Welcome guys to the first monthly GetPsyched Newsletter!!!!! This is our November 2019 issue #1!

I am really excited to be starting this as it gives me the opportunity to connect with the GetPsyched audience a little more, and for me to tell you all about what is happening with GetPsyched, the victories and the challenges.

I want this monthly newsletter to be an opportunity for you to see what it is really like running GetPsyched, the things I have been finding difficult, and the stuff that’s really worth celebrating.

It’s closing in on December which means a number of different things, the nights (and morning) are a heck of a lot darker, my walk to the bus is getting more treacherous (I very nearly had to ice skate to the bus the other day), and my counselling psychology doctorate assignments are starting to pile up.

GetPsyched and my doctorate very much go hand in hand. A lot of my knowledge, understanding and passion about psychology and mental health comes directly from what I learn at university.

It does bring its challenges though. I pride myself on hard work and thinking outside the box. When I first started GetPsyched in June of 2017, I made a commitment that I would learn everything I could about YouTube, social media and video editing and producing. It was a steep learning curve (just head back to some early GetPsyched videos and you’ll see what I mean).

I dedicated some time to it though and made a pledge that for 1 year I would make 1 video a week, even if at the end of the year I had no views and no subscribers. This meant a year of full commitment, and no chickening out after I realised that Christmas day and New Year’s Day in 2017 were both Mondays (the day I usually post videos on the GetPsyched YouTube channel).

I ended up with around 500 subscribers and about 10,000 views. I felt it was worth continuing with based off of the engagement and the support I had been receiving.

I have to be honest though, as I have less than a year of the doctorate to go, it’s been really challenging maintaining the content on GetPsyched. For about 2 years it was just me doing everything and the workload started to pile. Fortunately, an awesome individual named Fred saw GetPsyched and loved it and offered his website and SEO development knowledge to assist in our growth.

That spark a new wave for GetPsyched, a new website, new video and blog ideas and plans for the future.

That kind of brings me to this month and one of the biggest things that has happened for GetPsyched since we started.

We now have launched our first-ever free self-esteem course!!!!

This is super super exciting for us! One of the missions for GetPsyched is to bring more value and mental health knowledge to the masses! This self-esteem course is just a step in that direction.

You can sign up and access the course materials, including video content, pdf content and worksheets here. Check it out and let us know your thoughts!

VICTORIES

Our biggest victory this month has to be the launch of our new e-course on self-esteem, but there is plenty else to celebrate.

The first being that GetPsyched surpassed the 3,000-subscriber mark, and it well on the way to 4,000 subs.

I really am delighted about this as I love to see growth in what we do and the opportunity to reach more people.

As much as I am sure that this growth is to do with the value GetPsyched bring, I can’t deny that a recent video script that I wrote for Psych3Go (one of the biggest psychology YouTube channels in the world) had something to do with it.

Check out this video we wrote for them on Schizophrenia here.

CHALLENGES

This month has been a bit of a challenge, primarily due to impending deadlines coming from the counselling psychology doctorate and some upcoming talks I am doing (more on that later).

It’s meant that the blog took a couple of weeks off and there have been a couple of weeks where we haven’t uploaded video content. I feel satisfied that the balance right now is right. We still have regular content coming from GetPsyched and I am starting to feel a little more on top of my uni work.

I am often aware of my desire to push myself a little too hard at times, and perhaps need to be a little easier on myself when we don’t have video or blog content coming every week…it’s a learning process I am still getting to grips with, I think.

WHAT’S COMING UP?

This coming month on GetPsyched we have a couple of cool things coming.

We have more blog and video content about to arrive of course, as well as some new e-course development ideas, and even a membership programme for undergraduate psychology students……make sure to stay tuned for that!

What’s really cool though is that I will be keynoting in London at the BPS inspiring careers event. I did this in Newcastle last year where I told psychology undergraduates all about the opportunities there are in a career in psychology and why I started GetPsyched.

The London event is much bigger and I’m excited to be speaking on the future of psychology and how to forge your place in it. I’ll be speaking all about what is on the horizon of psychology and how that helped me develop GetPsyched.

Check out the event website here and if there are still tickets available then you should come along and check it out!

MY FAVOURITE GETPSYCHED VIDEO THIS MONTH

We had a wide variety of videos this month as always. We looked at politics and psychology and how to become a psychologist.

My favourite video this month though was understanding and overcoming stress.

I really felt compelled to develop some content about stress this month, I heard a lot of clients talk about stress and how that stress was having a big impact on their mental health. I also realized that it was the first time we had talked about stress on GetPsyched.

That seemed strange as we all experience stress, and we all need to. It’s when that stress becomes chronic and long-lasting that we need to be concerned.

Anyway, check out the video and let us know what you think.

MY FAVOURITE GETPSYCHED BLOG POST THIS MONTH

Much like our video content this month, we had lots of really cool guest blog posts this month.

We looked at the top tips for overcoming depression and the impact of social media and mental health.

However, my favourite this month was a guest article that we posted just the other day all about the term co-production (if you don’t know it then check out the post and it’ll tell you everything), and heavy metal and mental health. It’s a really different and alternative post form what we are used to on the GetPsyched blog, but I really loved it and it received a lot of attention so far.

Make sure to check it out here.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH:

Thanks so much for checking out the first-ever GetPsyched newsletter guys, make sure to stay tuned each month as we continue to give you updates, the victories and the challenges. Have a brilliant month and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year when it comes!!!