Final Reflections on the Stage 2 Training Process

It seems such a long time ago that I began this journey.  It has taken me 6 years and 10 months in total.  I remember after finishing my masters I felt that I had accomplished something, and that I had an experience that, whilst difficult and stressful, had been very rewarding. Finishing my Stage 2 did not feel like that, at least not at first.  I had a sense of relief that the work was finally over: no more practice diaries, no more placements, no more submission or re-submissions.  I just felt plain relieved.  Even when I received my BPS certificate and my HCPC certificate, I felt little joy or elation at my achievement.

Fast forward 6 months and I agree to attend the DFP Conference to accept my certificate in a more formal setting.  My partner and I decided to treat it as a small family holiday with our 6 month old and we drove to the conference.  My supervisor was there to greet me with hugs and congratulations and her old supervisor was also there and did the same.  I lined up with my peers who had also qualified and we sat in the front row of the conference hall waiting to be called on stage to collect our certificates.

As we waited, we whispered to one another our relief and confessed the length of time it had taken to complete, 6 years 10 months for me, some others shorter and some others longer but all of us united in the sense of gladness that it was finally over.  We collected our certificates and smiled for the obligatory group photo and then we all dispersed, back into the crowd and off back to our roles wherever we are, no one so much as looking over their shoulders.  But when I do look back at the event, I remember one thing very clearly. My little boy was the centre of attention and one lady, a senior psychologist, commented that despite the chartership, children are the greatest achievement.  And this really did place everything in perspective.

Before this, all I saw were the times of failure and the re-submissions. I had still held on to the feeling of being under constant stress and strain trying to complete the work and felt resentful of that.  I have since been able to let go of that burden, and that alone is an achievement.  To hear my peers express similar experiences and relief helped me recognise the enormity of the task we set ourselves and we came through it, slowly but surely.  More a case of the tortoise and hare than any prodigal speed to win a race but complete the race we did.  And also, if that lady was right and my little boy is my greatest achievement, then completing that chartership was an achievement along the way and I should acknowledge it as such.

I think what I am reflecting on now is that this was one of the toughest journeys I embarked upon and I know that peers on the BPS route and the doctorate are experiencing the same stresses and strains.  It is natural to feel relieved and want to push away all thought of the emotional challenges and feel bitter, but actually getting through is an achievement and each one of us should feel proud (although you won't see me applying to do any further studying for a while now, if ever!).

And also, this is one achievement, in a whole list of many that we will experience, some of which are not career related.  This profession and training can be all consuming, but it has helped me to remember that it is one part of what defines me and putting my achievements in context and in perspective has helped me take true enjoyment out of what I have done so far.

So to all of you still training, stick with it, you will get there, be brave and work through the failures - we all have had them.

To those of you starting out, don't just think about finishing fast. Think about the training route that will help you qualify, that is cost effective and that fits with the life that you want to live outside of your career. If that means choosing a slower route so that you can afford holidays and to travel and have children, then do just that; the training routes aren't going to disappear if you don't get it finished straight away, and neither is the profession.

And from me, this is my last post here as I move on to the next stage of my life.  Thank you to all those who have read, glanced over or accidentally clicked on the blog.  You have been a source of catharsis for me over these years.

Farewell.

My experience of Core Role 4

Looking back at Core Role 4, I feel this was actually the Core Role that I enjoyed the most.  This was because it took me past my nervousness at public speaking and gave me the confidence to present myself well in all aspects of my life.  It also taught me about my learning style and also my teaching style, which, I have to say, is probably a little informal.

There were aspects of this Core Role that had particular challenges in terms of the assessors.  Sometimes developing a rationale for training can be as problematic as developing a rationale for research.  Although it is understood that as a trainee you need to provide exemplars, there is no room for developing training "for the sake of it".  Assessors will pick up on this and will question whether the training was really needed by your organisation, and this in turn will suggest to them that you might not entirely understand how to identify learning and training needs in the context of working within your organisation.

On the other hand, sometimes you identify a need and there is little appetite for meeting it within the organisation.  I found that exploring literature around change and growth in organisations can help in this situation.  It can help you understand any resistance you meet and can help you develop strategies to get past this.  What you must do is provide evidence for the assessors to prove that you understand how to identify learning and training needs and that you can bring the organisation on board.

