Ceara Rickard, Psychologist

01/12/2025

Today is a huge day for Psychology in Australia! The new Professional Competencies and Code of Conduct are now in effect.

I've been reflecting on what these changes mean for how we show up for each other within psychology.

There’s a force many of us have experienced but rarely name:

⭐ Lateral violence.

🚧 Lateral violence is harm enacted sideways within groups under conditions of:
Scarcity
Inequity
Power imbalance
Cultural marginalisation
Institutional pressure

🛑 In psychology, it appears as:
Gatekeeping
Invalidation
Tone policing
“Standards” weaponised
Elitism
Exclusion
Undermining colleagues
Dismissing systemic barriers
Reframing systemic critique as personal attack

⛈️ It starts early. Students learn:
Whose disability or neurodivergence is “a concern”
Who “looks like” a psychologist
Who feels culturally safe
Who feels like an outsider

💔 Many internalise:
“People like me don’t belong in psychology.”

Most who study psychology never enter the profession.
Those who do often struggle to maintain the narrow image of a “good psychologist.”

⭐ Lateral violence is systemic.

It is enabled by:
Limited Masters places
Unpaid placements
White, Western norms of “professionalism”
Fear of notifications
Power imbalances in supervision
Professional hierarchies
Ableist expectations

These systems teach psychologists that belonging is conditional.

A culture of silence “don’t rock the boat,” “be careful,” “you don’t want a reputation” protects systems, not people.

🧠 Internalised, it sounds like:
“I’m not resilient enough.”
“If I need flexibility, I’ve failed.”
“I must conform to be taken seriously.”

These beliefs reflect our systems, not individual weakness.

⭐ The new Competencies formalise what many have long known:

✔ Competency 3 — Reflexivity
✔ Competency 6 — Communication & Relationships
✔ Competency 7 — Equity & Cultural Safety
✔ Code 3.1 — Cultural safety
✔ Code 5.1 & 5.3 — Respect for colleagues

Lateral violence is not “just conflict.”
It is a competency and conduct issue.

Those practising from decolonising, neurodiversity-affirming, disability-affirming, trauma-informed and culturally safe frameworks have been leading this work for years. Their practice is the future of psychology.

If you’ve ever felt too:
♿ Disabled
🌻Neurodivergent
💲 Poor
⛈️ Traumatised
🗺️ Culturally different
🫶 Human

Let me say this clearly:
💜You belong here.
🤍We need you here.
🩶The profession is better because you’re in it.

🫶 We can lift each other up.

Do not mistake lateral violence for a reflection of worth. It reflects a system in transition.

⭐ As the Competencies take effect and the PsyBA education redesign continues:
✔ Notice where lateral violence shows up
✔ Name harm when safe
✔ Interrupt bias, silence, hierarchy
✔ Reflect on internalised norms
✔ Support students and early-career colleagues
✔ Choose care over control in supervision
✔ Advocate for equitable, culturally safe pathways

Let’s build the profession we all needed when we first began.

10/06/2024

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but psychology interns are required to be paid under the Fair Work Act. The exception (which I disagree with strongly) is university placements.
Each of the flags on this list are ones I have seen.
I’ve seen all of the green flags as well. There are some really excellent employers out there.
Look for the green flags. Avoid the red flags.
What other flags have you encountered?

Image description:
An infographic titled ‘psychology internship red flag vs green flag’
Contract:
Red flags:
No pay
No contract
No Fair Work Statement
Pay is less than award
No sharing pay info
Unpaid overtime
Told you are a contractor
Green flags:
Clear contract
Paid award rate + (more if funding own supervision)
Paid overtime / time off in liu (TOIL)
Encouraged to share info about the job

Workload:
Red flags:
6+ hours of client contact a day
No professional development
Mandated to attend professional development unpaid
Green flags:
Reasonable workload - starting small and building up to 4-5 contact hours/day
Extensive professional development provided + PD leave
Supervision:
Red flags:
No supervision in work time
No observations
No one on site
Paying for supervision by employer
Told to log supervision that didn’t happen
Green flags:
Supervision is funded
Choice of supervisor
Supervision allowed at work
No problems with observations
Open communication between work and external supervisors
Safety:
Red flags:
No governance framework
No escalation pathways for risk
No policy around psychological safety or psychosocial risk management for staff
Green flags:
Pathways to address risk/ crisis
Senior staff available
Policy and procedure regarding psychological safety and psychosocial risk for staff
Diversity and inclusion
Red flags:
Stigmatizing attitudes towards clients
Ableist, sexist, racist comments common in team culture
Feels unsafe to bring whole self to work
Green flags:
Asked about any access needs during recruitment
Work culture has a focus on human rights, diversity and inclusion
Safe to bring your whole self to work
Career progression:
Red flags:
Everyone seems to leave straight after internship
No opportunity for advancement or promotion
No ongoing support to develop post general registration
Green flags:
Employees stay on after gaining general registration
Employer has pathways for career progression after internship
Ongoing support to develop post general registration
Want to learn from other people going through internship? Come find us on Facebook Australian Provisional and Early Career Psychologists We are a grassroots peer support group for provisional psychologists through masters, internships, and the first three years of general registration.

