Meet Psychology With Charlotte | Psychology Student & Mental Health Advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Psychology With Charlotte and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Psychology With Charlotte, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I think it depends on how you define risk, but I very much believe taking risks is so powerful in the sense of facing your fears to improve your quality of life. I’ve learned from studying psychology and working in mental health the power of exposure therapy on a small and large scale. Facing what we fear, when what we fear is out of proportion to its real risk, teaches our brain that we can cope with it, and it’s not as bad as we thought. Taking risks has definitely been a big part of my life. I don’t think you need to sit back and wait for someone to give you permission to try something new. I’m someone who has had an ongoing struggle with anxiety, and a key factor in improving that throughout my life has been facing the fears. Facing fears has been a really rewarding way to build my confidence and for learning to worry less. Even recently I noticed I probably had an unrealistic fear of spiders, so I challenged myself to get a spider out of the house on my own, and hope to some day soon be able to hold a (friendly species) spider in my hand. I’ve already noticed now when spiders appear in my life, (which they often do given I’m in Australia haha) I’m less anxious than I used to be.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I love what I do! I study psychology full time, and in a couple more years I’ll hopefully be able to call myself a Clinical Psychologist!

I’ve had a lot of jobs so far in life, and a lot of them haven’t been very mainstream that’s for sure, but I have learned something different from each new thing I tried. When I was a young teenager I thought I’d try out photography. So, I started my own little photography business navigating having clients for the first time, driving all over Sydney to different shoots for brands, portraiture clients, and events. After a year or two of this I decided I was ready for the next thing, and went through other phases including social media management for companies, freelance and agency fashion modelling, and becoming an office coordinator for a big city firm. From all these different experiences I guess I unintentionally learned a lot about forming good professional relationships and personal branding, and how much of a difference these factors can make in professional success.

These days, alongside my studies I’ve moved onto work relevant to psychology: I volunteer as a crisis supporter for Lifeline (an Australian suicide helpline service), work as a behaviour technician to help kids with autism and ADHD reach behaviour goals (they are SO awesome and inspiring to work with), and of course, I run my @psychologywithcharlotte page on instagram.

A lot of time behind the scenes of the PsychologyWithCharlotte business is spent liaising with brands around working together, doing literature reviews for evidence-based instagram content, and managing orders and stockist relationships for The Easy Journal. I’ve never been one to have “just one” part time job, so sometimes there are challenges with having a large and diverse workload. But to be honest, I love every single thing I do so much, it so often doesn’t feel like work. In particular, being able to launch my book The Easy Journal has been a dream come true. I’ve always loved journaling, but since I was a kid, I really wanted a purely psychology-backed guided journal. Being able to bring that to life has been the most incredible opportunity. I can’t thank everyone who has already invested in a copy of the journal, sent kind words, or followed my little psychology journey on instagram, enough. All of these incredible supporters have given me the opportunity to make this a reality.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oo, great question, here’s my week long itinerary for a good time in Sydney:

Day one: hit the beach on a beautiful summer day, probably Manly beach or Balmoral, enjoy some body surfing, reading and tanning, beach volleyball and soccer and finish the day at a beautiful beachside restaurant for burgers.
Day two: Taronga Zoo, it’s right by the harbour so has amazing views and the animals are the cutest, I’ve gone to Taronga Zoo ever since I was a lil kiddo and can never get sick of it.
Day three: maybe tick off some classic tourist-y things like visit the Harbour Bridge, the city, maybe go shopping and then go to a great place for dinner in the city.
Day four: probably need a more chill day, I absolutely love a good spa day so if there’s an unlimited budget then a “treat yourself” day at a city hotel spa like The Langham or heading to Gillian Adams Spa in Turramurra would be an incredible way to spend a day in Sydney.
Day five: The Barrenjoey Lighthouse walk at palm beach!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family are the most incredible ‘cheerleaders’, I’m so very grateful for them.

My parents have always encouraged me that I can do the things I set my mind to and work hard for, having that support behind me has been the ultimate blessing. They are both very hardworking people, and the most selfless parents you could imagine, it’s hard to even put it to words how grateful I am for every single little and big thing they have done that has made me who I am today.

My sister is also the sweetest person I know, having someone like her to encourage you is also a game changer, plus she’s a very talented English teacher so that’s been such a blessing when it comes to projects like The Easy Journal.

Last but not least, my partner Andy is such an inspiring guy. He always backs me, and is so unbelievably reliable. A lot of people know, I’m really passionate about talking about healthy relationships on my page. To be honest, that’s definitely a topic that has been inspired by him: he is just such a natural model of a psychologically health partner, a lot of what I talk about is inspired by his selfless actions and his healthy approach to relationships, faith, and life.

Website: https://psychologywithcharlotte.square.site/ (NOTE THIS WILL BE UPDATED IN NOVEMBER TO: psychologywithcharlotte.com)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychologywithcharlotte/