The Business of Psychology

Dr Rosie Gilderthorp
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  • Non-Profit
  • Weekly

Are you a mental health professional with a feeling in the pit of your stomach that the system is BROKEN? Did you start your training full of ideas about changing the landscape of mental health for the better but now you find you are so busy seeing people in crisis that you don't have time to do any of it? Do you KNOW that we need to get out of our therapy rooms and start reaching people in other ways? Do you KNOW that the key to better mental health is prevention not crisis management? If you do then join me for a mix practical skills, strategies and inspirational interviews with psychologists and therapists just like you who are using their skills to do BIG things way beyond the therapy room. Prepare to get your "trainee spirit" back.

  1. Episode 186

    AI is changing therapy with Dr Aisha Tariq

    AI is changing therapy with Dr Aisha TariqWelcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. Almost every psychologist and therapist I speak to right now has some version of the same feeling about AI. A mix of curiosity, a strange sense of guilt, and a worry that they're either being left behind or they're about to do something unethical without realizing it. There is a lot of noise, a lot of hype, and very little practical talk about what actually helps in a real practice, and where the genuine risks of AI might be. My guest today has been doing AI since 2022, long before most of this conversation started. Dr Aisha Tariq is a clinical psychologist and the clinical director of Illuminated Thinking, a Glasgow practice of 25 clinicians. She's built AI into how that practice runs and how her team work clinically, so she can be really specific about what saves real time across her team, and also where the pitfalls are. She's also built her own AI clinical documentation tool, Cogent, and she's the co-founder of the AI in Psychology Summit, which is happening on the 5th of October in 2026. Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology Links: AI in Psychology Summit - 5th October Esther and Aisha are offering listeners 20% off the summit tickets! Follow this link for the discount: https://aipsychology.co.uk/?ref=DRROSIE&discount=PODCAST20 Episode 162: Using AI in therapy and other legal questions with Clare Veal from Aubergine Legal Links for Aisha: Cogent Clinic Links for Rosie: Substack: substack.com/@drrosie Rosie on Instagram: @rosiegilderthorp @drrosiegilderthorp The highlightsAisha tells us about her independent practice and she ended up with a practice of 25 clinicians 02:23I ask Aisha what it was that made her take an interest in AI 04:22We discuss the feeling of shame associated with using AI 10:29Aisha talks about rolling out AI to her team 13:42Aisha tells us what steps to take if we'd like to explore having these tools in our practices19:50Aisha talks about the development of Cogent 24:13I ask Aisha what common mistakes she sees psychologists and therapists making with AI 32:35We discuss the AI in Psychology Summit 33:54 Start Up Your Psychology PracticeIf you're fitting private practice clients around an employed role that doesn't give you the flexibility that you need, this is for you. Start Up Your Psychology Practice helps you build a practice that can replace your income with fees that work, a clear specialism and marketing that fits your daily life so you can finally let go of the juggle. Right now it includes a two-hour one-to-one intensive with me to plan it all out together. Follow the link to find out more and book a call with me to see if Start Up might be right for you: https://psychologybusinessschool.com/lp/start-up-private-practice-bundle/

