Imposter Syndrome As An Early Career Psychologist? You’re Not Alone.

The most requested crowd sourced informational post on my instagram account, was ‘imposter syndrome as early career psychologists’. This blog post will probably apply to any profession to some extent, but is tailored for the psychology and mental health professions given the unique nature of the demands on us.

To combat imposter syndrome, pressing up against it and understanding it is key. We often use it as a really broad descriptor, but there’s so much hidden in its depth. It’ll show up differently and impact each psychologist uniquely.

What does imposter syndrome mean to you?

• Are you scared that you aren’t as good as your peers?

• Are you scared that you aren't as good as the master therapists who teach and lecture?

• Do you feel like you don’t know enough modalities?

• Do you feel like if you aren’t changing every client’s life, then you aren’t doing enough?

• Is there a certain presentation which triggers this for you?

Unpicking these thoughts is so helpful.

It’s so essential to realise that imposter syndrome is drilled into you by dint of what you were selected for (i.e., being a high-achieving student, and making good grades in an intensively competitive field). If you’re a psychologist, you’ve already battled with years of competing tooth-and-nail with other people, and feeling defective. It’s going to be hard to leap from student mode into psychologist mode, and understanding the differences between these modes is important.

As a psychologist, there is no HD grade, what works for one client may not work for another, there’s no perfect way to phrase something, no way to (fully) prep for a session, not every client will like you or stay with you, you won’t help every client, and you will never be able to learn and use every single therapy. You will essentially - have to abandon certain things, and fail at others, and will have to learn to go with the flow.

How can you stop being a student, and step into being a professional?

It’s important to think about your expectations, and work out how these deviate from reality. Do you expect therapy to work exactly like it does in the neat 3-hour CBT-P lecture you sat through?

I guarantee it won’t.

This isn't because you're doing it wrong, it's because real therapy clients usually come with a host of co-morbidities and situational factors which research trials never account for (and probably actively exclude!)

Some questions to ask yourself

• What are you expecting from yourself in terms of influencing client change?

• How much responsibility do you take for therapeutic change?

• How quickly are you expecting embedded difficulties to shift?

Creating a set of helpful and realistic expectations for yourself is key, tailored to each individual client you see.

It’s also important to remember that one of the key drivers of change in therapy is the therapist-client relationship. Get that right, be a good-enough therapist, and you’ve done half the job.

The relationship isn’t sufficient of course, you need to have some idea as to what to do within the bounds of the relationship, but its an essential place to start - just bringing presence. Confidence in a client’s capacity to recover and in your own skills has also been shown to affect client outcomes. You need to trust that you’re the expert, and realise the value of what you bring to the room (even if you do look very young - that can’t be helped, so don’t get stuck on it!).

You know more than you think you know (writing my book helped me realise that!)

Get your basics down.

It's also helpful to get your basics down. If you know simple things like how to start a session, confidentiality policies, and if you have a simple therapy in place (CBT or ACT are good starting points), you’ll have confidence and will build from there, instead of fumbling.

Learn to make mistakes.

Making mistakes when learning is essential. Do you feel like you are supported to make mistakes? The only way to shift from being a student to being a therapist is by doing therapy, and this will involve making lots of mistakes. The good news? It’s very unlikely that you will break a client - especially if the rapport is such that the relationship can withstand a rupture. Does your environment (e.g., clinical supervisor, line manager) support you being simply good-enough? Can you acknowledge mistakes openly, or do you feel pressured to hold the perfect therapist role?

It’s worth considering environment-self fit. It’s a large enough leap from being a student without too much external pressure.

Do you allow yourself to try new things and make mistakes? There’s safety in doing the same thing repeatedly, but that’s also how you get stuck. To get better at therapy, it’s essential to read widely (social media really doesn’t count, get off it and read books by master therapists instead), take courses to learn new therapies, watch videos, watch other people and pause to integrate integrate integrate. You’re there to build yourself as a therapist, not to copy someone else. No one can do you as well as you do, and your clients need good skills and authenticity. As you do this, you'll also see master therapists acknowledge their own failures and mistakes, which is so helpful (my recommendations? McWilliams, Kottler, Yalom, Gabbard, Winnicott)

Are you operating within your scope of practice?

If you feel like an imposter, it’s important to consider whether you are indeed an imposter. Before you implode in flames, I just mean, are you operating within your scope of practice and competence? If you’re trying to do things which are quite clinically complex (e.g., working with serious PD) and feel out of your depth, then you will likely feel like an imposter. Ideally at the start, you would have a small number of challenging cases, but not too many, and would be well-supported as you learn. Every psychologist will build expertise in certain areas - as an example, I don’t work with severe eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, and would undoubtedly feel like (and be) an imposter if I tried to without further training.

Finally, have faith. This is a life-long endeavour. Therapy is a HARD job, the only tool you have is you, and you’re very likely doing much better than you think you are!

—> Looking for supervision which supports you, helps you develop, and is focused on helping you be the best practitioner you can be? Contact me now to discuss your needs.