Personal Statement: Being Clinical Psychologist Means Helping Others

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In the current state of society, mental illness has been stigmatised to be seen as a mental disease. From a young age I have always been fascinated with the field of psychology, particularly mental illness in young people, which tends to be under-represented and typically ignored. Often, I find myself helping and listening to my close friends who struggle with mental illness, such as depression and anxiety. This has inspired me to want to pursue it further with the end goal being that I become a clinical psychologist; helping young people tackle mental disorders. Whilst my intentions are to help young people, the general field of psychology is also interesting to me as it’s something that can explain a big part of our intentions and cognitive way of perceiving the world. Psychology is also a very broad and diverse subject requiring both biological and environmental/social aspects, which constantly changes, adapting to modern society.

My personal experiences, growing up, I have dealt with close relatives who have suffered from mental health disorders, this includes my dad who suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression, after the death of my grandfather. During this period of extreme hardship, my family and I closely helped take care of him and now has been better also due to medication. My dad’s struggle helped me gain a better understanding in the wide field of psychology, especially in mental illnesses by becoming more open-minded and feeling more able and inspired in helping people clinically in the future as a profession.

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Throughout the past seven years of secondary and post-16 education, my skills have developed as I have improved in my planning skills regarding learning to prioritise and self-managing as well as meeting deadlines. My study experience has also led me to participate in activities and events such as Model UN conferences allowing me to become more vocal about real world issues by using problem-solving skills adapting to these cases. Furthermore during the summer, to further improve my skills, I took part in the national citizen service which allowed me to gain skills in leadership, making me more vocal with my peers by improving in the element of teamwork and working well with the community around me. This skill was also useful in my work experience volunteering in a charity shop where I effectively worked the till and general helper of the store, leading me to explore my surroundings and openly commutate with anyone in need of help and advice which in the future could be useful in my career as a clinical psychologist.

However, my education experience has also led me to face certain barriers such as my struggle in adapting to the jump from GCSE education moving into A-levels, particularly in A-level English Literature in which I learned to possess the skills to overcome this by being more independent and taking more initiative in my education without much reliance. Furthermore, I had to change revision methods to adapt to my A-level content-based subjects such as Psychology and Sociology. Even though my struggles may have set me back to some extent, the process of me overcoming them has become a significant improvement with my increased involvement in my education by positively setting me with a good mentality and aspirational goals, especially in exploring the depths of psychology.

My growing interest in psychology has induced me to do further research and listen to podcasts regarding mental illnesses and the impact they have on today’s day and age. Also, recently I also attended an experimental psychology seminar about spatial navigation changes in preclinical and clinical Alzheimer’s disease’ through University College London and taking place in SOAS University of London. As well as further expanding my knowledge on the diversity and universal subject of psychology, the seminar helped me to boost my confidence by interacting and working effectively with the community around me.

My determined goal by pursuing a degree in psychology is to understand the insights on mental illnesses whilst studying the field around it and making a real difference in the future by tackling the misunderstood conceptions of mental illness in society.

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