  2. Episode 187

    Safeguarding for psychologists in independent practice with Dr Rebekah Eglinton

    Safeguarding for psychologists in independent practice with Dr Rebekah EglintonWelcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. Today, we're tackling a topic that strikes a chord of pure anxiety for almost every independent practitioner; safeguarding. In institutional settings like the NHS, we're used to having an embedded safeguarding lead, clear-cut multidisciplinary pathways, and a collective safety net. But when you step out into independent practice, that ultimate accountability falls squarely on our shoulders, often leaving us feeling isolated and really anxious when risk comes into the therapy room. So to help us move from a place of paralyzing fear and towards a place where we can feel more kind of realistic, grounded, and confident, I am joined today by the brilliant Dr Rebekah Eglinton. Bekah is a consultant clinical psychologist and the clinical director of Eglinton Consultancy. She has a really deep background in high-stakes safeguarding governance, having previously served as the chief psychologist and head of support, safeguarding, and police referrals at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, where she oversaw thousands of sensitive national-scale referrals. She's also a registrant council member and non-executive director at the Health and Care Professions Council and an associate non-executive director and wellbeing guardian at Devon Partnership NHS Trust. So I have got a brilliant person today to help you deal with your anxiety around safeguarding, and we're going to be talking with Bekah about the things we really need to watch out for in independent practice and also about some training she's developed to help us all feel much more confident as we step into the therapy room, possibly for the first time with clients that might have some risk in their background. Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology Links for Rebekah: Eglinton Consultancy: Safeguarding Training for Psychologists & Therapists: https://www.eglintonconsultancy.com/eventtickets/p/traumainformedtrainingtickets-2cdzs-2adsl www.eglintonconsultancy.com Instagram: @dr.rebekaheglinton Links for Rosie: Substack: substack.com/@drrosie Rosie on Instagram: @rosiegilderthorp @drrosiegilderthorp The highlightsRebekah tells us what she sees as the most common safeguarding blind spots or oversights in independent practice 03:25Rebekah talk about GDPR 10:30I ask Rebekah about what ‘defensible documentation’ might actually look like for an independent clinician 19:55We discuss templates and AI as ways to help with compliance and note taking 24:16Rebakah tells us what motivated her to develop a training for psychologists in independent practice 33:08I ask Rebekah how she’s marketed the training 40:23Rebakah tells us where we can find out more about the training 44:15 Start Up Your Psychology PracticeIf you're fitting private practice clients around an employed role that doesn't give you the flexibility that you need, this is for you. Start Up Your Psychology Practice helps you build a practice that can replace your income with fees that work, a clear specialism and marketing that fits your daily life so you can finally let go of the juggle. Right now it includes a two-hour one-to-one intensive with me to plan it all out together. Follow the link to find out more and book a call with me to see if Start Up might be right for you: https://psychologybusinessschool.com/lp/start-up-private-practice-bundle/

  3. Episode 188

    Fear in the Therapy Room with Michael Guilding

    Fear in the Therapy Room with Michael GuildingWelcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. My guest today is Michael Guilding, a retired psychotherapist with 30 years of clinical experience, including over a decade working within NHS psychological therapies as head of counseling. Michael spent the past 10 years studying the human fear system, building on attachment theory and polyvagal theory to understand complex trauma and depression. He teaches workshops for the Complex Trauma Institute and has just released his book, Fear in the Therapy Room. Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology Links for Michael: https://michaelguilding.com/ Book: Fear in the Therapy Room: https://michaelguilding.com/book/ Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/00rg0AWB Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/fear-in-the-therapy-room/michael-guilding/9781781612903 Links for Rosie: Substack: substack.com/@drrosie Rosie on Instagram: @rosiegilderthorp @drrosiegilderthorp The highlightsMichael tells us about who his book, Fear in the Therapy Room, is written for 01:37Michael talks about the fear system draining Energy 5:45We discuss burnout and our awareness 9:44I ask Michael about fear alert, fear arousal, and fear collapse 13:33Michael explains about the link between fear collapse and depression 20:59We look at the role of cognition 28:28Michael talks about rethinking therapeutic touch 32:20Michael looks at resistance to change 37:08I ask about supporting clients through chronic stress 43:15We discuss how to support therapists 50:35Michael tells us where we can buy his book 52:19 Start Up Your Psychology PracticeIf you're fitting private practice clients around an employed role that doesn't give you the flexibility that you need, this is for you. Start Up Your Psychology Practice helps you build a practice that can replace your income with fees that work, a clear specialism and marketing that fits your daily life so you can finally let go of the juggle. Right now it includes a two-hour one-to-one intensive with me to plan it all out together. Follow the link to find out more and book a call with me to see if Start Up might be right for you: https://psychologybusinessschool.com/lp/start-up-private-practice-bundle/

