Research or practice: advice appreciated

Feena

I'm new to this forum, so not sure if these sorts of 'advice' threads are appreciated. Sorry if I've come to the wrong place!

I have a 1:1 (PSI accredited) degree in psychology that I completed in Ireland and a MA in Educational Research from a Swedish University. When I finished my undergrad I did just a couple of weeks of work in an ABA school, and have been interested in Evidence Based Practice since then. When I finished my masters I started working as a research assistant on a project about adults with intellectual disability (it is an implementation project, so broadly speaking we're looking at how to support social workers to use evidence based teaching strategies in their work).

I've been working as an RA for about 8 months now and love it. You can only stay in the position for a max of 2 years though. I have some good contacts in research, and doing a PhD in either social work or psychology on the project that I currently work on is looking pretty likely. Although I did not really enjoy my masters and didn't really achieve great grades, I feel like I've now found a field that I'm really interested in.

I'm also interested in either clinical or educational psychology, and have always thought about qualifying in one of these areas and being a practitioner rather than researcher (or possibly even doing the PhD first, then clinical/educational psychology). However, since I've been so research focused so far, I've found myself without anyone to ask for advice about this. Would I need to start looking for clinical experience, and then apply for a masters? Are there any particular university courses that you would recommend (probably in either Ireland or England)? Is it possible to earn any money while studying to be a clinical psychologist in Ireland?

What is the best way to get advice about this? I've researched online many times, but get a bit overwhelmed about where to start.

Faith

I've only just spotted this but maybe I can still help.

Clinical psychology is one of the most competitive courses that there is. In the whole fecking world, it often feels like. In the uk and Ireland, it's a 3 year, full time doctorate program. In both countries, you're paid a salary. In the UK, I think it starts at £24,000 and in Ireland it's about €35,000. However, in the uk, you don't pay fees, whereas in Ireland you pay fees of about €12000 a year so it's actually better financially to do it in the uk. There's also a very, very strong possibility that they'll pull the funding from the doctorate here in Ireland at any point.

If you already have a masters degree, there's no need to get another one. What you need to get on the doctorate is serious clinical experience. Ideally, you'd work as a full time, paid assistant psychologist in the health service for a minimum of one year. Ideally you'd be supervised by a qualified clinical psychologist. These positions are extremely rare in Ireland - maybe a handful every year come up. In The uk, there's much more availability but the competition is fierce. Approximately 150-200 people apply for every job, they only interview 6. Most people end up working voluntarily for a while to get experience needed to get a paid position.

There are other clinically relevant roles, like mental health worker, support worker, care assistant, etc. they're all fine too, but not as highly valued as an assistant psychologist role. Research assistant roles are also highly valued, especially clinical ones, but chances are you'd need some hands on clinical experience too.

If you're not in a rush to do clinical psychology, having a phd is a great advantage when it comes to applying for clinical doctorates. It puts you in the top percentile a applicants academically, but again is no guarantee of a place on a course.

So to sum, no need to do another masters, you get paid while doing your doctorate so no need for another job, and you need clinically relevant experience to even have a shot at interview.

The closing date for applications in the uk will be in the next couple of days, I think, so you're too late for this year in the uk. Universities in Ireland don't have centralised application systems so they all have individual closing dates, often January/February/march times.

If there's any other questions I can answer, let me know.