UG Placement: Gaby Brown

Working for ANDY enabled me to build many of the skills needed for my course and opened up a lot of potential future career paths. One of my main responsibilities was conducting semi-structured anxiety and depression interview assessments with children or parents attending the clinic. Through amazing training and extensive practice, I learnt the important skills of active listening and validating the interviewee’s concerns empathetically. The communication skills I hope will help me in any postgraduate healthcare roles I apply to.

Other roles of mine included maintaining research records, communicating between researchers and participants, dealing with calls from familes, and assisting with the collection of NHS-funded research data.

I was also able to start my dissertation early and recruit participants from the clinic, which has proven to be amazingly helpful with my time management during final year. And has enabled me to work with a unique population, which wouldn’t have been possible on the standard 3 year Psychology course.

I really enjoyed my time at the ANDY clinic, as everyone there works in a compassionate and respectful manner. This was clearly reflected in the welcoming feeling of the clinic and the positive experiences young people and their families had there.