Careers in Health Psychology

Having the chance to listen to two people who are in different stages in their career was really interesting. Dr. Olbirsch and Ebony both had valuable insight to share that was helpful to college aged students. For example, Dr. O. mentioned how frustrating bureaucracy is and how it makes her job more difficult. This information is helpful to us as I’m sure many of us will soon be working in heavily bureaucratic environments and will need to learn to adapt to needing to get approval on every step of a project before moving forward. While this is frustrating and slows a job down, it is a part of life that is out of our control. If we are flexible and can go with the flow then hopefully this bureaucracy will phase us less. I was really captivated by Ebony’s work. I have experience with how school conditions impact student health, so I know it’s an area that definitely deserves greater attention. I hope that she is able to make a meaningful impact in the space she works in because what she is doing is really so important. I liked how Dr. Olbirsch mentioned that losing weight is mostly all diet/nutrition. So many people think that working out is all you must do but diet plays a more important role in losing weight. I also wasn’t surprised that she said the theories of behavior change aren’t really used by the book in her practice. I feel as if in the real world, things are less based on textbook definitions than they are on personal experience and finding what works for an individual.

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One Response to Careers in Health Psychology

  1. Elizabeth Doll says:

    I also thought Ebony’s work was so cool. The impact of the school environment on student’s actual health is something that I think gets overlooked too often. I remember my own elementary school–which constantly had leaking roofs, wet carpets, and buckets throughout the hallways to collect the leaks–was probably awful for students’ health. Her focus on making not only widespread funding changes to improve school environments, but also small tangible changes, will probably make a big difference for schools in Richmond.

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