Another hurdle that you might need to overcome might be in the case of your organisation directing you to deliver training and the training is mandatory.  In these cases it is harder to demonstrate why you have identified the training needs and how you select appropriate participants for your training.  Instead, you might have to reflect on what you could do under different circumstances or perhaps you could do some additional work to check the need within your population.

With mandatory training it is vital that you consider the motivations to attend and what this might mean for people's willingness to engage and learn. It is important to consider what will affect a person's motivation to learn and how you will account for this and address this in your training.

Finally, a focus for the assessors is how you evaluate training.  They will want to see that you have used literature and research to develop evidence-based methods of determining if people have learnt from your training session.  Usually this is a form of questionnaire but you will have to have clearly demonstrated through your evidence why you have chosen this method and your reflections on your chosen method.  A final part to this will be evaluating your evaluation method through reflection.  Did your evaluation really test what you wanted it to?  What could you have changed?  What would you do next time?  They will also want to see how you have learnt and how you have applied these changes to your next training programme or seminar.

I should note that whilst a reflection on learning styles and how you have catered for them in your training is often wanted by the assessors, there is a huge amount of literature available recently which rejects the theory of learning styles.  You may want include and consider this when you are developing your training.

Core Role 3 - Advice and Consultation

It has been a few years since I completed Core Role 3 on Advice and Consultation. Initially I struggled to recall some of the exact details of the work I did to demonstrate competency in this area.  I then realised that the skills from this Core Role are applied daily and over time these have become par for the course, an integral part of what I do and how I.

This Core Role focuses on how you advise and guide the work of others.  This is not necessarily just students or other trainees, but includes colleagues, peers and even more senior persons.  Fundamentally, one of the roles of a psychologist is to provide their expert advice to others.  Very specifically, as a psychologist you cannot simply offer advice in any area of psychology.  Ethically, we are each bound to work only within our particular remit, so if forensics is your area, then your remit will be within areas directly related to offending behaviour, risk and rehabilitation.

Gaining expertise is part of a person's natural training journey. However in psychology there is an extra layer of depth.  We may, through training and experience, come to know know a good deal about a particular type of offender. However, to simply give advice based on "top of the head" information would run the risk of offering incorrect information and, as a consequence, could lead to harm to a patient or prisoner.  As we know, research and policy are changing all the time, and as a psychologist you need to be able to give the most up to date, relevant and quality information. Everything needs thought, reflection and advice based on thorough research whose application is fully justified to the case in question.

The skills that assessors are looking for in this Core Role are derived from your decisions you make on whether the requests you receive for your psychological knowledge are appropriate for you to respond to and  how you make these decisions and your subsequent response.  Assessors then want to see how you review all the relevant information; literature, psychological theory, policy, guidelines and so on, to provide the best possible advice.  They will also want to see how you deal with requests that are not appropriate, how and why you decide what these are, and how you manage the subsequent feedback and those professional relationships that these decisions impact.

Areas which are key to this Core Role are demonstrating how you can advise on policy and how you provide psychological information in high pressure situations, such as courts or parole board hearings.  With policy advice, part of this challenge will be finding the need for this in your placement. This issue can be quite challenging but your supervisor and your registrar can help with ideas on how best to do this to meet the criteria for this Core Role.  With courts or parole board hearings, not everyone will have this opportunity so finding forums where you are the "expert" and will need to defend your psychological knowledge in a similar way will be vital.  To do this, you will need to review the literature for skills in delivering information to the parole board and demonstrate how you have learnt these skills and applied them to your particular forum.  Again, this is an area that your registrar and supervisor can help you think through.

As with all the Core Roles, showing a clear link between literature and psychological evidence and then action is important.  But in this case you also need to show how evidence helps you think ethically about the advice you give, how you decide what to respond to, what information to provide within confidentiality limits, how you deliver the information and how you evaluate how the information was received and acted upon, both the good and the bad. Your skills in evaluation, decision-making and application are key.

