Full script of the podcast between Maëlie RICHARTE and Mathilde RIVAL
Mathilde : Introduce yourself in any way you wish and explain to me what led you to the path of psychology…
Maëlie : My name is Maëlie, I am 25 years old. I was born in Nantes and I grew up here. I have a brother who is 34 years old and a sister who is 40 years old. I am the aunt of my 4 nephews, and this is my little happiness! I passed a baccalaureate specializing in dance. I love sports, especially dance and synchronized swimming. After 3 years of preparation for the speech therapy school entrance exam, I travelled around the world for a year and volunteered. This allowed me to get to know myself outside of the “routine” French life and to understand that I really liked people. Naturally, this year put me on the path to psychology.
Mathilde : What do you do outside the university (leisure, volunteer work, job…)? What do you need in your life to make it seem balanced?
Maëlie : For my life to be balanced, I need to be connected with my family and go out with my friends. I live with my boyfriend in our apartment which I call “the cocoon”, my little nest! Outside of university, I love to read. At the moment, I’m reading “nothing stands in the way of the night” by Delphine De Vigan. Her writing style is incredible. I also love baking. I always make birthday cakes for my family or friends, and for the record: my specialty is the “figure cake” with lemon cream and raspberries. I’ve had a student job for 5 years now, I do tutoring for a 10 year old child. He has ADHD and we have created a real bond that helps him progress.
Mathilde : Why the choice of a plural orientation? Is it your way of thinking about psychology?
Maëlie : I think that it was my curiosity that led me directly to this so-called “integrative” master’s degree. I am very quickly fascinated by many subjects and I need to make my own opinion on existing theoretical approaches. For the moment, I have observed 2 totally different approaches during my internship and both have told me a lot. I find it hard to conceive that I can immediately close myself off to one way of “thinking psychology”. For now, I need to open up and discover to feel legitimate, later on, to use one approach rather than the other.
Mathilde : How did you experience the master’s entrance selection? How do you feel now that you have your place in this class?
Maëlie : The selection is really hard, especially when the majority of orals are cancelled. In talking with my friends who are also applying for a master’s degree, I sincerely felt that everyone had an interesting background and deserved to have their place. The fact that I went on an Erasmus scholarship in the first semester of L3 allowed me not to think too much about it. Then, I spent the whole period of the confinement to prepare the selection files. I put all my energy into it, trying to be as honest as possible about what made me want to join this master’s program. I tried to show that all my career path was leading me here, to a master’s degree in Nantes. Today, I’m grateful to have my place and I’m already a fan of my class which is made up of beautiful people, some of whom are already close friends.
Mathilde : Have you ever done internships? If so, can you tell me about an internship situation that echoed your personal life? How did you deal with the emotional impact of the situation?
Maëlie : I have already done an internship in an addictology service, a private practice, a doping prevention unit and this year I am doing it in a CMP for teenagers. For the moment, I have not experienced any situation that has echoed my personal life. However, I do remember a situation that affected me a lot. During a consultation, a teenager explained that she saw her mother being beaten daily and then showed us her scarification on her arms. It was an emotionally difficult moment because I found myself very helpless and destabilized in front of this young person, not knowing what else to do other than to be there and listen. A long exchange with my internship tutor helped me to cope.
Mathilde : Soon to be a clinical psychologist, how do you feel about the fact that you will soon be graduating? Finally, how do you see the years to come?
Maëlie : I will continue to enjoy being a student for the last two years. I love coming to classes, especially at the Master’s level, the professors are passionate and that’s what drives me. Since I passed my baccalaureate 7 years ago now, I’m still looking forward to graduating! I can’t wait to build a professional life. I still don’t know exactly what it will be made of because I take advantage of the classes to identify what I particularly like. I am full of energy and enthusiasm to accomplish these last two years of study!
