Perspectives in Practice: Conversations with Health Psychology Professionals
Co-written by Yvette and Bernie, featuring insights from Melissa Osborn, with support from AI-generated content (ChatGPT). The final draft was reviewed and edited by Melissa Osborn.
Welcome to Perspectives in Practice, a series that highlights real-world reflections from professionals working within the field of health psychology. In each instalment, Bernie, a registered psychologist and health psychology registrar, sits down with peers to explore how theory meets practice in their work.
In this conversation, Bernie speaks with Melissa, a newly graduated health psychology registrar, about entering the field, adapting to new environments, and how health psychology principles can be applied across clinical settings.
Starting the Journey: From Graduation to Dual Roles
Melissa joined Bernie for an open and thoughtful conversation about what it's like stepping into the profession with fresh eyes. Having completed her Master’s in 2024, Melissa is at the start of her health psychology career and is already balancing multiple roles. “I’m still very new to the field,” Melissa shared. “But I’ve been fortunate to get two jobs to start my career—one in a mental health setting and the other in academia, doing some tutoring.” This combination of clinical and academic work has given her an early opportunity to develop diverse skill sets and perspectives—something she feels is helping her grow in confidence as she finds her footing in the profession.
Understanding Health Psychology: A Systems and Holistic Lens
As their conversation continued, Bernie asked Melissa to share her perspective on what health psychology truly means in practice. For Melissa, it’s about weaving together a broad understanding of both individuals and the environments they live in. “To me, health psychology is about seeing the person within the systems they interact with,” Melissa explained. “It’s understanding someone’s life in the context of their immediate world, their community, and the broader systems they're a part of.” Melissa often draws on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model to conceptualize these connections, using it to understand how different environmental layers impact health and wellbeing. “You’re always thinking about these layers,” she said. “Even if you’re working with an individual, you’re holding in mind how their experiences ripple outwards into other layers—family, healthcare, community. It shapes how we understand what’s going on in their world.” Melissa also emphasized the holistic nature of the discipline.
She spoke about how mental, physical, social, and even spiritual aspects of health are deeply interconnected—and how this approach helps her formulate a fuller picture of what someone may be going through. This multidimensional thinking also encourages collaboration across disciplines. Melissa described how her role often involves connecting with other services—such as social work or occupational therapy—to support someone more effectively. “You’re not just staying in the psychology lane,” she noted. “If someone needs support navigating different systems or functional concerns, it makes sense to bring in others who can help them move through those spaces more easily.”
For Melissa, this interprofessional approach is a natural extension of the holistic lens health psychologists are trained to adopt. “If you have a cohesive team, you learn from each other and support the person more comprehensively.” These overlapping contributions from the team create a more stable support environment for the patient. Whether working in hospitals, rehabilitation, or community health, health psychologists are often part of multidisciplinary teams supporting people through complex challenges. “It’s part of why health psychologists often end up in these kinds of environments,” Melissa said. “Because we’re thinking about people as whole beings—not just their mental or physical health in isolation.” While Melissa acknowledges that her hospital role certainly involves aspects of her skillset in health psychology, she sees her skillset strongly applied in pain management programs. “It’s an opportunity to draw the bridge between physical pain and psychological wellbeing,” Melissa reflected. “Even just educating someone on how pain and mental health influence each other can be incredibly powerful.” This intersection of education, physical health, and emotional regulation allows health psychology to shine, offering a framework that is both person-centred and system-aware.
Health Psychology as Scientist–Practitioner in Practice
One area that Melissa sees as particularly rich in health psychology is the balance between scientific rigour and applied work—a hallmark of the scientist–practitioner model. “You see that model across psychology,” she noted, “but in health psychology, it’s especially clear when you’re working on population or community-based projects. If you're designing an intervention or health promotion program, you need to evaluate whether it's actually effective.” Even when research isn’t formalized, informal evaluation remains essential. “Pre- and post-testing is still research,” she pointed out. “You're still drawing on evidence and theory to design interventions and assess whether they work.” This integration of research and practice, especially within broader public health frameworks, underscores what Melissa believes makes health psychology such a dynamic and multifaceted discipline.
Beyond her early clinical roles, Melissa shared a deep curiosity for the broader systems influencing health outcomes — a curiosity that’s nudging her toward research. “For a while, when I was studying, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be a psychologist,” Melissa admitted. “I imagined psychologists as just doing one-on-one therapy. But I’ve always felt drawn to broader questions — like how can we influence things upstream so we’re not just reacting to problems?” This upstream thinking has sparked Melissa’s interest in exploring research pathways, from testing the waters as a research assistant to possibly pursuing a PhD.
At the heart of her motivation is a desire to support people’s quality of life — a theme that took centre stage in her thesis project, which explored how older adults living in rural aged care settings experience quality of life. Rather than relying on scales or standardised tools, Melissa used a semi-structured qualitative interview approach to capture in-depth perspectives. “When I think about older adults, I see someone’s parent or grandparent. They have a lifetime of stories, experience, and wisdom…So I’m always thinking, how do we bring meaningful experiences to them? Not just for comfort, but for purpose.” For Melissa, this is where health psychology truly comes alive — in the intersection of systems thinking and person-centred care. It’s not just about managing physical and emotional health, but addressing the social and spiritual dimensions of wellbeing. “What I’m still wrestling with,” she said thoughtfully, “is how we can design systems-level interventions that still feel personalised — especially when it comes to social and spiritual wellbeing, which are so individual.” Her reflections were a reminder that health psychology isn't just about understanding what helps people cope — but about reimagining systems to promote flourishing across the lifespan.
The Versatility of Health Psychology: A Field That Opens Doors
As the conversation drew to a close, Bernie asked Melissa if there were any final thoughts she wanted to share about health psychology. Her response was both passionate and measured, reflecting a clear appreciation for the field’s diversity. “I think the broad benefit of health psychology is that it brings together so many different skills — psychology, research, public health, health promotion. That’s what makes it so unique,” she said. Melissa described how a qualification in health psychology doesn’t lock you into one path. Instead, it opens up a spectrum of opportunities — from working one-on-one with people experiencing chronic pain or illness, to delivering community-based interventions, to shaping health policy or implementation science.
“Two people from the same program could have entirely different careers. And I almost feel like health psychology is set up that way on purpose — to give you a taste of everything,” she reflected. “It creates this really vast array of skills.” It’s this very versatility that excites Melissa most — the idea that a health psychology lens can be applied across settings, populations, and even levels of intervention. Whether helping an individual find meaning in the face of illness, or designing systems that support ageing with dignity, Mel sees value in the breadth of what health psychology offers. Her reflections leave us with a renewed appreciation for the field — not just as a career, but as a way of thinking. One that asks how we can improve health not only by treating symptoms, but by understanding the full human experience — what it means to feel connected, purposeful, and seen.
