Why are there provisional psychologists working at 3P?

There are a number of provisional psychologists working at Peninsula Paediatric Psychology (3P) and there are a few reasons for this. This text aims to explain these reasons as well as outline what this means.

What are provisional psychologists?

Provisional psychologists all have at least 4 years of psychology studies completed. Some have 5 and some others may have 6 depending where they are at in their training journey.

Current Situation about Mental Health/Psychology Services Nationally

The pandemic has triggered a number of needs in terms of mental health as many have experienced additional challenges. This was anticipated by the government and there was an increase of possible rebatable Medicare sessions under Better Access from 10/year to 20/year. Telehealth also became to become part of the service delivery allowing this program to be much more accessible for many.

As a result (and other contributing factors see in this article https://3ppsychologies.com/2022/09/23/why-is-there-a-psychologist-shortage-in-australia), there is currently a shortage of professionals working in this industry. This has been reported by a number of organisations where there have been reports that 1 in 3 psychologists have closed their books or not able to take on clients.

Paediatric Psychology More Particularly

Paediatric psychology has also been particularly impacted with shortages because of what the pandemic has brought in terms of challenges to children and families such as home learning (isolation, learning needs, self-efficacy, behaviour, school refusal, etc.), mental health, as well as as many other challenges families may have experienced. In addition, assessment work was delayed during lockdowns creating a backlog. Paediatric psychology was also already challenged before the pandemic with long waitlist and shortages of qualified psychologists in the paediatric space. The public sector has seen very long waitlists and this had an impact on private practices.

The Importance of Training the Workforce

At 3P, we really value the importance of training the workforce. We offer supervision, team days, training on the 3P learning platform.

When I arrived in Australia, it was very difficult to find a supervisor and paid work as I was considered as a provisional psychologist despite having a doctorate and professional practice experience in the UK. I also worked in a number of schools and when I moved on to leadership roles, there was no-one to replace me and I felt disheartened to leave as many needed support. I promised myself that I would support the training of others in the paediatric space to ensure children, families and schools continue to be well supported”. (Dr P.)

In addition to all of this, supervision is often accessed externally by many and there is a clear to continue support the workforce in gaining the appropriate skills to work with a paediatric population.

I have supervised many now in Australia and I have realised how different some of the learnings are compared to my training in Canada and the UK. Many supervisees have commented on how I bring a very different view of professional educational psychology practice and this has been refreshing for them. It is so important that we continue to engage in learning and offer different perspectives to our work. This helps meet better outcomes for clients” (Dr P.).

Passion for Learning and Teaching

In our profession it is very important that we continue to learn even if we have acquired a certain level of qualifications. This support growth as a clinician as well as better outcomes for clients. When supervising others and creating an environment where continued learning is planned, learning and teaching become embedded in professional practice. This also helps achieve best outcomes for clients as the environment encourages learning, supervision, reflections.

Dr P. has continued to study and learn throughout her career which has led to her becoming an educational and developmental psychologist with doctorate qualifications.

I love learning and transmit knowledge. It’s just beautiful to hear supervisees express their gratitude for the learning opportunities and growth as a result of teachings and supervision.” (Dr P.)

Supervision

All provisional psychologists engage in continued learning and also supervision. They are allocated a board approved supervisor who oversees their work. This includes observations, working together in sessions, reviewing of reports and group/individual supervision sessions. A specific ratio of professional practice to hours of supervision is required. A clear plan for developing competencies is also in place and a number of requirements must be met during the placement/internship.

What to expect when working with a provisional psychologist?

All provisional psychologists at 3P have gone through a careful selection process, with clear evidence of previous experience relevant to the paediatric psychology field.

The fees are slightly reduced so you may be able to access more sessions with a provisional psychologist than you would with a fully registered psychologists. For example, sessions under NDIS are $156 with provisionals compared to $214 with a fully registered psychologist. This is also the case for assessment work, although some of the allocation of the fees also goes to supervision from the board approved supervisor.

At 3P, we aim to offer a varied training program so provisional psychologists experience diversity of work. As result, we offer a school outreach program so provisional psychologists are in clinic on specific days and in schools on other days.

The following professional tasks are likely to take place as part of the supervision process:

  • the board approved supervisor to come in sessions for observations of the provisional psychologist
  • discussions in supervision about presenting needs, assessment work/counselling program and next steps
  • review of all reports and letters by the board approved supervisor and countersigned
  • collaborative work such as joint sessions

If you have doubts about the support, assessment or therapy process is at, or finding that you would like some additional support during sessions, speak to the provisional psychologist who will make a plan with he supervisor and may invite the supervisor in sessions to discuss together.