  4. Episode 189

    When my clinic dies and the idea for a book was born

    When my clinic dies and the idea for a book was bornWelcome to The Business of Psychology. This is a short series to let you behind the curtain on my journey to publishing my first book, You Are Doing Enough. I'm not doing this as a polished, look how easy this was, success type story. I'm doing it because I know so many of you listening are therapists and psychologists who have your own book idea sitting somewhere, and I really want you to hear what the process has actually been like, and my tips for getting that book out of your head and onto the page. I talk about what got me motivated and into the zone for writing the book, because I have wanted to write a book for a very long time, and have started many books that I never finished. I've written 30,000 words and thrown them away time and time again, but this felt different from the very beginning. I want to talk about why I think this was different from ideas that haven't gone anywhere before, then in the next episode, I'll talk about what I did to enable myself to write the book, and then I'll talk about the steps I took to get an agent because this book will be traditionally published. Later in the year, we'll do a few more episodes about the nuts and bolts of publishing and selling a book, and hopefully that will coincide with the book's release date. It’s due to be published in May 2027, and is already open for pre-orders. Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of Psychology Rosie on Instagram: @rosiegilderthorp @drrosiegilderthorp Pre Order You Are Doing Enough and get access to Get Your Book Published with Louise BuckleyClick here to pre-order You Are Doing Enough Pre-ordering now gets you a ticket to Get Your Book Published with Louise Buckley (literary agent) live on 6th November at 11:30 (replay available); just fill in this form after purchasing: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/rGsNE9iF The moment I knew this had to be a bookI have written the beginnings of many books before. I write a lot. I write for my Substack, I write for other organizations' blogs. I write materials for Psychology Business School. I write materials for my clients. I really love writing. It's always been a passion of mine. But the idea of writing a book always intimidated me, partly because I don't know that I have the kind of brain that finds it easy to structure something as long as a book. I have lots of ideas, I’m quite good at the actual putting of words on the page in a way that is engaging for people. But I've never been sure that I could hold somebody's attention for an entire book, because that seems like a real art of pacing, and knowing where to put the major learning points. I think that's why I'd started lots of books and then been like, "I don't know how to bring this home as a complete book that somebody would actually want to read from start to finish." Then I’d lose my enthusiasm because I couldn't imagine it being successful. As you're probably thinking to yourselves, that is a form of imposter syndrome, and it's exactly the same as the imposter syndrome that I coach people through all the time when they're starting their businesses. Because actually writing a book is a skill, and if you put your mind to it, you can learn a new skill, and I just hadn't been allowing myself the time or the opportunity to invest in learning that skill, probably because deep in my heart I was worried I didn't have it in me to do it. Those were all the reasons I hadn't written a book before, but this one felt different, and I think that's because it came in a moment of my life which felt a bit like a crisis. As some of you may be aware, I quite suddenly lost the childcare that I'd been relying on to run my clinical practice, and it was really difficult. It's a moment I talk about in the book because as other parents of autistic, otherwise neurodivergent, or children with learning disabilities will know, finding childcare for a child whose needs are unusual is really difficult. For a couple of years, I'd thought it was impossible for us, and that meant that my working time had to be very limited. That meant my clinical time was extremely limited, because for good reasons we need to have very protected and secure childcare for clinical hours, slightly less so for coaching and writing work. I'd always managed a few clinical hours a week, but I really wanted to scale that up. We'd moved back to Kent, where I've got much more of a support network, and I was really excited about having an in-person practice again. I had a lovely premises in town, and I really put my back into filling up the books. We had found some childcare to support that, and she was brilliant. My son, who was the person who most needed that individualized support from her, formed a really close relationship with her. She was great. But unfortunately, for valid and important reasons, she needed to leave us. She gave in her notice at about six months and left us after nine. As you can imagine, having put all of that work into building up my practice, to then need to wind it down again so quickly when I knew there wasn't going to be somebody else around the corner was devastating. But what was really interesting to me was there was no part of me that wanted to start looking for a replacement. I knew as soon as she gave me her resignation that I would not replace her. I knew that I was ready to embrace a new chapter in our lives, and that would involve a different way of working. Rather than just trying to plug gaps in childcare to make my old model work again, which is what I'd been doing for the past five years or so, I was ready to recognize that what my children need from me is different, and that actually I want to be the one that is around for the unpredictable pickup times, the reduced timetables, the meetings, and that I could not bear to bring in a conveyor belt of people who my kids would attach to and would then leave them. I knew that I wasn't going to put them through that. I tend to make big decisions quite instinctively, and I knew immediately that my clinic was going to close and this time there was not going to be a plan to reopen the doors. But that didn't make it any easier. I was certain, but I was really sad, and the grief hit me quite hard because it felt like a final acknowledgement that the career that I'd imagined for myself, which was already looking pretty different to the one that I'd been sitting in training at Salomon's imagining, but this was the moment where I accepted that I probably wasn't going to return to that path, and that seeing lots of clients wasn't going to be in my future, at least for a long while. So that was really difficult. Something I know about myself is that I tend not to sit for very long with the way that I feel about things, and that's something I often work on with my clinical clients. A lot of the clients that I was supporting at the time were also parents of neurodivergent children and children with learning disabilities, many of whom had come to me because they'd also been through traumatic experiences. I noticed that something that I work with regularly with my clients was this idea of allowing the grief to be there, and that we all had different ways that we needed to sit with that. My clients tend to be a bit like me and very often dive into action. I noticed that because I wasn't doing what I've always done when we've had a big shock or a big change in the family, which is immediately think of a resilience plan, I wasn't doing that. I was like, "It's not going to work, my plan is not to replace this part of my income straight away. My plan is to allow this to go for the time being." So I felt like I needed an outlet to help me process what that meant for my identity, so I started writing. When I started, I wasn't writing a book. I thought it might be a Substack series or something I didn't publish. I was really writing to consolidate my thoughts about what we'd been through, what my children have been through, what myself and my husband have been through as parents, what I've been through as a professional. I was trying to make sense of it; it was my attempt to make sense, made ink. We've got lots of question marks over the labels that we use for neurodivergence, the diagnostic process, I had so many questions about all of that. What it meant for my children, what it meant for me, what it meant for the future. All of that uncertainty pinging around in my head, combined with not knowing how we're going to make this family life work, how I'm going to make my professional life work. I just thought, this is too much for one mind, I need to put this on paper in order to process it. So I started doing that. It was taking the form of shorter form articles because that's what I'm used to writing, but they weren't really designed to be read by anybody or go anywhere. I started doing that, and I set it up as a practice for myself that I was going...

