About me
Janessa Tan is a Professional Doctorate student in Health Psychology at the University of Stirling. Her work aims to integrate health psychology, behavioural science, and mind–body approaches to support physical health, mental wellbeing, and quality of life among individuals living with long-term and complex health conditions.
Alongside her doctoral training, Janessa currently works as a Support Practitioner at Carr Gomm, a Scottish charity providing community-based support for individuals with complex needs. In this role, she supports people with mental health difficulties and long-term conditions.
Janessa has also developed and delivered evidence-based interventions across clinical, community, and digital health settings. She has experience working within multidisciplinary teams, including her role as an Assistant Psychologist in an NHS Chronic Pain Service, where she supported individuals experiencing persistent pain using psychologically informed approaches. Alongside this, she has designed and delivered wellbeing classes and workshops, drawing on her training as a certified Yoga and Spin Instructor and her specialist training with the Yoga in Healthcare Alliance, including Yoga4Health and Yoga Therapy for PTSD and CPTSD.
Her research interests centre on the biopsychosocial impacts of chronic illness and long-term conditions, with particular interests in chronic pain, eating disorders, autoimmune conditions, and trauma-related presentations. She is especially interested in how psychological, physical, and lifestyle factors interact to shape health behaviours,pain experiences, body image and wellbeing, and in developing accessible, compassionate, and evidence-based interventions that bridge health psychology and embodied practices.