Part Three: Applying critical health psychology
Kathryn McGuigan and Gareth Terry
Part Three explores how we might apply critical health psychology principles to our work as practitioners, educators, students, researchers, and activists. In this section we explore the practice of being a registered health psychologist in Aotearoa New Zealand, grounded in in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The section then moves to how students can use application based learning in the process of becoming a practitioner. We move then to promoting health and how we define and intervene in health issues, emphasising the ideological, ethical, and political dimensions of professional practice. Last, we explore critical health psychology through disability theories and use practical examples to demonstrate where we can challenge our personal and professional biases, and embrace lived experience and allyship.
“Psychologist” is a protected title in Aotearoa (meaning only those who are registered with the New Zealand Psychologists Board can use this term to describe themselves; Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003). In this section, we use “practitioners of critical health psychology” to emphasise that professional registration is just one pathway to practice in our diverse field. Practitioners of critical health psychology work in a range of settings, including in health services as registered psychologists; as members of the broader wellbeing workforce; in health promotion, public health, and policy; in non-governmental and community health organisations; and in research and teaching.
Chapter 3.1 “Frameworks for critical health psychology practice in Aotearoa” presents an overview of ethics, cultural safety, and reflexivity as frameworks to guide emerging practitioners in the discipline of critical health psychology. These frameworks are grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and sit within a broader frame of social justice. The chapter illustrates the interconnected nature of ethical, cultural, and reflexive frameworks, which practitioners must understand and apply in relation to one another.
Chapter 3.2 “Becoming a critical health psychology practitioner” brings us back into the student space. In this chapter, Terry discusses the value of practice placements (practicum) and how they might differ for the critical health psychology practitioner. Students are given practical exercises to help them move from thinking about theory and social justice to working with these. This section loosely uses assemblage theory to help students think about “becoming” through application-based learning within an assemblage of supervisors, skill acquisition tasks, placement locations, and university systems.
Chapter 3.3 “Defining health ‘problems’ and shaping interventions in critical health psychology” introduces us to how we might apply critical health psychology to maintain and improve health at the individual, community, and population levels. Morison explores how health psychology practitioners define and intervene in health issues, examining the values and assumptions underlying intervention choices, the potential unintended consequences of interventions, and the role of reflexivity in mitigating harm. Case studies, including participatory health initiatives such as the SiRCHESI Project in Cambodia and the Sonagachi Project in India, illustrate how different theoretical and intervention approaches shape outcomes.
Chapter 3.4 “Disability and critical health psychology: Applications for work and everyday life” starts to address the lack of attention to disability. Graham and McGuigan first explore the history of disability and review different models of disability. The chapter then moves to defining ableism and consideration of how taking a critical health psychology approach provides opportunities to address ableism. Following this, the chapter focuses on Aotearoa New Zealand and contemporary disability practice. Indigenous approaches are discussed with examples from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and Māori. Last, the chapter reflects on the intersections with marginalised groups and provides examples from specific disability communities (Blind/low vision, Neurodivergent, chronic illness, and Rainbow communities).
Overall, Part Three offers possibilities for practitioners, educators, students, researchers, and activists to not only say they are critical, but know what this means in practice. Our aim is to move us forward into becoming reflexive, ethical, relational, and culturally humble practitioners of critical health psychology. The other aim is to give examples of how research and theory can be translated well into and for the community—giving us tools to be activists for social justice.