Dr Pascale Paradis

Educational and Developmental Psychologist

Director at Peninsula Paediatric Psychology

Why is there a psychologist shortage in Australia?

Many have been reflecting on this in recent months. I have been particularly interested in this topic as I opened the doors of Peninsula Paediatric Psychology in between 2 lockdowns in June 2021. Opening a clinic had been something I had debated for a few years, should I or should I not. As I opened the doors, I did not anticipate such a flow of referrals. Since then, we have grown the team, from just me, working alone in the cottage last year, to now, 10 clinicians and 4 admin and management staff.

We have steadily grown by simply meeting demands

It has indeed been a crazy year!

It took me a few years to make the plunge after our relocation from the UK to Australia. There was always an intention to open a private practice but a number of barriers or contributing factors led to wait and wait…until last year. I asked myself so many times, will this be ok, am I making the right decision, what if…

I have been very surprised at the flow of demands since I opened and reflected on why there is such as demand and a shortage of psychologists at the moment. Clearly the pandemic has not helped but it is not that simply…

Increase of sessions on Better Access – 10 to 20

In covid, there was an acknowledgment by the government that the population would need additional mental health support so there was an increase of sessions rebatable on the Better Access Medicare program. This increase had been lobbied for a long time as needed for better client outcomes but had never been implemented until then. This created a significant increase in sessions clients accessed by a psychologist. It is unknown as to whether these 20 sessions will stay past the 31st December 2022.

Telehealth – offering alternative ways of working

In addition, Telehealth was implemented as a possible mode of service delivery. This mode had only been allowed in the past for rural/regional clients. This mode of delivery then increased accessibility for sessions and alternative ways to deliver services. This also allowed psychologists to review their ways of working to meet their family commitments. This mode of delivery has now been agreed to stay.

Skilled Migrants Stuck Overseas

For the 2 to 3 years, many skilled migrants whom applied for a visa to come to Australia could not come during the covid lockdowns/international arrival closures. Many bureaucratic challenges emerged as a result and delayed arrivals of skilled migrants when Australia has relied on this workforce for may years.

Retirement of the 4+2

Ahpra has announced the retirement of the training route 4+2 where last provisional psychologists were agreed onto this program in June 2022. This is the end to opportunity for psychology graduates to embark on a 2 years internship. This has been a decision made prior to the pandemic started but will have a significant impact on the workforce if no additional training places are funded in universities for the Masters in Professional Practice (MPP) and other Masters routes. Typically, graduates who chose the 4+2 route did because of the challenges related to finance internship and studies so unless significant funding is injected into training, it is possible we will see a big impact on graduates completing a psychologist training route.

Female Workforce

During the 2-3 years, as the workforce is dominated by females, there have been some noticeable shifts of working patterns so that psychologists can combine a number of demands such as home learning, parenting, childcare, and supporting their own family needs.

Work-Life Balance and Choices

As a result, there may have been clear decisions made about work-life balance such as reducing workload, working on specific days, reducing hours, or branching out to different work to reduce the emotional load of session work. Telehealth and the online market booming allowed this to happen and for psychologists to explore other type of work.

Being sick and Recovering

Having covid and other illnesses have also increased absenteeism and rescheduling of sessions and assessment work. Isolation, sickness from children and families as well as clinicians has been particularly impactful since January 2022, with many being sick due to colds and flu in the last few months. The recovery time from these illnesses may have been impacted by time taken to recover after a few illnesses, as well as full households being sick.

Victoria Hit Hard

Victoria was clearly hit hard during the pandemic with so many days in lockdown, home learning with a clear impact of isolation and mental health challenges. Children keep talking about it in counselling sessions and the repercussions are still very real. Similarly, the impact on learning has been observed in assessments where children are clearly struggling to engage and participate at school, even now.

Families also tried to keep it together during these lockdowns and may now feeling like what happened, where have I been, and reevaluating life goals and future.

Has the paediatric allied health professionals been more particularly impacted by this shortage?

Although parents and children have engaged well with Telehealth, and have accepted it as being a good mode of service delivery, many also report that with a paediatric population, it can only be a short term solution as children engage so much better face to face. Many children and adolescents with socio-communication and language needs express not wanting to engage in this mode of psychological support, and prefer face to face sessions. Parents are engaging well with this type of support for initial consultations and parenting support, even preferring it due to busy lives and many commitments. However, it does not fully support the children and adolescents themselves.

