The Psychology career: a lot of theory but little practice

Psychology generates a lot of interest today, and study the Degree in PsychologyOn a personal level, it can be one of the best experiences in life.

But despite how enriching it is to learn about behavioral science and how interesting some of the subjects that are part of your academic program are, this race is impractical.

The problem of recently graduated psychologists

This becomes a serious problem when you have to deal with people and, on many occasions, their emotional conflicts, because when you have to put yourself in front of a patient to therapy and you don't know what to do or how to do it, it's that something is wrong (and I'm not saying it alone, it's what you hear in the corridors of the faculty and it's what the newly graduates).

Four years invested in the Degree, almost two years in the Master of General Health Psychology and a lot of money and time dedicated to training you so that you cannot put into practice everything you have learned.

The dilemma of getting practical experience

Well, even more frustrating is when you try to find a job and nobody gives you the chance to work as a psychotherapist. Because as much as you want to prove yourself and show everyone that you are good at what you love the most, passionate, no one gives you the opportunity to dedicate yourself to your vocation because you do not have enough experience professional.

It's a fish that bites its own tail: you can't grow professionally because you don't have enough experience, but Nobody gives you the chance to get experience in order to continue growing and developing professionally.

Being prepared for the world of work

As Natalia Pimentel, a recently qualified general health psychologist, recounts: "What worried me the most when I finished the Degree in Psychology and the Master's in General Health Psychologist it was having studied so hard and spent so much time and money and feeling that I was halfway to achieving what I had set out to do: becoming a psychologist. I felt that I was not fully competent and that I could not help my patients to improve their well-being”.

Being competent in your job is not knowing how to do a final degree project, or reading hundreds of investigations, nor pass theoretical exams, nor listen to many professionals in this field tell you what psychological therapy is. Being competent goes further: it means seeing many practical cases, participating in therapeutic practice, having your own patient schedule and doing therapy with them. In other words, it is not only studying an agenda, but it is knowing how to mobilize all that learning and knowledge and put into practice your skills and all the internal and external resources available to you to do your job well.

Lack of practice is a reality in college careers

All those who have studied the Degree in Psychology know what I am talking about, so surely many of you identify with this text and with what it Natalia expresses below: "In these years of study they have filled our heads with data, articles, theories and concepts that many times we are not even going to use. And what really matters, which is practice, has a residual value in university education”.

In addition, Natalia adds: “It is not a very pleasant feeling to finish your degree without having any idea of ​​what you should do in the job for which you have trained. Because this makes you demotivated and you feel insecure when it comes to applying everything you have studied. What is much". Definitely, a very worrying reality, shared by thousands of recently graduated psychologists.

Something must change in the current training model

Something must change in the way that university institutions educate us. It cannot be that after studying for 5 or 6 years (this includes the Degree and the Master if you pass the first time), you have to learn to work. What good is having so much general knowledge if no one teaches you how to really do your job as a psychologist?

There are many graduates who, at the end of the Degree in Psychology or the General Sanitary Master, affirm that they are not prepared to put into practice all the learning that they have acquired throughout their years of study, so this postgraduate course was designed to compensate for this reality that so many psychologists experience.