Leanne Al-Mrayat is a research assistant at the University of Cambridge researching brain and behaviour in rare genetic conditions. Prior to starting her role at Cambridge, she completed her Masters in Applied Pediatric Neuropsychology at University College London and her Bachelor’s in Psychology at the University of Kent.  Her research interests are in neurogenetics, neurodevelopment and mental health within different clinical groups, as well as understanding the link between behavioural and neuroimaging findings. In her free time she enjoys reading, exploring new coffee shops, and journaling. What Is It Like Being a Psychology Research Assistant? Connor: Brilliant. So you're also a research assistant, which is something else that I want to talk to you about. That sounds really impressive. So could you please tell us about that? Leanne: Yes. So I'm very fortunate. I am currently working as a research assistant, investigating neurodevelopment and the neuroscience behind rare genetic conditions. And I work at the University of Cambridge with a wonderful team here. And, basically, I get to meet a lot of wonderful individuals and just learn more about them and trying to better understand...because with rare genetic conditions, you really don't have a lot of understanding of what their behavioral abilities are going to be like, what their cognitive abilities are going to be like. So our project and our team is just basically trying to better understand and characterize all of these rare and not common genetic conditions. What's A Typical Day Like As A Research Assistant? Connor: Thank you. And what's a typical day for you as a research assistant? Leanne: It varies day to day, and I think it keeps things exciting. So most days, I'm definitely working on my PC, on an Excel sheet of some sort. If we're working on literature review, I'd be kind of preparing materials and sorting out some of the materials for literature reviews. Some days it'll be a lot of very client-heavy instance, where I'd be interacting with a lot of the families that reach out to us, kind of explaining a bit more about our project, what ways they can be involved in. And then days where we have data collection, I'd just be busy making sure that whatever neuroimaging method that we're using is prepared and ready, and that it's working, that basically the technology is working, and then just preparing to go, whether it's a home visit where I go visit the families or whether it's a visit at the unit. So I'd just be preparing for data collection sessions. So it really varies day after day. It depends on what project you have going on and what the schedule is looking like. What Types Of Neuroimaging Do Research Assistants Use? Connor: Okay, nice. So what sort of neuroimaging methods had you used? Because as you stated earlier, I did an EEG study, and I knew when something went wrong with that equipment, it was quite frustrating. Leanne: Of course. I think it's kind of the case. I do use EEG. We use MRI, MEG. Those are the three main ones that we use. Connor: Okay, wow. And, like, the MRI is something that I would love to use in the future. But I also know, though, that...so do you remember Andrew Martin from the university? Leanne: I do remember Andrew, yes. Connor: So recently, though, like, he bought some new...it's not quite fMRI, but it's like that sort of, like, technology. So it's sort of like an EEG sort of upper, but measures the amount of oxygenated activity in the brain, which is actually really exciting. And it does sound really cool. Leanne: That's similar to fMRI. Wow. Connor: Yeah. But it's a much smaller version. Smaller version. It's cheaper, but it does have a few more limitations, like you can't move around too much and data can actually be, like, interfered with similar to, like, EEG. But I think that it's really exciting about where this technology is actually going up because fMRI, it costs like half a million pounds. But as the technology gets smaller and easier, it makes more, like, affordable for universities and other researchers. Leanne: Of course, I think it's so amazing that this is now being introduced. Is this for the University of Kent that's being introduced that? Connor: Yes. Leanne: How exciting. I think it will really open up avenues for research at the uni. That would be so exciting. So props to Andrew for sorting that out because I must imagine there was a lot of paperwork that comes around with setting up a new kind of or novel method of neuroimaging. Yeah, I think it's definitely not the easiest thing of trying to get these neuroimaging studies set up. I think it's a lot of work that goes and a lot of planning and prep. But I think the data that we get out of this is really, really valuable. And it really tells us a lot about the human brain, which is just such a fascinating topic, in my opinion. Connor: Definitely. And so what's your favorite project at the moment? Because I know that you mentioned that you are quite a few at running. Leanne: Yeah, I kind of work within different projects, not necessarily that...I love all of them. And I really do enjoy being involved in all of them. I can't really pinpoint one that I enjoy the most. I think I do like the planning beforehand. I like making sure that everything is checked off. Obviously, there's a bit of anxiety with that. But I like the planning and the kind of anticipation of we have a kind of data collection session going on. I think that's my most enjoyable part of all the projects I work on. Connor: Definitely. And I do agree because the data analysis part, that can just be quite long, quite painful. And even while I'm writing the ethics proposal, writing ethics, I don't mind, which I know gives me quite a lot of weird looks whenever I say that, but planning the data collection is fun. Leanne: I think it kind of gives you peace of mind for me. And it just feels like there's so many little different building blocks that I'm kind of adding together to make sure that everything runs smoothly, which I'm definitely one of the parts I enjoy the most. Yeah, I think each part of research is just enjoyable in its own way. I think data collection is enjoyable in its own way. Data analysis, when you get findings and trying to linking them to theories that are existing or trying to basically merge different theories is also as exciting just in different ways. How Do You Become A Research Assistant? Connor: True. So how did you become a research assistant? Because I know there's lots of university students who would love to become one. Leanne: I think it was definitely a matter of kind of putting myself out there asking around. So I asked my personal supervisor if this was at UCL, if she had any opportunities that she knew coming up. We were very fortunate with UCL that we had a range of lectures coming from all across the UK. So they weren't all just based at UCL, which meant that, you know, if any opportunities kind of emerged anywhere else...my personal tutor, if she found anything that was kind of relevant to me, she was very happy to share that with me. So she kindly shared one. This is after months of job hunting. She shared one, and she's like, "I think this would be a good fit for you. You have the people skills for it." And I was like, "Let's go. Let's apply. Why not?" Really didn't have any kind of expectations. Just went with the interview. The team is fantastic. And then I'm very fortunate that I did get the job. I think the things that I am happy that I did, and I think the things that I wish people... I think if I was younger, I kind of wish I told myself that maybe in the early stages of my uni life would be not to underestimate the value of the projects that you do at university. I think choosing the right project for your final year project, your master's thesis, or even for a module that is research more based, I think these definitely are stuff that you should be bringing and putting on your CV, especially if you're just graduating from university. I think I, at first, was very unsure whether this would be relevant experience, but it's actually some of my most meaningful experience and stuff that I talked about in my interviews. So I had in addition to obviously the amazing project that I was working with on Amir, I also, my last year, did a project at the University of Kent. I did a project that looked at researching individuals with intellectual disability. And I had this opportunity of carrying out an interview with individuals that had intellectual disability. And that was something that I talked to about, and it really helped me develop my skills in interviewing and data collection. And, obviously, that was done as a university student. I think also it's important to do things outside or extracurriculars outside of university that just show your passion towards the field that you're in, A, and B, kind of develop your skills, but not from an academic perspective, but more so just from other equally important skills to have in the work job. So I was working as a part-time an early years' practitioner. So I was working at a nursery part-time, and in that job, it just meant I'm having to kind of manage it in the midst of my master's commitments. But also I was working with kids, interacting with kids all day. I, basically, kind of built that resilience of kind of still staying calm when things kind of go out of control, because, you know, you're working with kids, nothing's always going to be running very smoothly all the time. So I think these are all skills and things I added on my CV that really helped me kind of get to where I am and get the job that I have. Connor: Well, thank you. That's really useful because I never thought about putting my research experience on my CV. But similar to you, I had an email last week from my master's supervisor, and she said, "Oh, well,  I've actually got this PhD opportunity through a friend of mine. If you send her your CV, she might want to like talk at you." So for the first time ever, I had to put my research experience on it. When I was going through like my five different studies, because I did a bunch of extra curriculum ones during my master's, I was like, "Oh, wow, I've actually learned quite a lot of skills." So I really am going to actually keep doing that in the future. Leanne: Of course. Connor: Because it does show other skills. That's brilliant and useful. Leanne: Of course. And I think if anyone's interested in pursuing academia further, it's definitely the things you did. Just never underestimate the experience that you had at university because university, in its essence, is trying to get you ready for real life jobs and life outside of full-time academia. So it's very important to kind of really think wisely about the type of project that you want to do and what you want to get out of those in terms of skills, but also to make sure that you include that. So it could genuinely be just under your time at the University of Kent or whatever university, just kind of list out these are some of the projects I was involved in. I sometimes would do that. If it's not necessarily a very research intensive job, I would just kind of list it out briefly. But if it was a research intensive job, I tried to cater my CV a bit more for that. So I think that's another thing. Just catering your CV to the role that you're applying to makes a world of difference. Connor: And that's something I can't do. I'm quite horrifically bad at times, though. Leanne: It's okay. We live and we learn. Connor: Yeah, because when you're applying to so many jobs... Because let's face it, getting a job after graduation is really hard though. But sometimes you just scattergun, even though I know it's a lot better to just take a moment, customize it a little more than you might normally do. And then you might be a bit more successful. But just to mention a bit more of a applied at clinical psychology aspect, but if you're going for either a assistant, like a quality role, that is still a research role. So even though we're mainly talking about academia here, it is important to actually always, always talk about your research experience. Leanne: Of course, definitely. I think it still is as relevant and as important for assistant psychologist positions to have that experience of research and to mention it. And I think even if it's not necessarily talking about research skills, you're talking about your time management skills, being able to manage an intensive project alongside your other university commitments is also... I think you just want to show.... So it's very nice to list out the skills that you have, but showing how you've developed these skills is important, I think. How Can You Get Involved In Rare Genetic Disorders Research? Connor: True. And the question that just popped in to my head is that, so you're researching rare genetic disorders. In case a listener has a rare genetic disorder or actually has a family member or friend, is there any way that they can get involved in your study or not? Leanne: It will depend because I think we kind of focus on different genetic groups every once in a while. Definitely worth checking out the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit website. On there, we'd be listed as one of the projects, and they can just kind of reach out and we'll see if they are eligible or not. But, yes, we'd love to kind of have more people included. So please feel free to check out the website, and they can always contact me via LinkedIn if need be. What Goals for the Future Do Research Assistants Have? Connor: Okay, brilliant. So I will return to that in a moment. What are your goals for the future? Leanne: I think, for now, just enjoying where I'm at with this role. It's a very wonderful job, and I'm very, very much enjoying it. I think in the future, I don't necessarily have a very set-in-stone idea of what I want to do, but I definitely want to improve or develop my clinical skills a bit more. Moving forward, I think I want to explore a bit of a clinical career, but I also still want to be involved in academia to some extent. I think I'm just kind of trying to figure out where I'm going to move forward. But I think academia and research is something I want to continue and pursue in the future. Connor: Okay, nice. And that's something that I often say to people is that even if you want to become a clinical psychologist, which is a tough long road, and just make sure that you actually enjoy where you are at the moment. And just be mindful and just be present at the moment because it is fun, and I don't know what to say really, except take a moment and enjoy life because it's short, sadly. Leanne: Yes, it is. And I think you'll get to that stage where you are a clinical psychologist one way or the other if that's the role destined for you. So might as well enjoy where you're at right now and make the most out of it because these are all experiences that you're building up, and they're shaping you to be the clinical psychologist that you're destined to be. I think that's another thing, or whatever it is that you're doing in the future, all the experiences that you are experiencing now are shaping you to that future you, whatever it is and whatever career it kind of goes to. I think that's another important thing to keep in mind, and I try to keep it in my mind as well. Tips For Pursuing a Career in Pediatric Neuropsychology Connor: Brilliantly said. So before we wrap up and end actually, have you got any final tips for someone who wants to pursue a career in a pediatric neuropsychology or research? Leanne: In pediatric neuropsychology I think reading is something I highly recommend. Read up more on the topic, see if this is something that you find yourself passionate about, you find yourself that you can find an area that you'd want to be more involved in. I think this is a rapidly evolving field. There's a lot of new researches coming out, especially with the advancements that we see in neuroimaging. It's just it keeps getting more exciting. So I think it's definitely worth reading up and seeing where the field is at right now. I think the masters, for me, was a very, very right choice. I think it really helped solidify and deepen my understanding of pediatric neuropsychology and neuropsychology in more broader terms. I think if you have the capacity or you are interested in pursuing another year of education, masters is definitely one that I recommend, whether it's in pediatric neuropsychology or whatever other course, just because if you are coming from a background of psychology, I tend to find that it's quite broad so it's really nice to further specialize in something a bit more. Tips For Pursuing a Career in Psychological Research And in terms of research, I think just being as involved as you can during your undergrad in research projects. I know there's research experience schemes. I was involved in that. So that's essentially when you kind of help out with a different project going on at the university whether it's in data collection or analyses, and it really doesn't matter the level of involvement as long as you are involved in some way. And I think just never underestimate the experiences that you're getting at university in terms of research. They are going to be very useful for you in the future. Connor: Wonderfully said. So thank you for joining us today, Leanne, and if people will want to connect up with you and follow your work, then where could they come, find you online? Leanne: I will be on LinkedIn. I think that's the best place. I'm quite active on there. So, yeah, feel free to just tag me on LinkedIn, and if you have any questions or anything, I'm always up to chat. And, yeah, that's where you'll find me. Connor: Thank you, Leanne, and best of luck with your psychology journey for the future. Leanne: Thank you so much. You too.     