  5. Episode 190

    How did I write a book with no time?

    How did I write a book with no time?Welcome to The Business of Psychology. This is a short series to let you behind the curtain on my journey to publishing my first book, You Are Doing Enough. I'm not doing this as a polished, look how easy this was, success type story. I'm doing it because I know so many of you listening are therapists and psychologists who have your own book idea sitting somewhere, and I really want you to hear what the process has actually been like, and my tips for getting that book out of your head and onto the page. In this episode I talk about how I actually got the book written. If you listened to the first episode, then you'll know that my book, You Are Doing Enough, came to me at a moment of crisis for my family, and that a lot of what motivated me to write it were also obstacles to actually having the time to write it. So the questions that I get asked a lot, especially from coaching clients that want to write books, are around the practicalities like, yes, you're really motivated, but how on earth do you actually find the time to write a book? So I'll share what worked for me. It may not necessarily work for you in your circumstances, and in different seasons of life, different strategies will be more effective, but I'll share what worked for me and a couple of other ways of approaching it that I've heard from other authors that I know have been helpful. Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of Psychology Rosie on Instagram: @rosiegilderthorp @drrosiegilderthorp Pre Order You Are Doing Enough and get access to Get Your Book Published with Louise BuckleyClick here to pre-order You Are Doing Enough Pre-ordering now gets you a ticket to Get Your Book Published with Louise Buckley (literary agent) live on 6th November at 11:30 (replay available); just fill in this form after purchasing: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/rGsNE9iF How I actually got the book writtenI found writing at the same time in the early morning every day really helpful, but I never ever wrote for more than an hour. For the entire time I was writing the book, I think maybe I did two sessions that were more than one hour long, and those were when I was lucky enough to have a bit of extra childcare at the weekends, and because writing's really cathartic for me, I used them for that. But most of the time, it was very time limited, one hour between 6:00 and 7:00 every morning. That works really well for my brain because I wake up with the most focus I'm ever going to have through the day, and it was the only time I could take that wouldn't have felt like I was snatching it from somebody else, it was just my time. But I know that isn't going to be the correct timing for other people. Don't sacrifice sleep for anything. Sleep is so important for wellbeing. I really hate the idea of people getting up super early to be productive. I naturally was waking up at that time, and I was lucky that at that time, my husband was at home in the mornings, so it was safe for me to go to the garden office and write for an hour, which felt like a real luxury to not have to do the very early morning stuff with the children. I'm not in that position anymore, so if I was writing a book now, it wouldn't be six o'clock in the morning. That wouldn't work. I would have to look for other times that worked. But I think the important thing is to have a consistent time that works for you. So I'm doing edits for this book and another project at the moment, and my editing time is between 8:00 and 9:00 PM, which, as you can imagine, slides a bit sometimes when I don't manage to get all three kids in bed at the time I would like them to be, but I know I'm only going to do one hour, and it's at a time where nobody else is going to be asking anything of me. So I would recommend having that kind of structure if you've got a brain like mine that it works for really well. Carry a physical notebookAnother thing which I think is really helpful, is to always carry a physical notebook with you, because we had times during this writing period where I didn't get to go to my laptop at 6:00 in the morning. We had hospital visits, we had Christmas, we had all the stuff that happens with a full and busy life. On those days where I wasn't going to make it to a computer to type, I still wrote in my notebook, so I was still doing the action of being a psychologist writing a book, even if I wasn't at the computer to do