Reflecting on Research: My experience in Core Role 2

This is possibly one of the toughest Core Roles to complete.  Opportunities for completing research are simply not as readily available as everyone might think.  Furthermore, it's not the case that you can complete the research just because you are interested in a subject; there has to be a rationale for it (See my previous blog post on Research, Readiness to Research).  Having said this, I learnt a few valuable lessons from my time completing this Core Role and you might find these tips helpful:

Ensure Clarity

The first is to be very clear in your proposal of exactly what you plan to do and what resources this requires.  This is particularly important if you are going to need staff to help you collect data.  Consider the impact this will have on their time and workload and think of ways you could minimise this or reimburse them for their efforts.  Funding is always limited and unlikely to be made available for trainee's research, however perhaps engaging and motivating staff to help you collect data might be another way to achieve this.

Simplicity and Relevance

Secondly, research for Stage 2 is not doctoral so it doesn't need to be huge and complicated.  It does need to be relevant and provide an opportunity for you to showcase your skills.  Nor do you have to demonstrate both qualitative and quantitative research: you can chose to do what you are best at.  The critical element, however, is that you have to clearly justify what methods you are using based on the available literature.  This is imperative when using both qualitative and quantitative methodology.  You must evidence and justify why you are using a particular method and why that method is the most appropriate.

The Replication Crisis

Thirdly, it is valuable to remember that there is a replication crisis currently in psychology.  And whilst it is not acceptable for the Stage 2 to replicate research (although considering the replication crisis, I believe this would be valuable as it would allow trainees to add to our current field of knowledge) you have to remember that another professional should be able to pick up your paper and replicate your methodology and results.  This being said, finding space in your paper to demonstrate reliability and validity as far as you can is valauable and being explicit in your methods will also go some why to achieving this.

Intelligent Communication

Finally, writing style is important. It is not just a question of being academic but of expressing yourself intelligently, in a fully referenced way and yet achieving accessibility to a wide range of professional readers.  Part of being able to complete research is being able to present the findings to people who are perhaps not academically-trained.  I found that having an additional document which demonstrated how I presented my findings to colleagues from a non-psychology background helped me to demonstrate that I was able to communicate my research findings to a broad audience.

My experience of Core Role 1 Assessment and Intervention

It has been a while since I have posted; a pause while I focused on completing the Stage 2 training, and I am happy to say that I am now qualified.

The space of time that I have taken between completing the training and returning to this blog has enabled me to look back at my posts and reflect on the wider training process.  I am going to write a few more posts on my reflections on each of the Core Roles for the Stage 2 training and write a final post at the end marking the culmination of my journey.  I hope these posts are helpful to trainees coming after me and continue to be of use to other colleagues and peers who are interested in this field.

Core Role 1

Core Role 1 in the Stage 2 Training is all about Assessment and Treatment.  This is the bread and butter of the work of any Forensic Psychologist; assessing a person's needs and developing suitable treatment options.  However, considering the nature of the cases and conditions that the people we work with bring to us, the complexities of the criminal justice system and the uncertainties of appropriate treatments, this task is not as simple as it sounds.

Demonstrating this knowledge and skill to the assessors is also not so simple a task.  When I started Core Role 1, it was acceptable to have separate exemplars for assessment and treatment and one could use a number of sessions of individual or group therapy to provide evidence of assessment skill, psychological theory and techniques and outcomes.  Towards the end of my training there was a shift towards the use of a Case Study approach for this Core Role and, although more prescriptive, it is actually the best approach for presenting competence to the assessors, as it can be done by following the Handbook exactly so that nothing is missed out.

The key messages in this Core Role are:

• to embed your work in the literature, 
• to evaluate your practice in as many ways possible, and,
• to demonstrate how you and your practice has changed and grown through this process.  

My key learning points were as follows:

Assessment:

Use the literature.  Demonstrate that you have read the literature and demonstrate that any decisions that you make regarding appropriate assessment methods and tools refer back to that literature.  Show that you have weighed up the literature and the options, and discussed this in peer supervision and with your supervisors.  Demonstrate that you have considered the patient or offender's needs and thoughts of their own needs, and considered any barriers to assessment and treatment and how you might overcome these. In your reflections, evaluate your practice as you go, what have you learnt, how could you do better.

Also an important factor in assessment is the demonstration of independent thinking and illustrating that you have checked the literature and are aware of the range of tools and methods appropriate to the person you are working with. Furthermore, you should have evaluated the pros and cons of using these and come to a decision.  Demonstrate that you have evaluated this decision afterwards and what you have learnt.  

