Trainee Health Psychologist, Department of Psychology, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

Heidi’s research predominantly involves working with individuals, particularly young people, with a visible difference (‘disfigurement’). This could be as a result of a traumatic injury (e.g. burn injury), a skin (e.g. psoriasis) or congenital condition (e.g. cleft lip), or as a result of treatment for diseases such as cancer (e.g. surgical scarring). She is interested in the negative and positive psychological, social and health consequences of living with a visible difference, and focuses on the development and evaluation of interventions to support those that are struggling.

Heidi has developed the YP Face IT online intervention with the support of young people, health professionals and clinical experts in the field of appearance psychology. She has secured prestigious funding and is leading a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) project to evaluate the feasibility of delivering YP Face IT via primary care (GP practices)

She has also established successful research collaborations and works with experienced body image researchers, charitable groups and health professionals in the UK and overseas (in Australia, Europe and Canada). Heidi is gaining a reputation for her work around online interventions for appearance-related issues and is currently working with the SPIN international collaboration to develop an online body image intervention for patients with Scleroderma.

Heidi is passionate about increasing health professional's awareness and knowledge of the common appearance issues and concerns of their patients and increasing patient access to appearance-related support. She develops and delivers educational packages to train multidisciplinary health professionals to support their patients with appearance concerns