Understanding Health Psychology

Health psychology is a specialty area that focuses on how biological, psychological and social factors affect an individual’s health and well-being. Health psychology focuses on how a person’s emotional and mental reaction to an illness or recovery affects them.

A clinical health psychologist is trained to work directly with people who are suffering from the effects of a disease, illness or a medical condition. The focus of treatment is often on helping people process and deal with the illness or medical condition itself as well as how the disease or illness may be affecting the person’s life, relationships, and wellbeing. Health psychologists can work with people suffering from acute or chronic illness, severe anxiety over medical procedures, depression associated with illness or disease and fear. Health psychologists are also involved with preventative care helping people to learn ways to develop healthier life style practices and ways to lessen the impact of the illness or disease on their life.

Specialty and Areas of Practice

Dr. Bisignano has a sub-specialty in health psychology. Her areas of practice include women’s issues:

• prenatal care
• pregnancy complications
• infertility
• chronic illness
• pain management
• cancer treatment
• domestic violence

Dr. Bisignano has a doctoral level certification in health psychology. She conducted her doctoral dissertation research at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where she did research, conducted assessments, ran an intervention assisting people encountering stressful medical procedures, chronic and life threatening illness. Additionally, Dr. Bisignano did a pre-doctoral internship in a crisis-counseling center working with women and their children suffering from domestic violence, trauma and crisis situations.

If you are struggling with a health condition and would like a psychologist who understands the issues you may be facing, call Dr. Angela Bisignano at her Palos Verdes or Manhattan Beach office today for a 15-minute complimentary consultation at (424) 206-9055.

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