Assessments can also not be done solely on Telehealth. Although there have a number of suggestions and changes to how we can use some psychometric tools, there is still an element of the work that would be not ethical and professional to do solely on Telehealth. This has therefore created a backlog of assessment work as many assessments had to be paused during lockdowns.

In between lockdowns and when clinics reopened, there was a significant flow of demands for assessments. These are time consuming and requiring lots of time and dedication, and cannot be done quickly and simply. Subsequent cancellations due to illnesses also delayed processes as many became sick with covid, flu, colds this winter.

We have heard so many parents talking about 12 to 24 months waitlist in the public sector and private settings to the point they were about to be giving up on support. We cannot let families give up on support when early intervention and preventative work is so important for children and adolescents.

A Tired Workforce

All of these contributing factors have led to a tired workforce, with many deciding to reduce hours and reviewing their work aspirations. It is not just one or 2 factors but a range of factors which have contributed to where we are now. We have seen so much sickness in recent months, after the lockdowns due to covid, many have had to recover from covid as well as the flu, colds, etc., not only the clinicians themselves but full families impacted by illness which have delayed recovery, getting back to work and getting on top of needs and demands.

All of this combined has created a tired workforce and there are no signs of relief in sight…Indeed, the APS and AAPPI

Here are additional readings from these organisations on the current situation:

https://psychology.org.au/about-us/news-and-media/media-releases/2022/looming-cuts-would-see-one-million-subsidised-psyc

https://aapi.org.au/Web/News/Articles/advocacymedia27July22.aspx

https://www.aapi.org.au//Web/News/Articles/update20september22.aspx

Any Solutions?

Solutions that can be imminently implemented:

Support to internship in workplaces, offer pay packages and supervision support

Allow a rebate for provisional psychologist under Medicare

Solutions:

Increase in training places in range of psychology disciplines – also see https://3ppsychologies.com/2022/09/18/sunday-reflections-misinformation-risks-to-perpetuate-the-inequality-of-disciplines-in-psychology/

Increase skilled migrant places in psychology and simplify the process for highly skilled psychologists

Create stability in the workforce by giving reassurance about rebates, training places, and funding

Neurodivergent Affirmative Approach: What to expect at 3P?

At Peninsula Paediatric Psychology (3P), we are aiming to offer an assessment experience that is aligned with neurodivergent affirmative professional practice.

What does this mean?

It means that we take care in formulating our processes and reports in a way that embraces strengths and differences rather than dwelling in deficits and impairments discourse outlined in diagnostic manuals adopting a medical model to explain behaviours.

In a Therapeutic Process

We use approaches in practice that are play-based, nurturing and based on a child’s interests. This is also aligned with the environment – the cottages – where it is cosy, familial with playrooms. We encourage a parent to discuss challenges before meeting the child so the child is not part of hearing big challenges that may trigger big emotions. We encourage parent-child to collaborate in sessions where challenges of separation anxiety are experienced. We structure sessions with rituals to create predictability and reduce possible challenges with transitions.

We encourage co-construction of sessions such as “what would you like to talk about today”, “let’s make a plan for our session”, rather than having a prescribed topic to be discussed.

We engage the child in the process with including their specific interests in the play and discussions.

We are not typically engaging in talking therapy as this is often not developmentally appropriate for children and adolescents so we offer games, fidgets, resources, books, making, drawing, as part of the process.

As part of the process, we aim to elicit strengths and support strengths development.

The Assessment Process and Reports

We lead an assessment process that is aligned with a neurodivergent affirmative approach. We gather a range of information as part of the assessment process and not only quantitative information. This is to ensure the voice of the child is captured and experiences from informants are also well captured and informing the assessment results. We are careful about selecting tools that are capturing strengths, differences and needs. If a particular tool typically reports results in a deficit and impairment manner, we reframe the language to be neuroaffirming as per below.

We will always use language that is affirmative in our reports and this is very important to us:

Challenges rather than deficits and impairments

Needs rather than a disorder

Strengths and differences

Patterns of observations consistent with x needs

We have a dedicated area in our report where we capture strengths and we highlight these in our formulation. We also formulate recommendations aligned with strengths.

Recommendations

Recommendations are suggestions and aim to include a range of information to support research, psychoeducation and implementation of strategies. We encourage the child and parents to discuss how these recommendations can be implemented in a neuroaffirming way and this aims to be together with the child’s views and within a collaborating approach.

Stating a Diagnosis

When we refer to a diagnosis, we will do this subtly and within one sentence in the Summary/Clinical Opinion section at the end of the report to inform the reader that the information gathered meets criteria of a diagnosis as per the DSM-V. This is because funding systems often needs this confirmation in black and white. We understand that the language use in the DSM-V is not necessarily neuroaffirming but as we are operating within systems needing to link with this language, it is difficult to completely omit it. If we feel the diagnostic criteria should be included in the report, we do this in Appendices.

