The whole opportunity was incredible. The team both in London and in Bali were amazing and couldn’t do enough for you. In country support was amazing, and I love it so much that I’m really contemplating doing a further placement next year. Would fully recommend to any psychology student looking to gain experience in a non western context.

I went to Bali with SLV from June 11th to July 6th, and it was the most amazing experience of my life. The coordinators and managers were amazing and were extremely helpful, friendly, and welcoming. All of the other volunteers were incredible and we all became a large family very quickly. The placements were an very unique and were excellent opportunities to work hands on with mental health in a variety of environments. On top of all this, Bali is a beautiful place to go, which made everything that much better. I would recommend the SLV Bali Mental Health Placement to anyone interested!!

Sri-Lanka (18th June-20th July) I went to Sri-Lanka for 5 weeks. It was such a great experience. I met some great people and learn a lot about myself. The projects were great. The time out there is tiring but all the effort you put in is worth it when you see the difference you make, even if it is just a smile on a service users face. The experience is invaluable!

My SLV.Bali July 2-27, 2018 placement was phenomenal. All of the planning and behind the scenes work was done so flawlessly by the project managers, supervisors, and coordinators. The SLV team was great at keeping close communication with the volunteers to nature we were all happy, healthy, and able to put out our best work at the projects. I will be raving to all of my psychology friends back home about how amazing SLV is and hopefully I’ll be back for another placement next summer!

Was great experience, but could have been given more info on what to expect during projects/commute (e.g. speakers are pretty much essential, paying for bus rides to and from projects etc.)

I went on the SLV.Bali Mental Health Placement for 12 weeks in 2016. I gained such valuable experience from working in psychiatric facilities, government run schools and community iniatives. I particularly loved the sessions we ran in East Java at the psychiatric facility. Being able to gain this hands on, practice experience has boosted my CV and been so useful in interviews. I have now been lucky enough to have been offered a role working in the mental health sector! Thank you SLV.Global for providing such a worthwhile and fun experience.

SLV was a great experience, offering me a unique opportunity to work in psychiatric hospitals and alongside psychiatrists. Throughout the placement, there was great support (both people and resources) and the training and workshops that were available were really insightful. For me, I would have preferred more work in specialised psychological placements, rather than schools.

SLV Global provided me with a unique opportunity to experience mental health in a different cultural context, and gave me the confidence to run a session for various groups of individuals. Whether it be teaching english, special needs or working with those with mental health conditions it all was a fantastic learning curve. On completing my 3 month placement I saw improvement in service users which I was not expecting to see in such a short period of time, and seeing the positive impact many of the sessions had on the service users made it well worth it. Having travelled a fair bit this was a completely different experience altogether, living in a local area with a beautiful Sri Lankan family and getting to know and respect their cultural and social norms made the experience sometimes more challenging but all the more richer. Thankyou SLV!

I had a great experience immersing myself in the Sri Lankan culture. It was truly eye-opening living and working within an entirely different culture; I learned a lot from my 5 week placement and I'm glad I did it. Although the placement is called a mental health placement, projects were split equally between mental health projects, special educational needs and teaching English. I enjoyed the variety of projects as I discovered a new love for working with children with special educational needs; however, I felt that the mental health experience I gained was, although extremely valuable, also extremely limited, as due to confidentiality restrictions we could not be informed which specific mental health conditions the people we were working with had.

During my 6 week placement in Sri Lanka I had an experience I would recommend everyone have. My homestay family were warm and welcoming! We still have phone calls every now and then. The volunteers you have the privilege of working alongside are truly wonderful caring people who are out there for the right reasons, and support you on your journey just as you do in return. I cannot praise the permanent staff enough for all they did to aid volunteers, I am extremely grateful to have met them and laughed with them. I would 100% recommend the Sri Lanka placement, I definitely intend on returning. And to everyone considering completing this placement, I can guarantee you will meet the most wonderful service users who will put a smile on your face and bring you out of your comfort zone (which is never a bad thing). I urge you to participate in the culture as much as possible, the food is delicious, the language is so fun to learn, and the country is beautiful. The projects you undertake are extremely varied throughout the week and you get to interact with a variety of people, from individuals with mental health concerns to those with physical disabilities. During these projects you get to use your knowledge of psychology to implement activities that are best suited to the needs of the service users. I feel there is a lot to learn from this experience, and I do not recommend passing up the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful programme.