Supporting physical and mental health is central in all areas of life and employment. This master's degree integrates the promotion of health and wellness with a focus on mental and physical health and wellbeing. You'll gain knowledge, practitioner and professional skills to support a future career working with clients and patients in health-related settings. You'll also have the opportunity to undertake hands-on learning through a professional placement.
This MSc has been developed for psychology graduates (or a related discipline, such as health studies, counselling, mental health, nursing, or public health) and current health and mental healthcare professionals wishing to further their studies, develop their knowledge and skills and enhance their career opportunities.
During the course, you'll be examining health and illness to understand the relationship between psychological variables and biomedical conditions as well as physical and mental health and wellbeing.
You'll focus on application and have the opportunity to apply your knowledge and practice professional skills. These can include communication skills, ethical and reflective practice, judgment and decision-making, and skills related to formulation and assessment, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and health behaviour change.
We have strong partnerships with many health psychology organisations which means that you'll be able to undertake an eight-week work placement and gain valuable hands-on work experience. Previous placements have included working with addiction management, cancer screening, pain management, exercise promotion, stroke rehabilitation.
Course highlights
Please note that this programme does not lead to a therapy practitioner qualification.
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This master's degree allows you understand how psychology is applied to physical health and psychological wellbeing, and mental and physical ill health. You'll also focus on health promotion and health behaviour change.
During the course you will study counselling skills; interventions to promote health and well-being and to treat mental ill health; chronic illness and its management; health promotion and health behaviour change; and research methods.
You'll be encouraged to focus on both your personal and professional development in several areas. Your professional skills for example, will include clinical, counselling and research skills, analysing and appraising the usefulness and application of psychological theories, and becoming an ethical and reflective practitioner.
You'll also be continually enhancing your employability by developing your decision making and communication skills as well as practising self-awareness and self-reflection.
This module aims to provide your with core skills and knowledge in quantitative research methods in Psychology. The focus is on understanding how research questions relate to design and appropriate analyses. Across the suite of MSc programmes in Psychology, it provides you with advanced skills in a variety of statistical analyses and enables you to conduct psychological research at master’s level. The module enables you to understand and critically evaluate published quantitative psychological research. It prepares you for your dissertation and enables you to choose appropriate methodologies and analyses for research.
This module aim to provide you with an opportunity for an in-depth, advanced study in a specific area of applied psychology, pertinent to the degree for which you are registered, guided by, but largely independent of, tutor support. You will apply appropriate principles of empirical research, and present your research study in the form of a written journal article, using appropriate styles and conventions.
On this module, you will develop a critical understanding of current research evidence and perspectives on psychological trauma and its effects. The impact of trauma on different groups and at different stages of the lifespan will be reviewed. Models of intervention for psychological trauma will be critically examined and the current debates around ameliorating factors and developmental outcomes will be explored.
This module aims to introduce you to clinical health psychology applied to behaviour change and chronic health conditions, covering wellness and illness and the promotion and enhancement of health and wellbeing. It provides you with an insight into and helps you develop the skills required to work in health psychology settings and you may choose to undertake a placement as part of this. The module focuses on developing your knowledge on the application of theory to health care delivery and wellbeing, and aids your professional development in three areas a) personal development, including self-confidence, self-awareness, self-reflection and awareness of strengths and areas for improvement b) development of professional skills, including clinical skills, analysing and appraising the usefulness and application of psychology theory to practice and becoming an ethical and reflective practitioner, and c) preparation for future employability.
The aim of this module is to provide you with an introduction to the main schools of psychological therapy, their theoretical origins and how the theory is applied in practice. The module will also introduce you to the basic principles of communication skills that form the foundation of all counselling and therapy. Finally, the module will familiarise you with the role of counselling and therapy within all areas of applied psychology.
This module aims to introduce you to qualitative research methods, and to provide you with knowledge and practice by equipping you with a combination of practical and theoretical skills. You will be introduced to and familiarised with a range of qualitative methodologies and methods of generating and analysing data in-depth. The module allows the time and space necessary for sustained immersion. The module aims to enable you to become proficient in your qualitative research knowledge and skills. You will also develop reflexive practice, which is an essential aspect of qualitative research.
This module also aims to prepare you to conduct qualitative research in the future, such as in your MSc dissertation projects – it will enable you to choose suitable methodologies and analyses for your research. Therefore, this module is both ideal for, and provides a rich learning opportunity for, students who are undertaking a qualitatively-based or mixed methods dissertation project; those who want to study Psychology at a doctoral level; and for those planning a career in research.
See the course specification for more information:
We are regularly reviewing and updating our programmes to ensure you have the best learning experience. We are taking what we've learnt during recent years by enhancing our teaching methods with new and innovative ways of learning. Please regularly check this section of the course page for updates.
You'll attend interactive classes and workshops where you'll take part in discussions, role-play and problem-solving exercises and group work.
You'll be assessed on the basis of a variety of types of coursework including log books and reflections on practice, case studies, intervention design, reports and a journal style article.
You have a strong support network available to you to make sure you develop all the necessary academic skills you need to do well on your course.
Our support services will be delivered online and on campus and you have access to a range of different resources so you can get the help you need, whether you’re studying at home or have the opportunity to come to campus.
You have access to one to one and group sessions for personal learning and academic support from our library and IT teams, and our network of learning experts. Our teams will also be here to offer financial advice, and personal wellbeing, mental health and disability support.
Once you've completed this MSc course, you can choose to work in a variety of sectors such as the health service, public health, charities, organisations and academia.
Work may include helping people deal with diabetes, pain, or stroke; health promotion in communities, schools or the workplace; designing and delivering interventions for weight loss or smoking cessation; promoting well-being and mental health; and research and teaching.
Our graduates have found successful careers as:
You could also choose to continue your studies and training by training as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner to work in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services, applying to study for a PhD (i.e. a research degree) or, if you have the Graduate Basis for Chartership with the British Psychological Society, you could apply for training to become, for example, a counselling or clinical psychologist.
Dr Alexis-Garsee is a Chartered Psychologist with the BPS and is joint Programme Leader of the MSc Clinical Health Psychology and Wellbeing programme, joint Ethics Chair for the Psychology Department and Co-ordinator of the Health Psychology Lab. Her research focuses on on the use of technology for behaviour change and providing solutions for problems impacting population health such as smoking, obesity, and chronic illness.
Dr Payne is a Chartered Psychologist with the BPS and a Registered Practitioner Health Psychologist with the HCPC. She is joint programme leader of the MSc Clinical Health Psychology and Wellbeing and the Psychology Research Degrees Coordinator. Her research focuses on health behaviour change, infertility, work stress and work-life balance.
We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.
Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.
Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.
At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.
Start: September 2023, January 2023
Duration: 2 years part-time
Code: MSc: PGB76B, PGB71C
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Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGC802
Start: October 2023, January 2022
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGY000
