The Division of Health Psychology at Hartford Hospital is part of the Department of Psychology and employs licensed psychologists with expertise in evaluating and treating individuals with a variety of medical conditions.
We provide consultation, evaluation and treatment in an outpatient setting. We provide services in English and Spanish. In addition to providing clinical services, we are involved in the Psychology internship program at the Institute of Living, where clinical psychology interns may participate in a minor rotation. We have provided supervision for the APA approved Health Psychology postdoctoral fellowship and are working to develop additional training opportunities at the postdoctoral level. We remain active in our community by providing psychological services in satellite offices and by presenting psychological information and training to allied health professionals.
Our Mission
We strive to meet the needs of Hartford Hospital patients and physicians by providing psychological services, including evaluation, consultation and treatment. We provide services with an ongoing commitment to education and professional development. In addition, we work to collaborate with colleagues, educate and serve the community, participate in clinically relevant research, and assist in the training of new psychologists. We aim to become recognized as a regional center of excellence for the provision of health psychology services.
What is Health Psychology?
Health psychology is a specialty area that applies the principles of clinical psychology to the prevention of disease, adjustment to illness, and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle.
Health psychology is concerned with understanding how biological, psychological, and social/cultural factors are involved in physical health and illness prevention.
Clinical health psychologists provide education, evaluate individuals’ readiness for and risk factors related to medical procedures/surgeries, and provide psychological treatment to assist in areas such as behavior change (i.e., smoking cessation, weight loss), adjusting to illness (i.e, pain management), and health promotion (i.e., exercise and diet adherence).
Meeting with a health psychologist can help a person understand how psychological factors affect medical conditions, and can help the individual learn new techniques to minimize the negative impact of a medical condition, improve mood and reduce stress.
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Professional clinical services include psychological evaluations prior to procedures such as bariatric surgery, transplant surgery, epilepsy surgery and the implantation of spinal column stimulators.
Meet the specialists that make up Institute of Learning's Division of Health Psychology team.