Psychotherapy Manager
Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust

Michelle S

00:00:00 I’m Michelle S and I currently manage the integrated psychology and psychotherapy service for Wolverhampton PCT and I’ve recently been given the eating disorder service and sexual abuse service, as well.

00:00:18 School for me wasn’t great, actually, I didn’t enjoy it very much. I mean, when I say school I’m talking secondary school. I didn’t like it very much, didn’t get on, small elements of bullying and didn’t particularly like it. I wasn’t very happy there. I didn’t consider staying on and I didn’t consider going to college at that point. Upon leaving school I did different jobs, retail, you know, office work and kind of just drifted in and out of things, really.

00:00:49 Nothing I was particularly interested in. Nothing that really grabbed me. And then when I was 25 I had my daughter. I did an evening job, really, whilst looking after her in the day so I could stay at home with her. But after a couple of years I realised that I’d got this person to provide for and wanted to, wanted more, really. Wanted more for her and more for myself. I decided to go back to college and I did a short course at college to do with sports therapy and I did really well.

00:01:24 Came away from that and did obviously worked in that area for a while. Managed to get a job in America for, a short term contract in America with regards to the sports therapy which was a magnificent achievement for me. And I went there and it really kind of, the realisation dawns on you that there’s a huge world out there and a lot more available for you. When I got to America it was amazing. I, up until then, hadn’t travelled much and the job that I had was assisting the physiotherapists in soccer training camps.

00:02:02 And so we travelled, from week to week we were in a different place and having the opportunity to do that and, you know, seeing what was available really opened my eyes.

00:02:15 I wasn’t able to stay in America because the contract finished so I came home and having always been interested in nursing decided that that would, you know, open up further avenues for me. So, I went into nursing and decided to do adult nursing, general nursing. But during that time you have to choose a specialist area to go into.

00:02:40 I chose mental health and within two weeks of doing my mental health placement I had this eureka moment that it was just, that was what I wanted to do. It was just amazing, so interesting and just really totally grabbed me. I remember sitting in the office, actually, with the senior nurse at the time and just, you know, speaking to the senior nurse about it and saying, “This is just amazing.”

00:03:05 I’ve never, you know, in the 18 months I’d been studying I’d never had that patient contact and listening to, you know, their stories and, you know, everybody’s so different and how they got to where they were, just absolutely grabbed me. I knew then that it was something that I’d got to do and that I would definitely want to be changing and going into mental health. You know, you kind of go through your training thinking, “Maybe I’ll do this, maybe I’ll do that,” and actually I never really, although I enjoyed things, I’d never actually, I wasn’t sure where I was going to go when I finished and it was just that two week period I knew exactly where I was going and what I was going to do.

00:03:48 I’ve never been a very confident person and in that not stuck at things. I guess what you learn is to trust yourself and to just go for it, you’ve never got anything to lose.

00:04:01 ENDS