Summary

When coming to 3P, you can expect the following:

Person-centred tools and work

Positive psychology and strengths-based work

Play approaches

Nurturing environments

Neuroaffirming language throughout our reports

Needs and strengths assessment process

Collaboration, discussions and co-construction

Dr Pascale Paradis

Educational and Developmental Psychologist

Director at Peninsula Paediatric Psychology

What are psychoeducational assessments all about?

Parents often come to us as psychologists with a query around ‘we need an assessment’ being slightly unsure about the process, referral question or the purpose. This text aims to support these queries and provide information about psychoeducational assessments.

What are psychoeducational assessments?

These assessments are the collection of quantitative and qualitative data to help support a clinical formulation about a child’s needs, strengths and challenges. The data is triangulated to capture whether a child’s presentation lead to eliciting needs, strengths and challenges. This process may lead to a diagnosis which is often required for funding systems to offer additional support to the child. In some circumstances a diagnosis may not be needed for additional support. This really depends of the funding systems.

In an assessment process, a range of data is data is collected to answer a referral question. A referral question can be varied depending on experiences described by the child, parents and teachers.

Is my child dyslexic?

We experience x at home, is my child autistic?

The teacher at school said that my child is behind in learning. We want to know what is happening?

In this process, a range of data will be gathered as part of the process and will include quantitative and qualitative data to answer the referral question. This will also include face to face activities with the child such as observations, play sessions, standardised assessments, consultations, interviews, questionnaires, discussions, etc. The choice of the assessment tools used to gather this information will depend on the assessor’s clinical judgement, pertinence of the tool in relation to the referral question and in some instances preferences due to training. In some situations the referral question evolves as the assessment process develops and it may be that additional information is needing to be captured as a result. This is also often the case when there are more than one referral question for the assessment.

Quantitative data are all about standard scores, norms, percentiles. This means that the data gathered will look at placing a child’s abilities, when completing a standardised assessment, on a normal curve and compared to other children of the same age. Results will refer to sentences like this “John performed within an average compared to peers his age which means he has developed positive skills in this and will be able to process this type of information in the classroom”.

A standardised assessment means that the exact same activities and tasks are administered using a manual of instructions to ensure that all participants are going through the exact same experience compared to other participants. Assessors must be trained in the administration to ensure they respect what has been prescribed by the manual.

When assessments are normed, it means that a standardisation process took place before the launch of the assessment, pilot studies, and norms created. When reporting results after an assessment, findings will look at placing the scores within an average range (see image from left to right) – extremely low, very low, low average, very high, extremely high on a normal curve. The results will indicate where abilities demonstrated by the child, when compared to peers of the same age, are plotted – see 68% of the children will be situated within the two high peaks on the picture below, and then 13.6% to the blue areas, and less than 2% on the long end at either ends, and also referred as percentiles. Standard scores are based on the average being 100 in the middle with a standard deviation of 15 from the mean for each descriptive category. When receiving a report from an assessment, parents and teachers should expect to receive information on standard scores.

How is the child’s performance deviating from the mean (100) in scores

How is the child’s performance explained in percentiles

How the child’s performance is described with qualitative descriptors

Normed assessment tools also include questionnaires. Questionnaires can be helpful as it aims to have information from a number of informants – parents/carers, teachers and self-report. This is help gain everyone’s views as informants may have a different view of what the needs of the child are. This helps formulating how a child is similar and different across settings and whether some environmental factors may contribute to the child’s needs.

An assessment process will also gather qualitative information – this means that the information gathered is not normed, but will also contribute to formulating the experience of the child, parents and school. This will include play sessions, observations, consultations, interviews, discussions, to elicit perceptions, attitudes, experiences, history, stories, anecdotes, pertinent information. The richness of the information is particularly important as quantitative information does not always fully capture an explanation of the inner world of the child and also experiences on a day to day basis. It is also important to capture the views of the child to inform recommendations so that their voice is captured and the recommendations are tailored to the needs the child is reporting.

Why do psychoeducational assessments? What is their purpose?

The purpose of the assessment is really getting to know the child better and gain an understanding of needs, challenges, strengths and inform support going forward.

