“This summer I spent four weeks in Bali doing a clinical and mental wellbeing placement.  I worked in schools, community outreach programmes and government-run initiatives for children and adults, across a wide range of ages and abilities.  I have gained incredible insight into how mental health differs across cultures.

Queen’s School of Psychology arranged for PhD students to talk to us, and one of them had mentioned about travelling abroad with SLV Global.  When I received an email from Queen’s Careers offering grants, I decided that I was serious about my career as a Psychologist and so I applied.  I researched the three available placements with SLV and decided that Bali was the most suited for me.

I spent the first few days in Bali receiving training, and our group was lucky enough to have a talk with Dr Sally Roach, an Australian psychologist who has assisted with occupational health students.  She was able to give us incredible advice and guidance, and told us to really consider using occupational therapy influences when creating activities for service users. After three days of training, we were rewarded with an overnight stay in the jungle along with the chance to do white water rafting and mud sports.

While in Bali, I lived in a beautiful, welcoming village with the most amazing homestay families who were more than willing to share their culture and chat with volunteers.

We spent our Mondays planning out and creating the weeks activities, Tuesday to Thursday we had two projects a day which would begin around 8am and end at 4pm (with breaks in between!).  These projects could involve working in special needs schools, orphanages, a psychiatric hospital or even teaching yoga.  We had one project on the Fridays, which meant we could leave our homestays early and spend our weekends wherever we wanted.

My time in Bali has made me want to apply a mindful and creative approach in any therapeutic setting I find myself in. It made me realise that I am passionate about my career choice and has encouraged me to apply for further study to become a clinical psychologist”.