Challenges of Class within the Psychological Professions Part 1

Listen to the blog here. 

Welcome to the July blog everyone and after a substantial delay due to pre-election period restrictions I am delighted to invite you to read the first part of my conversation with Will Curvis and Katie Place.

Also to share with you our delight at the PPN NW EbE Steering Group in welcoming the newly appointed Programme Manager for the Psychological Professions Network NW Phil Gooden. Phil will be the focus of the September blog so watch this space to find out more about Phil and his hopes and aspirations for the PPN NW and more!!

So as promised Will Curvis and Katie Place share their thoughts with me in conversation on the challenges of class in selecting a career within the psychological professions and the benefits to recognising and owning class as part of your identity. (Part 2 of this conversation will follow in August.)

 Ali- Welcome Will and Katie I am looking forward to finding out more about #ClassClinPsych Collective.

Will -Katie and I know each other well, we've had lots of conversations about this so expanding on our thoughts about the impact of class and our work with #ClassClinPsych would be great.

Ali- These conversations about class, are really important because the demographic of the psychological professions has historically been very much white middle class female. How do we tackle this? How do we start conversations, which are so important with people who have experienced disadvantage and stigma related to class or sociodemographic experience. Where do we begin?

Katie -That's something that we've been working on how do we start those conversations about class? We've been using TikTok, and the group set up Instagram and X accounts to be active on social media to address the issue. Though our time is voluntary we try to sit on committees to address and communicate about class from multiple angles to keep this issue alive. From my experience class can easily get brushed under the carpet, so we have podcasts and webinars on YouTube, to start these vital conversations. Working in psychology is something you can do whatever your background but how do you even pursue that option if you have not had those opportunities or conversations?

Will -The group have two overarching ambitions, first is highlighting and challenging the barriers that exist in getting a more diverse and representative psychological workforce. Because as you quite rightly said, Ali, historically the profession has been limited in terms of diversity and I think some of those barriers are unique to the psychological professions. Some barriers to navigate are more cultural and systemic than other professions. Second is highlighting the role of poverty, social deprivation, I guess Classness. This is important to consider for clinical psychologists and psychological professionals because of a disconnect with a profession predominantly white middle-class not being as equipped to meet the needs of the people who are not. If we had a more diverse and representative workforce, those issues would be in our profession's minds to be better equipped and skilled. Obviously, it’s not a quick fix but as a collective we have as Katie mentioned tried to highlight and showcase representation, talking about issues and barriers, some practical, some concerning identity and fit within the profession to highlight that psychological professionals can be from any background. Poverty is one of the biggest factors in predicting poor mental health but so many psychology and mental health services don't take that into consideration, services aren't designed with that in mind, but services exist in communities. Our collective has those goals in mind but also to showcase the strengths that come with working class identity to show what we can and do bring to the psychological professions and services.

Katie -Holding class or economic difficulties in mind when working with someone in a mental health service or any type of service is essential. Trying to hold on to those strengths to help people to own their identity to say, ‘You know this is something to be proud of, I can harness this’. It’s showcasing the strength not letting go of the identity. Some people struggle with class identity and have a bit of shame so shifting that identity to be viewed as a strength is vital.

Ali-Thank you Katie that really resonates with me around stigma, identity and resilience. It's your experience of class, navigating the barriers to training within the psychological professions and personal growth in resilience that supports service users who through chance may be less able to navigate those barriers themselves and who may not wish to access services because they have no connection with the people they meet on the other side of the table.

Will -I talk about this in the workshop that I do Ali. If you imagine the perfect applicant, you know it's typically someone with financial and social capital to take on short term insecure contracts. They can move around the country, having financial capacity, they can drive, and apply for that job in Cardiff, London or Birmingham. With these roles and experiences along the way they learn the right things to say and learn what not to say. Sometimes they learn explicitly, or they're taught or just absorb being around people in the profession. They learn how to present themselves at interview or via an application form. There's nothing wrong with that and I'm not demonising but compare that to somebody who has worked in a support worker role 5 miles from where they grew up and have few opportunities for assistant jobs. But they've worked in a caring capacity which has given them a sense of what it's like to live with certain difficulties or presentations and what it's like to live in that community knowing the challenges people face. But you've not got the same CV and can't use the same language or buzzwords as applicants from other backgrounds. You've got the skills but probably wouldn't get a place on training because our system's biassed to the other applicant. The question is if you were a potential service user from Wigan (where I’m from) who would you rather talk to and connect with?

Ali-I know from my own experience you want somebody with an authentic voice who can offer you the psychological support that you require, but also signpost you to the things that they know you need because of their local knowledge and lived experience. I had a conversation recently with a psychological professional who said she doesn't recognise people like herself within the profession and feels in a minority from a working-class background. She experiences imposter syndrome because she doesn't have those buzzwords or the nuances of those other experiences that contribute to a shared professional identity.

