Suitable for trainee and qualified Health Psychologists, wishing to develop their applied health psychology research/practice with individual clients.

Three main areas;

  1.  Personal and Interpersonal Issues in Health Psychology Therapeutic Practice:

• Working as a Health Psychologist with individual clients: What do you need to know?

• Differentiating therapeutic practice from research practice: How are they different? Accountability, roles, intervention delivery, outcomes measurement

• Therapeutic roles: personal versus professional schemas and their impact on practice

• Developing & maintaining the HP-client therapeutic alliance (TA):

• How to develop a therapeutic alliance between health psychologist & patient/client?  What are the components of a positive relationship and the professional boundaries of the TA? The client as expert in their health problem, therapist as expert in interventions and guiding therapy.

• Professional behaviours and Interpersonal communication skills required for Health Psychology therapeutic practice: e.g. interpersonal perceptual and relational skills, therapist attitude and interpersonal knowledge.

  2.  Applying Technical Therapeutic Skills in Health Psychology Practice:

• What foundation therapeutic skills do I need to help a client with physical health problems?

• How do I ensure that I am client centred in my approach rather than ‘expert’ focused –ensuring I am not just gathering information on health outcomes but facilitating better health outcomes.

• Applying technical therapeutic skills in practice:

• How to change health related cognitions & behaviour within individual therapeutic practice? Using key technical skills such as:

• Socratic Questioning

• Guided Discovery

• Collaboration

• Negotiation

• Technical therapeutic skills applied to Health Psychology contexts and case studies

•  

  3.  Building your confidence and skills in therapeutic practice  

• Pre and post course self-assessment of skills and knowledge in individual client HP practice

• Goals to achieve in your everyday practice following the course

• First actions and challenges to implementing your goals

• Review and development process for maintaining skills

Followed by course evaluation and feedback

We aim for attendees to gain a comprehensive understanding of the personal, professional and interpersonal skills required to deliver HP therapeutic practice (and/or applied intervention research) with individuals. Specifically to be able;

• To describe the basic clinical framework for working in therapeutic practice with individual Health Psychology patients/clients.

• To be self-aware of personal factors and schema that can impact upon therapy outcomes.

• To identify the range of communication skills required for effective practice with individual patients/clients and their purpose within the therapeutic process.

• To understand the key technical therapeutic skills (e.g. Socratic questioning and guided discovery, collaboration, negotiation) required to develop and maintain the health psychologist-patient/client therapeutic alliance and its impact on clinical outcomes.

• To identify key changes in therapeutic working style that can be implemented within their current role.