How to handle the Dclin reserve list?

Hi, I’m Holly and I’m currently a third year trainee clinical psychologist and I also run the

Clinical Psychology Community UK YouTube Channel and Instagram page

(@ClinicalPsychologyCommunityUK). I applied to various DClinPsy courses for six

consecutive years with four interviews. I had three unsuccessful interviews and one interview

which resulted in me being offered a reserve place.

The reserve list

Each course runs their reserve list differently. Courses will often interview three times as

many people as they have places and will reject one third after interview, offer one third

reserve places and offer one third places. So if the course had 30 places, they would

interview approximately 90 candidates, reject 30, offer 30 full places and offer 30 reserve

places. This does differ across the courses.

If you are offered a reserve list place, it means that they would have you on the course if

they had enough places (which is encouraging!). Some courses will tell you which place on

the waiting list you are, some will tell you your place number when you get to being in the top

10 and some will not share your place number with you. In my case, I was told that I was on

the reserve list but that I was not in the top 10 so therefore did not know my number. We

knew our interview outcomes about two months before the deadlines for places to be

accepted so there were a lot more courses left to interview and offer places. Sometimes

there is very little or no movement on reserve lists (i.e. everyone offered a place takes the

place). Luckily that year, there was a lot of movement, and I was informed when I got to

position 10 on the list and given regular updates every time the list moved and eventually, I

was position 1 on the list the day before the deadline when I received the call.

Coping with uncertainty

Being on a reserve list can be anxiety-provoking due to the uncertainty: you are waiting to be

told if you have to move for three years, where you will be moving to, potentially who you will

be living with, leaving your old job, whether you will have to go through another DClinPsy

application cycle, etc. You may be putting off big life events such as weddings, buying

houses and/or having children. Getting a DClinPsy place can easily become all-consuming.

While I was on the reserve list, I had another interview for a different course, and was

unsuccessful so I was obsessively checking my emails and scouring Facebook groups and

Instagram to see if there were any updates on the reserve list. I would not recommend this

strategy as it was actually very unhealthy! Ironically, I had written on my DClin application

form that year that I had learned how to manage uncertainty much better!

I am just about to do a video on this exact topic – dropping Friday 8 th March 2024! The things

I would do differently are:

1. Limit yourself to checking your emails – the frequency is up to you but if I could go

back, I would check them three times a day (morning, lunch, after work)

2. Valued distraction – do the things you value whether that be with friends and family

or alone

3. Limit the amount of time you spend on DClin social media – this may be

counterintuitive as somebody with an Instagram page, but I know how easy it is to

get over-anxious on the Facebook groups!

The DClinPsy

For me, there was a part of me that thought I would never get a DClinPsy place and that part

grew each year I was unsuccessful. I had naïvely said (with some confidence!) that I would

give up if I did not obtain a place within five years. Obviously, I applied six times so ignored

that but I was starting to look at other options for my seventh cycle: counselling psychology,

healthy psychology, training as a therapist, etc.

I learned more about the DClinPsy will each of my six applications and I had a good idea of

what to expect from being on the course. There were things I was surprised about being on

the course (you’ll have to wait until I qualify to hear those things!) but generally I knew it

would be hard work because of the amount you have to juggle. One thing I would advise is

to read The Alternative Handbook which is a collection of survey results of trainee clinical

psychologists published by the British Psychological Society every year

(https://www.bps.org.uk/alternative-handbook-2024). There can be some controversy

associated with the handbook where courses deny it is a fair representation of all its trainees

and there can also be issues where trainees do not receive the link to complete the survey…

It does have honest feedback (positive and negative) about each DClinPsy course and is a

must-read!

Pre-training Advice

My main pre-training advice would be to try to get the most out of where you are now and

avoid getting experiences because they will be good for a DClinPsy application. What I

mean by this is to focus on getting experiences you are interested in because this will serve

you much better than doing a job you dislike because you “need it for the DClinPsy”.

Additionally, if you dislike something that is an essential part of being a clinical psychologist

(e.g. therapy) then it is completely okay to allow yourself to think about other career options!

Managing Rejection

On my first day of my Psychology undergraduate degree, they told us budding psychologists

not to go for clinical psychology because we will not be successful. Imagine being told that in

any other degree (don’t try and be a nurse because you’ll fail?!) – it sounds unbelievable.

Yet, we accept these messages, even when thousands of people do become clinical

psychologists each year, with numbers of places increasing. So I would always try to have

hope that you will succeed, whether it takes one application or six. I have done a video on

this too here and a video about when I thought I’d had a sixth unsuccessful year here.

If you only take one thing away from this post, please remember this: The system is flawed,

not you. There are far too many applicants for places and it does not mean that you, as a

person, are not good enough, unworthy or a failure. It is so difficult, but having some

separation between your personal identity and your career Is helpful.

The system is flawed, not you.

Good luck !

Holly

Clinical Psychology Community UK