Formulation:

This is also guided by literature and there is an excellent book; Forensic Case Formulation, by Sturmey and McMurran, that evaluates the different theories and models of formulation relevant to specific offenders such as violent, sexual or youth.  Demonstrate how your assessment has linked to your formulation and how your formulation changes over time as new information and evidence comes to light through the assessment and through your treatment programme.

The formulation should clearly identify treatment needs, and plans developed using the treatment or therapeutic literature of the most appropriate techniques to meet these needs.  The assessor should be able to follow a clear line from your assessment outcome, through needs identification, in the formulation to how each treatment session you hold addresses those needs and what the final outcomes are at the end of treatment.

Evidencing treatment needs and how they are met in each session:

From your session notes and reflective notes, an assessor should be able to see  how a patient or offender's needs have been addressed in the session: what did you do; what techniques were used; how did you agree these techniques with the patient; how did they react; if their reaction was negative, how did you respond and manage this; how did you manage the therapeutic relationship and what literature did you use to help you do this?  Whilst this may seem over the top, this is actually an excellent lesson in defensible, evidence-based practice.  If you are doing this properly, it should be the case that another professional could pick up your work and see exactly how and what you have done.  This creates space to check the reliability and validity of your work as well as demonstrating ethical practice. Your practice can only be ethical if it is based in evidence which demonstrates your techniques are safe and appropriate to use and that the patient understands and consents to those techniques after an informed discussion.

How outcomes are demonstrated and how one evaluates their own practice:

As with all evidence-based practice, you have to be able to demonstrate how you have evaluated your practice.  I made the mistake of thinking that the only outcomes that mattered were patient improvement. Through feedback and re-submission, I learnt that it is as important to evaluate my own practice within this.  How you plan to evaluate outcomes and practice should be agreed at the planning stage of your sessions and the assessors will then look to see if you have evaluated as you planned and evaluated appropriately.  Outcome measures are of course vital, but you also need to consider how you evaluate your own practice through supervision and peer supervision perhaps, what criteria you set to check your learning and development, whether you have met these and how you have grown and changed in the process.

Working with others:

Within this, you need to demonstrate to the assessors that you will be ready to start supervising people when you qualify, so reviewing and using the supervision literature and how you apply this to colleagues and how you evaluate your application of the theory is vital to demonstrating that you are ready to supervise others.

Whilst this is a brief summary of my learning and generic to both risk assessment and mental health assessment, I found these points to be the most salient in my learning.  I also found that being able to complete training in Structured Professional Judgement (SPJ) approaches really improved my skills in assessment and formulation, especially in considering scenarios of increased and decreased risk and how I advised other professionals of these issues.

Core Role 1 is exceptionally daunting and difficult but it is highly rewarding once completed.  The focus of having ethical, defensible, evidenced based psychological practice was important for my future learning.

Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is one of the most important skills a psychologist can have, according to our professional bodies.  We are encouraged to reflect on the work that we do and in turn encourage others to participate in reflective practice and to reflect on their own work.

Reflective practice has been shown in the literature to improve staff working relationships with patients and to reduce staff burnout.  It is also an evidenced based method of teaching and learning from experience.

For the Stage 2, the emphasis is on reflection rather than on evidencing practice, although this also has to happen.  Trainees are expected to reflect on everything that they have done but, importantly, also to discuss what they would do in the future based on the literature.  It is not enough to be aware of your emotional feelings and to reflect on your responses, you must understand your responses and others' responses by using psychological theory and psychological literature.  You must then discuss what you have learnt and how you move forward using best practice guidelines and the literature.  To not finish this step or to  not adequately use theory and research is to be seen by the assessors to not be reflecting adequately.

Reflective practice is a way of studying your own experiences to improve the way you work. The act of reflection is a great way to increase confidence and improve your interactions with colleagues, clients and patients.  Reflective practice such as writing can be a cathartic process after an interaction to help you to understand how and why something happened and discover appropriate ways to act in the future.  This means that feelings about this interaction can then be contained within the reflective process rather than directed towards the client or patient through counter-transference and in this way unconditional positive regard can be maintained (Bolton 2010).  This suggests that reflective practice has an ethical impetus, as it offers a balance between emotional release and respect for the patient as well as between learning from literature reading and learning from experiences. 