I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology  podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET A Year In Psychology: A Psychology Student’s Guide to Placement Years, Working in Academia and More . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Careers In Psychology Further Reading Leong, F. T., & Austin, J. T. (Eds.). (2023). The psychology research handbook: A guide for graduate students and research assistants. SAGE publications. Pawlow, L. A., & Meinz, E. J. (2017). Characteristics of psychology students who serve as research assistants. College Student Journal, 51(1), 77-80. Blackford-Jones, B., & Adam, M. Becoming an Assistant Psychologist. Childers, J. B., & Phillips, K. A. (2019). Conducting publishable research from special populations: Studying children and non-human primates with undergraduate research assistants. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1030. Breakwell, G. M., Barnett, J., & Wright, D. B. (2020). Research methods in psychology. Nguyen-Trung, K. (2025). ChatGPT in Thematic Analysis: Can AI become a research assistant in qualitative research?. Quality & Quantity, 1-34. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

For some people, horror movies are some of the most entertaining films out there. Over the decades, there have been massive, massive hit films like IT, Us and the Saw series. All of these twisted, terrifying horror films have captured our imaginations and utterly terrified us, and some people keep going back for more. However, this raises a lot of fascinating questions about human behaviour, why are we scared of horror movies, why do some people enjoy horror films but others do not and most importantly, what is the psychology of horror movies. By the end of this social psychology podcast episode, you’ll understand why do we find horror movies scary, why do some people find them scary but not others and so much more. If you enjoy learning about horror movies, media psychology and fear, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Social Psychology: A Guide To Social and Cultural Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What is Fear? I wanted to add in this little definition first of all so we’re all on the same page about fear, what it is and why the fear response is flat out critical. Therefore, the fear response is important because it allows us to protect ourselves against physical and emotional danger. Since it allows the body to prepare a fight-flight-freeze response to combat this danger. And if we didn’t feel fear or anxiety then we would regularly walk into dangerous situations and this increases our risk of death and a failure to pass on our genetic material. At least from an evolutionary point of view. What Is the Psychology of Horror Movies? Personally, I am not a fan of horror movies because they are not interesting to me. I was talking with my boyfriend yesterday and I said to him that the world is scary enough at times, why would I want to watch something scary in my relaxing time. Movies like IT, Psycho and a whole bunch of other horror movies I just don’t find enjoyable. However, a lot of people do enjoy horror movies, and if you enjoy them then more power to you. I am really glad that you find them relaxing, enjoyable and it is a form of entertainment you enjoy in your free time. I am just not one of them. In addition, research suggests that there are certain elements of horror movies that people find particularly scary and this helps us to understand who tends to avoid horror films and who enjoys them. Therefore, in the rest of the psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what makes horror movies scary, who avoids them and who seeks out horror movies. How Does The Dark Make Horror Movies Scary? If you think about any horror movie, you’ll probably remember that a lot of it happens in the dark or at night. The reason for this is because humans have a fear of the dark and this is a factor that makes the movies scary. We typically develop a fear of the dark in our early childhood because of what the darkness could hide. To be able to defend or prepare our body against threats, we need to be able to see them, or at least detect them. It is a lot, lot harder to detect threats in the dark compared to the light, so we develop a fear of the dark as a response. This fear response is only increased by watching the horror movie in a dark cinema or in a dark living room. This is why I know quite a few people who only watch horror films with the lights on or during the day. In fact, I remember as a child, me and my mum were reading a Goosebumps book and it was a horror book. I was only small and my mum said we’re going to have to read this together in the daylight, so that shows we also have a vested interest in decreasing our fear response when possible by removing the fear that the dark brings us. Especially if you don’t like horror movies or scary entertainment. Personally, as a kid, I used to be terrified of the dark and I needed a night light. I would see shapes, I would be scared and I couldn’t sleep because I really didn’t like the dark. The dark was just terrifying as a kid and nowadays I really don’t mind it. How Does the Fear of Death Make Horror Movies Scary? We are all scared of death. It is a major psychological and existential fear that all of us have inside us. This is one of the reasons why horror movies always make sure to include people being killed or facing the very real possibility of death. There are a few exceptions but they are few and far between. It’s why if you think about the latest remake of the film IT, it opens with the scene of the little boy George getting his hand bitten off and then the kid dies and all we see as the viewer is the rainwater turning blood red. Personally, that is not my idea of entertainment and the IT film wasn’t bad, but after a while it just became more jump-scares than anything else. Instead of making use of other forms of fear which I’m rather grateful for. How Do Sudden Movements and Noise make Horror Movies Scary? I remember when I was watching the IT film with my best friend and another friend of ours at a sleepover, I was watching it then my best friend’s cat leapt up on the sofa at me. I jumped and screamed a lot more at that cat than the actual film itself. And this is why “jump scares” can be so effective in my experience, because sudden movements make humans very scared. This is because a loud noise, a sudden light or movement after a period of quiet creates a startle response and produces an adrenaline rush. It is this biological response that makes jump scares so effective and a main feature of horror movies. Personally, I would also add something that slightly relates to this is “someone just appearing”. For example, if you’re alone then you turn around and someone is suddenly there. That is another example of a jump scare that can terrify people, get the blood pumping and makes someone experience an adrenaline rush. This is something that I used to do a lot to my dad when I was growing up. I would go down into the garden, I would be very light-footed (I couldn’t be light-footed these days to save my life) and I would make him jump. I wouldn’t try to do it on purpose but he would jump and get scared. Those moments would make me die of laughter and make him almost have a heart attack. How Does Suspense Make Horror Movies Scary? Suspense makes the best horror movies, like one of the reasons why we know Alfred Hitchcock films so well and they are considered the best horror films ever, is because they’re so suspenseful. This makes horror movies scary because suspense creates an anticipation that something bad is going to happen. Typically, this is seen as unpredictable by the viewer and some of the most shocking horror films violate the audience’s expectations. For example, the killer is one that the audience least expects or the hero gets killed. Granted, I will add here as a writer, pulling that off successfully is very skilful and it can go wrong in a million different ways. Anyway, I love suspense in a way because you really can feel tense, uneasy and on the edge of your seat as the scene unfolds. You know something is going to happen, you know it’s not going to be good and because you care about the main characters and their team, you want them to be okay. This suspense is a direct threat to their safety so the suspense builds and builds and builds. Then the scary point happens and you feel utter fear. How Does Spooky Music Make Horror Movies Scary? Visual media is nothing without sound. For example, my favourite media of all time is Demonslayer. It is an amazing anime, an epic film and it is sensational. I encourage every single person to watch it. Yet it wouldn’t be anywhere near as good without the epic music that is so tense, so dramatic and so perfect for each scene that the music elevates the media to another level entirely. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sweet, positive scene, a heartbreaking death of a character or the victorious slaying of an upper rank demon. The show always nails the music so well. Horror movies do the same. Since horror movies need to make effective use of music to set the mood, as well as by intensifying the music, they can make a scene even more intense in terms of shock and suspense. For example, the most famous example might be the “showering scene” in Psycho because of the intense bursts of music that accompany the slashing knife. Equally, if you watch any of your favourite programmes and put them on mute. You’ll find the programme doesn’t have anywhere near the same emotional impact on you as it does with the music and other sounds that film makers, crew and other parts of production crew layer in expertly. How Does Dismemberment and Disfigurement Make Horror Movies Scary? A lot of horror movies make use disgustingly disfigured villains. For example, you never see an attractive zombie, as well as the Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein’s monster are all disgusting creatures. This is because studies show in early child development, young children show a fear response to asymmetrical or disordered faces. It could be argued that because most people don’t have disfigured faces when a young child sees a disfigured face, they might perceive it as “abnormal, strange or even dangerous”, because if something did that to someone’s face, then the young child might want to avoid the same fate. Therefore, their fear response to seeing the disordered face might be their young bodies trying to prepare their fight-flight-freeze response to protect them. It's a possibility. Personally, when it comes to horror movies, I flat out hate anything to do with teeth and eyeballs. I cannot deal with scenes that involve those body parts in the slightest, and now because of my rape, there are a lot more horror scenes that I cannot watch. For example, yesterday, my boyfriend was recommending the film Alien to me because it is a brilliant horror film that he flat out loves. Yet the entire point of the Alien movie is an analogy for sexual violence and rape. I am not watching that. I lived through that. I don’t want to watch it for entertainment. Of course, I will admit that this fear response does have a negative real-world impact on individuals with facial disfigurements. I remember there was a debate around the time the James Bond film “No Time To Die” came out. People with facial disfigurements were arguing why were they always cast as the villain and why were people always made to feel scared of them. And to some extent, I can definitely understand this concern because it is flat out horrible to see myths, misconceptions and lies pumped out about you. That is what always happens with the LGBT+ community and there are so many lies and misconceptions about the trans community. Therefore, I understand how frustrating it must be for people with lived experience of these facial disfigurements to always be cast as the villains. However, there is a primal fear response in all of us that gets triggered when we see something disfigured, and it is that response that Hollywood and other film producers tap into when it comes to horror movies. And whether this is ethical or morally right is a debate for another time. Who Enjoys Horror Movies? As I mentioned earlier, I am not one of the people who enjoy horror films in the slightest, but who does? Researchers have found that people who are high in the sensation-seeking personality dimension prefer as well as enjoy horror films. Since it gets them scared, they get to feel a wide range of emotions that they don’t normally get to experience and it gets the blood pumping in ways they don’t typically get to experience. As well as men tend to be more attracted to horror movies than women. As well as social psychological research suggests that taking a date to a horror film could stimulate feelings of physical attraction as the daters might misattribute the arousal from the scary movie as feelings of sexual attraction. I think that is quite a mind-blowing finding, and a slightly insane one because I’m blown away by it. Although, it must be noted that there seems to be a negative relationship between empathy and watching horror movies. Since if a person has more empathy then they’re less likely to enjoy horror films and this is even more true for people who experience emotional contagion. This is the ability to feel the pain of others. Social Psychology Conclusion At the end of this social psychology podcast episode, we’ve learnt a lot about how music, disfigurement, dismemberment, the dark and many factors help to make horror movies as terrifying as they are. As well as we learnt that men and people lower in empathy are more likely to enjoy horror movies than women and people higher in empathy. Finally, whilst there is some research on the psychology of horror movies, there are still a lot of unresearched and unanswered questions about this film genre according to Martin (2019). Therefore, if you’re looking for a research project topic, maybe have a think, design a study and help push our understanding forward. You never know what fun, brilliant and weird results you might find. And I’m actually writing this podcast episode on Halloween, so to wrap up today’s episode, here are some questions for you: ·       Do you like horror movies? ·       Why or why not? ·       Think about the different factors we learnt about today and which factors do you think are the most important. ·       Think about your favourite film (horror or not) and consider what the movie would have been like if you removed the elements we spoke about today.