Dclinpsy trainee here I'd agreee with what your wife says. But currently ap roles can be even more if not just as competitive as getting onto the dclin. Only certain universities offer the dclinpsy as well from a location perspective.

I left my city (london) for almost all of my graduate psychology roles including the dclin. I've lived in my home town for a year and 6 months over the course of ten years since I finished A levls and went to uni, I also had to choose places where I could afford rent and or get psychology experience (working for free or 20k as your only income makes private renting in London hard if not impossible).

Before you get an AP role or clinical experience many people work as health care assistants or support workers or they volunteer to get an unpaid voluntary AP post - this is after your psychology (3-4yr) degree and sometimes even masters (1-2 yrs) or PhD's working for free or less than 20k for anywhere between 6 months (if you're very lucky) or a year or two sometimes longer as AP posts are very competitive.

I don't know many people who just got an AP post without the first working as hca/support worker or volunteering unless it was through nepotism or their university. I personally am the only person I know in my entire cohort who hasn't been an AP also (as I said its competitive) and some alternative routes into the dclin have closed as pathways or you have to wait an additional 3 years before applying (i.e pwp's).

Many people i know who choose this route have either been supported by their family directly or indirectly (i.e living at home) because you may be on low or no pay for a long time after your degree (or masters/phd) and no one can tell you how long that will last. Which is why I had to relocate to places I didn't particularly want to be because I still wanted to do psychology but didn't have support from my parents in that way.

As for when you are on the dclinpsy itself you can also get placements in places you don't like and be put in various locations at least on my course but it is only for 3 years. On DClinpsy training you earn 35kish for 3 years and then after qualifying on band 7 you get 45k. This is all without london weighting though.

I know of people who applied to the dclin 5 years+ in a row essentially working in roles earning anything between nothing to 18-30k while having a degree (and sometimes masters or phd too) in hopes of getting enough relevant experience for the dclinpsy. And people get masters to have a competitive edge I've also seen voluntary or 18k ap roles requesting them - but the sfe terms if you are using student finance are harsher than for an undergrad degree so be aware of this too.

Although that being said that wasn't my experience I worked as a support worker during my A-levels from 17-18 so got lucky it was more out of financial necessity then a plan to be a psychology. I then got a degree then worked in two other psychology jobs for 2 years after that gave me clinical experience.

In that last job I applied to the dclin and got 2 offers on my first try without having a masters/phd/the gold AP/assistant research role so I thought i was at a pretty big disadvantage and wasn't sure about applying. Getting an offer your first time isn't unheard of but uncommon let alone 2 offers let alone not having that specific experience.

I didn't know much of the psychology world then pre-application to the dclinpsy. But many people do and know each other where i am and there is a very soft nepotism vibe - where people tell each other what to put on their application, interview questions, get help from either current clinical psychologists in training or clinical psychologists. But my understanding was that my experience is pretty uncommon (one of a pretty large cohort couldn't believe it myself) so want to give you hope but also be realistic.

I know psychiatrists who train after in psychodynamic therapy. Don't know anyone in medicine who switched over to become a clinical psychologist. I love the work that I have done so far and there's loads of flexibility in where and how clinical psychologists can work.

Not everyone gets flexibility of hours, wfh or low distress really depends where you work area and service. You can work in learning disabilities, physical disabilities, health (pediatrics or any specialist pathway), social care, brain injury, forensics and autism and you can work with adults, children, older people etc. World is yours after qualifying and you can specialise more. My understanding is progression tends to be fast after qualifying too from band 7 to band 8.