{"id":436,"date":"2020-07-31T14:15:39","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T13:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/?p=436"},"modified":"2020-07-31T14:15:39","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T13:15:39","slug":"my-experience-as-a-psychology-with-counselling-mature-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/2020\/07\/31\/my-experience-as-a-psychology-with-counselling-mature-student\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience as a Psychology with Counselling Mature Student"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am an opsimath \u2013 yes, it\u2019s a real thing! <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I left school in 1978 with very poor A levels and got married almost immediately.\u00a0 Three children later I started work and progressed happily as a Facilities Manager.\u00a0 Just before a very significant birthday, I was given the opportunity to take early retirement from my senior role in <\/span>facilities management<\/span> and decided that a complete change of path was worth considering.\u00a0 So after working in <\/span>facilities management<\/span> for many years<\/span>,<\/span> in the banking industry and <\/span>h<\/span>igher <\/span>e<\/span>ducation<\/span>,<\/span> I decided to go to University <\/span>with the<\/span> aim <\/span>of<\/span> becom<\/span>ing<\/span> a counsellor. I\u2019m studying Psychology with Counselling <\/span>here <\/span>at Teesside University and the contrast to my <\/span>\u2018<\/span>old<\/span>\u2019<\/span> life could hardly be greater!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Counselling Psychology students<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Was it scary<\/span>? O<\/span>h my, yes!\u00a0 All those young people, with young brains and young energy levels \u2013 the thought of throwing myself into that mix was daunting.\u00a0Would people be prepared to engage with the greying retiree frantically trying to keep up?\u00a0 Would I be able to manage with essays and exams and dreadful deadlines?\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Well, yes, I have managed and succeeded! There are more mature students than I expected and everyone, regardless of age or experience, has been wonderfully helpful and supportive.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Is learning to learn challenging?\u00a0Absolutely \u2013 but I have tried to treat the learning as I would a job, and have been fairly ruthless with myself <\/span>about<\/span> deadlines.\u00a0 Writing essays is not so far removed from producing management reports \u2013 although referencing is hard<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The staff at Teesside <\/span>Uni <\/span>have been supportive and patient \u2013 and encouraging throughout.\u00a0 I have been delighted with my first year and am looking forward to the second year. I\u2019ve learned more than I could have hoped and enjoyed almost every aspect of the experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Debby Roberts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am an opsimath \u2013 yes, it\u2019s a real thing! \u00a0 I left school in 1978 with very poor A levels and got married almost immediately.\u00a0 Three children later I started work and progressed happily as a Facilities Manager.\u00a0 Just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24460,"featured_media":437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/files\/2020\/07\/psychology-books.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24460"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tees.ac.uk\/students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}