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s social psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Social Psychology: A Guide To Social and Cultural Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Social Psychology References and Further Reading Derry, C. (2009). Dark dreams 2.0: a psychological history of the modern horror film from the 1950s to the 21st century. McFarland. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/202510/the-psychology-of-horror-movies Martin, G.N. (2019). (Why) do you like scary movies? A review of the empirical research on psychological responses to horror films. Frontiers in Psychology October. Doi:10:3389/psyg.2019:02298 Norman, J. (2018). PERSONALITY TYPES AND THE ENJOYMENT OF HORROR MOVIES. Journal of Social & Psychological Sciences, 11(1). Nummenmaa, L. (2021). Psychology and neurobiology of horror movies. Sultana, I., Ali, A., & Iftikhar, I. (2021). Effects of horror movies on psychological health of youth. Global Mass Communication Review, 6(1), 1-11. Werner, M. (2010). Why Do We Crave Horror? Evolutionary Psychology and Viewer Response to Horror Films. Bright Lights Film Journal, 68. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

Joining me today on the Psychology World Podcast is Leanne Al-Mrayat, a brilliant postgraduate research assistant and we have a great discussion today about neuropsychology. By the end of this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll understand what is pediatric neuropsychology, what are neuropsychological assessments, how to choose the right assessment tool for your project, and most importantly, Leanne shares ideas about how to get clinical experience with neuropsychological assessments. If you’re interested in psychological research, clinical psychology or neuroscience, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Cognitive Psychology: A Guide To Neuropsychology, Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Who is Leanne Al-Mrayat? Leanne Al-Mrayat is a research assistant at the University of Cambridge researching brain and behaviour in rare genetic conditions. Prior to starting her role at Cambridge, she completed her Masters in Applied Pediatric Neuropsychology at University College London and her Bachelor’s in Psychology at the University of Kent.  Her research interests are in neurogenetics, neurodevelopment and mental health within different clinical groups, as well as understanding the link between behavioural and neuroimaging findings. In her free time she enjoys reading, exploring new coffee shops, and journaling. What Is Pediatric Psychology And What Are Neuropsychological Assessments? Connor: Hi, everyone. Today, I've got a brilliant, very special guest called Leanne. So, welcome to the podcast. Do you want introduce yourself? Leanne: Hi, everyone, and hi, Connor. First of all, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I'm very, very happy to be here. My name is Leanne, and I'm currently a research assistant looking at genetics and neurodevelopment. I was with Connor at university. We were working on similar final year projects, and we had a similar supervisor. We had the same supervisor. And, yeah, that's a bit about me. Connor: Okay, brilliant. And Leanne is brilliant, really kind, and she's one of the most hardest working people that you will ever meet. Leanne: You're kind. Connor: I've also been meaning to say, it'd been my pleasure though to work with her. Leanne: Likewise. How Did You Get into Psychology and Why Did You Want to Do It? Leanne: Such a good question. I always felt like, from a very young age, I had this very kind of interest in people and individuals and how we interact, and more importantly, how we differ. This is from a personal and, like, just from a kind of social aspect, where I just always was very curious about people. I love being around people, and I just love knowing more about people. And then I had received a GCSE booklet. Like, you know how you get the brochure before you choose your board's GCSE subjects to do it at school? I was very fortunate that my school offered psychology as a GCSE. Now, at the time, I did not even know what psychology meant. So I did a quick Google search, and it says, like, "The study of people's mind and behavior, and how they interact." And I was like, "Absolutely, yes. This is going to be my top option." Just because I think I had that innate interest in people and humans, and I think being able to study that scientifically was definitely something I wanted to do. And then fast forward, what? Eight, nine years later, I think every time, I think, we're progressing from GCSE psychology to A-level psychology to an undergrad in psychology. I feel like the only thing that happened, I just kind of enjoyed the topic more, and I'd realized just how much there is and how much the world revolves around psychology. And that's how I got into it. Connor: Wow, brilliant. And I definitely get what you mean, because when I did IB Psychology, I fell in love with the topic, especially neuroplasticity, which is such a niche topic that I had to fall in love with. But then as you learn more and more, especially when you get to university, that's something that I really like about clinical psychology is that there's always more to learn, whether it's about a specific mental health condition, a new therapy... Leanne: Precisely. Connor: ...or something that's brand new like pediatric psychology, which is actually a very good segue. I'm very proud of myself. Leanne: I'm proud of you too for that. That was really, really impressive. What Made You Want to Do Pediatric Psychology? And What Is It? Leanne: So just a bit of background. After I finished my undergrad in psychology, I went to UCL to do my master's in applied pediatric neuropsychology. Pediatric neuropsychology...or neuropsychology is, basically, the study of links between brain and behavior, and trying to look at how differences or how brain structures and function facilitates different aspects of our behavior and cognition, and how different environmental aspects in our life actually sometimes impact our neural development and our neural functioning. I chose pediatric neuropsychology specifically because when I was at uni...so when we were at Kent, we were very fortunate because the university just offered us so many different fields. We kind of got to explore so many different fields within psychology, such as cognitive, social, business, forensics. But I think the lectures and the subjects that stood out to me the most were developmental psychology, child psychology, and a lot of aspects of neuroscience and cognition modules that we had. I specifically remember one lecture by Laura Smith, I think it was. She was a lecturer at Kent at the time, and it was about neuropsychological assessment and how we basically measure cognitive abilities in individuals. And I think I just remember being in that lecture and being like, "I want to learn more about this. I want to be doing this in my future." I just did my own research, and I was very fortunate to find a course that merged my interest in development and my passion towards development and improving children's developmental trajectories, but also merging that kind of link between brain and behavior. And then I went ahead and I applied, and I did the course there. Connor: Wow, brilliant. And I definitely get what you mean there, because I think that module...wasn't it called Advanced Topics in Developmental Psychology, or something like that? Leanne: It would have been. I can't remember. I remember vividly the lecturer name and what the lecture was about, but I can't, for the life of me, remember the module name. But it could be, yes. Connor: Yeah. And at the time, though, it sounded like such an interesting module. Back then, though, I sort of hated developmental psychology... Leanne: Oh, no. Connor: ...which I'm so surprised by now, just because I really love child development. Leanne: Absolutely. Connor: Because I know what happens in your childhood really does have a massive impact. Leanne: I think I have the same thing where I wasn't very keen on doing child development or particularly working with pediatric groups. But, genuinely, I think doing these modules made me realize just the importance of basically childhood experiences, of neural development that happens in early years. That just made me realize this is such an important field to be in. I think, obviously, there's the passion of it, but there's an enjoyment of it, but there's also the fact that this is crucial, essential work that could really change someone's life outcomes and their cognitive abilities. And I think it's such an important field to be in, for sure. Connor: Yeah, definitely. And that's something that I think that our listeners can take away, though, about you've got to find out something that you're passionate about. And even if you don't enjoy something at that particular point in that time, in your psychology journey, you might later on. Leanne: I see. Never close any door, I think, early on. I think definitely allow yourself that time during your undergrad, especially during school, just explore all avenues before just... But then one will stand out at some point or the other, and they will find... I think, the right field within psychology will find itself to you, will find its way to you, the right career will do as well. For short. Connor: I agree and more. But there is one aspect of psychology which I will never enjoy, and that is language acquisition. Leanne: Language acquisition, really? Connor: Yeah, it's interesting in theory, because after doing it for like a full six hours in my undergrad, and it's so complex, I just cannot get my head around it, especially with different theories. Leanne: I get that. I get that. It can definitely, sometimes, get a bit repetitive in some of the lectures. I completely get that. I think, for me, one of the modules I just never kind of...or one of the fields within psychology I just never really resonated with was social psychology, funny enough. I know I said don't close the doors too early, and I truly mean it, but it's just, like, I had a very gut feeling of, like, "Social psychology, I don't really see myself moving forward or progressing in that career or that area of psychology." But, hey, you never know. Connor: No, true. And, like, I think that the thing about social psychology is that it's interesting. Because of the sort of things you're wanting to research, you can't do it as empirically as other aspects of psychology. Leanne: Precisely. Connor: I think that's where some people. get a bit stuck. Go on. Leanne: I agree. It's very theoretically heavy sometimes. Connor: And sometimes the theories are just so complicated. You're like, "Right, please go very, very slowly," especially when they start bringing, like, well, the stats, though. Because in my masters, I had to do this sort of complex one. I had to do adult group proving teenage group relation, and there was like five slides filled with these different effect sizes. Leanne: Oh my goodness. Connor: And back then, like, the class wasn't as good. She wasn't explaining it. She's just going through the slides. And there were some people in the cohort who were, yes, like, backing the slide, "Look at it and go, right. I know exactly what it means." The rest of us were just like, "You're just giving us numbers and no context." I was failing. Leanne: Oh my goodness. I think stats is just... I think it was never I go to the lecture and I know exactly what's going on. It's like you need to go back to it three, four times. And then I'm like, "Okay, I now know what this all means." I completely agree. Stat is just a very interesting aspect of psychology, but I think it's necessary, nonetheless. Connor: Yes, it's painfully necessary. This is why if you need help, everyone, please just ask, contact people, contact your university. Leanne: Please do. Connor: Your lectures will be more than happy to support you. Leanne: Absolutely. I think the earlier you kind of seek that support in stats, the better outcomes you'll have with it. I think it's one of those things that you just kind of have to keep up with rather than leave it all to last minute because it will really add up. And then that's when you get overwhelmed. But if you're tackling it bit by bit, and if you're asking all the questions and you're just really, really trying to get to the bottom of it, it will definitely be clearer with time, and it will not be a jumble of numbers. You'll understand why it's also important. Yeah. What Was Your Favourite Pediatric Psychology Topic And Your Least Favourite? Connor: So looking back at your masters. What was your favorite topic, and what was your least favorite? Leanne: Good question. Oh my God, I have to remember what modules I did. I really don't have the best memories sometimes. Right, my favorite module would be, I think the first one I did, and it was, basically, a neuroanatomy module. So all we did for...I think it was maybe 40 hours a month. Like, during the month was just learn about different zone parts, how they're connected, what different brain networks we have, and what their functions are. And I remember vividly, we had...the lecturer was amazing. I think the lecturer made a big difference on how much I enjoyed that aspect of my course. That actually is very daunting for some that don't come back, don't come from a background of neuroscience or biology, and they don't really know how the brain is structured. But I think the best part was that at the end of the module, we did this, like, recap of where the different parts of the brain were from different sections, so if it was a caudal, a sagittal, or coronal section. and just seeing where the, for example, the hippocampus is relative to other brain structures or from one side of the brain or from one aspect. I think it was really nice to tie everything together. And I feel like it definitely improved my knowledge of brain anatomy and different neural networks in the brain. And I will never forget that module. It was such a well presented and well