it, or it couldn't happen at the time that I would like it to. I guess that's a little bit of rigidity combined with flexibility, but that's what I found really helpful. The other thing that I found useful about having a notebook on me is that those moments when an idea strikes or a metaphor hits you that would work really well to illustrate a point, or if you see something in the real world that you're like, "I've gotta work that into the book because that's so meaningful," which I do all the time when I go to support groups for other SEND parents, or when I go to talks and things, all the time I'm seeing stuff that inspires me. So that's a habit I've stuck to, even though I'm not yet writing another nonfiction book, I still carry around that notebook for inspiration, so I found that really helpful. Say ‘no’ to thingsThe other thing I did was say no to things. As I shared in the last episode, this was really hard. I had to close my clinic, which I made that decision quickly but painfully, but I also found that a lot of opportunity came my way in that time because of all the work that I've put into the business over the years and being quite visible in my community, I was getting asked to do lots of stuff that would've paid well, but also would've been really exciting for me, and I had to say no to most of it. Most of that was not because of the book, it was mostly because of my family life. But I think if your diary is really crowded and you're not holding your boundaries well, then the space for creativity just isn't there. It's not necessarily about, do you have one hour a day to write a book? It's also about, do you have any thinking space? Because most of when the book gets written is not when you're physically typing into the page, it's actually when you're just thinking about stuff, while you're living the rest of your life. And I think there have definitely been times in my life where I've been so busy that actually there hasn't been any thinking space, when I've been doing 10 other things at once, and that wouldn't have worked very well. So that's something to be mindful of as well. Using AI for researchAnother thing I wanted to mention was AI. So I didn't use any AI in the writing of the book at all, and I'd really advise you against it. Firstly, because I don't want to read a book that's been written by AI. When I read a book, I connect with the author. Part of what I love about writing and reading is that we get to connect with people that we might never meet in real life. It is so sad to me that AI might be getting in the way of that. So I wasn't tempted to use AI to help me with writing, but I did find AI really helpful in research. I used perplexity.ai to help me to find the most recent texts that have been written about particular topics which I wanted to be up to speed on. I would never just take the AI summary as read, but Perplexity's amazing at giving you the references to follow so that you can then click through and find the actual text that you were thinking of. For example, I was thinking of a point about why we are prone to labeling people and why I don't think it's realistic that we would ever get rid of diagnostic labels, even though many of us have a lot of concerns about what they might do in terms of identity for people, and I was saying the reason I don't think that's realistic is because of the way the brain works, and I wanted to reference Danny Kahneman's ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’. But for the life of me, I couldn't remember what section of the book that was in, and it is a tome, it's a very, very big book. And Perplexity was able to tell me exactly what chapter I was referring to when I put my point in, and that was really helpful. And there are other kinds of key seminal psychology studies that I mention, but I was like, "Ah, I don't remember who did this study." So I could put it into Perplexity, and it would find the actual paper, which I thought was amazing. And other things like, I can ask it what are the most recent papers that have been produced on, say, the impact of masking on mental health of autistic people. And it will come up with a list of the most recent studies in that area. So I think I couldn't have gotten through all the research that I did for the book without it helping me to do that. I think that's a really great use of AI. Of course, you always have to check everything. Perplexity will give you a pretty accurate reference, but the DOI will probably be wrong, so every...

