Health psychologist
Health psychologists use knowledge of psychology and health to promote wellbeing and healthy behaviours, especially at population level.
They are specially trained to understand the psychological and emotional aspects of health and illness.
Working life
You'll promote healthier lifestyles and try to find ways to encourage people to improve their health. For example, you may help people to lose weight or stop smoking. You'll also use your skills to try to improve the healthcare system, for example advising doctors about better ways to communicate with their patients.
You’ll be part of a rapidly evolving profession that uses the practice and application of psychology to study behaviour relevant to health, illness and healthcare.
Health psychologist is a different role to clinical health psychologist who are specialists in physical health.
Your work will involve:
- identifying behaviours that may damage a person's health eg smoking, drug abuse, poor diet and how psychological theories and interventions can support prevention and health related behaviour change
- encouraging behaviours such as exercise, a healthy diet, oral hygiene, health checks/self-examination and attending preventative medical screenings
- investigating health and illness behaviours. A range of models and frameworks are used to explain and predict behaviour, develop interventions eg changing health beliefs, increasing internal control or self belief
- investigating the nature and effects of communication between health professionals and patients including interventions to improve communication
- looking at the psychological impact of illness on individuals, families and carers
You’ll also use psychological interventions to help self-management of illness and coping with pain or illness. You may also provide information and advice to a range of organisations involved in public health such as the NHS and local authorities.
Who will I work with?
Health psychologists work with individuals (including children, adults and older adults) or groups, or work indirectly through the development of remote approaches such as media or online interventions.
You may work as part of multi-professional teams including doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.
Where will I work?
You'll work across a range of health care and other providers, for example large scale public health programmes or individual or small group consultations.
You could work in:
- hospitals
- community teams
- universities
Many health psychologists also work in academia, teaching and researching in their area of expertise.
Entry requirements
Health psychologists will usually have completed an accredited undergraduate degree in psychology. From there, they need to complete a Master’s degree in health psychology approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and then complete a doctoral-level qualification in health psychology.
Entry requirements for the training will include some experience, which can be gained through paid or voluntary roles. This could be through shadowing health psychologists or experience gained from other roles such as nursing or social work.
It is important to check individual training courses for information about entry requirements and the kind of experience that is expected.