delivered module. And I loved it a lot. And then the other part was about my least favorite module. I think I can pinpoint one that I did not really enjoy because they were all really, really good in different ways. I think I definitely did struggle a bit with my final pieces that I had to submit. I think that was the least enjoyable bit of the course just because it was just a lot of independent work. And it was just a lot of, like, structuring your own time and having to... Basically, we were working on two different projects simultaneously. So one was a systematic review and then the other was an original project. So, yeah, I found a bit of a hard time trying to balance between working on my systematic review and then stopping and not thinking about it and then working on my original part of the project and doing all the tasks for that. I think that was the least enjoyable bit, but I can't really fault the modules. They were all fantastic. Connor: Again, brilliant. And I'd like to thank you for sharing. And I definitely get what you would mean about the whole idea that if you've got a good lecturer, then that can really make all the difference. Leanne: It is life changing. Connor: Because I had a neuropsychology of ageing module. And at first, that sounded really dull to me or not the sort of area of clinical psychology where I wanted to go in there too. But then because quite a lot of clinical people were taking it, the lecturer decided, "Right, I'm going to adapt my content, and I'm going to make it more clinical focused." And that was so much more engaging. And I loved it because of him, because of what he had done. And it was one of my best modules, even though it wasn't directly clinical related. So if you've got a good lecturer, keep it. Leanne: But it really brings back to that point of passionate and being passionate about what you do. Because I'm sure these lecturers, it comes from a place of passion that they want to deliver this content and they want you to understand this content as well as possible. And I'm so glad. That seems like a very interesting module to take as well. Connor: Definitely. But I do struggle with different areas of the brain. I remember that Amir, like, our former supervisor, so he used to say, I feel like, "Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex." And for some reason, that is the only bit of the brain I actually remember. Because I think it sounded so complicated to me. I still don't know where that part of the brain is, even though I know it's like up here. Yeah. Leanne: I'm pretty sure it's forehead. Yeah, I'm just gonna... Yeah, near the forehead area. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Yeah, pretty much. Wasn't that the area that you were researching in the EEG project? Correct me if I'm wrong. Connor: You know what that very much could have been. It's a few  years ago. But, yeah, it definitely... Leanne: It was a long time ago. Yeah. What are Neuropsychological Assessments? Connor: Yeah. It was. So neuropsychological assessments. Leanne: Yeah. Connor: Please tell us more about that. Because psychological assessments are one of my favorite topics in clinical study I grant you. So please tell me more. I'm all ears. Leanne: Okay. So in terms of neuropsychological assessments, those are assessments that we provide or we give to individuals to, basically, assess their abilities, whether it's language, memory, working memory...well, memory, such as working memory, long term memory, their social and communication abilities, their adaptive functioning, this is a very...like the Vineland, for example, which is a very big neuropsychological...yeah, it is a neuropsychological assessment. And I think the difference here is that it doesn't really focus on mood and maybe internal well-being or mental well-being as much as just more so focuses on how well is this individual functioning from a social domain, from a communication domain, from all different sorts of domains. And I think there's just a plethora of neuropsychological assessments that cover all sorts of different domains. Some could be very focused on...for example, some assessments will only look at one cognitive ability, such as executive functioning. Whilst with the Vineland, it does social communication, maladaptive behaviors. So really, it varies with the different assessments. And I think it's all about choosing the right assessment, but making sure that you're not just relying on that neuropsychological assessment to dictate what this individual is capable of or not. Because truthfully, these assessments, they give us a snippet of what these individuals are capable of doing, but actually meeting them and interacting with them gives us a different picture, and a more nuanced picture of what this individual can and cannot do. So I think that's definitely something worth mentioning as well. Connor: Okay, brilliant. Thank you. So you've mentioned that it's really important to actually pick the right psychological assessment. How would you do that? How Do You Pick the Right Neuropsychological Assessment? Leanne: I think it depends on what... Well, in a research aspect, it depends on what questions you want to ask or...sorry, what questions you want to answer. So if you are looking to investigate certain clinical populations communication abilities, it would make more sense to choose a communication checklist and to run through that. Because you also want to think and consider the participants' time and energy. And you don't want to give them this extensive neuropsychological assessment that looks at social, executive functioning, their memory abilities, but you actually just want to focus on this, their communication abilities. And then you also want to really sit down and study this assessment, see why it was developed, what is it measuring, and whether this measure would really work well with the other measurements that you are including in your research. I think from a clinical aspect, I think I'm not really the most qualified to talk about that, but I think it would be more so of looking at just getting a bit of a snapshot of what this individual is capable of doing in preparation to maybe meeting them, or when you're meeting them, you just want to just get a better idea of where they're at right now and what we could do to better improve or help them in the future. So I think it really just depends on the questions that you're asking and what you want to get out and what you want to understand better. Obviously, there's also intelligence assessments that we do, IQ, like the WASI. I completely forgot to mention those as well. Those are quite big in neuropsychological assessments, and those just give you a much more generalized idea of the individual's abilities. They're not very focused on a specific domain, as communication checklists would be, for example. Connor: Thank you for that. Leanne: Does that make sense? Connor: Yes, it does. And I think that's really helpful because I know that the issue that I have, and this is coming in, like, actually, as someone who doesn't have the most, like, extensive neuropsychological background, is that I know there were just so many. There were tons, and I think that can be quite overwhelming. Leanne: Of course. Connor: But I think that your advice about just taking, like, step back and think about what it is it that you actually want to answer, I think that can actually make it a lot more focused and a lot more easier to understand for us. So thank you for that. Leanne: Yeah, of course. And I think this is definitely what I see happening from a research element. Obviously, there's more logistical elements about which assessments you can...actually are available in the UK or which assessments are available at a certain center or unit. So that's also another thing to kind of keep in mind. But I think with us in research, it's just a matter of what questions are we wanting to get out of this research and what tools. So because these assessments are essentially tools that help us learn more and know more and aid our understanding. Connor: Do you have a favorite? Do You Have a Favourite Neuropsychological Measurement? Leanne: No, I can't be biased like that. I don't necessarily. I don't think so. I think each one of them, they have pros and cons. I think it's difficult. I do like the Vineland, which we use quite often here, because it just covers a big range of cognitive domains. And I think pros and cons with all of them, I think, it's difficult to just pinpoint and be like, "This is the one," because there's no such thing as that. Connor: Okay, then I could then, like, thank you for that, though. Because I remember when I was doing, like, my mental health studies, I definitely had like a ton of favorite, but that's because they did look at some different things. And I did tend not to use like three or four different ones because they were short. They looked at different things. And they did help to fulfil with some of the negative gaps over the other ones. So that's actually a really good point. Leanne: Precisely. And I think you kind of already answered the question of which one to use. I think it's similar to a mental health questionnaire, you want to use something that is answering the question, is not really taking up a lot of the time of the participant. It's important to be considerate to the people that are coming in and doing this research, but at the same time, you're getting good data out of it. Connor: True. So the last neuropsychological question I've got for you is that when it comes to assistant psychology jobs, I constantly see one of the most annoying things. So they want you to have experience in neuropsychological assessment. Can you please help us? How would you get that? How Do You Get Experience In Neuropsychological Assessments? Leanne: I'm not an assistant psychologist. I know that these positions are quite competitive. I think it's difficult because you want experience in a setting where you're actually administering this neuropsychological assessment. I think looking at research assistant positions where there is that kind of interaction with clinical groups is always a very good kind of experience to have. And maybe during your undergrad or your master's thesis and projects, it's always good to look for projects where you might have this interaction or ability to administer these assessments. Although I don't know which projects would offer that, but I think it's one of those things where you could develop your knowledge, but how you develop administering these assessments really would differ from based on what projects you can be involved in during undergrad and if you find a research assistant job. So that's more academia, like the one I have, which works with clinical groups. And you might have that ability or chance to oversee or administer some of these assessments. Although I don't think it's a guarantee, but it's worth it. Connor: No, but true. And as you were saying, that these are really common and competitive. And considering that I didn't actually prompt you that question to allow you to prepare beforehand. That was a really good answer. Leanne: Of course. Connor: Wonderfully said. So thank you for joining us today, Leanne, and if people wanted to connect with you and follow your work, then where could they come, find you online? Leanne: I will be on LinkedIn. I think that's the best place. I'm quite active on there. So, yeah, feel free to just tag me on LinkedIn, and if you have any questions or anything, I'm always up to chat. And, yeah, that's where you'll find me. Connor: Thank you, Leanne, and best of luck with your psychology journey for the future. Leanne: Thank you so much. You too.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology  podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Cognitive Psychology: A Guide To Neuropsychology, Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology Further Reading Roberts, M. C., & Steele, R. G. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of pediatric psychology. Guilford Press. Delozier, A. M., Kamody, R. C., Rodgers, S., & Chen, D. (2020). Health disparities in transgender and gender expansive adolescents: A topical review from a minority stress framework. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 45(8), 842-847. Roberts, M. C., Aylward, B. S., & Wu, Y. P. (Eds.). (2014). Clinical practice of pediatric psychology. Guilford Publications. Ernst, M. M., Barhight, L. R., Bierenbaum, M. L., Piazza-Waggoner, C., & Carter, B. D. (2013). Case studies in clinical practice in pediatric psychology: The “why” and “how to”. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 1(2), 108-120. Duncan, C. L. (2023). Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology: The Future Continues to Expand. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 11(1), 1-5. Simon, S. L., Clay, D., Chandrasekhar, J., & Duncan, C. L. (2021). Gender bias in pediatric psychology. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 9(1), 82-95. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

Whenever my own mental health isn’t doing great, my mind always turns to learning more about trauma and different forms of psychological therapy. In previous podcast episodes, I’ve spoken about the benefits of art therapy , how it works and more and I’ve discussed at length the importance of trauma-informed practice. Now, we need to think about what happens when we combine these two approaches to mental health. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what is Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy, how can it improve lives and what principles underpin Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy. If you enjoy learning about trauma psychology, mental health and psychological therapies, then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Introduction To Psychotherapies: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Types of Psychological Therapies . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. A Brief Note On Trauma-Informed Practice in Clinical Psychology As I mentioned in a previous podcast episode called “ What Makes a Trauma-Informed Psychologist ” , I explained how trauma-informed practice helps us, aspiring or qualified mental health professionals, to guide an individual through trauma recovery whilst using arts therapy as a basis. Since trauma-informed practice helps clinical psychologists to understand how the body, mind as well as brain interact and what role they play in the trauma responses and the maladaptive coping mechanisms that the client has.  Also, trauma-informed practice is very useful because it helps therapists to de-pathologised whatever the client is going through and by combining with clinical work with arts therapy, it allows the client to express themselves, their emotions and their experiences. This helps the client in turn to fell more empowered, engaged and hopefully they’ll find therapy more fun and pleasurable compared to traditional talk therapy. Ultimately, trauma-informed practice is all about helping a client to go beyond just surviving and towards thriving so they can live a happy, purposeful and fulfilled life where they control their behaviour. Instead of their trauma controlling their lives. Then this can be achieved through arts therapy by making meaningful use of creativity, play as well as imagination. Personally, I’ve spoken about this before in my sexual violence-focused books and before I finished my rape counselling, my trauma responses definitely ruled my life. For example, if I went out by myself, if I meet a stranger or once I took some friends home and I drove them, all of these situations resulted in me having a massive mental health crisis and mental breakdown. I was so anxious, so fearful and I hated what my trauma responses were doing to me. