What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?
What is your education to date?
What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?
Have you undertaken, or do you plan to undertake any further training as part of your job?
What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?
I like the way that the Irish school system allows students to study a variety of subjects to get a broad base.
I chose a range of subjects including languages (French and Spanish) which allowed me to make friends and really immerse myself in different cultures during my summers abroad.
I feel that Maths helped me to develop my logical mind, and prepared me well for learning to use statistics which are widely used in Clinical Psychology.
Biology was certainly useful to take in school and is relevant to Clinical Psychology because of its focus on how the human body works and how the brain functions.
English was also useful to the role of Clinical Psychologist as report writing skills are used across the board, and good ability to express yourself both verbally and in writing is very important.
I also feel that my involvement in school sports (hockey and swimming) was important in helping me develop into a person who enjoys being part of a team.
What is your education to date?
I went to Mount Anville school, starting as a small child in Montessori and finishing as a teenager dying to get out into the ‘real world’ after the Leaving Cert.
Then I did a BA degree in English literature and Philosophy in Trinity College Dublin which honed my understanding of human nature and relationships (English literature) and trained me in logic and the analytic method (Philosophy) – and incidentally these are skills very useful to Clinical Psychology!
After teaching on the JET programme in Japan and having developed the idea to train as a Clinical Psychologist, I completed the Higher Diploma in Psychology (DipPsych) in UCD. This background allowed me to undertake training to be a Clinical Psychologist in University of North Wales (Bangor) while simultaneously completing clinical placements in the NHS in Wales.
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