Articles published on success of Glasgow Caledonian’s DPsych programmes

A team of health psychologists have written an article about the success and uniqueness of Glasgow Caledonian University’s DPsych Health Psychology programme.

The paper, entitled ‘Health psychology training in the UK: An example from the first professional Doctorate in Health Psychology in Scotland’ has been published in the British Psychological Society journal Health Psychology Update.

The paper was written by Psychology lecturers Drs Lindsey Burns, Jan Smith, Jo McParland and Hannah Ranaldi from the School of Health and Life Sciences (SHLS) Department of Psychology, and Dr Siân Armstrong, a graduate from the programme.

Dr Burns said: “We wrote the article because we felt it was important to share the unique nature of our programme and the amazing work that the trainees on that programme undertake. We're proud of the programme and of the work that our trainees and graduates are doing.”

Dr Smith, DPsych Health Psychology Programme Placement Co-ordinator, said: “Our DPsych Health Psychology programme supports Trainee Health Psychologists in the development of core competencies during placements across the three years of doctoral health psychology training.

“Trainee Health Psychologists accumulate 450 hours of clinical therapeutic applied hours on placement, alongside the development of specialist skills in person centred care in first year, cognitive behavioural therapy in year two and pluralistic or third wave approaches in the final year.

“On placement, Trainee Health Psychologists typically focus on supporting clients with mild to moderate health related issues and receive regular clinical supervision from Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Practitioner Psychologists for all psychological intervention work.

“All Trainee Health Psychologists receive ongoing placement support from a Placement Co-ordinator, which includes support in finding a placement working within health care setting, such as within the NHS, private sector and third sector. All placements are evaluated and monitored by the Placement Co-ordinator. The University also gathers feedback on supervision and placements from trainees to monitor health psychology process.”

Dr McParland, Programme Director, DPsych Health Psychology, said: “The programme sits within the Applied Doctoral Framework alongside Counselling and Sport and Exercise Psychology – this makes the programme unique, sets us apart from our competitors and provides an important learning opportunity for cross-discipline shared learning.”

Thirteen Trainee Health Psychologists have graduated from the programme and have now qualified as HCPC-registered Practitioner Health Psychologists, and are Chartered Psychologists with the British Psychological Society.

The DPsych Health Psychology graduates are working in diverse areas spanning the NHS, private practice and academia, working across all areas including pain, cancer and mental health.

An article has also been published in the Human Kinetics journal, led by first-year DPsych Sport and Exercise Psychology Trainee Anjali Agrawal, entitled ‘Same Game, Many Cultures: A Multicultural Reflection on a Trainee’s Intervention Work With a Professional Esports Team’.

Three doctoral training programmes in Health Psychology, Counselling Psychology, and Sport and Exercise Psychology are on offer within Glasgow Caledonian’s Department of Psychology.

For more details on our range of programmes in the Department of Psychology go to our webpages -