Need Supervision

MaryDublin

Hi All,

I have an undergrad in Psychology and postgrad in Addiction Studies. The former is recognised by the PSI and in order to get full membership i need to have at least 40 hours of supervised sessions.

I have NO idea how to go about this! Ive googled it etc but no luck and anyone i've asked in my old college has no idea either! Can anyone here point me int he right direction?

Thanks,
M.

JuliusCaesar

What you need is clinical supervision - that is, your practice needs to be discussed and guided by an experienced clinician in your area. For PSI, the supervision will have to be by a Psychologist. Generally speaking you need 1 hour of supervision for 8 hours of practice - this is just a rule-of-thumb and you'd need to find out details from PSI. They should be able to tell you about supervisors in your area too.

I suppose - seeing you're googling this - that you aren't practicing?

Odysseus

Out of interest Mary, what was the post-grad addiction studies you undertook?

MaryDublin

Hi again,

JuliusCaesar; No i'm not practising, I don't feel that I should be until i've full membership with the PSI as maybe this is unfair on clients? You sound like you know your stuff....are you practising?

Odysseus; The post grad was through DBS.

hotspur

Mary, you can become a graduate member of the PSI by virtue of your degree. If your addiction qualification from DBS is the taught course I am thinking of then I don't see the relevance of it to the PSI.

If by "full membership" of the PSI you are talking about registered membership then you need to have a postgraduate degree in psychology which is accredited by the PSI. It can be a research PhD or a clinical/counselling/educational psychology degree and also requires experience.

Where are you getting your information from? Are you sure you are talking about PSI? What would you be working as?

Jupiter36

MaryDublin wrote: »

Hi All,

I have an undergrad in Psychology and postgrad in Addiction Studies. The former is recognised by the PSI and in order to get full membership i need to have at least 40 hours of supervised sessions.

I have NO idea how to go about this! Ive googled it etc but no luck and anyone i've asked in my old college has no idea either! Can anyone here point me int he right direction?

Thanks,
M.

Mary, it is not clear from your post what you mean by "membership." As someone else has already pointed out, an undergraduate degree in psychology allows you graduate membership status with PSI. The requirement of 40 hours of supervised sessions suggests recognition as a clinician/practitioner. An undergraduate degree is not a professional qualification - it is generally an academic foundation in psychological theory and principles and their application and a training in research methodology.
My understanding is that the postgraduate courses in addiction studies offered by DBS are academic courses; their purpose being to support students in deepening their understanding of addiction. They are not professional training courses and do not qualify any of the graduates to be practising clinicians in the field of addiction. So, I'm unclear why you need 40 hours of supervision and what kind of sessions and supervision you refer to?

MaryDublin

Trust me, I am as confused as you all are and I think it's coming across in my writing.

I am not wishing to currently use the addiction course in a clinical setting, I volunteered with MQI until I recently got a job and may do a further course with it later but it's the psychological/psychoanalytical area I want to persue.

From the information I got with my membership form from the PSI I took it to mean that I can currently apply to have 'graduate member PSI' after my name and thus see clients in a clinical setting and after building up 40 hours of these appointments and with supervision also, I can then apply to be a full registered member so to speak. Did not think I had to have a postgrad/phd in the area so that's my stupidity.

I seem to have gotten it totally wrong. I have also emailed the PSI twice and never gotten a reply.

I had wanted to see clients in the evening as I work in a full time 5 days a week job which annoyingly is unrealted to any undergrad or postgrad.

Grigzz

Hi Mary you seem to have been given some incorrect information. Speaking as a registered psychologist I may be able to clarify things for you.


In regards to PSI:

Once you have completed a recognised degree in Psychology you are entitled to become a graduate member of the society. The ONLY route to becoming a Registered Psychologist is through (1) the completion of one of the following professional postgraduate training courses, Dr. in Clinical Psychology, Dr./MSc. Counselling Psychology or MA Educational Psychology Plus having 4 years supervised experience (This experience includes time spent during the professional postgrad training) or (2) Complete a PhD. where the topic was psychological and the Supervisor was a psychologist.

