A Day in the Life of a Provisional Psychologist

What do my days look like?

After spending the last few months getting settled into my position at CQ Psych Services, I have really enjoyed my time and have developed a daily routine that I follow most working days…

• I try and get to work most mornings around 8:45am as I don’t see my first client of the day until 9:45am. I have found this gives me a good amount of time to settle in, view my daily schedule, prioritise my tasks for the day, organise my notes for sessions with my clients, and of course, have a chance to catch up and chat with my wonderful colleagues.
• Once it gets to 9:45am, I will see my first client for the day. At CQ Psych Services, we offer a variety of options for services. Some clients I will see face-to-face in our practice. Alternatively, I also see some clients via telehealth. This can be done using a video call or a simple phone call.
• Following each session with a client, I take some time to finalise and reflect upon my session notes. These notes then get added to the client’s ‘Case Formulation’ which helps to inform and guide the best possible treatment plan tailored to each individual client’s needs.
• At 12pm, I take a break to have some lunch with the rest of the team, then I head to my desk to plan my sessions for the rest of the day. Some days I have less clients than others, which gives me the opportunity to catch up on some other important tasks. I have listed some of these below…

• Writing GP letters and NDIS reports on behalf of my clients.
• Helping out with admin tasks such as billing and appointment scheduling, etc.
• Taking part in weekly off-site supervision over Zoom with an AHPRA accredited supervisor.
• Researching different therapeutic techniques based around the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
• Developing resources to use in sessions with clients such as tables, diagrams, models etc.

ADDITIONALLY…

One interesting part of my job is having the chance to administer psychometric tests. I have a designated timeslot on Wednesday mornings to conduct various assessments such as intelligence tests, memory tests, behavioural assessments, etc. I also utilise this time to score and interpret the results of these tests, and then report them in a way that is understandable and meaningful to the client.