The Division of Health Psychology at The Institute of Living 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 to adults in outpatient settings both at the Institute of Living and in specialty care practices throughout Hartford Healthcare. In addition to clinical services, we conduct research, provide community education, and participate in the training of graduate-level psychology students. We offer an APA-approved post-doctoral fellowship in clinical psychology with a health psychology emphasis as well as clinical training opportunities for pre-doctoral psychology graduate students with an interest in health psychology.
Our Mission
We strive to meet the needs of Hartford HealthCare 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.