Making Sense of Cultural Identity: Transitioning from China to the UK and becoming a Clinical Psychologist
Episode Overview
In this episode, we are joined by Dr Jiedi Lei who discusses her experiences of moving to the UK after spending her early childhood in China, and how her natural curiosity about the culture clash she experienced led her to a desire to study human behaviour. She talks about the importance of findings similarities between different cultural groups, while acknowledging difference. Jiedi also discusses falling between different cultural groups having moved to the UK at the age of 10, and how she has harnessed this experience and subsequent self exploration in her research and clinical work.
“When you're not a White British trainee, the majority of people you see are from a different ethnicity to you...I've never had the privilege of working with somebody who shares my cultural understanding”
About Dr Jiedi Lei
Dr Jiedi Lei is a Clinical Psychology Trainee at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, UK. She completed her PhD at the Centre for Applied Autism Research at the University of Bath in the UK in 2020. Her research interests focus on understanding co-occurring mental health conditions in autism, especially on the development, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety disorders among autistic children and young people. .
Current Role: 3rd Year Trainee Clinical Psychologist, IoPPN
Episode Title: Making Sense of Cultural Identity: Transitioning from China to the UK and becoming a Clinical Psychologist
Episode #: Series 3: Episode 5
Link to Episode: https://anchor.fm/afsana9/episodes/Making-Sense-of-Cultural-Identity-Transitioning-from-China-to-the-UK--becoming-a-Clin-Psychologist-e1q2b1b
“Knowing my experiences of growing up: looking different, sounding perhaps different … made me more weary of the way that diversity is handled in some of these clinical reflective spaces…to feel like being pressured to always ask about that difference and name it”
Links
Twitter: @jiedilei
Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jiedi-Lei
Articles:
Lei, Charman, T., Leigh, E., Russell, A., Mohamed, Z., & Hollocks, M. J. (2022). Examining the relationship between cognitive inflexibility and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in autistic children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Autism Research. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2826
Lei, Brosnan, M., Ashwin, C., & Russell, A. (2020). Evaluating the Role of Autistic Traits, Social Anxiety, and Social Network Changes During Transition to First Year of University in Typically Developing Students and Students on the Autism Spectrum. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50(8), 2832–2851. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04391-w
Lei, & Russell, A. (2021). I Have a Fear of Negative Evaluation, Get Me Out of Here! Examining Latent Constructs of Social Anxiety and Autistic Traits in Neurotypical and Autistic Young People. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(5), 1729–1747. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04657-3