I have always felt immensely lucky to call myself a Health Psychologist. I mean, like legitimately, not some kind of niche fancy dress situation. Anyway, one of the things that has always kept me gravitationally pulled to health psychology (HP), even as my career has headed impact-wards, is the core premise of ‘making a difference’. Be it through research, practice, teaching or any aspect of the breadth of work HP covers, at its heart HP is about working out better, stronger and fairer ways to support people make positive changes. I suspect many in the profession are in it for much the same reason.

I was delighted to be invited to deliver a workshop for the Division of Health Psychology 2021 annual conference. DHP is my academic home, but one I’ve probably wandered away from a little too long doing this impact thing. It’s been a scenic route, and it’s great to be back in the fold.

The aim of this session was threefold: to cover what impact is (and isn’t), to look at it through the lens of HP, and help people find themselves in this thing called impact. Moreover I suppose I wanted to break down some of the confusion, myths and frustrations around impact, and give people space and time to look at how it fits meaningfully, appropriately and authentically within their work.

My slides and a bunch of references and resources are below. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Some responses to questions raised in the session now here.

Slides