  6. Episode 191

    Finding an agent and letting someone read my book

    Finding an agent and letting someone read my bookWelcome to The Business of Psychology. This is a short series to let you behind the curtain on my journey to publishing my first book, You Are Doing Enough. I'm not doing this as a polished, look how easy this was, success type story. I'm doing it because I know so many of you listening are therapists and psychologists who have your own book idea sitting somewhere, and I really want you to hear what the process has actually been like, and my tips for getting that book out of your head and onto the page. This is part three of our miniseries about writing and publishing my first book, You Are Doing Enough, which is open for pre-orders at the moment. I have felt really self-indulgent doing this series, because it's kind of like interviewing myself when I quite like interviewing other people about their books and their achievements. I really hope that it's been useful for you to hear some of the internal processes that go on leading up to publication, and I just wanted to reiterate that I'm really sharing this because there was such a big part of me before I actually wrote the book that didn't believe that somebody like me could write a book that would be traditionally published. I didn't think I had it in me to write something this long and this complete. And I also wasn't sure I had it in me to be as vulnerable as writing a book made me feel. I'm going to talk a bit more about that today, because if you've been following along with this journey, we're at the point where I decided that the book might be interesting enough to be traditionally published, and that meant that I had to go about seeking representation for the book. Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of Psychology Rosie on Instagram: @rosiegilderthorp @drrosiegilderthorp Pre Order You Are Doing Enough and get access to Get Your Book Published with Louise BuckleyClick here to pre-order You Are Doing Enough Pre-ordering now gets you a ticket to Get Your Book Published with Louise Buckley (literary agent) live on 6th November at 11:30 (replay available); just fill in this form after purchasing: https://psychologybusinessschool.mykajabi.com/offers/rGsNE9iF Why you should get a literary agent if you want your book published by a traditional publisherIf you want a book to be published by a traditional publisher in the UK, like Penguin, Little Brown, Routledge etc, it is highly recommended to reach out to literary agents and gain representation from an agent to broker your relationship with that publisher. We will be holding a webinar with my literary agent, Louise Buckley from Hannah Shepherd Literary Agency, where she will tell you much more about how this relationship works. But what I do know is that an agent collaborates with you to make sure that the book is in the best shape possible before they do what's called going out on submission; submitting it to editors at the publishers, to try and get a publishing deal for you. The reason it's a good idea to have an agent rather than doing it yourself, is that agents are skilled at understanding the market, knowing what's selling, and what publishers are excited about. They can help you put together a pitch for your book that is likely to be really enticing to the publisher, knowing what they know about the market. It'd be very difficult for you to get that expertise yourself. I know some people have done it, but I think that would be a real challenge. You're much more likely to get a better deal (or get a deal at all) through an agent than you would be going directly to a publisher. Most publishers don't accept submissions that don't come from agents anyway. Some agents, and Louise is one of them, will also work with you developmentally on the manuscript for your book. They'll make it a better book with you before you go out on submission to give you that best chance, which was something that was really important to me, and that's one of the reasons I chose Louise. If you want that kind of support, finding an agent who offers that is really helpful. The other reason is financial. Louise and agents like her know the industry really well, and they're skilled negotiators. They will negotiate the contract for you with the publisher and make sure that you get the best advance that you can get, but also the best rates for things like royalties. Louise is going to talk more about that in our webinar, but those are the reasons that you should look for an agent and why I was thinking I should start looking for an agent when I got to the end of writing the first draft of the manuscript for You Are Doing Enough. Finding an agentIt was early November, and I was putting the finishing touches to what I called my first draft of You Are Doing Enough. I had rewritten every chapter many times in the process of writing it. I'd finished a manuscript that I was reasonably happy with, which I was calling a first draft, but in reality was probably more like draft four or five. I was