It may lead to a diagnosis or it may not. In all cases, it will inform needs, challenges, strengths and will help formulate recommendations and next steps. In the education system, it may be that it will contribute to an Individualised Education Plan (IEP). It may give parents/carers some strategies that have not been tried before. It may also create a process of a deeper understanding such as an affirming process, “ah yes, this all makes sense, this is what we thought”. It may support a child understand better by knowing their brain works differently and this is why they are feeling different. It may also help advocate for a child’s needs and construct conversations to be had with different systems. It may lead to additional funding to support the child’s needs with environmental accomodations.

What is the process of a psychoeducational assessment?

Typically, a process includes the following –

an initial consultation – gather information, developmental history, current needs, referral question

cognitive and learning profile – standardised assessments

questionnaires – standardised assessments

play sessions/clinical interviews – qualitative information – child’s views/voice

Some additional sessions may be needed as the process unfolds depending on results.

feedback session – ensure all understand the results and findings, psychoeducation about needs, formulate a plan about next steps together with the assessor

In what way will these help my child?

The recommendations and the formulation of the plan will aim to create a constructed support plan for the here and now and also the near future such as informing others such as school, funding systems, of the child’s needs and recommendations for additional support. It may also create a process where parents engage in future support to help their child, or the child engages in a therapeutic process to look at skills development, counselling, group work. This will definitely be discussed in the feedback session.

At Peninsula Paediatric Psychology

We do lots of assessments and we will lead you through this process. Depending on the referral question, we will tailor an assessment plan that captures quantitative and qualitative information to formulate tailored to needs recommendations.

Dr Pascale Paradis

Educational and Developmental Psychologist

Director at Peninsula Paediatric Psychology

Sunday Reflections: Misinformation Risks of Perpetuating the Inequality of Disciplines in Psychology

I am sitting in bed, nicely, quietly, watching the news, contemplating what a day off will bring.

Scrolling down on Facebook groups lead me to see a completely misinformed post about the training route in Australia, provisional, registered and clinical psychologist, what differs from each of these titles. With a few searches on the web I realise, this article has been written by a professional in a senior role. Last week, some other materials on social media made me reply to another senior professional role as, again, this was a misinformed post.

I am becoming less and less tolerant by comments, information and debates that are misinformed, not well researched, not factual, and completely singling one discipline in particular as better or more qualified when in fact, so many of us as psychologists are working so hard and have done a significant amount of studying, training and professional practice. We need frank, informed and solution-seeking conversations because…

It is constant…

The misinformation needs to be reframed and questioned most days, even amongst professionals

A parent who calls to say they must see a clinical psychologist because the NDIS planner said so…

An NDIS planner who says, surely you need to be more qualified to sign this report…

CentreLinks saying only clinical psychologist can sign this report…

A phone call at reception, do you have a clinical psychologist working here as this is who I need to see as advised by the GP…

An NDIS planner saying we must have a clinical psychologist to diagnose autism otherwise the application to NDIS will not be accepted…

Let’s encourage clinical psychology places, these are needed…

It is so frustrating, but why is it like that?

There is so much misinformation about training and qualifications in Australia perhaps due to historical debates and decisions. A two-tier Medicare Rebate system also does not help to the cause of the diversity of disciplines as it perpetuates that one discipline is better than others i.e. one type of psychologist can charge more because they are perceived to be better skilled.

Is this really ok to perceive that a clinical psychologist has more training?

It’s NOT ok!

It is not the title of clinical psychologist that determines more years of study or more qualifications, it is in fact the endorsement that determines this, and there are 9 different endorsements, see table, third column. All psychologists qualify with a minimum of 6 years of study/internship, whatever program they complete (4+2, 5+1, Masters, Doctorate). This is the minimum years of training for ALL qualified psychologists in Australia. This is also how overseas psychologists coming to Australia are assessed and allocated to a training route. The requirements for provisional psychologist, psychologist and endorsed psychologists are reflected in the table below. PsyBA/AHPRA is also clear that an endorsement does not reflect being a specialist in the field, but having acquired more specific competencies in this discipline of psychology. PsyBA/AHPRA also has a clear syllabus program and differentiates competencies for each endorsement.

A clinical psychologist has 8 years of training as one would embark a 2 years of endorsement post Masters qualifications with a clinical psychologist as a board approved supervisor – or one year endorsement following a DClin program. This is the same for all psychologists who have completed an endorsement, this is not just for a clinical psychologist. This means that ALL psychologists who have completed an endorsement program have at least 8 years of training.

ALL psychologists who have completed an endorsement have at least 8 years of training!