There have been a number of theories of reflective practice such as Rogers’ consciousness raising (Rogers 1969).  He stated that education should “pose problems about our lives in the here and now”.  Similarly to his client-centred therapy, he proposed that learning should be learner-centred whereby a person cannot be taught by another but that learning can be facilitated by others.  This included using reflection as a means of learning through experiences whereby the self and preconceptions are challenged by gently encouraging open mindedness.  More recently, Action Research has emerged as a model of reflective practice and has structured the model as a cycle of planning, acting, observing and reflecting (Bolton 2010).  Action research has been widely used in the psychotherapy community however research into its effectiveness as a teaching and learning tool has not been conducted. 

Different models of reflective practice do not go into the same emotional depth as the models above but do still encourage people to examine alternative reasons for an incident occurring or the outcome of an interaction.  Gibbs’ (1988) Reflective Cycle is one such model where it offers a process of six steps.

The steps are presented as a cycle because the action one takes in the final stage will feed back into the first stage.  This cycle is fairly straightforward and encourages a clear description of the situation, analysis of feelings, evaluation of the experience, analysis to make sense of the experience, conclusion where other options are considered and reflection upon experience to examine what you would do if the situation arose again.  It is possible to use this model for individual reflection. 

In contrast, Johns’ (2000) model for structured reflection supports the need for the learner to work with a supervisor throughout their learning experience. He refers to this as “guided reflection”, and recommends that students use a structured diary such as a practice diary.  Johns inferred that sharing reflections on learning experiences encourages greater understanding of those experiences than what could be achieved by reflection as a lone exercise.  John’s Model for Structured Reflection:

1. Commitment - accept responsibility and be open to change
2. Contradiction - note tension between actual and desired practice
3. Conflict - harness this energy to take appropriate action
4. Challenge - confront your own typical actions, beliefs and attitudes in a non-threatening way
5. Catharsis - work through negative feelings
6. Creation - move beyond old self to novel alternatives
7. Connection - connect new insights in the world of practice
8. Caring  - realise desirable practice
9. Congruence - reflection as a mirror for caring
10. Constructing - building personal knowledge in practice

Rolfe (2001) however, criticises this as it only responds to a situation which has been resolved and does not make provision for the question of how one can take forward learning to the next interaction or incident.  Rolfe’s framework uses three questions to reflect on a situation.

1. What ...is the problem? ...was my role? ...happened? ...were the consequences?
2. So what ...was going through my mind? ...should I have done? ...do I know about what happened now?
3. Now what ...do I need to do? ...broader issues have been raised? ...might happen now?

The questions “What? So what? And now what?” can stimulate reflection from all levels of training and experience.  Firstly the practitioner reflects on the situation in order to describe it. The second phase encourages the practitioner to construct personal theory and knowledge about the situation in order to learn from it. At the third level the practitioner reflects on action and considers ways of improving the situation and reflects on the consequences of his/her actions.

Although this review is by no means an exhaustive list of the models of reflective practice, I have examined a range of models from different psychological approaches.  I have chosen to demonstrate Gibb’s and Rolfe’s models in the training.  This is because they have a simple and concrete structure for those beginning their learning in reflective practice.  The staff who will be taking part are not psychotherapists and although they should be able to understand the concepts within action research and Rogers’ consciousness raising, these are not necessarily the most practical or relevant to their daily tasks and interactions.  Within these models there are methods of reflective practice such as the Through the Mirror technique, practice diaries, Personal Development Plans and Portfolios, Problem Based Learning, (Leitch & Day 2006) that could be useful for the individual.  However the time constraints of the service means that simpler models that can also be used in groups would be more beneficial.  

Group reflective practice has same set up as group interventions but also has the benefit of shared experience and learning such as Rowland’s (2000 in Bolton 2010) 'shared context'.  Both Gibbs and Rolfe’s model allow for easy facilitation in groups as well as individual reflective practice sessions.

As a trainee, you will need to choose an appropriate model of reflection and base all your writing: practice diaries, exemplar reports, reflective reports in this way and have these supported by evidence.

What you cannot guarantee is whether you will reflect on something that the assessors feel needs reflecting on. For example, the assessor may feel that you described an incident that required more reflection than you gave or that you made a decision but did not base how you got to your decision in best practice and the literature.

Searching for a supervisor

At an early stage in the training process you are set a challenge:  finding a supervisor.

