Mental illness is a growing concern for many Australians – recent statistics show that around one in nine (2.1 million) Australian adults have experienced high or very high levels of distress. We also know that young adults aged 18 to 24 have the highest prevalence of mental illness in the country.

Thankfully, our country is full of folks who’ve dedicated their lives to helping people affected by mental illness. So, we asked one of these legends – Professor Kathryn Nicholson Perry from the Australian College of Applied Psychology – our burning questions about all things mental health, from work to study and Frasier Crane.

Uni Life

Psychology is one of the more popular undergraduate degrees in Australia and job prospects for graduates are positive. But does a career in psych mean years and years at uni? Yes and no.

While Kathryn has since completed a PhD, her initial psychology qualification took six years. Here in Australia, the Psychology Board of Australia determines the requirements for registered psychologists, which look much the same, though those keen on forging a career in the profession can get there in a few different ways (check out this handy flowchart).

Kathryn describes her university experience as “scary and overwhelming but also very exciting”. She’d moved from a small town to live on-campus at uni and, despite her initial fears, made close friends who she still speaks with years later, despite the fact that she’s now living in a different country. It’s oddly heartening to hear psychologists experience normal anxieties around life change and suffer from occasional self-doubt. “I wasn’t very confident in my abilities as a student, but I was very organised and persistent. In the end, that was what mattered,” Kathryn says.

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Hands-On Learning

Six years may sound like a long time to be enrolled at university, but part of this is spent outside the lecture theatres, in the real world, as postgraduate psychology degrees involve at least one unit of placements.

Work placements can feel exhausting and stressful, but it’s vital experience for those pursuing a career in psychology. Since graduating, Kathryn has organised student placements as part of her job and says she used to wish she was back doing them again to “get a taster of all the amazing places you can work as a psychologist”.

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Work, Work, Work

So, after all that study, is it safe to assume psychs are just rolling in dough? Not quite. “I wouldn’t recommend it as a career if earning a lot of money is your objective!” Kathryn says. “That said, psychology is a very diverse career and it means different working conditions depending on what area you are working in.” Things like forensic, engineering, and industrial-organisational psychology are just the start.

What does keep Kathryn and her colleagues motivated is the constant learning and support she gets on the job. “I find working in a team is really important to my enjoyment and fulfilment in my work, and it is one of the reasons I love working at ACAP, because I have an amazing team around me.”

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A Day In The Life

As with many jobs in the caring or health professions, no day is typical for Kathryn. Now working in academia, she says “A lot of my time is spent with my students, supervising their clinical or research work, and my colleagues, discussing and planning for the development and delivery of courses.”

If you’re hoping to study psychology but are terrified of scary teachers, take confidence in the fact that a lot of professors love sharing their knowledge and working with students. “I’m immensely privileged to work in this role, shaping the future professional psychologists and watching the amazing contributions they make to the psychological well-being of our community when they graduate… It always amazes me that they remember me, but I think they’re equally surprised when I remember them!”

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TV Tropes And Movie Misconceptions

From Frasier to horror movies, it can be hard to know if fictional representations of mental health are even remotely believable.

“I loved Frasier!” Kathryn says.

“My father was a police officer and enjoyed watching crime series on television while knowing it was a world away from real-life policing. I feel the same about the representation of psychologists. There are a number of ‘shrink’ tropes in the media – the wounded healer or the Freudian analyst, for example – and it would be dangerous to think that these accurately represent psychologists in contemporary practice, but they can be helpful narrative devices!”

A few tropes, however, do irk her, like the suggestion “that someone diagnosed with schizophrenia has a multiple personalities” – which is simply incorrect – or the horror-film notion that killers are hiding a diagnosis, because there’s no evidence to suggest people living with mental illness are more violent than the general population.

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Chit-Chat

Kathryn explains that while her profession isn’t a common topic among friends and peers, she did have a memorable experience with a taxi driver. He told her “all about his panic attacks on the drive from the airport to my hotel. In these situations, I always try to be a helpful citizen but make it clear I can’t offer any professional advice.”

Kathryn’s patience and kindness in these situations is super apparent. “I tell them about how to access help if they are interested, and what to keep in mind in selecting an appropriate psychologist to work with, for example how important to the therapeutic outcome it is to feel a good rapport with your psychologist.”

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Life Lessons

Kathryn says if there was one thing she could tell the world about mental health, it would be “that having a mental health problem is not a personal failing. So many people blame themselves for the mental health problems they struggle with.”

It’s evident that psychologists like Kathryn are skillful and hard-working, but also very passionate about what they do. “I genuinely believe that everyone does the best they can with what they know and the resources they have. For most, it is possible to feel better with the combination of the right mental health professional to work with using the best evidence-based tools.”

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Find out more about ACAP’s courses or apply now.