I have a first degree in psychology, a Masters and a Doctorate which equals to 8-9 years study and I am still considered like a psychologist in the Medicare Rebate system and need to constantly reframe the skills I bring when discussing NDIS processes. I am being questioned as to whether I can diagnose autism when in fact I have worked for 30 years in this field, with nearly 15 years as an educational psychologist. Psychologists come to me for supervision on this topic. I have done research, supervision and presentations on the topic. It often feels frustrating to have to present proof to the systems that you can in fact do highly skilled work in assessment and counselling processes.

I certainly trained in systems (Canada and UK) where disciplines were perceived so much more equally and where their purposes/differences were valued and supported by the systems with perhaps clearer boundaries around roles and responsibilities – perhaps this is an important reflection to have about boundaries. It is possible for systems to embrace diversity of disciplines in psychology, support clients together, refer to one and other, engage in dialogues that support client outcomes and not necessarily based on one discipline being better or better equipped.

Clinical psychology students and registrars approach me for supervision in child and adolescent psychology as they feel they are needing more skills in this area. I would approach a clinical psychologist colleague for support around complex mental health, same as I would approach a forensic psychologist for complex court/youth offending matters. Ultimately, the competencies you gained are very based in the supervision you engage in. If you have a supervisor who is particularly skilled in assessments, you are most likely to be more exposed to assessments and therefore will develop more skills in this area. If you have a supervisor who works with children, you are likely going to acquire these skills.

We all have different skills and continue to practice within these specific frames where our skills are sought after for the highly focused competencies gained. Even as supervisors, we continue to develop skills and competencies throughout our career.

There could definitely be something in having clearer boundaries and competencies about roles and responsibilities – do we dilute our specific skills by attempting to do work across the lifespan, or should we have targeted training in child or geriatric psychology? Should we have clinical psychologists in schools, doing psychoeducational assessment work, advising educational programs? Should we have only health psychologists in hospitals? If we allow roles and responsibilities to be slightly more fluid such as crossing disciplines with supervision and skills development, we should do this in equality and value of skills, supervision and training. But…

The Inequality is Real

This table is from the PSyBA 2021 Annual Report and shows the number of psychologists registered in relation to their endorsement.

There is a clear majority of clinical psychologists compared to other disciplines. Of course, students would want to engage in a training possibly offering a higher pay and the conversations are real in this space when offers of training come in. Indeed, students say they choose a place at university in a clinical psychology program over a preferred route where they could follow their passion in a different discipline.

Such a high concentration of clinical psychologists in Australia, this is perhaps the reason for other endorsements being forgotten, going under the radar and not being understood by the systems. One could say ‘What is the problem with that, perhaps we should all aim to be a clinical psychologist?’

I don’t want to be a Clinical Psychologist.

I always wanted to be an Educational Psychologist. This is where my passion lies.

This is a clear challenge for the future with an endorsement system currently like this as this creates a clear dominant discourse and one sided conversations in terms of training, advocating and growing the profession. Indeed, a discipline can only grow if there are qualified supervisors available to supervise. It is evident in the statistics above where clinical psychologists are able to gain endorsement at a rapid rate compared to other endorsements – 329 compared to 15 in educational psychology, for example.

Ultimately, it is even more troublesome as, meeting the needs of the population is the clear aim for offering quality training to the workforce. Humans are different in nature, experience different life events, engage in different systems (education, forensic, sports, community, health, etc.). One type of discipline of psychology cannot claim to be able to meet the growing needs of the population. We need to be able to offer diverse services, unique skills and competencies to meet complex and evolving needs. We should all celebrate this diversity and embrace, clinical psychologists should also champion this too.

But we are all equal, why should we have to do an endorsement in the first place?

As psychologists, we should all aspire to continue learning, extend our skills, encourage discussions, research, support leadership skills in engaging in systemic work, engage in supervision training, develop new competencies, search for new knowledge, allow time and a place to continue learning. We should all aspire for the best in our knowledge and professional practice, so continuing learning is part of this process.

Many countries in the world have adopted a doctorate as a minimum to practice psychology and we should be very highly aware of this international shift to this specific standard of qualifications. I am not saying here that we should aspire for all to have a doctorate but more to be aware this has happened in other countries. This 2 years of endorsement may therefore be a positive route to adopt and ensure parity with qualifications in this country.

The challenge with this endorsement route is that psychologists taking routes of the 4+2 or 5+1 with an internship pathway are not eligible for the endorsement route. Bridging courses are now available in some endorsements but the reason many engage in a 4+2 and 5+1 in the first place is often related to financial challenges which may be a barrier in engaging in further training.

