Get to know me

My history

I graduated as a psychologist in Hungary, with an integrated (BA+MA) degree, specialising in clinical psychology in the last two years. I started working as a psychologist around 2000. My first workplace as a psychologist was at an outpatient service in a hospital. I was the only psychologist, along with three psychiatrists. That community clinical service offered assessments, pharmacotherapy, brief cognitive therapeutic interventions and talking therapy for clients with depressive and anxiety disorders and addictions. I also started working in the private sector, offering counselling. After a few years, I left and started working at a centre which provided assessments and talking therapies for children from 0 to 18 years old. It is a very unique type of service in Hungary, where clinical and educational psychologists work together to help children, families and teachers. During that period, I finished the 4-year clinical and mental health psychology course and became a clinical and mental health psychologist. I also finished a 2-year couple and family therapy training, to be able to help families in a more professional way.

Then I worked at a secondary school (for young people aged 14 to 21) and set up my private business as a clinician, providing assessments (learning difficulties, cognitive, and psychological assessments) and psychological therapy (specifically, cognitive behavioural and interpersonal therapy). When I started feeling the signs of burnout, I started working in a hospital with adults and elderly people with chronic musculoskeletal problems. It was around that time when an American company approached me to see if I could assist with their Employee Assistance Program on a zero-hour contract, and I said `yes`.

I came to the UK in 2018, due to the different educational system, my credentials were not accepted immediately; it was a long process to apply and get recognised by HCPC. While I was waiting for registration, I worked in nurseries because I thought that experience would help me better understand the educational system here. During COVID, I worked for more than 6 months in a care home for clients after experiencing a traumatic brain injury and acquired brain injury. Still, during the pandemic, I started working at a company which provided online counselling for university students. I continued to work at the American company, as it turned out they have a subsidiary in the UK.

After registering with the HCPC, I started working in the NHS. As I began an Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy training, I was primarily looking for a position where I could offer not just Cognitive Behavioural Therapy but also EMDR. I enjoyed my three years working at the NHS; I had the opportunity to work in a team with amazing people from a variety of different backgrounds in North East London. We offered trauma-focused and trauma-informed treatment for clients with complex traumas, borderline disorder and those living with neurodiversity (often undiagnosed ADHD and/or Autism).

I have since moved cities, left the NHS, and now only provide private psychological services, along with my counselling job at that American company.

Cultural and professional background

I am an expat, born and raised in Hungary, a tiny country in the EU. Although a small country, you probably know a lot of Hungarians when it comes to football, vaccine, books, nuclear chain reactions, darts or pen .

I am often mistaken for Polish or Romanian because of my accent. Still, Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family (for example, Finnish), one of the most challenging languages to learn. I enjoyed learning languages. In Hungary, it is mandatory to learn languages from Year 3 up to university. I had to learn Russian in school, and later chose French. I have a degree in French Literature, and have learnt and taught Spanish for years. I also learnt German because I liked its transparency, but it affected my French, so I stopped using it. Unfortunately, if you do not use a language, you lose it, so I no longer speak them, but I still sometimes read in French and Spanish.

Our schools' curriculum is influenced by German philosophers and the Prussian school system, which means it is rigorous and does not favour individualism.

Maybe because of this system, I often have a sense of familiarity when I hear Asian people talk about their school system, as both systems emphasise strict learning and a need to achieve: you have to perform well and can never be good enough. Also, the community and family are essential, and we value how others think of us. You have to behave and perform.