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is not fun, not in the slightest. Even this weekend at the time of writing, a lot of small factors have added up this week but I am rather anxious, on edge and my mental health hasn’t been amazing. Yet because of the trauma-informed counselling I went through last year, I am thankfully fine 99% of the time. I can live my life, I can date and I can work. I’m happy the vast, vast majority of the time but that’s only possible because of the trauma-informed counselling I underwent. That’s why it is so important in clinical psychology. What Is Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy? Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy is a model for arts-based mental health interventions that combines best practices in trauma-informed clinical practice as well as play-assisted and expressive arts therapy. This combined approach helps a client to integrate their trauma into their lives so it is still there, but it’s in the rear-view mirror of the life, and they are able to move forward and heal. This therapy is based on characteristics of expressive arts therapy as well as trauma-informed practice. Furthermore, according to Malchiodi (2020), Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy is underpinned by seven key principles. How Does Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Focus on Co-Regulation and Self-Regulation? As I spoke before on the podcast about the window of tolerance , when you’ve experienced trauma, it is very easy for us to have our senses overactivated, hyperaroused and this leads us to feel really, really anxious. I mentioned earlier how during the most severe periods of my PTSD, even going outside and meeting up with friends would make me so anxious I would have panic attacks. Even though, you don’t need PTSD to experience hyperarousal, hypoarousal or any other trauma responses. Therefore, expressive art interventions can support people to learn about and learn how to use their internal resources to manage their own mental health. This is an example of self-regulation where you’re able to manage your own mental health, emotions and distress. Yet expressive art interventions can also provide ideas for a wide range of action-oriented and creative approaches to co-regulation if a therapist decides to apply this within group therapy settings. Personally, this is something I really tried to focus on last night and I will admit, I was a little too distressed for this to work effectively. Also, I was tired, sensory overwhelmed and I had a lot on my mind. I’m telling you this because I want to be honest and I want you to know that we don’t always get it right. We can slip up and that’s okay. That’s normal, understandable and it’s a part of being human. Self-regulation is flat out critical though in trauma recovery. How Does Neurobiology Inform Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy? I explain this topic a lot more in my sexual violence focused books, but trauma isn’t just a psychological experience. Even after my rape, it took me a while to understand this fact, but trauma is also a mind-body experience. Since a lot of trauma responses are physiological reactions. For instance, the shaking, the heart pounding, the sweat and the physical sensations associated with the trauma. All of them are very, very real physiological sensations to the trauma survivor. As a result, Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy uses neurobiology to understand how to use expressive arts to address these trauma reactions as well as it helps clients to reconnect with the sensory (implicit) as well as the declarative (explicit) memories of the trauma. In my opinion, I just want to jump in here and add that this doesn’t always happen in trauma-informed practice because my rape counselling didn’t involve any talking about the rape itself. We focused on the here and now, my trauma responses and we focused on everything but the rape itself. Which was really nice. Anyway, neurobiology as well as neurodevelopment provides therapists with a framework for determining how to apply expressive arts therapy to various treatment goals. For example, how a client can help themselves to self-regulate, form positive attachment, build resilience as well as achieve self-efficacy. How Does Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Support Positive Attachment? Building upon this, Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy can be used to support a client to reconnect with a sense of safety, prosocial relationships as well as positive attachments. And I always remember this amazing feeling I had during my rape counselling and it was a real game changer moment for me. I was able to feel safe in my own body for the first time in seven months. I was able to relax, untense all my muscles and actually feel safe. It’s such an amazing feeling and it’s so hard to describe but achieving that sense of safety as a trauma survivor feels impossible. Yet when it happens, it is one of the best feelings ever. In addition, Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy helps individuals to recover a sense of internal wellbeing and wellbeing in relationships with others. For instance, expressive arts therapy can provide a range of opportunities for people to engage in creative experimentation that integrates experiences of guidance, unconditional appreciation, experiences found in families with secure attachment, support amongst other benefits. As well as when expressive arts interventions are used in group settings, this can help clients to support prosocial interactions and connect themselves with their community. And that’s something that I am starting to realise as the months and years roll on is that survivors really are a community. Since if we take rape and sexual violence for example, a lot of people have sadly experienced it, but a lot of people haven’t. That means not everyone in your life has experienced it and without lived experience, you only have a limited understanding of what happened to the other person. Therefore, that feeling of community and knowing what you’re experiencing is normal, okay and understandable given your trauma. That is a very powerful and potentially healing realisation. How Does Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Help A Client With Distress? As I’ve mentioned in other places, like the podcast and books, when you experience trauma, it has a wide range of different impacts on you. You can have increased threat detection and this means you’re more anxious, distressed and fearful because you don’t want to be attacked or experience your trauma yet again. Yet trauma does have a lot of somatic and physiological impacts too. And this is why expressive arts interventions are very useful because a therapist can use these interventions to help a client identify and repair a client’s bodily responses to different trauma triggers. As well as expressive arts interventions can help a client learn that their bodies are a resource in trauma recovery, and they want to normalise the body’s reaction to trauma as it isn’t a pathology, it is an adaptive coping mechanism. How Does Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Provide Meaning-Making Experiences? Another benefit of Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy is that expressive arts interventions allows a trauma survivor to talk or express what is often unspeakable to them. It allows them to reframe, restructure, restory as well as explore the trauma they experienced and loss through non-verbal, self-empowering, participatory and asset-driven ways. Personally, this is something that I loved about my own rape counselling because whilst it wasn’t expressive arts-based, it was trauma-informed. It was so healing, empowering and validating to make new narratives of my rape after my trauma. It allowed to realise that it wasn’t my fault, I couldn’t have prevented it and despite what a lot of people were telling me, there was nothing wrong with me. How Does Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Respect a Client’s Preferences for Self-Expression? Another brilliant part of trauma-informed practice that I flat out love is the fact that it focuses on putting the client at the centre of their own trauma recovery. A lot of research says “treatment” but for some reason that made me uncomfortable, because it’s healing and recovery. Treatment is a little too biomedical model for me. Anyway, trauma-informed practice helps a client to determine how much participation they would prefer in their treatment, and this can be determined by values, worldviews, previous experiences, their culture as well as other interpersonal dynamics. This is useful because some clients, like me, would like to be at the centre of their trauma recovery and they would be very comfortable talking about all aspects of their lives. Yet other clients would not. Whatever the case, expressive arts therapy provides a client with a wide range of methods to express “What happened” depending on their comfort level with the idea of self-expression. Then the therapist can respect the use of symbols and metaphors that allow the client to control how they communicate sensitive experiences. How Does Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Support Resilience and Strengths? Finally, expressive arts therapy can be very useful in supporting a client’s strengths and building their resilience over time. Since trauma-informed practice helps mental health professionals to see that everyone is capable of growth as well as trauma recovery, with an acknowledgement that resilience is central to the recovery process. If a client is not resilient then they cannot really recover. This is why expressive arts therapy is always life-affirming, it honours a person’s capacity to be resilient as well as they encourage mastery of personal strength. With the ultimate goal being to encourage a client to move their self-perceptions from being a victim to a survivor to a thriver. Something I firmly agree with. Clinical Psychology Conclusion Personally, I have really enjoyed researching and writing up this clinical psychology podcast episode because my mental health hasn’t been great this weekend. I started a slightly under-stimulating new job, it’s loud and leaves me sensory overwhelmed, some rape trauma stuff popped up this week, I didn’t sleep well Friday night because of it and I have been really anxious. Mainly, because I know at some point sooner rather than later, I need to have the rape conversation with someone I’m dating. Since my rape is starting to impact me again as we start to do things. I am getting distressed, my mental health is dipping and I’m scared that he’s going to dump me, leave me or break up with me if he finds out I’m a rape survivor. Yet after doing this trauma-focused podcast episode, I understand that this is what I need. I need to have the “Rape Conversation” because it is the most empowering and self-compassionate thing I can do for myself. And even in the awful circumstance that he breaks up with me because I’m a rape survivor. I will understand, I’ll be sad and really disappointed because this guy is brilliant, lovely and we get on really well. But it just means we weren’t the right fit. It doesn’t make me a bad person, a failure and it doesn’t mean I’ll never get into a relationship. Whatever the outcome, I will keep surviving, thriving and living one day at a time.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Introduction To Psychotherapies: A Clinical Psychology Introduction To Types of Psychological Therapies . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Heiderscheit, A., & Murphy, K. M. (2021). Trauma-informed care in music therapy: Principles, guidelines, and a clinical case illustration. Music Therapy Perspectives, 39(2), 142-151. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/arts-and-health/202005/what-is-trauma-informed-expressive-arts-therapy Lusebrink, V. B., & Hinz, L. D. (2021). The expressive therapies continuum as a framework in the treatment of trauma. In Art therapy, trauma, and neuroscience (pp. 42-66). Routledge. Luzzatto, P., Ndagabwene, A., Fugusa, E., Kimathy, G., Lema, I., & Likindikoki, S. (2022). Trauma Treatment through Art Therapy (TT-AT): a ‘women and trauma’group in Tanzania. International Journal of Art Therapy, 27(1), 36-43. Malchiodi, C. A. (2020). Trauma and expressive arts therapy: Brain, body, and imagination in the healing process. New York: Guilford Publications. Malchiodi, C. A. (Ed.). (2022). Handbook of expressive arts therapy. Guilford Publications. Sajnani, N., & Johnson, D. R. (2024). Trauma-informed drama therapy: Transforming clinics, classrooms, and communities. Charles C Thomas Publisher. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

Over the past few years I’ve noticed something in people interested in clinical psychology that I didn’t expect. More and more people are coming up to me at university Open Days asking about ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and whether universities offer any education on this form of psychological therapy. When I used to work at the University of Kent, talking to, guiding and supporting Open Days, I would explain that we didn’t and I would pass these questions over to the academics. Yet people are still becoming more interested in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and it is only going to become more popular over time. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn how does ketamine-assisted psychotherapy work all over the world, should you try ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and a whole bunch of other great topics. If you enjoy learning about mental health, new forms of psychotherapy and advances in psychology then this will be a great episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Biological Psychology.  Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Introduction Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Even if you haven’t been paying much attention to the use of ketamine in clinical psychology circles, you might be aware that it is interestingly being used in a wide range of health settings. Up until March 2019 though, it was only really used as an anaesthetic. Yet in March 2019, the United States’s FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved the use of ketamine for the treatment of severe depression. Also, it is worth noting that the media loves to talk about ketamine from time to time. The drug, ketamine, was developed in 1962 because it’s a tamer alternative to the hallucinogen PCP, so its psychoactive effects have been known for decades. The use of ketamine can lead to alterations in thoughts, mood, sense of bodily boundaries as well as meaning. It can lead to perceptual distortions too. Knowledge about these effects have also been confirmed by the less than 1% of Americans that use the drug recreationally. In terms of research into ketamine’s uses for mental health conditions, this started in the mid-2000s because researchers started to notice that it can have very strong positive impacts on people with depression. This led to the US’s National Institutes of Mental Health to affirm that ketamine is effective as an anti-depressant and medical professionals have even started to recommend ketamine to severely suicidal clients. Then in 2010, Americans started to see the first wave of ketamine clinics pop up around the United States. How Does Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Work In The United Kingdom? I always like to look at the cross-cultural context when I can. Therefore, in the United Kingdom, according to the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust website, ketamine can be an anti-depressant but it isn’t licensed for this use by the National Health Service. This is mainly because the cost of ketamine to the NHS instead of there being a lack of evidence on its effectiveness. Although, it is possible to get self-paid ketamine service but this is only really available to people with depression who have not responded to other forms of psychological treatments. This costs at least £3,000 per year and the NHS uses this money to fund NHS care in the Trust. After an initial assessment, the initial treatment consists of three to six ketamine infusions over a three-to-six-week period. 