Worried you're falling behind because you haven’t secured an assistant psychologist (AP) role yet? You’re not alone - but don’t panic. In this episode of The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast, Clinical Psychologist Dr Marianne Trent explores how job crafting can help you shape a successful psychology career even without a formal AP title.

Learn how to adapt your current or future roles to gain relevant clinical experience, boost your psychology CV, and prepare for training or assistant psychologist job applications. Whether you're in support work, education, admin, or healthcare, this episode will empower you to create opportunities, build confidence, and progress on your path to becoming a psychologist.

⏱️ Highlights & Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Introduction: Why we need to talk about job crafting
• 02:18 – What is job crafting and why does it matter for aspiring psychologists?
• 04:40 – You don’t need a psychology job title to build psychological experience
• 07:15 – Real-world examples: from receptionist to AP-level skills
• 09:52 – Spotting psychologically meaningful tasks around you
• 12:34 – How to have empowering conversations with your manager or supervisor
• 14:58 – Being ethical and staying within role boundaries while still growing
• 17:21 – Community stories: creative ways others have job crafted
• 20:07 – When job crafting isn’t enough — how to know when to move on
• 22:45 – Reflecting your job crafting in applications and interviews
• 26:12 – Fighting imposter syndrome when your experience looks different
• 29:40 – Seeking support and community to help you stay the course
• 31:58 – Final thoughts and where to go for further help
• 34:12 – Outro: Your journey still counts, even if it doesn’t look typical

#AspiringPsychologist #PsychologyCareers #JobCrafting #AssistantPsychologist #PsychologyExperience

Links:

🫶 To support me by donating to help cover my costs for the free resources I provide click here: https://the-aspiring-psychologist.captivate.fm/support

📚 To check out The Clinical Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3jOplx0

📖 To check out The Aspiring Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3CP2N97

💡 To check out or join the aspiring psychologist membership for just £30 per month head to: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/membership-interested

🖥️ Check out my brand new short courses for aspiring psychologists and mental health professionals here: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/short-courses

✍️ Get your Supervision Shaping Tool now: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/supervision

📱Connect socially with Marianne and check out ways to work with her, including the Aspiring Psychologist Book, Clinical Psychologist book and The Aspiring Psychologist Membership on her Link tree: https://linktr.ee/drmariannetrent

💬 To join my free Facebook group and discuss your thoughts on this episode and more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aspiringpsychologistcommunity

Like, Comment, Subscribe & get involved:

If you enjoy the podcast, please do subscribe and rate and review episodes. If you'd like to learn how to record and submit your own audio testimonial to be included in future shows head to: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/podcast and click the blue request info button at the top of the page.

Hashtags:

#aspiringpsychologist #dclinpsy #psychology #assistantpsychologist #psychologycareers #podcast #psychologypodcast #clinicalpsychologist #mentalhealth #traineeclinicalpsychologist #clinicalpsychology #drmariannetrent #mentalhealthprofessional #gettingqualified #mentalhealthprofessionals #traineepwp #mdt #qualifiedpsychologist #traineepsychologist #aspiringpsychologists #wellbeing