You might be one of the more fortunate trainees in that your post in your workplace as a trainee forensic psychologist means that you will automatically have a supervisor to take you through Stage 2.  Not everyone is going to find the process this straight forward, so you may need to negotiate through your organisation for a chartered forensic psychologist to provide you with professional supervision.  But there are difficulties involved with this, such as the capacity of the psychologist, the cost to your department for their time and their availability.  

In all job posts you will need to be receiving clinical supervision from a manager, you may also arrange to have peer supervision which has many benefits for you and other trainees including sharing practice and learning without the appraisal aspects that may be part of clinical supervision.  Clinical supervision is about your work and can be undertaken by a manager but in order to charter you need a coordinating supervisor who is a chartered forensic psychologist.  Managers or clinical supervisor can be named as your designated supervisor for particular pieces of work and this counts towards your 4 hours of supervision a month but you need to have at least 2 hours supervision a month with your coordinating supervisor who will need to be a chartered forensic psychologist.

 If you decide to find an independent supervisor to be your coordinating supervisor you will need to contact Alex Johnson, the Qualifications Officer at the DFP.  Alex has a list of current supervisors and their contact details so that you can start canvassing for supervision. The only thing the list doesn't provide is information on whether the supervisors have any current availability. Whilst some chartered forensic psychologists do not take on independent trainees as they feel we are unable to get the experience, many others see the benefits of having independent trainees not just as an extra source of income but as essential to the development of the wider forensic psychology arena.

I also made sure to note what areas they had experience in and where they worked as it helps to have a supervisor who holds the same interests in forensic psychology as you do, for example, if you do not agree with the prison system and do not want to work in that setting, you want to look for a supervisor who perhaps has experience of secure units, police or community work. Furthermore, if your interest is in the courts and eye witness testimony etc, you may find a supervisor who has only worked with offending behaviour and mental health more difficult to work with. On the other hand, a good supervisor may be able to support you despite your differences in interests.

Trying to secure a supervisor is very similar to sending your CV out for a job. You have to sell yourself. It can take some time between finishing your masters and securing a supervisor.  Supervisors will then want to know what you have been doing in the mean time to keep your skills sharp, to gain experience and to continue your professional development. 

This is where volunteering and placements can come in handy and if you need help in organising and logging your continued professional development (CPD) then the BPS have a great CPD site on their main website which allows you to keep a record of your CPD, your learning and your reflections. 

British Psychological Society



It can be hard to know what it is supervisors are looking for in order to sell yourself to them, SO, I asked my supervisor what she looks for and what she thinks other supervisors look for in a trainee. 

Essentially she feels supervisors are looking for people who are motivated and able to work independently; supervisors are there to advise and guide and it is made very clear that you will be doing the work for yourself. You will need to demonstrate a high degreel of organisation so that a supervisor can be certain that you are capable of working at this level. She agreed that a variety of experience is also helpful even if it is voluntary work. 

She did add another useful point.  As with any job or placement, demonstrating that you are mature and professional in your approach to securing a supervisor can make the difference between being accepted and not, so a strong CV and cover letter stating your intention for supervision, what stage your are at with your CPD and training and where you want to go in the future are a must.  

The independent route to chartership does have one special difficulty and this is associated with supervision, and that is finance.  Unless your workplace will fund this training, you will have to fund supervision yourself. 

Supervisors costs vary but are usually between £50 - £100 an hour, and half again for marking work that you send to them. Ouch.

Ok, deep breath, don't panic. You only need to see your supervisor for 4 hours a month once you are enrolled on Stage 2.  Furthermore, it can take up to a year to do all the preparation and have your application completed and approved and you won't need to see your supervisor for 4 hours a month during that time. It is once you are enrolled that you must see a supervisor for 4 hours a month.  However, this can include a designated supervisor who is overseeing your examplar work at your placement or in your workplace. S

For example, if you are doing a placement with a college for one of your exemplars then someone has to be named your designated supervisor and you can see this person for 3 out of the 4 supervision hours a month, saving you a bit of money. A word of caution, your coordinating supervisor is there to make sure that your work is up to standard and to ensure that you are practising appropriately, therefore if they feel at any point that you are struggling then you will need to see them more often. This isn't a bad thing and can only help to improve your practice and the likelihood of passing your exemplars first time.  For some ideas and tips about funding, see my blog post of:

Money Matters for Training Success