Health psychology

Specialisation of: Psychology
Degree: Master of Science in Psychology
Mode of Study: Full-time
Duration: 1 year
Start date: September and February
Language of instruction: English
Location: Leiden
Croho/isat code: 66604
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Would you like to be involved in this new and rapidly developing sub-discipline of psychology? Health Psychology can be described as:

“the aggregate of the specific educational, scientific and professional contributions of the discipline of psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, the identification of etiological and diagnostic correlates of health and illness and related dysfunction, and the analysis and improvement of the health care system and health policy” (Matarazzo, 1982).

Career

Completion of the MSc degree will prepare you for subsequent
academic study, such as:

  • A qualification as health care psychologist (PDO ‘GZ-psycholoog’ (adult)),
  • PhD study,
  • Specific therapy-training programmes (e.g. cognitive behaviour therapy).

If you complete this master’s specialisation, you are qualified for any position requiring a degree in psychology, as well as for general research positions and academic policy-making positions.

The most frequent settings for health psychologists are

  • General and university hospitals,
  • Medical psychology settings,
  • Community health centres (GG & GD),
  • Rehabilitation centres,
  • Government, companies,
  • National health funds,
  • Research institutes,
  • Primary health care settings

What our alumni say

Mariska Blom, MSc

“As a psychologist, I give at different practices brief psychological treatments, mostly based on cognitive behavioural therapy.”

“During my Health Psychology study at Leiden University, I did my internship at a hospital in The Hague for one full year. I worked at the Medical Psychology department, where I carried out interventions and treatments on patients who needed psychological help. The psychological interventions and somatic complaints of the patients varied a lot, which made the work very interesting.

Now I work for Parnassia, a large institution specialised in mental health care. As a psychologist, I work at different general practices and I give brief psychological treatments. Most treatments are based on cognitive behavioural therapy and the main complaints are depression, anxiety, grief and relationship problems. I really enjoy my work, because all my patients have different complaints and I have the opportunity to treat a very broad field of problems.

In the master’s in Health Psychology I expected to learn about the relationship between somatic complaints and psychological health and also about health promotion and psychological interventions. The master’s lived up to these expectations and in addition I also learned a lot about diagnostic skills and psychological disorders. Looking back, the courses in Basic therapeutic skills and Cognitive- behavioural interventions were particularly helpful for the work I am doing now. In these courses I learned many basic and general interventions, which I now use in practice. I would definitely recommend the master’s in Health Psychology to students who are interested in the combination of psychology, health behaviour and somatic complaints or diseases.”