Maëlie : Introduce yourself in any way you wish and explain to me what led you to the path of psychology…
Mathilde : Hello, my name is Mathilde. I am currently in Master 2 of clinical psychology at the Univer-sity of Nantes. I completed my entire university course in Nantes. I am originally from Brittany, my family lives in the city of Concarneau. I like to go there during school holidays to breathe the sea air. I am the older sister of Jules and Corto who are 14 and 11 years old. They are two boys full of life with whom I have a very strong bond. I have a dynamic nature and I have a full social life. I like to go out with my friends, organize meals and parties. I am never really alone because I live with two friends Marie and Felix. They too are studying psychology. We are on the same wavelength and share the same schedule, which makes life as a roommate easier. Here, I tried to give you a little glimpse of my life. Concerning my orientation for psychology, well that is more complicated to explain. In my opinion, I have always had an attraction for this field. Very concerned by human relations, I like to be close to others, to listen and exchange. It is through my family and friends’ relationships that my interest in psychology was forged. The desire to make it my profession became a reality when I left high school. I was the victim of a rather serious accident that cost me a year in a rehabilitation center. I then had time to think about what I really wanted. Meeting other patients, often victims of severe accidents, fuelled my desire to accompany people in France. It was during this life experience that I rethought my orien-tation, which today is focused on the field of health psychology.
Maëlie : What are your educational, professional and personal plans?
Mathilde : My projects are still very unclear. Concerning the academic plan, I am thinking of doing training courses at the end of the Master 2. Why not specialize in systems. I also have the idea of com-pleting a university degree in Quebec. It would be an opportunity for me to immerse myself in a culture that I like very much and to approach clinical psychology from another angle. On a professional level, I aspire to orient myself in the field of health psychology. My internships in onco-logy and palliative care have reinforced my convictions in this direction. In spite of everything, my professional project remains vague. My M2 internships in rehabilitation centers and palliative care will be decisive in my choice of orientation… On a personal level and well… This is even less defined ahah. I would like to continue my life as a roommate for a few more years. Why not move into a house with my friends during our first years of active living. Eventually, I would like to restore an old house. I like the idea of remodeling a place that already has a history.
Maëlie : Tell me an internship anecdote that confirms that you made the right choice of profession.
Mathilde : My M1 internship was stopped during the first confinement. I had the chance to keep in touch with some patients by setting up telephone interviews as psychological support. I followed two patients once a week for 3 months. Telephone support is a constraining tool in the clinic because it does not allow the practitioner to express his support and contentment in a non-verbal way. This experience was very enriching and helped me develop my ability to express my listening and empathy through the use of the voice alone. The health context is very anxiety-provoking, especially for subjects at risk. Indeed, patients with lung cancer really suffered from anxiety during this period. These therapeutic follow-ups have opened my perspective on reactive anxiety and allowed me to develop positions to adopt depending on the subjects. These internship situations really enriched my clinic and confirmed my choice of orientation. However, I am not completely serene at the idea of graduating at the end of the year, I do not feel completely ready to practice. This is probably why I want to continue my studies…
Maëlie : Have you ever volunteered before? If not, tell me about your best student job experience.
Mathilde : Unfortunately, I have never been a volunteer, but it is part of my projects. On the other hand, I have a student job every Saturday. I go for walks and do various activities with Stéphanie, a 40-year-old woman with a mental disability. Very cheerful, Stéphanie is full of life. We keep busy by cooking, going bowling or going to the movies. I used to be a jewelry salesperson or a waitress in a crêperie but this job is by far the most fulfilling. This job is centered around meeting people and exchanging ideas. Stephanie has an altered notion of time; everything is played out in the moment and that’s what makes these moments really special. She has the strength, in spite of herself, to bring everything back to the present which I am not always able to do in my private life.
Maëlie : You are at the end of your psychology studies… what do you retain? The positive, the negative, your regrets, your joys…
Mathilde : What I remember above all is the encounters that this course has allowed. I had the chance to make friends with many people who are part of my daily life today. The stress that the writing of the dissertation, for example, may have triggered, has welded our promotion together, we have learned to support each other. I would say that the university helped me to detach myself from the ultra-academic plan that the school instilled in us. Indeed, I do not work the same way anymore and the attention I pay to our teachings is different today. It took me a long time to understand that this training models my skills as a future clinician more than a diploma. If I have to talk about regrets, I would say that with hindsight I would have liked to have invested more in terms of personal work, reading, well that’s what we always say afterwards ahah… In the end, I have very positive memories of these years of study.