10% of clients have a negative experience with their first infusion whereas over 90% have a pleasant or neutral experience, and 50% of clients respond well as well as continue with their treatment. Finally, like all anti-depressant treatments, ketamine needs to be used for several years regularly in order to effectively treat severe depression. How Does Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Work In China? As an afterthought by me, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy works in China similar to how it works in the United Kingdom and United States. The rest of this podcast episode also applies to China to in terms of effectively, what a typical session looks like and how it works. China uses it similar to the West in terms of treatment for severe depression and severely suicidal clients and they mainly use it at hospitals and other treatment clinics throughout the country under the supervision of healthcare professionals. There isn’t a great difference between how the West and China use ketamine to treat mental health conditions. How Does Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Work In Australia? In Australia, a quick internet search reveals that ketamine-assisted psychotherapy seems to be much more widespread and privatised with a wide range of healthcare settings offering ketamine treatment for depression in a range of different ways. Yet the website of the Royal Melbourne Hospital explains that the clinic provides a 3-week course of low-dose intravenous ketamine treatment for clients with severe depression. Nonetheless, this treatment is only available for people who are seeing mental health services or are currently “engaged with a psychiatrist who is overseeing their care”. In other words, you cannot simply go to the hospital or clinic and say you want ketamine-assisted psychotherapy without a referral from a psychiatrist. How Does Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Work In Brazil? Brazil mainly uses the global approach to ketamine that all the other countries, like the United States, China, United Kingdom use. Yet Brazil uses ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in hospital-based mental health services because they administer ketamine for treating severe depression under strict medical supervision with standard monitoring. Even though, there is a problem in Brazil because as much as they would ideally like to combine ketamine and psychological therapy for their clients. This cannot always happen, because the distribution of trained psychologists and other mental health professionals is so uneven in the country. In addition, when research is conducted into ketamine in Brazil, university and academic trials commonly use intravenous or intramuscular administration with hospital oversight. Finally, similar to the United States and Australia, Brazil uses ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in private outpatient clinics where they typically combine medication sessions with psychological therapy and assessment. Even though, the formality of the psychotherapy really does differ between providers. How Effective Is Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy? Building upon this in more depth, a wide range of studies show that ketamine is an effective treatment for severe depression (Marcantoni et al., 2020) and it can be useful for other mental health conditions. For example, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Stein and Simon, 2021), anxiety disorders (Tully et al., 2022), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (Rodriguez et al., 2013) and Parkinson’s disease. However, as you can probably imagine, the effects of ketamine are greatly improved if a client works alongside a therapist before, during and after ketamine treatment. This led to the creation of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. How Does Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Work? As I explain in my podcast episode titled “How can psychotherapy be combined with ketamine?” from 2023. “Ketamine engages the neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA. Due to N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) is a glutamate receptor and ketamine effectively blocks NMDA receptors from action so this allows more glutamate to be present in the synapses of a client (Furikawa et al., 2005). Therefore, with glutamate being an excitatory neurotransmitter and GABA being an inhibitory neurotransmitter, the client’s other neurotransmitters can reach an optimal homoeostasis. Then this leads to a reduction in depression and anxiety symptoms as it decreases hyperarousal as well as rumination. As a result from a psychotherapist’s perspective, this allows them to focus on the underlying events that are causing the client’s affective and cognitive dysfunction with a client that is calmer and more able to focus constructively on finding better ways to effectively manage their condition.” Is Ketamine Addictive? Generally, no, ketamine is not an addictive substance because in the United States, it is classed as a Schedule III controlled substance. It is a hallucinogen and anaesthetic, so it doesn’t produce chemical dependence. Yet there are some people who report cravings for the feelings and sensations that ketamine gives them. Personally, I would like to remind people that as a side note, addiction is a treatable condition and if you or anyone you love is experiencing any kind of addiction then it can be useful to reach out to mental health professionals. What Does A Typical Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy Session Look Like? Earlier in the podcast episode when I was exploring how different countries deal with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, you were able to see that it really does differ between the providers to some extent. Yet the core basis of ketamine treatment is that you will meet with a medical professional and they will work with you to determine dosage, your eligibility as well as a method of administration. Since ketamine can be given to you intramuscularly, intranasally, sublingually and intravenously. In case, like me, you are not aware of not what sublingually means. It is the process of you being given ketamine under the tongue. Personally, for me, the idea of anything going up your nose, like a tube or spray, is just awful and I would hate that. That was probably because I was on life support as a baby and I almost died within the first three weeks of being born. And intravenously doesn’t sound great either. This is important to note because depending on the dosage and the method used your treatment can last about one and three hours per session. Moreover, because ketamine is classified as a “dissociative anaesthetic”, so you can dissociate and disconnect from your body and your normal reality, depending on your dosage, you are likely to experience these effects. You might experience mild or severe anaesthetic, anxiolytic as well as anti-depressant effects. This is why a trained psychotherapist will support you throughout your treatment. After the ketamine has worn off, you would complete an integration phase with your therapist and this might include journalling, somatic, art or dance therapy or verbal reflection or something else entirely. This integration section is flat out critical because it helps you to process new insights and any new information that you learnt through your ketamine experience. Who Doesn’t Benefit from Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy? If you’re pregnant or nursing people or you have a history of addiction and/ or psychosis or untreated hyperthyroidism or hypertension then you should not do ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Who Would Benefit From Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy? People with a range of mental health conditions like anxiety, severe depression, chronic pain and PTSD can benefit from ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. The traditional treatment for these conditions to be have talking therapy and take an SSRI, and whilst this is useful for a lot of people, this doesn’t work for everyone. This is why ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can be very useful for people who haven’t responded well to other treatment options. Especially, because clients can see improvements in their mental health even after a single session and they can start to see massive improvements after four to six sessions. Clinical Psychology Conclusion Overall, at the end of this psychology podcast episode, I’m really happy, excited and pleased because I haven’t looked into cross-cultural research for ages and I miss it. I seriously enjoy looking at how different countries are similar and different from one another in how they use ketamine to treat mental health conditions. Thankfully, we were able to cover all continents on the podcast except Africa and the Antarctic. Granted, I am pretty sure the Antarctic doesn’t use psychological treatment too much. Therefore, as a little recap, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is shown to be an effective treatment for severe depression by a wide range of studies (Marcantoni et al., 2020) and it can be useful for other mental health conditions. For example, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Stein and Simon, 2021), anxiety disorders (Tully et al., 2022), obsessive-compulsive disorder (Rodriguez et al., 2013) and Parkinson’s disease. As well as ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can be very useful for people who haven’t responded well to other treatment options. Especially, because clients can see improvements in their mental health even after a single session and they can start to see massive improvements after four to six sessions. Here are three questions for you to consider at the end of this episode: ·       Would you ever try ketamine-assisted psychotherapy? ·       Would you ever be interested in being trained in this form of psychotherapy? ·       What do you think the future of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is in your country?   I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Biological Psychology.  Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading Drozdz, S. J., Goel, A., McGarr, M. W., Katz, J., Ritvo, P., Mattina, G. F., ... & Ladha, K. S. (2022). Ketamine assisted psychotherapy: A systematic narrative review of the literature. Journal of Pain Research, 1691-1706. https://www.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk/ips/ketamine-trd/ https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-truth-about-exercise-addiction/202212/should-you-try-ketamine-assisted-psychotherapy https://www.thermh.org.au/services/mental-health/our-research/advanced-interventions-in-mood-disorders Joneborg, I., Lee, Y., Di Vincenzo, J. D., Ceban, F., Meshkat, S., Lui, L. M., ... & McIntyre, R. S. (2022). Active mechanisms of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 315, 105-112. Marcantoni, W. S., Akoumba, B. S., Wassef, M., Mayrand, J., Lai, H., Richard-Devantoy, S., & Beauchamp, S. (2020). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of intravenous ketamine infusion for treatment resistant depression: January 2009 - January 2019. Journal of affective disorders, 277, 831–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.007 Reilly-Harrington, N. A., Falcone, T., Jobes, D. A., Deisz, C., Flannery, C., Wolf, A., ... & Anand, A. (2025). Ketamine treatment in youth for fast reduction of suicidality and engagement in psychotherapy: a randomized placebo-controlled trial protocol. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 149, 107777. Rodriguez, C. I., Kegeles, L. S., Levinson, A., Feng, T., Marcus, S. M., Vermes, D., ... & Simpson, H. B. (2013). Randomized controlled crossover trial of ketamine in obsessive-compulsive disorder: proof-of-concept. Neuropsychopharmacology, 38(12), 2475-2483. Sholevar, R., Kromka, W., & Beaussant, Y. (2025). Ketamine and Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy for Psychiatric and Existential Distress in Patients with Serious Medical Illness: A Narrative Review. Journal of Palliative Medicine. Stein, M. B., & Simon, N. M. (2021). Ketamine for PTSD: well, isn’t that special. American Journal of Psychiatry, 178(2), 116-118. Tully, J. L., Dahlén, A. D., Haggarty, C. J., Schiöth, H. B., & Brooks, S. (2022). Ketamine treatment for refractory anxiety: A systematic review. British journal of clinical pharmacology, 88(10), 4412-4426. Witt, K., Potts, J., Hubers, A., Grunebaum, M. F., Murrough, J. W., Loo, C., ... & Hawton, K. (2020). Ketamine for suicidal ideation in adults with psychiatric disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis of treatment trials. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 54(1), 29-45. I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

