Psychology

After 15 years in the physical sciences I wanted a change. I love learning about people and what makes us who we are, and as a scientist, psychology (the science of the mind) seemed like a great fit. Graduate entry into psychology opened an efficient pathway for me to change career. The coursework has been stretching yet fascinating, and the opportunity to design and lead my own research projects has been especially exciting. As a scientist who deeply cares about people I feel I have found my place!

I began my studies in psychology at Flinders in third year. The transition was simple and I felt acknowledged as a person instead of just being a number. That was important to me coming from a small high school. The outstanding experience for me was the excellent quality of supervision I received in Honours. Flinders has very passionate lecturers in a wide range of interesting fields who are keen to engage with and foster students in their areas of expertise.

Before studying psychology, I was a physiotherapist for 25 years. I got interested in mindfulness in the latter part of my physio career, teaching it to patients with chronic pain and general life stress. I was excited to know I could study psychology on a “fast track” through the postgraduate entry stream. I’m now doing a PhD, researching mindfulness in early high school as a prevention program targeting anxiety, depression and eating disorders. I feel incredibly lucky to have changed careers midstream to do work I am really passionate about.

Psychology appealed to me because of the breadth of topics offered. I was surprised at the range of real-world applications from improving eyewitness testimony to managing crowd behaviour at sporting events. I’m now at the CSIRO, where I started as a research assistant before completing a PhD.