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Ok so which do you think is the odd one out

I have never watched…

1. Love island.
2. Game of Thrones
3. First dates hotel

I am not quite 40 yet I live with my husband, and my two daughters. My daughters are aged 6 (and a half) and nearly 3. They keep me very busy.

I also have a British blue tabby cat (who is very lazy) and a 12 year old chocolate Labrador (who is very greedy).

We live in North Wales although not too far from England and so we get lots of country air… but lots of access to shopping and restaurants when we want as well!

Ok answer to above, I love watching first dates hotel (its funny when the match is sooo wrong, but i like it when they get the match right), i enjoyed GoT, but have never watched loved island.

I am a Health Psychologist.

Psychologists can work in lots of different topics, mine is Health.

This means I work in health topics and I have helped patients who have heart disease, those living with diabetes, and those with obesity.

I train up health professionals in new skills to help them talk to their patients better. I also run a university course to bring through new students into my profession.  Most recently one of my trainees started working in cancer services, another is now working with the Army, and another is working in diabetes services. One of my current trainees is doing intervention work around binge eating and weight maintenance.

In the NHS, I can talk to patients about what they need, and how we can make services better for them.  I can offer psychological therapy (no my clients don’t lie on a sofa like in the movies, but I do make sure they are comfortable!). A lot of my work is helping doctors, nurses and others to improve what they do, i work with them to get more from services!

I work in a university setting and do research, which means I set up new projects and design interventions to make things better for patients. I try to make sure i include patients and members of the public in my research- so getting them involved in designing it, or helping me to evaluate it is my top priority.  I get involved in developing policy and strategy, and most recently I have contributed to the development of a childhood obesity parliamentary postnote document.

I have an office in Liverpool…. and now since COVID I work a lot at home (as much as I can anyway, saves the travel- and also I don’t have to get dressed up!).

Clinics- some days I might run a clinic with patients and other days I might run sessions with health professionals. This past year this has been tricky at times, but we have moved online when we can. I do lots of work with patients to improve what happens to them, listening to patients is the best way to make services better!

Today I am writing a presentation as I have been invited to speak at a conference hosted by AlderHey Children’s hospital, in Liverpool.  My presentation is about integrating more psychological aspects into healthcare services that they offer. I’ve just recorded this via zoom (and hate watching myself back so fingers crossed its ok)

Tomorrow I am acting as an examiner for a new trainee who has submitted a portfolio of work to become a Health Psychologist.  I have read the persons work…about 80,000 words or so and we will do an ‘interview’ with the trainee which will be between 1 and 4 hours long! and check that the person has the right skills. (I will definitely need a break after that!)

The boring stuff… admin. I manage a programme of work at the university, which includes teaching and training and research.. so this comes with lots of emails and other boring tasks which I try and slot into my day in bits and bobs.