Ghosting in dating is never fun. It is wrong to suddenly cut off contact with someone and disappear without a trace, for example. Not only can this lead to negative mental health outcomes, low self-esteem and other undesirable outcomes for the person who was ghosted, but it can take a while to recover from ghosting. Therefore, in this social psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn how does ghosting impact someone, how to recover after ghosting and how to thrive. If you enjoy learning about dating, social psychology and the psychology of ghosting then you’re in for a treat. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Social Psychology: A Guide To Social and Cultural Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. What Is Ghosting? In case you’re new to the term “ghosting”, this refers to the digital act of vanishing when someone cuts off all contact with someone else without warning. Typically, this is done in romantic settings, like online dating, and in this episode, you’ll focus on what ghosting makes a person feel and how to recover. Personally, whilst I’ll do a future podcast episode on why people ghost others in the first place, I’ll admit that I almost ghosted someone myself. I was talking to a guy on a very, very famous dating app that everyone uses, regardless of sexuality, and we had nothing in common but the guy kept talking to me. I didn’t reply to him for two days and then I realised he might think that I’m ghosting him and I might end up ghosting him by mistake. Therefore, I sent him a message saying that I don’t think I was the right fit for him and I wished him the best of luck in the future. I’m mentioning this little story because it seriously isn’t hard to overcome ghosting and by sending a little message like that, it prevents all the negative mental health outcomes associated with ghosting. I am just not a fan of being or ghosting people. What Happens When Someone Realises They’ve Been Ghosted? Whenever a person first realises that they’ve been ghosted, they have an uncomfortable feeling because they know something is off. Even though, you likely dismiss it because you think the other person isn’t replying because they’re busy, they’re working hard or they’re just naturally bad at texting back. Later on, you start to realise that this is a pattern and you realise that they aren’t going to respond to you. This is even worse when after you’ve checked their social media, their profiles or anything else. You see that they’re still alive, they’re still online and they are still living their life. You might see that they’ve been on WhatsApp, their dating app or they’re posting on social media. This realisation further reinforces the realisation that you’ve been ghosted. They choose to stop communicating, they choose to disappear and they are the ones causing you to experience a wide range of emotions. In addition, it’s okay, normal and understandable that at this point, you’ll have a million and one questions. For instance, you’ll be wondering what the hell happened. Did something bad happen? Did you offend them? Were you too boring? Did you x, y and z and so on. These questions are normal. What Emotions Do People Experience After Ghosting? After you’ve realised you’ve been ghosted, you are going to be experiencing a lot of emotions, because whilst everyone is different and processes ghosting differently. There are four main emotions that people experience. After being ghosted, you might feel shame because ghosting can be humiliating. You might be feeling rejected and you might be constantly wondering, why they didn’t bother saying goodbye. Was it because you weren’t worthy? Were you being too demanding or needy? Was there something wrong with you so they didn’t want to say goodbye? This sense of shame can be increased because in today’s society, your relationship status is often linked to personal success. We tend to think of people in relationships as more successful than those who aren’t in a relationship. Even though, in reality, this sense of shame can have a benefit. It can make you more reflective so you start to consider what do you want in a relationship and what boundaries could you set next time to protect yourself. After being ghosted, you might experience anger, because ghosting is disrespectful, it’s rude and it’s outrageous. To me, it is one of the rudest things that you can possibly do to someone. If you’re chatting to someone online and you’re on a dating app, the other person has been kind enough to start a conversation, show an interest in you and they’re putting effort into the conversation. Even if you don’t feel a connection, want a relationship with them or anything else, the least someone could do is say a goodbye. Just don’t ghost people. It’s rude. Anyway, anger is a very understandable emotion after being ghosted. Also, you might be angry that the other person took the “easy way” out because they ghosted you, they’re okay and it is down to you to deal with the emotional fallout. Something they do not have to experience. Equally, a ghostee might show anger towards themselves, and this can make the emotional toll of ghosting even worse. You might be wondering how you couldn’t have foreseen this, what had you missed and why did you let it happen and so on. Personally, I would mention that when you’re dealing with these self-critical thoughts, please remember to practise self-compassion. Remember that whatever you’re feeling, it’s okay and lots of people get ghosted, a lot of people feel angry, sad and shame after being ghosted and all your thoughts and feelings are perfectly valid. Moreover, it’s useful to note that anger can be very empowering as well. If you block your ghoster on social media, if you delete your old messages and remove photos of them, these acts might seem very small. Yet what you’re actually doing is reclaiming your sense of control and this is a great first step towards moving forward. Another emotion people often experience after ghosting is sadness, because the loss of connection often hits people hard. Since you might not only be sad because you’ve lost a potential person in your life, but you might be grieving over the lost relationship and the fun potential future together. These feelings of sadness are amplified more by the fact that you can’t get closure because the person who ghosted you never offered up any explanations. This is called ambiguous loss and this is a lingering uncertainty that keeps you stuck replaying every moment in your relationship and makes you wonder what went wrong. Building upon this, self-blame is another emotion people typically feel after ghosting because as you don’t have any answers, self-doubt creeps in and you start making up your own reasons for why you were ghosted. For instance, you might wonder if you were too clingy, if you texted too much or whether you were too emotionally distant. Of course, these are good questions to be asking yourself at the end of any relationship, but it isn’t a good idea to do this after being ghosted. You will be vulnerable, feeling a lot of different emotions and you’ll be blaming yourself when this wasn’t your fault. The person who ghosted you should have given you a reason. Finally for this section, all these different emotions can lead to a decrease in self-esteem because when you doubt yourself, your thoughts can spiral and feed your inner critic. Therefore, because the ghoster never gave you clarity or closure for what happened, you’re stuck trying to solve the mystery for yourself without all the information. This might lead you to wonder whether you were fun enough, if you’re enjoyable to be around and if you’re attractive enough. Decreases in self-esteem aren’t fun. What Are Some Coping Strategies After Being Ghosted? Firstly, when it comes to being ghosted, it’s a great idea if you cut ties with the person. This can include blocking the ghoster on social media, deleting messages and their contact in your phone. This can be beneficial because it can be freeing, it can help you to move on and some people compare it to shutting a door on someone who’s left you, and firmly locking it behind them. Secondly, to cope with ghosting, you can seek answers and I am very unsure about this coping strategy, because as someone who’s faced emotional abuse and gaslighting. If I wanted to understand what everyone was thinking, how other people were feeling and why a particular person was so interested in being emotionally abusive towards me. This would not have been healthy, it would have prolonged my suffering and since I’ve put this part of my life behind me. My mental health has been a lot better, I’ve been a lot happier and it gave me the mental headspace to pursue dating. However, some ghostees just cannot let it go that they were ghosted without trying to find answers. This can include scrolling through the ghoster’s social media, their messages and sending one last message in an effort to find closure. Although, it has to be said, more often than not the search for answers ends in frustration and the mystery of why you were ghosted doesn’t get solved. Personally, if I were you, I would focus on other coping strategies, talking to a mental health professional if needed and I would practice self-care. Searching for answers would be the last thing that I would do because as I mentioned a moment ago, it only prolongs suffering and it tends to end in heartbreak. Thirdly, you can embrace acceptance and you can use rationalising. I think this might be one of the most useful coping strategies because when someone ghosts you, it isn’t about you. It’s about them. Therefore, after you’ve deleted messages, blocked the ghoster and you practice self-care. This frees up your headspace so you’re better able to focus on things that make you happy, like your friends, your family and maybe exploring new romantic interests. Also, it’s useful to bear in mind that by accepting your situation and moving on, it doesn’t mean that all your emotions will disappear. It means instead of lingering in your sadness as well as anger, you’ll be able to focus on your own healing. Finally and I think this is rather unfortunate, but one coping mechanism after being ghosted is to become the ghoster. Since people who have experienced ghosting are more likely to ghost other people themselves. This could come from the belief that everyone ghosts, why can’t I?  But this isn’t the best coping strategy, because you’re hurting others, and ghostees tend to find ghosting other people doesn’t bring them the relief they want. Mainly because they already know how hurtful it is to be on the receiving end of ghosting. What Are the Long-Term Effects of Ghosting? As I’ve hinted at in other parts of this episode, being ghosted can lead to emotional fallout in the long term because it can lead to anxiety as well as depressive symptoms. This is because the lack of closure leaves ghostees feeling stuck in a loop of uncertainty. Another long-term effect of ghosting is it creates trust and self-esteem issues for the person. Since ghosting leaves unresolved questions that make the ghostee doubt themselves for months, or even years in extreme cases, and they might become more guarded in future relationships. This isn’t ideal because this can make it harder for them to trust new partners and it can make genuine connection more difficult. Ultimately, it can create a cycle of failed relationships and insecure attachment. However, there is a potential benefit of ghosting in the long term because after you’ve recovered and healed from all the negative impacts, it gives you an opportunity to grow and reflect on the experience. As aspiring and qualified psychologists, we know the importance of self-reflection and wanting to improve our actions for the future, so we can apply this knowledge to our dating life too. Due to, being ghosting can lead to people reflecting on their needs for boundaries and this can help them to come away from the ghosting experience stronger and better for future relationships. Social Psychology Conclusion It wasn’t until near the end of this psychology podcast episode that I realised I have been on the receiving end of “small scale ghosting”. By this, I mean me and a few guys on a dating app have “matched”, we’ve exchanged one or two messages and the guy doesn’t reply again. I think when I was new to online dating, this did hurt in small ways because these guys were really attractive and it would have been nice to talk a little bit more. Yet we had barely had a conversation so I recovered very quickly and it didn’t really have an emotional impact on me. However, ghosting leaves deep scars on people and it can decrease their self-esteem, their mental health and their ability to trust others. And thankfully, healing from ghosting is definitely possible, but the echoes of ghosting often last far longer than the relationship itself and it can continue to cause difficulties for weeks, months and even years after the experience. If you’re struggling for the long term and it’s impairing your relationships, please consider reaching out to mental health professionals. Ultimately, I want to end this episode by stressing that honestly, if someone is willing to ghost you without any reason, any closure and anything at all. Then you are so much better off without them. You are special, you are important and you are lovable. You deserve someone who recognises you for the amazing person that you are.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s social psychology podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Social Psychology: A Guide To Social and Cultural Psychology . Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon for exclusive access and rewards Have a great day. Social Psychology Reference and Further Reading Di Santo, J. M., Montana, D., Nolan, K., Patel, J. P., Geher, G., Marks, K., ... & Thomson, G. (2022). To ghost or to be ghosted: An examination of the social and psychological correlates associated with ghosting. EvoS Journal: The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium, 12(1), 43-62. Freedman, G., Powell, D. N., Le, B., & Williams, K. D. (2024). Emotional experiences of ghosting. The Journal of social psychology, 164(3), 367-386. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/intimate-relationships-in-the-digital-era/202412/haunted-by-silence-the-emotional-aftermath-of LeFebvre, L. E., & Fan, X. (2020). Ghosted?: Navigating strategies for reducing uncertainty and implications surrounding ambiguous loss. Personal Relationships, 27(2), 433–459. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12322 LeFebvre, L. E., Allen, M., Rasner, R. D., Garstad, S., Wilms, A., & Parrish, C. (2019). Ghosting in emerging adults' romantic relationships: The digital dissolution disappearance strategy. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 39(2), 125–150. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276236618820519 Navarro, R., Larrañaga, E., Yubero, S., & Víllora, B. (2020). Psychological correlates of ghosting and breadcrumbing experiences: A preliminary study among adults. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(3), 1116. Pancani, L., Aureli, N., & Riva, P. (2022). Relationship dissolution strategies: Comparing the psychological consequences of ghosting, orbiting, and rejection. Cyberpsychology, 16(2). Pancani, L., Mazzoni, D., Aureli, N., & Riva, P. (2021). Ghosting and orbiting: An analysis of victims' experiences. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 38(7), 1987–2007. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211000417 Park, Y., & Klein, N. (2024). Ghosting: Social rejection without explanation, but not without care. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 153(7), 1765. Schokkenbroek, J.M., Hardyns, W., & Ponnet, K. (2023). Online relationship dissolution strategies: A scoping review on ghosting, orbiting and breadcrumbing. Presented at the 73rd annual conference of the International Communication Association. Toronto, Canada, 25–29 May 2023. Thomas, J. O., & Dubar, R. T. (2021). Disappearing in the age of hypervisibility: Definition, context, and perceived psychological consequences of social media ghosting. Psychology of Popular Media, 10(3), 291. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000343 Timmermans, E., Hermans, A. M., & Opree, S. J. (2021). Gone with the wind: Exploring mobile daters' ghosting experiences. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 38(2), 783–801. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407520970287 Wu, K., & Bamishigbin, O. (2024). Ignorance is not always bliss: A qualitative study of young adults' experiences with being ghosted. Personal Relationships. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12547 I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon  page. However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you. Which I am going to say right now. Thank you! Click  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley  for a one-time bit of support.

