Across the trust, we believe that you cannot support someone without understanding their physical difficulties, the emotional impacts, and what matters to them and those around them.
It is normal for people having health difficulties to have strong emotional responses. This includes people:
- Living with long-term health conditions and symptoms
- Having a medical emergency
- Going through tests and other procedures
- Caring for a child or family member with health needs.
Feelings can include fear, sadness, anger, worry, trauma, and low mood. Other family members, friends and carers can have their own concerns and feelings. These feelings can come and go. They can often improve over time. It can feel as if they get ‘stuck.’
Sometimes, a person can deal with emotional distress themselves. This may be with the support of friends, family members, support at school or work, and from the healthcare team. Some people also benefit from more specialist support. This is the role of health psychology.
Many of our services have psychologists working as a core part of the team. We work with each person, and each family, to understand their stories and needs. We work closely with people to understand their strengths and resources.
Our commitment is to help people to:
- Make sense of their situation.
- Find solutions to their difficulties.
- Find ways to cope with the demands and effects of physical events, illnesses, and symptoms.
- Develop new ways to cope with the uncertainty around health and treatments.
- Adjust to everyday life while living with the effect of their health problem.
- Live a full and meaningful life alongside the health condition(s) and symptoms.
Our psychologists and therapists are trained to understand how people respond, think, feel, and act in different situations. They also have knowledge of the medical area they work in. The psychologists complete a doctorate in clinical, counselling or health psychology. They also have training in different therapeutic approaches. They register as practitioner psychologists with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC).
This page has more about our team members, where we work in our hospitals, and how we work.
Our services within health psychology include:
You may have more than one long-term health condition and are unsure which service is for you. If so, please ask to be referred into any and we can change as needed.
We see patients across different sites. There may be others, but the most common are:
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North Tyneside General Hospital
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Wansbeck General Hospital
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Hexham General Hospital
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Monkseaton Medical Centre
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Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, Cramlington
We are also able to offer patients remote appointments via telephone or video call.
More information about our hospital sites, including parking and facilities, is available here.
An example of our therapy rooms
