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Health psychologist?

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Health & Wellbeing
My therapist has said she feels that I'd get more help from a health psychologist as my mental health issues are now mainly associated with my physical health.

Has anyone seen one before? What do they do? What was your experience?

Any info would be great! Thanks

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I found this

    http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/psychological-therapies/careers-in-psychological-therapies/psychologist/health-psychologist/
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's still a bit of a mystery to me exactly what they do. Some of it just seems like telling me common sense. I might have to talk to my therapist again about what they actually do. I don't want to be told to take my medication and make sure I do relaxation exercise often, because they'll be preaching to the converted. It's much more complex than that.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    all of the health psychologists i know of are academics working in universities, i think it's pretty rare for them to be working in the NHS because the job 'health psychologist' doesn't really exist, it's just an area of psychology. i know that people who qualify as health psychologists can get jobs in areas like smoking cessation, weight loss clinics etc if they don't want to be researchers. as i understand it health psychology is about why people behave in certain ways around their health - compliance, disease management, lifestyle choices and so on. it's not all that related to mental health although a lot of the principles will probably apply.

    a big area of health psychology is pain management, so it could be to do with that? i don't really know what a health psychologist actually working as a health psychologist does, i guess it could be about how you cope with your illness and what you could be doing differently? you're definitely best to ask for more information.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've already been through the local pain management course so I think it's more likely to be telling me what I need to do :/
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