Trainee Clinical Psychologist, NHSMiddlesex University was one of the few internationally accredited and acclaimed universities with a campus in Dubai, offering a well known bachelor’s degree with BPS accreditation (British Psychological Society).
I wanted a university that had a similar standard to universities in the UK and Middlesex happened to be one of the only universities in UAE offering the Psychology degree I wanted to do.
To those of you wanting to pursue a postgraduate course, if you think undergraduate is difficult then you are in for a surprise! However, if you put in the effort and give it your all, it will pay off.
Middlesex University laid the foundation for me to chart my course into Clinical Psychology. The counselling skills training provided in my course were crucial in providing me with the basic and necessary skills to work in the field. I was then able to use these skills to bolster my education, first with a Master’s Degree and then with a Doctorate from UCL.
Interestingly enough, I actually chose Psychology to understand my own strange family!
There is no feeling that matches being able to make a legitimate, tangible difference in someone’s life, the best way we can. In saying that, this line of work certainly comes with its frustrations.
There are times when we can feel utterly lost and helpless as we may not always know how to help someone who has come to us, and there are times when we need to step back from the work to take care of ourselves or risk burning out. Some of us are not so good at looking after ourselves, due to the nature of our roles, but we are certainly trying to get better at it.
The work I do, the people I work with, never fail to inspire me, with the remarkable demonstrations of strength, bravery and courage they perform in their everyday lives.
I think studying and working in three different countries has had a huge impact in building awareness of mental health and different approaches to it. As you can imagine, this is essential in the work I do and has provided me with excellent opportunities to develop my clinical skills.
Studying in different countries has also given me the opportunity to meet various people and strengthen my clinical training as well as my theoretical knowledge of working in mental health. Working with people from different walks of life and the opportunity to network with different people has also made a significant difference to the options available to me upon qualifying as a clinical psychologist.
Getting on to the doctoral training, thriving during the course of my training, and carrying out some excellent research are all my proudest achievements so far.
