Dr. Kieran Kennedy

Yeah, well, I think I always, I mean, initially I wanted to be a vet for a long time.

I just loved being out on the farm and I loved animals.

You know, dad was also a bit animal obsessed.

So there was just chickens and birds and dogs, cats, everything else when we were growing up.

So always sort of knew that I sort of loved biology and nature and wanted to help.

people or animals initially in some way.

And then I think as I kind of moved through college and got older, I realised I loved just rambling with people and talking and hearing their stories.

And so I think that's when I pivoted and said, we'll give med school a crack.

Yeah, for better or worse, but here we are now, so it's, yeah.

Yeah, it's a good question, because I often, you know, I think there's quite a bit of confusion around psychiatrists, psychologists, kind of the different terms and things, so a psychiatrist, I guess in a nutshell, is a doctor who has specialised and done training in mental health, so we train in

Depression, anxiety, schizophrenia.

There's also quite a lot of neurology and brain sort of training, too.

So that's sort of a doctor who specialized there.

And then psychology is equally, if not more important.

But a psychologist is someone who might help people through talking therapy and different things.

But yeah, for me, I started doing a psychology degree at Auckland University.

And then after I finished that degree, I decided, you know, I would dive into doing another five years of study and went to Auckland Medical School and the rest is history.

So yeah, I got a wee bit swayed by the bright lights of plastic surgery and surgery for a while.

I actually really enjoyed that as a student.

But I think I always knew that I was going to go into psychiatry because I loved psychology and just talking to people really.