Will -The impostor syndrome experience is really interesting.  I use an exercise in clinical psychology training workshops where I get everyone to shut their eyes and put their hand up if they have experienced imposter syndrome. Everyone puts their hand up. Well, what's that about? Many people in the room come from privileged backgrounds but still feel like they have impostor syndrome. So how difficult is it for the person who grew up on a council estate and went to the local tech and hasn't learned how to be in those spaces?

Ali-Those micro shocks impacting somebody, the being on alert and hypervigilant to make sure that you are part of the conversation is really, really testing to resilience. I know this from my own lived experience journey including blurring my accent.

Will -We all make assumptions it's human nature and the way people talk and present themselves is one of the first things we make assumptions about. There are various conversations about accents and people tell stories about how they were perceived as less intelligent or less articulate because of the way they talked. But I’ve flipped that around as isn't that authentic voice exactly how we want to be presenting ourselves to the people that we are working with? Similar to you Ali, I dampened my accent over the years but since connecting with this issue I've felt less pressure to do that. I think the problem is the professions are not talking and thinking about it. There should be space for that in clinical psychology training for reflecting on that difference and comparison. But if it's never talked about then people stick to their narrow world view.

Ali-Listening to you speak Will I'm thinking CPD sessions on this topic within training would be really helpful right from the get-go. It's having those conversations knowing the impact on the individuals training and the impact on the service users that they will be supporting. If we're going to be able to serve populations and communities we need to be informed, open and reflective about this.

Katie -We do need to be open to those conversations being embedded in training so it's really interesting that you mentioned that Ali. My doctoral thesis looked at training clinical psychologists who identify as working class and their experiences. One training course delivered what you described with a protected time for CPD and participants talked about how that process allowed them to own their working class identity and other identities that were minoritized in their profession and how that gave them strength. One of the recommendations from my thesis research was to have protected space to talk about class, explore your professional identity and to be supported to do that because there is a massive pressure especially for clinical psychologists to squeeze yourself into this ‘box.’ I've done that. I'm pretty sure most of my friends in psychology have done that or are doing it. What Will described earlier is that realisation of, I can own my identity, I can be a working-class clinical psychologist beyond the other identities you hold to bring that to your role. I don't need to dampen down my accent, I don't need to use certain language in meetings so by doing that, you are changing the face of clinical psychology. Showing, I can talk like an ordinary person, the more we do that, the better.  In one of my placements, a clinical psychologist was working class and I wanted to know how they held onto that identity? We had really open conversations together. It was a big moment of wow she has such a strong sense of herself, who she is and worked really hard to stay true to that. I suppose there's a bit of regret in myself about what I've changed about myself that I wish I never had. But then it's a process of undoing some stuff? Figuring out, what you hold on to and bring to the profession that's going to enhance it? Thank you for raising this.

Ali-Thanks for sharing that Katie your passion comes through about the authentic person, the authentic voice and holding those values. It’s clear during training some of an individual’s identity can get lost and part of that is cohorts have been traditionally selected from a particular group of individuals. So, do the questions we ask on applications for selection need to change to support that authentic voice?

Will -Picking up on Katie's point about visibility and representation becoming part of a virtuous cycle and starting up #ClassClinPsych - it’s those moments of growth, shared conversations allowing people to feel safe, to be genuine and authentic in the way that we're talking about for the next generation. You don't have to be from a working-class background my partner has a different background to my working-class roots but she is very good at opening up those conversations, ‘we are from very different worlds so let's talk about it’. I think as a profession that's what we need the skills to do. If we avoid that conversation we never meaningfully connect with the people who we should be connecting with. As a profession we don't know the impact of who doesn't come to psychology and services. Maybe someone tried it once and it wasn't for them or they don't go because the idea of talking to the archetypal white middle class female is too hard. The services that we have to support mental health and physical health require lobbying for change as they are designed around one way of thinking. Sitting in a room and talking to somebody may not be what the service user wants. For example, I was reading about social prescribing and working-class communities and because I'm from Wigan this is the kind of thing I care about. I was struck by the service users talking about language and social connection about having purpose and meaning. They were talking about where they found that in things like the rugby team that they supported or the community. As a psychologist, as a psychology service you are completely disconnected from those community activities so how can inroads be made into the communities that we serve?

Ali - Making those connections into communities for health professionals are vital. How do we support a population who have experienced disadvantage and empower them to access services and also to use their voice to improve services. Informing people about service user involvement and offering training is a way of empowering people who maybe have had no voice previously as it was in my own case. A clinical psychologist explained to me what service user involvement is and so I was empowered, despite anxiety about my class and background to get involved.

Will -Our trainees go out and learn about local communities and organisations.  I really value that, and trainees get a lot out of it in their placements. But the gap is trainees qualify and then work in systems that are established and maybe disconnected. I've worked in services where you say, we could do this, but the response is there's no time, money, or resources. That is one of the big challenges for recruitment and retention in in clinical psychology, and it's not something we really talk about enough. If we can't keep staff in the NHS, in public services, then what's the point?

Please join us next month for part 2 of this conversation where class, the workforce and workforce retention are just a flavour of some of the areas under discussion…

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Until next month please take the best care of yourselves,

Ali Bryant

PPN NW EbE Steering Group