starting to think, "Ok, I understand that I need an agent." So I got out a book called 'The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook', and I started going through it to see what agents potentially represent the kind of nonfiction that I was writing, which is more narrative nonfiction rather than a textbook, because it's important to find an agent who is excited about the kind of book that you're writing and is looking for books like yours already. Because agents receive so many submissions, it really frightened me. Louise said they can receive 1000 a week. Good agents like Louise will read all their submissions, but they have to apply quite a quick filter to whether it looks like a good fit for them. I knew that if you were sending in letters to agents who weren't looking for the kind of book that you were writing, that you would never hear back from them, because they don't have the ability to get back to 1000 people a week. So I knew it was important to find the right person for the book, and I was also terrified about sharing the work with somebody that might not understand the story or wouldn't understand why it was important. If you've ever poured your heart and soul into something that you've worked on for a long time, which I know most of you will have, you know how vulnerable it feels submitting it for feedback. I'd never written a book before, there's going to be loads of feedback, some of it will probably be really difficult for me to hear. I want to be hearing it from somebody that I know has the same values as me, so I can put my trust in that person to help me shape this into the kind of book that I want it to be in the world. I was looking in the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, because that's what I'd been told was the right thing to do to find an agent. I was also doing a bit of Googling, and to be honest, I just felt lost. I didn't understand a lot of the terminology that was being used, I couldn't work out what genre I was really writing in. Was it nonfiction, narrative nonfiction? I didn't really get it, and I couldn't work out whether I would connect with any of these agents, so I was starting to get into that overwhelmed place that I know is familiar to many of us when we're jumping into something that feels uncertain and unknown. I'd planned to procrastinate until January, because I felt like it was a decision I wasn't going to be able to make that side of Christmas, and I didn't want to push myself to do it. Then I logged on to my Substack, where I'd started writing a bit about SEND parenting, almost as an experiment, to see whether I really was okay with putting this stuff out there. I was just having a scroll through the feed on there, and I saw a post from a literary agent called Louise Buckley, who was demystifying publishing. Louise does Q&As on there, and she’d written a really helpful article about what an agent needs to see from you. And I was like, "Oh, that's brilliant" because I have felt completely mystified by the world of publishing. So I gave her a follow. And then I clicked through to her website on the Hannah Shephard site and noticed that in her section where she describes what books she's looking to represent, it was like she was literally describing my book. I think it was something like, she was looking for nonfiction from psychologists and had a particular interest in neurodiversity, something like that. And I felt like the universe might be giving me a sign. So I decided to send in my manuscript to Louise, and very helpfully, because Louise is quite passionate about helping people who might not naturally understand how publishing works, she has loads of really helpful resources on her website that explain what you need to submit and exactly how to do it; templates, the letter you need to send (a query letter), your proposal for a nonfiction book, and your sample chapters. What exactly you need to send, what needs to be in it, and how to make it good. I followed all of her...

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Are you a mental health professional with a feeling in the pit of your stomach that the system is BROKEN? Did you start your training full of ideas about changing the landscape of mental health for the better but now you find you are so busy seeing people in crisis that you don't have time to do any of it? Do you KNOW that we need to get out of our therapy rooms and start reaching people in other ways? Do you KNOW that the key to better mental health is prevention not crisis management? If you do then join me for a mix practical skills, strategies and inspirational interviews with psychologists and therapists just like you who are using their skills to do BIG things way beyond the therapy room. Prepare to get your "trainee spirit" back.

Information

  • Creator
    Dr Rosie Gilderthorp
  • Episodes
    200
  • Seasons
    15
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Dr Rosie Gilderthorp
  • Show Website
    The Business of Psychology

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