Power in Context: Working within different organisational cultures and settings

What does power mean for people pursuing a career in clinical psychology? This chapter takes the theme of power and explores it in two ways. The first half investigates times when we feel powerless trying to move forwards in our chosen career. We invite readers to see if they identify with some real-life experiences of struggling at different points along the path to training in a range of contexts. We offer ideas for how to reflect on these experiences, and exercises to try out. The second half switches positions, and explores how we ourselves hold a lot of power already. We discuss practical ideas for using this power constructively in small, day-to-day ways, and then discuss how we can use psychological skills and thinking to influence at the widest levels of policy and society.