Hi all :)

[JustinC]

Hi everyone.

I'm Justin - I live in Australia, work full-time as a Project Management Advisor in State Government, and study Psychology part-time. I'm currently in my Honours (fourth) year of Psychology, working on my year-long research project.

I aim to apply for Clinical Psychology Masters placements across Australia in the next few months, that way I can continue studying Psychology over the next two years until I'm a fully registered practitioner.

It's nice to meet you all!

 

[GDPR]

Hello.Welcome!

 

[Banned]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[PrincessX]

Nice to meet you Justin I am very very jelaous at Aussies for the following reasons;

1. Weather
2. Beaches
3. More "relaxed" way of life than in North America

What is your research project about? Are you allowed to work as a psychologist in Australia with Masters? It is PhD in Canada and USA, so that would be cool if you were.

 

[Retired]

Welcome to Psychlinks, Justin!

Thanks for joining us! We'll look forward to your participation on the Forum.

Let us know if we can help in any way.

 

[forgetmenot]

Hi Justin nice to meet you

 

[MHealthJo]

Hi there

 

[rdw]

Welcome!

 

[JustinC]

Nice to meet you Justin I am very very jelaous at Aussies for the following reasons;

1. Weather
2. Beaches
3. More "relaxed" way of life than in North America

What is your research project about? Are you allowed to work as a psychologist in Australia with Masters? It is PhD in Canada and USA, so that would be cool if you were.

Hahaha.. Those are all good points of envy! Australia is definitely a brilliant place to live! Having said that, I'm looking forward to finishing my study so I can do some working and living overseas. I'm aiming for somewhere entirely different in terms of culture though - like China, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.

My research project is essentially using an experimental design to explore the comparative effectiveness and incremental validity of brief self-compassion and gratitude exercise as methods for improving subjective well-being. I've sent a request to David Baxter so I can seek participants on this forum, but haven't heard anything back yet. I've got about 6 weeks left of data collection, then it's onto getting my head around SPSS and stats once again!

In Australia, there's multiple paths to being a practicing psychologist. After you've completed a 4 year psych degree (the fourth year is Honours) you are "Provisionally Registered". From there, you can do 2-years of supervised practice (which is more than what it sounds like .. you actually need to undertake a coordinated program of practice which includes assessments, writing case studies, working across the life-span, etc). Alternatively, you undertake your 2-year Masters, which is a combination of a research project, clinical placements and coursework. After those two years you are fully registered. With the Masters you get better Medicare rebates though, as well as the opportunity to seek further study and "endorsements" (e.g. to be classified as a 'Clinical Psychologist' instead of just a 'Psychologist' who works in the clinical field).

Funnily enough, most PhDs in Australia are only research based, take 3-4 years and don't qualify you to practice afterwards (the intention is to continue researching and lecturing for universities, etc). There are some PhDs which are actually a combined Masters/PhD, that way you get the coursework and placements in to be registered, as well as doing the more hefty research work of the PhD - those are quite rare though. So basically, if you want to practice in Aus - Masters is the best bet, supervised practice is a close second!

Thanks again for the warm welcome everyone!

 

[Retired]

I've sent a request to David Baxter so I can seek participants on this forum, but haven't heard anything back

Justin,

David is convalescing from a medical procedure and his online activity is limited for a while. I'll try to let him know about your request, which would require his evaluation.

I will keep you informed.

 

[PrincessX]

Hey Justin, thank you for the long and thorough reply, I learned a lot of new things about Australia and the psychology programs there it sounds like you did good research of them, not that I am personally interested to study psychology, but it was something I was curious about, because I know your health system is different than in Canada.. I am back to my crazy hospital life that gets me 15/24, i.e. 15 out of 24 hrs working with really sick ppl. and has nothing to do with psychology, spirituality or meditation. :facepalm: Actually, I saw an interesting book today called "Spirituality at the workplace", not that I had a chance to go through it, but it was circulated through the department. I will let you know guys if I get to read any of it. Good Luck with your experinmental comparative project based on incremental validity for improving subjective well-being (woow that was hard, man!).

---------- Post Merged at 10:36 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:02 PM ----------

Sorry Steve, I did not see your message. I wish Dr. Baxter a speedy, easy recovery. He created a great forum.