One-on-One with Lecturer, Chartered Psychologist and Health Psychologist in Training Dr Jolel Miah

What inspired you to pursue psychology?

There are quite a few reasons I decided to pursue psychology, so I'll try and keep this short. I didn't do too well in my GCSEs, due to some personal circumstances that had a negative impact on my academic performance. I was very disappointed with my grades, and I found myself falling into self-comparison with others and feeling very isolated. I didn't feel as though my grades truly reflected my ability and so I worked hard to turn things around. I've always been really fascinated in trying to understand human behaviour, and why we do the things that we do, and that interest led to counselling and then into psychology.

You completed a PhD and are now training to be a health psychologist; tell me about your journey...

After completing my master's in 2012, I decided to pursue a qualification that would allow me to practise as an applied psychologist. My master's was in health psychology, and following a career as a health psychologist seemed like the natural route for me. At the time, however, it was expensive to do further training but I self-funded it and did a PhD by working nights and weekends over a number of years.  After starting my PhD, I still had a desire to practice as a psychologist, so I enrolled on the independent programme to work towards training as a health psychologist.

Why health psychology?

After completing my undergraduate degree in Psychology, I worked as a support worker for charity that helped raise awareness around HIV to tackle stigma. During my time there, I was involved with delivering educational workshops and providing a safe space for people to share their experiences of living with HIV. It was then that I realized I had a real passion for educating people and the broader community about health-related matters.

Funnily enough, I came across health psychology by mistake. I had planned to look into a course that focused on psychological approaches to health management. I spoke to a course tutor who signposted me to a professor, who would later become my PhD supervisor. This professor, who taught the Health Psychology masters, introduced me to health psychology and spoke about directions within the discipline and how this could be embedded into my career aspirations. It just seemed like the best fit!

Tell me about your role as a lecturer at the University of Sunderland...

My role is very varied. I teach psychology to students on both the undergraduate and masters programmes. I attend board meetings, carry out and supervise research in the department, and provide a mentoring role to students to support them in navigating the academic world. I am also involved with both internal and external networks to promote and implement the principles of psychological research.  

You're a member of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Taskforce for the British Psychological Society Health Division; Chair for BAME network, and Decolonisation, for the University of Sunderland; can you share a bit about these roles?

The BPS EDI task force for the Division of Health Psychology is still in its infancy, with some very committed members who want to make a difference in the profession. There isn't much to share yet, because we are so early on in our journey, but we have exciting things planned.

In my role in the BAME network for the University of Sunderland, we reflect on the challenges that staff may face and use it as a space to identify solutions to address any issues. The network is supported by representatives and allies, including sponsorship from senior management of the university.

Furthermore, at the university, I am also involved in looking at ways that we can decolonise our curriculum, which I am overseeing with another colleague.

You won 'I'm a scientist, get me out of here'; tell me about that.

This is akin to the TV programme 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here'; it's a competition where different scientists in different categories (mine was in Psychology) are invited to share what they do in their working week with young people across secondary schools. This is done on an online platform where the organisers connect young people to scientists. The young people get to vote out a scientist every day until they choose a winner and much to my surprise, they chose me!

Tell me about your podcast.

I started the podcast 'Psychology Cast' in 2019. This podcast is a space where people in the field of mental health, applied areas of psychology, and academia (to name a few), share their journeys and why they do what they do. I started this to try and understand my journey, and I hope it's the same experience for my listeners!

And what about your Charity, 'Our Minds Matter'?

I never set out to start a charity, but working with people in the industry helped shape and create this charity in 2014. We provide mental health education for people who don't access mental health services. The charity is underpinned by a faith and psycho-spiritual mental health and well-being ethos. Our work has two strands: one is providing mental health education to the public, particularly for faith communities, and the second is working with local and national services to provide a fairer offer to the population.

What advice would you give to others either pursuing or thinking about pursuing a career within psychology?

I would say focus on your journey, enjoy the learning (which is lifelong!), be open-minded and allow yourself to be open to others' views and opinions without sacrificing or compromising your values and principles in the process!

Fauzia Khan is an Assistant Psychologist currently working within the NHS, whilst completing her Doctorate in Counselling Psychology.