Networking program aids new psychologists

A program in Massachusetts links early-career psychologists with mentors.

By Rebecca A. Clay

Like many new psychologists, Kunya DesJardins, PhD, was worried about her future when she finished graduate school in 1996 and was thrust out into the world of work.

'For most people, there?s just nothing in terms of support once you?ve finished school but before you?ve gotten well established,' she explains. 'A lot of the support you had in school?professors, mentors and supervisors?becomes much less easily accessible. You?re somehow expected to be a professional, but you still need guidance.'

Thanks to the Early Career Psychology Initiative, DesJardins found the help she needed. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Psychological Association (MPA), the initiative hosts conferences where senior psychologists share career-related advice and encourage their younger counterparts to transform worry into a sense of possibility. Today DesJardins is one of a dozen early-career psychologists who help organize the conferences and other services the initiative offers graduate students, postdocs and psychologists in the early stages of their careers.

'The conferences are a great opportunity to share our feelings and support each other,' says DesJardins, now a staff psychologist at the Children?s Collaborative in Boston. 'It also gives us the kind of mentoring you don?t get a lot once you?ve finished your training.'

A changing workplace

Launched in 1995, the initiative was a response to the changes managed care had wrought on traditional psychology careers, says initiative co-chair Bonnie Y. Ohye, PhD, a clinical associate in psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Ohye and co-chair Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, helped develop the program as MPA board members.

Like DesJardins, the two recognized that the job market was radically different than it was when they started their own professional lives. They knew that younger psychologists would have to be more creative in building their careers. And they had heard rumors that financial concerns were scaring young psychologists out of the profession.

'Psychology practice is different today in that they no longer have a single, stable community in their workplaces,' said Ohye. 'They may be at one place on Tuesday, another on Wednesday and a third on Friday. So for most psychologists beginning their careers, they no longer have the natural mentoring and supportive networks.' The Early Career Psychology Initiative strives to counterbalance feelings of fear and isolation by bringing groups of early-career and senior psychologists together for mentoring and networking opportunities. Instead of traditional one-on-one mentoring, the initiative uses conferences to reach dozens of early-career psychologists at a time.

'Mentoring is a tricky business,' says Daniel, co-director of training at Children?s Hospital and the Judge Baker Children?s Center in Boston. 'It?s a lot like getting married, except there?s no divorce court.'

Both mentors and mentees are sometimes wary of one-on-one relationships, she says. Mentees may worry about how to get out of mentoring relationships that just don?t click or are no longer appropriate for the developmental stage they?re in. And mentors may be reluctant to add once-a-week coffee dates to their already full schedules.

Networking opportunities

The initiative?s annual conferences give early-career psychologists a chance to get time and attention from a whole range of mentors that wouldn?t otherwise be available as role models. Last year about 65 early-career psychologists heard presentations on topics most graduate programs simply don?t cover, such as how to flourish in a managed-care environment, how to balance the demands of family and career, and how to build a career in organizational consulting.

Early-career psychologists also gain support simply by meeting each other and sharing their concerns, says Norine G. Johnson, PhD, a member of APA?s Board of Directors who gave a presentation on the business side of practice at last year?s event. 'The group-to-group approach normalizes things, because the people sitting in the audience think, ?Hey, I?m not the only one feeling this way,?' says Johnson, who now plans to provide one-on-one guidance to several of the conference participants. 'I wish something like this had been available when I was starting out.'

On May 16, the initiative will sponsor its third mentor/mentee get-together. Inspired by festivals that allow participants a taste of many different cuisines, the event will expose participants to a smorgasbord of career possibilities. The senior psychologists will give one-minute presentations and give brief career biographies and be able to discuss with attendees concerns about career paths, then staff booths devoted to such career options as neuropsychology, private practice, diversity training, consulting and health psychology.

'The young people come away feeling that we care,' says Daniel, adding that every state association should offer a similar service as a way of keeping competent young people in the field. 'Someone asked what the senior people get out of it. That?s easy. They want to help young people because they?ve been helped themselves.'

For more information about the Early Career Psychology Initiative, contact Bonnie Y. Ohye, PhD, care of the Massachusetts Psychological Association, 14 Beacon St., Suite 714, Boston, MA 02108-3741, (617) 523-6320.

Rebecca A. Clay is a writer in Washington, D.C.