Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 28, No. 4, December 2013 109 © The British Psychological Society – ISSN 0269-6975 N MY OWN MODEST WAY I have been trying to espouse the benefits of attending conferences to my peers at Teesside University for the past year. Following this year’s DCoP Annual Conference, I feel obli- gated to seek out a megaphone – to reach a wider audience. I want to convey the benefits that I, a second-year trainee, have gained from dipping my toe a little outside my comfort zone. As trainees, well as far as those of us on the Doctorate route are concerned, we are so often wrapped up in just ‘getting through’ the training. Our pre-occupations are with submitting work of a sufficiently high stan- dard; securing placements and ticking off the clinical hours; negotiating the hurdles inherent in our research; and the big one – financing course fees, supervision and personal therapy. All this whilst trying to maintain some semblance of life balance in the process. Then there are those underlying negative automatic thoughts. Will I actually manage to get a job when I qualify? Is this worth it? Will I get through my viva? How can I ‘compete’ against Clinical trainees? Confer- ences, quite simply, don’t feature on the radar. My suggestion is to step back – seek out the bigger picture. Attending last year’s DCoP Annual Conference enabled me to lay many of these negative thoughts to rest and opened up some fantastic opportunities. I wouldn’t for one minute suggest that conference delegates portrayed the future as a breath-taking landscape filled with unri- valled opportunity and reward. But then again, I never expected counselling psycho- logy to be a land of milk and honey. I chose this profession out of a desire to bring to others the life-changing benefits that I myself had gained from therapeutic inter- vention. What I found at the conference, in abundance, were individuals keen to share their experiences of doing just that. Through dissemination of research, experi- ential workshops and informal conversa- tions, I gained a much broader perspective and deeper understanding. My eyes were opened to the potential benefits of working in so many more arenas with much more diverse client groups than I could ever have envisaged from my comfy sofa in Teesside. Whilst I wouldn’t suggest ditching all dreams of that ‘golden ticket’ – a much sought after job in the NHS, I was inspired by the creative, flexible, adaptive approaches taking advantage of opportunities, and carving out niches, in an ever-changing landscape of psychological provision. Yes, there were disgruntled voices. Colleagues in IAPT posts which challenged their personal philoso- phies; trainees on the independent route wondering whether they would ever manage to qualify; particular geographical pockets which seem pre-disposed to reject coun- selling psychology. Yet my overwhelming impression was that if I am flexible, creative and resilient enough to ‘get through’ my Doctorate, I will be more than skilled enough to find rewarding opportunities. Dialogues and Debates Dipping your toe outside your comfort zone: The benefits to trainees of attending Conference Sue Whitcombe DCoP Annual Conference, The Angel Hotel, Cardiff, 12–13 July 2013 I