This week MSc Developmental Psychology graduate Alia Awan joins The Psychology World Podcast again to talk about applying for psychology PhDs, how to apply for PhDs for psychology students and she offers a whole bunch of valuable, insightful and fascinating tips and tricks for psychology students looking to apply. If you want to learn more about PhD applications then this will be a brilliant episode for you. Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Applied Psychology: Applying Social Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and More To Real World Problems.  Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Who is PhD Student Alia Awan? Alia Awan has just completed her Masters in Developmental Psychology at the University of Kent (where she also completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology). She is currently a PhD student in Applied Health Research focusing on adolescent social media use and health. Her research interests also include children’s play, imagination and the science of reading. In her spare time she like to play badminton, read, do some colouring and spend time with family and friends. What Is It Like Applying For PhD As A Psychology Student? Connor: So we're coming up to the 38-minute mark. To be honest, we probably are going to split this in, like, two different episodes. But in September, you're going to be starting something very exciting. Did you want to tell us about it? Alia: Yes, I do. Because it's kind of, like, a full circle moment as I was saying before. So I'm going to be starting a fully funded PhD with the Centre for Health and Service Studies at Kent University. I'm pretty sure I got that right. I'm still learning to get it right. But I should note, actually, I did apply for other PhDs, funded PhDs, through the school of psychology, and I wasn't successful in those. So if you don't... I learnt a lot about, like, resilience and perseverance this year because I applied a lot, and I put a lot of effort into it, and then I didn't get it. But I am a firm believer in, like, the right things will come your way when it's time, if that makes sense. So the right things will come along, and better things do come along if you don't get something. So that kind of helped me, like, stay grounded as well. Knowing that something will come my way even though I didn't believe it at times, and it didn't feel like it was going to happen But, yeah, so in September, I think in a couple of weeks, I'll be starting the PhD. The title of it is Applied Health Research, but it's part of this project. So it's the World Health Organization funds this type of research across 41 different countries, and it's about the health behavior of school-aged children. So looking at adolescents, and they get adolescents to do surveys, anonymous surveys, and asking lots of different questions. So maybe about vaping, smoking habits, drinking habits, sharing family meals, how many fruits and vegetables they eat, social media use, exercise activity. There's quite... It's just such a broad range of things they get asked. So I'm trying to cover as much as possible and remember as much as possible. But also, like, about body image as well, about eating behavior, loneliness. And, yeah, there's a lot. And if you're interested in this, it's called the larger project at Kent. Actually, it's not at Kent. It's kind of across the nations. I'm not really sure. I'm also a bit, like, still learning exactly what the whole thing is. It's called Health Behavior of School-aged Children, HBSC. And if you look it up online, you'll see reports that they've done in the past, where they've reported on what they found across these surveys, across the UK, but also across countries, across genders, but also they've looked at it across ages. So mainly in adolescents, so between, it's either 11 or 12. I think it's 11 to 15. In different countries, you report on different ages. But at Kent, specifically for the UK, basically, the government have said to this lady at Kent, like, "Oh, can you hire three PhD students to sort of do these kind of topics." And then I applied to one of those with a research proposal, and she was like, "Yep, we're happy to have you on board sort of thing." So I haven't met the other two students, but I'm really excited to start, to be honest. I think mainly because they're going to teach me about the stats, and working with such a big data set will be really cool because my undergrad and masters project...my undergrad dissertation project did have about 400 people, and then my masters project was a bit smaller, and it had about 70. So working with thousands of bits of data will be really interesting. I'm also really scared because it's statistics, but it's quite normal to be scared of stats. But they're going to teach me how to deal with that. But then also write for policy makers and write our findings academically but also for lay people and in different formats. And it really aligns with what I want to do in the future, post PhD, where I want to translate complex information into something that's understandable because rarely do you get, like, people who have spent years in research who can do this. So I want to be one of those people who can spend my time really getting to grips with research, really understanding it, being able to collect, analyze, and summarize data for people, like, policy makers who can make a difference, who don't have those skills and that time to do the research themselves. Connor: Wow, that sounds amazing, and because I've known you for so long, I know you were going to be incredible at it. But I completely agree about how scary the stats sounds. Like, from my Masters of Research, I was only doing collaborations of like 70, 80 people, having to do statistics for thousands of people just sounds mind blowing and just insane, but well done for wanting to do it because, yeah, it's going to be hard, but I know you're going to be great at it. Alia: Thank you. Yeah, I know it's definitely going to be hard doing a PhD because I don't think you've ever heard a PhD student go, mine was easy. Connor: No. Alia: The best bit of it is that I can make it my full time job because PhDs tend to be, the fully funded ones at least, you are funded so that is your full time job and that's kind of across the UK. If you get a fully funded one, it tends to be that you can do it as your full time job, and some of them have contracts where you can't actually pick up work outside of it because they expect you to spend a lot of time on it. So if you're thinking about doing a PhD but you're not sure if you've got enough funding to live beyond the stipend, just I would check the contracts and information. But, yeah, you do need a lot of perseverance when applying though I will say. It's a tough process as well because your competition are the same people who are getting, like, top marks, they are in the same position as you, and they're really passionate about research, they know what they want to do, and they've really thought about their studies as well. So, yeah, beyond that I don't really know what else to say, but it's good to learn perseverance in that sense. Connor: Definitely. Alia: Like, I think that's going to help me in the future for sure. Connor: Definitely. And if I've learned one thing from you over the past year it is just how much perseverance you have. I remember quite a few of our conversations, especially after some of these other PhDs I fell through, and, like, if it's okay to say this, if not I'll edit it, it's how you were very sad. You put your heart and soul into these things, and then when they fell through, it's a loss for anyone though. But I'm so glad though that you have, like...because I think you're going to do really well though. So have you got any other tips if someone's applying for a PhD besides perseverance? Tips For Applying For A Psychology PhD Alia: I think make sure you get on with your supervisor, have a little meeting because supervisor relationship is really important to me. And although I'm not doing my PhD with my supervisor I initially intended to with at the beginning of the year... Her name is Dr. Angela Nyhout, please check her out, she does some really cool research on imagination, mental imagery, counterfactual thinking in children. And although I'm not doing it with her, I did still want to make sure my supervisor relationship with the other person was going to be good, and when we had a little chat, I knew it was and I asked questions as well. There's no shame in asking questions to a supervisor about what things they kind of...how do they support, like, a little community? How do they...? I don't really know what I was going to try to reword that, but, yeah, how do they create a little community? What sorts of things do they do to help the student learn and the PhD student be supported? How does the student learn or, like, how will you teach me things I don't know? Is there room for being taught how much I don't know? And, like, what the supervisor relationship will be like? What do they expect? Another thing is also the university as a whole. If you're choosing to do it at another university that you've not been to, go in person and check it out, and see if you can, like, meet with the person, with your potential supervisor to see if they can show you around for a bit, have lunch with them. I don't know how typical that is actually, but I think it would be nice to do if you can do it and if they're up for it. But also remember that if you don't get your first one, that's okay. And apply for a few as well, if you can, maybe across different countries, across universities. But also it does take a lot of time to develop a proposal, so don't try to do like 10, maybe try to do like 3 at a time but also be wary of the deadlines that they have. Because some of them are at different times, but I looked a lot of them up online as well about tips for applying for PhDs in the UK. And remember to specify where you want to do it. So if you want to do it in the U.S., there's different requirements. If you want to do it in the UK, of course, there's different requirements. So just check out all the details to make sure you meet all the requirements so you don't spend your time making a proposal and then, actually, you're not eligible for the scholarship or funding, whatever it might be. Connor: Definitely. And I'm a bit glad that we've actually focused on the whole relationship bit there. Because I know when I first started thinking about a PhD in a moment of, like, madness...because a PhD is so not for me. Yeah, that was just pure madness, like, that moment. But I know when I was, like, thinking about it, I was just thinking about the whole education side of it. But I didn't put enough focus on the relationship side because you're going to be stuck doing it for three or four years, and you don't want to be with someone that you don't like. And it's going to be a lot of stress and a lot of work though, so you don't need yet another stressor of having a bad relationship with your supervisor. Alia: Definitely. Connor: And also, yes, it's a relationship. So there will be some good moments and bad moments. But if you can have a generally good relationship, then that's going to improve your health and your mental health throughout it a lot more. So definitely. Alia: Yeah. So I chose my supervisor because, well, initially, I read one of her papers, and I was like, "I love this research. It's amazing." And then I approached her and said I want to do a PhD, and she helped guide my ideas so that we could do one that I liked and applied for. I didn't get those in the end, but it was still a really interesting journey, and it was nice that she knew how I worked as well because I did my masters with her. She knew how I worked and knew I needed deadlines, and I had set deadlines. And I liked that I knew how to work with her. Like, it wasn't a whole new person at my masters. It was the same person who knew me from undergrad, and it's nice that she's seen me progress as well. I think that's also so realizing and having a special kind of relationship. Like, we don't just talk about academics. We talk about other things too. And when I have something exciting or exciting news, I know I'll just drop her a message or I'll go see her and tell her. And I think that's...yeah, like you said having a good supervisor relationship, I think is important to a PhD especially if you're quite like a personable person. And I feel like it can make or break it kind of in some instances. It can make or break it. I don't want to say it can for everyone and in case it doesn't. But I think it is really important for people. Connor: Because that's one of the reasons why I flat out loved my masters, and I think that it might be quite similar for you. Because I've heard about your and Angela's conversations have quite a lot, and it was really nice though like for me and Hannah because we did just get on so well. We spoke about each other's lives, and it was almost a sort of friendship relationship. That's what made my masters even more be rememberable, and I think it's the same, like, for you and Angela, both of you love working together. Alia: Yeah I think it's made it a lot better definitely, and then for my masters I work with one of my colleagues, Rosina Tolley, on a project. And she trusted us fully because she knew us. She trusted us fully to be really independent, and we were, and it gave us a lot of confidence in our decisions, and it was really nice to work with Rosina on... Let's say, like, we collected data together, but we analyzed different bits of it. But it was nice to do together and be trusted. And she wasn't like a helicopter supervisor just checking in all the time. Like, if we needed something, we would check in and we would ask. Rather than her saying, "Oh, like, how's it going?" Every week, if that makes sense. She knew if we needed something, we would come to her. And I think that's really important because it allowed us to build a lot of confidence around research. Especially for me, because I'm always, like, second guessing myself, but this year I learnt a lot about not doing that. But also, I would say, one of the PhD tips I forgot to mention is that if you meet with your supervisor or if you can see any of their ex-PhD students who have graduated, reach out to the students via LinkedIn or via email. See if you if they respond, explain who you are, and saying that you're planning to apply for a PhD with so and so in this topic. You don't have to go into too much detail, I don't think. Just give them some context as to who you are and why you're contacting them. And you can ask them about any tips or advice they have or reflect about their experience. Because as you would on an open day, you'd speak to students who are currently studying there, so why not do that with a PhD? And you can definitely do with a PhD. A lot of supervisors I was thinking about asking to be my PhD supervisor a few years ago, I spoke to their ex-students because I gave an insight into how they might work during a PhD and how that might be different from a master's supervision...yeah, how that might be different from master's supervision. Connor: Yeah. Definitely. That's actually a really good tip. Thank you for sharing that. Because I hadn't even thought of that, but that would be really useful. And I think having that open-day mindset is really impactful, and I think that tips are actually going to help a lot of people. So we're coming up to the... So are there any other tips or tricks that you might have for either other PhDs, aspiring psychology students, or just anyone at university? Any Other Tips and Tricks for PhDs, Psychology Undergraduates or Aspiring Psychology Students? Alia: My main tip is post-graduation and with the job market right now, it is hard and give yourself some credit. But in order if you're quite early on in your degrees or experiences, try build up your CV doing various different things because the job market is really competitive, and you're competing with people who have graduated for years or just graduated as well. So it is very difficult. So I would say build as much experience as you can without overwhelming yourself. Connor: I couldn't agree more, never true words have been spoken. I know that pain all too well, and if I don't laugh, I will cry about it. Alia: Yes, it is wrong. Because a lot of people do psychology, so you just want to, like, help yourself later on to stand out. Connor: Okay, then, so if the people having enjoyed today's episode, then where could they find you online? Like, LinkedIn or anything? Alia: Yes, so I have LinkedIn, and my handle...I think it's just my name. It should just be Alia Awan. A-L-I-A. And then space. And then Awan, A-W-A-N Connor: Brilliant. Thank you. This has been a brilliant conversation. It's going to be really useful, and best of luck with your PhD and in the future. Alia: Thank you. Thank you for listening as well to all listeners.   I really hope you enjoyed today’s university psychology student life podcast episode. If you want to learn more, please check out: FREE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET Applied Psychology: Applying Social Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and More To Real World Problems.  Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. 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