Question: What are the most common disorders/problems you have come across in your carer, and how have you approached these?

p answered on 25 Nov 2020:

Hi Hatib, my answer to this varies depending on what service or mental health team I am working in at the time. I think something that initially surprised me when I started out working clinically is that sadly many people have experienced types of trauma, more than I previously thought there might be. I also find that depression and anxiety are quite common, across all age groups, and I think this is a reflection of how life events at any time can contribute to onset of a challenge with someone’s mental health. In terms of how I would approach different mental health problems, this would depend on what the main difficulty is for the person, and on a range of things such as what the NICE guidelines are for this condition, what therapeutic approaches the service offers etc. The great thing about clinical psychology is that there is a whole range of therapies and models to work with, so for one person something like CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) might be appropriate, for someone else I might use another approach like ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) or CFT (Compassion Focused Therapy). The psychological intervention can be either 1:1 or include family members, or other people involved in the client’s wider system. So sometimes it might be helpful to work with my colleagues instead rather than directly with the client myself, so it just really depends on the person and what they need from psychology at the time. I hope this helps answer your question!