In regards to the DBS Addiction studies course:

As mentioned earlier by other posters, this course is academic and does not provide clinical training in addiction counselling.

In regards to you seeking to work with clients right now:

Please don’t. You are not qualified to do so, and you will only end up causing considerable harm to vulnerable people or to yourself. If you wish to work with people therapeutically, then by all means undertake an accredited training course in psychotherapy, addiction counselling or one of the areas of applied psychology I mentioned earlier.


I am not trying to be offensive with my reply, but the number of unqualified individuals offering dubious services worries me greatly.

MaryDublin

Hi Grigzz,

Thank you SO much for your reply. It's exactly what I was trying to find out and I needed it to be written like that so I could understand it all.

Don't worry, I won't practise until i've done everything by the book. I suppose that's why I started this thread as I was worried about not having things right.

I feel that time is running out with obtaining phd's etc as i'm 30 now, broke and working 5 days a week so have no money or time for courses at this point which annoys me but everything will happen at the right time.

Thanks again!

krankykitty

Hi Mary,

Is it addiction counselling you want to do or something completely different? If it's addiction work you want to do, you might be able to find a part time course that will qualify you for it. It might be more down the psychotherapy route rather than psychology though. Good luck!

Odysseus

Hi Mary,

My advise would best start looking at a good psychotherapy course, look at joining the IAAAC. You have the academic side of things covered with trhe MA, so you need the clinical side. This is looking at it from a psychotherapy side of things, as oppossed to psychology.

Can I just add one thing about people using the term addiction counsellor, I hate this term, it does not acknowledge the significant amount of work we do, it makes the work seem very limited. The HSE stopped using the term about 5 years ago for this reason.

krankykitty

Odysseus wrote: »

Can I just add one thing about people using the term addiction counsellor, I hate this term, it does not acknowledge the significant amount of work we do, it makes the work seem very limited. The HSE stopped using the term about 5 years ago for this reason.

Apologies Odysseus I didn't mean any disrespect by using that term, I was moreso coming from the point of view that to work with active addiction you really need specialised training, which was what I was getting at.

As a matter of interest, what are ye now called by the HSE? Is it that it's seen that addiction work is only one part of the person's treatment, so there's no reference to addiction in say your title?

Odysseus

krankykitty wrote: »

Apologies Odysseus I didn't mean any disrespect by using that term, I was moreso coming from the point of view that to work with active addiction you really need specialised training, which was what I was getting at.

As a matter of interest, what are ye now called by the HSE? Is it that it's seen that addiction work is only one part of the person's treatment, so there's no reference to addiction in say your title?

Sorry KK, it was just a bit of a rant, not directed at you personally. I'm sure other metioned it in the thread. Its just a bear-bug of mine.

We just use the term counsellor now, yeah that's my understanding of of it. We are dealing with people who may come form very difficult historical positions. Then there is dual diagnosis, and the fact that drug can bring the subject into contact with traumatic situations, whereas the term Addiction Counsellor led to the idea that we only deal with drug related issues.

In order for a person to being seen by my service they have to have a history of addiction, but I would get a small amount of clients who may not have used any drug for 2-10 years.

Once again sorry if my rant came across as directed as you, I can post without pausing sometimes:o

krankykitty

Thanks for that Odysseus, I didn't think it was referring to me specifically, but its certainly interesting to know.

I hadn't heard about the name change before, I know some people working in addiction service who still refer to themselves as addiction counsellors..

When you think of it, I suppose avoiding the term addiction counsellor probably is a bit more holistic too, it implies that the work is looking at the whole picture rather than just the addiction, which might be implied by the term addiction counsellor. I never thought of the term like that before, I suppose I'd have always assumed it was more than just looking at the addiction, even in non specific counselling I suppose you'd never focus single mindedly on any particular "issue" a person is having, its always part of a bigger dynamic.

JuliusCaesar

Odysseus wrote: »

Then there is dual diagnosis, and the fact that drug can bring the subject into contact with traumatic situations, whereas the term Addiction Counsellor led to the idea that we only deal with drug related issues.

It's at least a step up from the 'alcoholic counsellor' as he was often known! :P