Preparing for Stage 2 Training

For many trainees, issues around preparing for Stage 2 and finding a Supervisor come as part of their employment package, however, there are a growing number of students completing their masters who are unable to access a Forensic Psychologist in Training post within the prison service or NHS.  It is these students who often embark upon the independent route to forensic psychology chartership.

The independent route has many pitfalls but it also has many benefits in terms of the Stage 2 work.  Stage 2 requires a wide breadth of experience as well as showing depth of working.  Many Forensic Psychologists in Training have had to locate to new places of work and pick up extra volunteering, in order to achieve the breadth of experience required by the Stage 2 assessors.  In the independent route you are able to access a wide variety of sources with which to complete your Stage 2 but may struggle with some of the more in-depth work due to issues around accessing clients or patients. 

So, how do you prepare for these challenges?  Networking, making contacts and selling yourself to potential organisations are important methods for succeeding in this and I can’t say enough about having a supervisor to support and guide you. Based on my experiences of the independent route, I have listed points for preparation that can be made for the Stage 2 process.

Volunteering – There are lots of agencies across the country that interact at different levels of intensity with offenders from befriending and prison visits to mentoring, acting as an appropriate adult, accompanying offenders to court and youth offender panels.  Although these are not strictly psychological placements, they are a way to gain face to face experience with offenders, with the settings and with the multi-agency environment that surrounds an offender.  Charities also have many needs that you as a psychologist can offer to help with.  For example, two of the Stage 2 Core Roles are training and consultancy.  Charities and third sector organisations will often be grateful of the opportunity to have someone come and deliver FREE training and consultancy to them.  This is something that I have definitely experienced as I am completing one of my exemplars as a consultant to a London based charity working with offenders and another exemplar offering training to an organisation.

Placements – I feel that I may have been a little behind the times on this one and that may well be because I took so long to find a supervisor however, placements are the perfect way to gain experience in the field if you are not already working there.  I work in a training institute for counsellors and psychotherapists where there is a dedicated placements database and placements coordinator to help them gain experience and increase their practice hours.  There is nothing of this sort yet for forensic psychology and I am hoping that one day we will have one to help us all complete our chartership.  Placements can be accessed by offering your services as volunteer to an organisation or department in return for learning and work experience.  More than we realise, departments in the NHS and private organisations take on volunteers for a placement, this is not unusual practice.  The key here is a good CV and cover letter stating what experience you would like but most importantly, what you can offer them in return.  I am still working on arranging a suitable placement for myself but when I do I will certainly update the blog with my experiences.

Research and Book Reviews – We all have to do a research dissertation for our masters.  There is a great deal of work that goes into to it from us and our research supervisors so why not publish it?  Many universities will offer to publish what they see as the best reports but there is no reason why you can’t go to journals yourself or to the DFP publications such as Forensic Digest and publish there.  You will of course need to amend your report for publication in terms of word count but most journals will have guidelines for potential publishers.  Having something published not only looks great on your CV to potential employers and placements but should make it easier in the future for you to publish again as you will have some experience of the process and what is needed for a successful publication.  This is also the case for book reviews.  Lots of magazines and journals have a back log of books that need reviewing, this can be an alternative way of getting your name into print and practice analytic and concise writing skills.  Book reviews are also a great way to learn about an area from a book you may not necessarily choose to buy for yourself.  A word of caution with regards to publishing; publishers will consider whether your research is current and relevant to issues either happening now or topics where there is not enough information, these are the ones most likely to be selected for publication.

Supervision – For me, having a supervisor has been the key to navigating my way through the Stage 2 process so far.  There are so many documents to read and people have so many different experiences with the process that it can make your head swim.  A supervisor helps keep everything in perspective, keeps you focused and supports you with your endeavours.  Over a year of supervision and preparing for my Stage 2 I can see how I have changed and grown in confidence and understanding of my skills and abilities.  This makes approaching organisations about possible Core Roles less daunting and feeling supported in this has made the work enjoyable.  A co-ordinating supervisor is necessary in order to complete the Stage 2 process but they are a personal benefit to you in making progress.

I hope this has given you some food for thought.  In the coming weeks I will follow this up with articles going into greater depth on the points above.  If there is anything else you would like to see addressed please feel free to contact me or alternatively write an article of your own to be included in the blog.  These of course are my experiences and I am sure fellow readers would like to hear of other people’s thoughts and experiences.  Also, if you are a Forensic Psychologist in Training working with the NHS or Prison Service I would love to hear your experiences of the process.

Till next time....