What I Learned While Preparing for a Mental Health Interview

11 March 2026

As psychology students, we often spend a lot of time reading about mental health in textbooks and research papers. But understanding mental health in theory is very different from seeing how it operates in real-world settings. Recently, I have been preparing for a phone interview with a mental health clinic in Hong Kong. The experience made me reflect on what it really means to step beyond psychology textbooks and start engaging with the field in practice.

Preparing for the interview pushed me to think more deeply about mental health services. I started reading about the organisation, reflecting on the mental health situation in Hong Kong, and thinking about questions such as stigma, access to support, and the role of multidisciplinary teams.

What struck me most was how complex the mental health ecosystem is. Behind every service are professionals from different backgrounds — psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors, and social workers — each contributing to a broader system of care.

This process also reminded me that psychology is not only about theories or experiments. It is also about understanding people, systems, and the social context in which mental health exists.

As students, we often focus on learning concepts and research findings. Yet experiences like this — even preparing for a conversation with a professional — can already change the way we think about the field.

Whether or not the interview leads to further opportunities, the preparation itself has been meaningful. It reminded me that studying psychology is not only about academic knowledge, but also about curiosity, reflection, and engaging with the real world of mental health practice.