20/12/2023

A fun little post about work-appropriate clothing for psychologists, featuring some AI generated images.

If you are soon to start a new work role, there are a few things you might like to consider :)

You’ve spent the last 5+ years as a uni student. Your clothing probably consists of the usual student getup – jeans, tshirts, trackpants, hoodies, maybe a few nicer clothes for going ou…

16/09/2023

I have been the lead admin on a peer support group for years, since I was a provisional psychologist myself! Australian Provisional and Early Career Psychologists

In this group, we often share information about what people can expect during internship.

You don't need to work for anyone who pays less than the bare legal minimum, sets unsafe workloads, and then leaves you feeling guilty for struggling.

If you discover your employer is not complying with the Fair Work Act or Award requirements, let them know. Much of the time, it's not intentional and employers will fix it.

If they don't, get in touch with the Fair Work Ombudsman. You have rights at work!

Image description:
TItle: 5+1 Internship pay and conditions
Award:
Health Professionals and Support Services Award [MA000027]
The Health Services Award covers:
employers in the health industry and their employees who are in a classification in the award
employers engaging a health professional employee.
Minimum Pay:
Health professional employee level 1 - 1 Jul 2023
Pay point 4 (Masters degree entry)(permanent rate)
$30.82 - hourly rate Monday to Friday
$46.23 - hourly rate Saturday and Sunday
You can't be paid less than the award rate as an employee, even if you have signed a contract.
Find your pay and entitlements:
https://calculate.fairwork.gov.au/FindYourAward
What am I paid to do?
Your time doing your job should be paid, including:
Sessions
Thinking and planning time
Workplace provided training
Record keeping and report writing
*If you are on a salary that covers reasonable overtime, you still can’t be paid less than the award for the total time you work.
*Staying late to finish notes is still work. You should be paid (Source: We asked Fair Work!).
Where can I learn more?
Fair Work Ombudsman! Fairwork.gov.au
Join a union! Health Services Union hsu.net.au
Learn about your rights at work!
(Unfortunately students on placement do not have the same rights - National Union of Students is fighting to end unpaid internships, see nus.asn.au )
Want to learn from other people going through internship?
Come find us on Facebook - Australian Provisional and Early Career Psychologists
We are a grassroots peer support group for provisional psychologists through masters, internships, and the first three years of general registration.

08/03/2023

In my last post, I encouraged readers to give up on the idea of ‘never’ disclosing things about themselves, highlighting that simply existing and interacting with other people inevitabl…

05/03/2023

Due to popular demand, I'm starting group supervision.

Don't know how to get the most from your supervison? This is for you.

Provisional psychologists require numerous hours of supervision before gaining general registration, but sometimes it can be difficult to know what supervision is for, how it all works, and how to get the most out of supervision. Take a peek at supervision processes and learn about how to work with your supervisor to communicate your supervision needs, and to maximise your learning during supervision.

If you are self-funding your own supervision, I am trialling a pay-what- you-can model, to attempt to balance the financial difficulties so often experienced by provisional psychologists, with my need to earn an income.

23/01/2023

Listening to lived experience is both an ethical imperative and necessary to be a competent psychologist.

Running a support group for many years for early career psycholologists, I know that as a profession, we are diverse, although not nearly diverse enough! I know psychologists with backgrounds that …

15/01/2023

For a psychologist who is quite active on social media, I have not worried in the past about maintaining a page on Facebook.

So, I think an introduction is in order.

I am a psychologist, activist and policy nerd, based in South Australia. I draw on my years of experience and passion for supporting mental health professionals by providing supervision and support to help practitioners be the best they can be.

I am a board-approved supervisor for psychology in Australia.

Having worked in multidisciplinary teams for most of my career, I am also very comfortable providing supervision to people from other disciplines working in mental health.

I have a strong interest in working with people from marginalized backgrounds. I myself am neurodivergent, disabled and chronically ill. I grew up in a low socioeconomic status, rural environment and the odds were stacked against me to ever register as a psychologist because of this. I believe that psychology needs diverse voices as a profession, and I try to do what I can to support people to register who might have wonderful potential, but many barriers in the way.

I run a group for Australian Provisional and Early Career Psychologists.

Outside of work, I do some advocacy and speaking, drawing on my lived experience and my skills as a psychologist. I am willing to swallow my fear and speak and write publicly about some painful topics. I draw and paint and take photos. I love to sing very loudly. I cuddle with my dog quite a bit. Midnight sometimes finds me chasing the aurora australis or staring at the stars. Dawn sometimes finds me watching birds in the middle of nowhere. I'm a massive nerd, about psychology, but also about reading sci-fi and fantasy. I ran a role-playing society for 4 years once.

I will post professional tips and tricks, resources for provisional and early career psychologists - but I also might reflect on what it means to be fully human, how to cope with overwhelming feelings of sadness and grief, and how to reconcile the self as a psychologist with the self as a person. I am a firm believer in knowing your self, being your self, and using your self in the work.

So that's about it. I'm finally getting around to developing a website for myself and my work and sharing some of the sorts of content I've written on social media on it in more of a methodical manner than I've done in the past.

If you are interested in supervision, training, mentoring or some consultation, get in touch.