There is also the challenge with some specific psychology programs being more popular due to students wanting a higher pay in the future and being valued for their work by the systems. Clinical psychology training programs are highly competitive when other programs are slowly disappearing. For example, there are only 4 universities in Australia offering a Masters in Educational and Developmental Psychology. There are many other examples of programs reducing in numbers. At the same time, Masters of Professional Practice (MPP) are popular because students can have a one year of paid internship compared to a full Masters where placements are unpaid. This will again create challenges with the further training as these students will not be able to embark an endorsed route in the future, creating inequality in the systems.

What do we need going forward?

We need a rally up of ALL psychologists to support one and other, campaign for high quality training across the board, in ALL disciplines. With support to supervision processes.

We need a clear understanding of all disciplines of psychology, roles, responsibilities, boundaries, referral routes.

A clear campaign for ALL systems to understand psychology training, qualifications and processes with an understanding of competencies and skills not necessarily associated to one specific discipline. And allow the systems to be accepting of this diversity of skills.

We need equality of the disciplines, being recognised for the training and qualifications, years of experience.

Increase of internship in many disciplines and support for those offering them, and university places in diverse areas of psychology.

Broadening the bridging pathways as internship routes to allow ALL psychologists to continue their skills may also be a solution to equality.

Let’s Celebrate!

Let’s celebrate the diversity of our profession.

Let’s celebrate aspiration for lifelong learning and training.

Let’s celebrate a deeper understanding of our skills, competencies and capacity to support one another.

Let’s celebrate and ensure all can work within their areas of passions. This will help the profession with commitment and dedication, reduce possible burn out and invigorate the profession.

We have all worked so hard as psychologists to be where we are, we should all support each other in continuing developing the skills we need, and celebrating being part of this amazing diverse profession!

#Resources 59: A First Aid Kit

I did not anticipate a first aid kit would be such a great hit in the playroom. The kit just sits around the playroom and many children have enjoyed discovering all the items in the kit.

The first aid kit has been helpful for purposes such as:

familiarise a child with injection due to the covid vaccination program

discussing with parents about challenges going to the doctor and familiarise the child with the process

promoting child-parent interactions such as close proximity when the child is testing the parent

giving the opportunity for the child to be in charge of doing injections and tests to a parent when it is typically the opposite when unwell

being playful when exploring big feelings about being ill, covid, vaccinations

expressing emotions through play

explore tough experiences in a safe environment

process difficult experiences with related objects which facilitate thinking and language

The kit was just a quick purchase from a popular shop. I realise now how timeline the purchase was considering all the challenges experienced with covid-19. Children are really benefiting from playing it out and exploring big emotions through play in the safety of the playroom.

There is also an easy link here to make for children in terms of health and mental health. The doctor kit being more particularly related to physical symptoms needing to be looked at and then linking to how to look after mental health which is not necessarily visible or have a specific and tangible kit. The conversation can then be extended to building a mental health kit and developing coping cards to fit in the kit.

For parents, playing doctor can also be easily be done at home. Through play, children explore and create constructs of their world so giving them the opportunity to process big and current topics can be helpful for them to process big emotions related to health. Discussions can also be extended to include a mental health kit.

A number of resources are being developed at 3P. For more information, visit our website: https://3ppsychologies.com/products/

#Resources 58: The Postbox

The playroom is working like a treat so I wanted to share a few resources that I am enjoying working with in the playroom.

The Postbox has been very popular for a range of purposes either in directed activities or child directed play. Activities have varied such as:

  1. to write how we feel and post this message to someone special
  2. writing a message to someone we no longer see or miss
  3. write a message or make a drawing to the therapist to explain how one feels
  4. post an activity when finished
  5. thinking about writing a letter of thank you to someone
  6. sending a postcard to someone about our life adventures and how one is having a good time
  7. sending a message to someone about one’s strengths and skills and/or a success
  8. sending a message to someone about a change one would like to make
  9. exchanging messages about a difficult event that happened in the week
  10. write a message about the session and what we would do next time

The Postbox is certainly a great resource in the playroom. This one was purchased at a popular store. With creativity, a postbox could be easily made with a box. Additionally, postcards and message cards can be created for children to take away messages with them.

As children do not necessarily have literacy skills develop for long messages, encouraging drawings, images, keywords and codes is as successful as writing a message. Processing thinking visually can be helpful in mapping thought and feelings.

When working online, a postbox could be created using the whiteboard during sessions.

Parents can also create a postbox in the house for children to post messages or big emotions about specific events. This can help children express their thoughts and feelings in a different way to talking. As talking can be developmentally challenging for children, a different way to express thoughts and feelings can work well. The process of thinking and writing is also a different process to talking, and can be helpful to children who have challenges in expressing emotions verbally.

