The Skeleton Cupboard The Making Of A Clinical Psychologist

The Skeleton Cupboard is Professor Tanya Byron's account of her years of training as a clinical psychologist, when trainees find themselves in the toughest placements of their careers. Through the eyes of her naive and inexperienced younger self, Tanya shares remarkable stories inspired by the people she had the privilege to treat. Gripping, poignant and full of daring black humour, this book reveals the frightening and challenging induction faced by all mental health staff and highlights their incredible commitment to their patients. Powerfully moving and beautifully written, The Skeleton Cupboard shares the tales of ordinary people with an amazing resilience to the challenges of life.

The gripping, unforgettable, and deeply affecting story of a young clinical psychologist learning how she can best help her patients, The Skeleton Cupboard is a riveting and revealing memoir that offers fascinating insight into the human mind. In The Skeleton Cupboard, Professor Tanya Byron recounts the stories of the patients who most influenced her career as a mental health practitioner. Spanning her years of training—years in which Byron was forced her to contend with the harsh realities of the lives of her patients and confront a dark moment in her own family's past—The Skeleton Cupboard is a compelling and compassionate account of how much health practitioners can learn from those they treat. Among others, we meet Ray, a violent sociopath desperate to be shown tenderness and compassion; Mollie, a talented teenager intent on starving herself; and Imogen, a twelve-year old so haunted by a secret that she's intent on killing herself. Byron brings the reader along as she uncovers the reasons each of these individuals behave the way they do, resulting in a thrilling, compulsively readable psychological mystery that sheds light on mental illness and what its treatment tells us about ourselves.

In my session with Imogen, the words were still not coming. I had to move past my own frustration and relax. But it is very hard to relax when you are looking into the eyes of a mute little girl who wants to be dead. You don’t want to relax; you want to pull her into your arms, hold her and then shake her until she tells you why. You long to say, "Why do you want to die? You’re twelve years old." Gripping, unforgettable and deeply affecting, The Skeleton Cupboard recounts the patient stories that most influenced Dr. Tanya Byron, covering years of training that forced her to confront the harsh realities of the lives of her patients and the demons of her own family history. Among others, we meet Ray, a violent sociopath desperate to be treated with tenderness and compassion; Mollie, a talented teenager intent on starving herself; and Imogen, a twelve-year-old so haunted by a secret that she’s intent on killing herself. Byron brings the reader along as she uncovers the reasons each of these individuals behave as they do, resulting in a thrilling, compulsively readable medical mystery that sheds light on mental illness and what its treatment tells us about ourselves.

The Skeleton Cupboard is Professor Tanya Byron's account of her years of training as a clinical psychologist, when trainees find themselves in the toughest placements of their careers. Through the eyes of her naive and inexperienced younger self, Tanya shares remarkable stories inspired by the people she had the privilege to treat. Gripping, poignant and full of daring black humour, this book reveals the frightening and challenging induction faced by all mental health staff and highlights their incredible commitment to their patients. Powerfully moving and beautifully written, The Skeleton Cupboard shares the tales of ordinary people with an amazing resilience to the challenges of life.

25 unflinching stories and essays from the front lines of the radical mental health movement Overmedication, police brutality, electroconvulsive therapy, involuntary hospitalization, traumas that lead to intense altered states and suicidal thoughts: these are the struggles of those labeled “mentally ill.” While much has been written about the systemic problems of our mental-health care system, this book gives voice to those with personal experience of psychiatric miscare often excluded from the discussion, like people of color and LGBTQ+ communities. It is dedicated to finding working alternatives to the “Mental Health Industrial Complex” and shifting the conversation from mental illness to mental health.

Becoming a Clinical Psychologist: Everything You Need to Know?brings together all the information you need to pursue a career in this competitive field. This essential guide includes up-to-date information and guidance about a career in clinical psychology and gaining a place on clinical psychology training in the UK. It answers the questions all aspiring psychologists need to know, such as: What is clinical psychology? What is it like to train and work as a clinical psychologist? How to make the most of your work and research experience. How to prepare for clinical psychology applications and interviews. Is clinical psychology the right career for me? By cutting through all the jargon, and providing detailed interviews with trained and trainee clinical psychologists,?Becoming a Clinical Psychologist?will provide psychology graduates or undergrads considering a career in this area with all the tools they need.?

This vital new book navigates the personal, professional and political selves on the journey to training in clinical psychology. Readers will be able to explore a range of ways to enrich their practice through a focus on identities and differences, relationships and power within organisations, supervisory contexts, therapeutic conventions and community approaches. This book includes a rich exploration of how we make sense of personal experiences as practitioners, including chapters on self-formulation, personal therapy, and using services. Through critical discussion, practice examples, shared accounts and exercises, individuals are invited to reflect on a range of topical issues in clinical psychology. Voices often marginalised within the profession write side-by-side with those more established in the field, offering a unique perspective on the issues faced in navigating clinical training and the profession more broadly. In coming together, the authors of this book explore what clinical psychology can become. Surviving Clinical Psychology invites those early on in their careers to link ‘the political’ to personal and professional development in a way that is creative, critical and values-based, and will be of interest to pre-qualified psychologists and researchers, and those mentoring early-career practitioners.

Considering a career as a Clinical Psychologist? This book is an ideal, jargon-free introduction for those wishing to find out more about working in this demanding but rewarding mental health profession. An accessible text that invites you to think critically about whether becoming a Clinical Psychologist is right for you, questioning and challenging your views and providing an honest perspective of life as a clinical psychologist. Written from personal experience of over 10 years working in applied psychology, with a unique knowledge of the practice, theory, and application of Clinical Psychology, Paul Jenkins provides a first-hand perspective, blending anecdotes with factual advice on the clinical academic culture. It is also packed with case studies which highlight a range of different career pathways (including in other mental health fields) and includes coverage of post-qualification life to gives the reader a sense of the career you can have after training. "If you are considering clinical psychology as a career, this excellent book is essential reading. Paul Jenkins describes the pathway to professional qualification, and all aspect of the job in an exciting and informative style." Alan Carr, PhD Professor of Clinical Psychology, University College Dublin