I am doing a DPsych, its a not a PhD and not meant to be. Its a client focused and as such I had to complete 1500 hours of clinical practise often with high risk clients. I am not a researcher and don't want to be one. I want to be a clin psych. 70% throughcan still fail cos of the 30,000 thesis!

I have never come across so many narcissists, sociopaths and control freaks as in academia they applaud performance and this means they applaud the clinical students who can research and write but often they have no clue how to work with clients. So they have a thesis who is going to read it? The DPsychs I have seen are just gathering dust on a library shelf, is this seriously worth the pain? As for objectivity of external examiners what a load of balloney. I have two friends who recently submitted. One took 5 years and the other 8 years!!!! Its a 3 year degree! The academics would not let them finish because their thesis was not up to scratch. In the mean time 2 clinical psychologists are prevented from working as clin psychs despite the immense shortage all because of some academic with an ego and who can't see the bigger picture. We work with people who need help we are not researchers. So when my friends did finally submit one friend got an unconditional pass by one external and a fail by another so where is the objectivity? The other friend was told she would fail if she submitted and got cum laude!!! Seriously!! I fail to see how this is training anybody. The numerous sad stories on this forum where students have been put through hell, developed depression and for some suicidality which is just absolutely ridiculous that any one should be put under so much pressure that they consider taking their life for what...

Complain then? Nope because the uni just closes ranks. I have never witnessed such a thin shroud of credibility which masks a huge lack of integrity

Actually, you know, the world of work and practice can be really difficult as well. I work as a secondary school teacher and I'd have to say sociopaths, narcissists and managers from hell abound there as well.

Perhaps if you are a clinical psychologist then you might hope that you have reached a point of reasonably balanced adulthood as have your peers, but I think I have met and found that difficult people are everywhere I have worked (have worked in hospitality, retail and admin as a much younger person).

Just a question, do you have to have a clinical doctorate to practice as a clinical psychologist nowadays (or where you are)? I believe here (in Australia) it is still the clinical masters that is required. I do know that to break into this area it is pretty difficult and the qualifications seem to get ever more difficult.

However, having said that, you may do really well with your thesis-while 30 000 words seems huge, it is doable if you conceive of it as 5 large essays of around 6000 words each. But I know you need to get the injustice of it all off your chest, so I won't say anything more. I'll bet you are not the only person in this situation who feels this way though...

Hi

Thanks for your reply. Yep these antisocial PD's are attracted to the safety of government orgs for the financial security and opportunities to bully. There is a great book called called "Working with Monsters" written by an Ozzy academic its very good, its about Organisational Psychopaths in the workplace.


Yep I am a mature student from the UK studying in Oz. If I want to work in the UK I need the DPsych as some bright spark deemed this as the minimal qualification despite the research which says there is no correlation between effectiveness of therapists and the qualifications they hold. However thanks for your tip as I am sooo frustrated with the lack of integrity that I may just take the MSc

To be effective one just needs to be able to relate to another and to be able to accommodate different world views. Before Freud and Jung and Beck came along, all people did for 200,000 years was to seek advice from an elder, wiseperson, witchdoctor, shamen or whatever. Surprisingly the countries with the most psychs still have the highest suicide surely this says something. Perhaps the wrong people are treating clients. Performance orientated perfectionists are great in some jobs for example give me a perfectionsist in the operating theatres or cockpit of a 747 any day but not in therapy. The therapy system is designed by academics for academics and its full of bullies and control freaks who just assist in perpetuating mental health problems.

Thanks

I hope it was helpful.I was worried I might have 'read' as not really understanding. I can see how frustrating it would be-it would bother me as well.

With regard to the Masters-I'm doing a PhD (part-time) and while I really like doing it when I have time, it can be very stressful and a real burden when my work is really busy. Ive also had my children move interstate which is really quite hard-although I see them every few months and we talk all the time.

I have just put in for long service leave for around 4 months at the end of 2014-and I have made a promise to myself that I'll have my data collected, transcribed, and will be ready for final analyis and write up by the start of this leave. Will have drafts of first three chapters done as well. If by the end of this time, I don't have an end point in sight (like within the next 12 months or so-by the end of 2015-start of 2016) I'm just going to put in for a Masters (Research). I'm also going to take the time during my leave to look for a new job interstate, sell my house and move and buy a unit and start a new life.

I finally don't care what the end point will be with regard to the thesis. I'd like a PhD and I think that I will get one, but I have to have some end points or I will not cope. Even if I have to extend my deadlines a little-as long as they don't go on indefinitely and this is the same for my current job as well.

I'm not sure why I am writing all this on here-its just when I made this decision (took a few months of really thinking about all the ins and outs) but I finalised it Friday and put in officially for the leave. This was after a hellish working week -no energy for anything outside of work and some running training and looking after pets- and the realisation that I did not want to go on like this indefinitely...well I feel much better now. Hope you do as well.