The Postbox and narrative therapy activities feature in The Therapist Backpack, see the link below for more information about this concept.

We did it! Exciting News at 3P!

We have been incredibly busy in the last few months with great projects coming together and a few more to come!
We have worked over the holiday period to be able to open our new venue in Rye.
We are now open and have availability for psychological and ongoing support as well as psychoeducational assessments. 

We have availability from our psychologists, counsellor and provisional psychologists across both sites for ongoing support or psychoeducational assessments.
Ashlee Mitchell, Psychologist and Clinical Psychology Registrar, is joining the 3P team and will be mainly working from Rye
with a dedicated team of provisional psychologists who will be able to assist with a number of professional activities in Rye.
This is very exciting and we are so grateful to such as great team to have come together in a short space of time.
The cottage is welcoming and fully refurbished with a playroom.
At 3P, we are are also developing links with schools to offer outreach support. 
We are also looking for another psychologist to join the team either for Rye or Mount Eliza, or both.
If you feel values at 3P
– paediatric support in a homely and playful environment with lots of learning opportunities –
aligns with you, get in touch, we really want to hear from you!
Spread the word and tell your colleagues!

International Play Therapy Event
Our director, Dr P., participated in an international play therapy event with a number of fantastic international speakers.
The activity Pascale presented is about a therapeutic backpack and was well received as an activity.
To find out more, click the link below. You can still purchase the recording to watch at your leisure.
Find out more 
Online Groups
We are launching groups online and the first up is for autistic girls.
The aim of the group is to promote connections, nurturing protective factors and enhancing wellbeing.
These will be facilitated by psychologists.
Although we have announced groups for 13-18 years old, we are also keen to get a group going for 11-12 (end of primary) and if enough interest we will run this group too.
We are aiming to start these groups mid-February.

Please contact us to register.admin@3ppsychologies.com 0391194433


Supervision at 3P
We have had a number of requests for supervision recently.
Pascale offers a range of supervision services – groups, courses online and individual supervision.
Pascale also offers professional supervision to school leaders and teachers.
There are 3 groups a month running – 
neurodiversity affirming – start 2nd February, 2-3pm – monthly
two ed and dev focus groups 
-Wednesday 5-6pm, next one 16th February – monthly – 
– Friday 10-11am, next one 11th February – monthly

Dr P. and the team at 3P also offers
Professional Development events for schools, clinics and organisations.
Contact us to discuss your needs.
Contact admin@3ppsychologies.com or phone 0391194433 to book sessions

Opening a New Venue in Rye!

An awesome news! 
Opening a new venue in Rye!In January 2022, we will be opening a new venue in Rye, in the same type of cosy homely cottage to the one in Mount Eliza.
This is part of our vision to support children in a homely environment.
We are absolutely thrilled about this news.
We are hoping this will really serve the local peninsula community with paediatric psychology support. 
Visit our website
Meet the Team
We have been very busy growing an amazing team.
You can meet all our team members and learn more about them on our website.
We are also looking for new members to support counselling and psychology functions in Rye.
We have already team members who will be offering services there from January.
We would love to find a couple of other special team members to help out.
Get in touch if the special person is you!
Meet the 3P Team
To book an appointment in Rye or Mount Eliza today, phone 0391194433

news, Online support Group and counselling programs at 3P

Introducing our new logo

Our new logo above designed and drawn by Dr P. represents diversity and unity with the backpack representing inner skills for life adventures.
The colours are purple for dreams and aspirations; blue for the sea and green for the woods as per the landscape of Mount Eliza and the Mornington Peninsula.
Introducing new team membersWe have been very busy over the last few months and introduced many new team members in our last newsletter.
In this newsletter, we are also introducing Jennie and Marianna. Jennie is currently working at 3P and Marianna will start in January. 
Meet the Team for Our New Online Programs

We are launching two online group support programs for teens.
The aims of these two groups are to support wellbeing and create connections with likeminded peers.
Starting on the 9th November 2021 for 10 weeks with a break over the Christmas period.
Counselling Programs at 3P
At 3P, we have developed a number of programs to support the wellbeing of children 6-12 years old.
Jade, student counsellor from Monash University, has worked very hard to design with Dr P. 3 programs – resilience, mindfulness and self-esteem.
Information is outlined below. To book a 5 session program, phone 0391194433.
So lots of new developments at 3P. 
Yes it has been busy indeed!
If you have specific needs, please let us know and we will communicate with you as to what we can offer to respond to your needs.
Contact us admin@3ppsychologies.com