joanna semlyen

Update May 2019

I have given oral evidence on LGBT Mental Health to the Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry on LGBT health and social care. Link to video and detail in blog.

Update March 2019

BMI paper discussed in radio interview with Claudia Hammond. Detail in blog.

Update February 2019

New paper on BMI, unhealthy weight and sexual orientation identity: extended evidence on health disparities for LGB. Detail in blog.

Linked to radio interview on BBC World Service. Detail in blog.

Update October 2018

LGBT health impact: I have submitted evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry on LGBT health and social care.

Copy of my submission in my blog.

 

Update August 2018

LGBT health impact: In July I co-organised a recent seminar  with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology at Parliament on LGBT Health Inequalities used to provide significant evidence on  LGBT health disparities. My slides will be available on POST website soon.

Summary of my work

I am interested in sexuality/gender identity and wellbeing (physical and mental health) and its impact at a) individual level (health) b) community level (organisations) c) national/policy level. I work with Public Health England, NHS, Academics/Universities, charitable organisations.

Expertise: I have worked/published in LGBT mental health (see BMC Psychiatry blog here), substance misuse, suicide prevention, domestic violence, dementia (see my blog here), physical health (cancer, obesity/underweight, cervical screening in trans men, smoking and alcohol). I am particularly interested in the provision of LGBT within health curricula and have authored a chapter on Health Psychology in the The Palgrave Handbook of the Psychology of Sexuality and Gender published in 2015. I led the British Psychological Society response to the London Assembly Health Committee on Mental Health and LGBT People: Call for Evidence in 2017. I was invited to be involved in the Church of England Synod speaking at a fringe event about Reparative Therapy (Attempts to Change Sexual orientation) the night before the bishops report was rejected (March 2017).  Talk is available here: https://scienceandsexuality.com/dr-joanna-semlyen/. I co-wrote the BPS Position Statement on Therapies Attempting to Change Sexual Orientation (published in 2013) which fed into the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK.

I am active on Twitter posting about LGBT+, some politics and social commentary, and some nonsense. Follow me, join in.

Profession: I am a Health Care and Professionals Council (HCPC) Registered Health Psychologist, a British Psychological Society (BPS) Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. I carried out a systematic review of research on counselling and psychotherapy for LGBT for the BACP and was a contributor to the BPS Guidelines for Psychologists Working Therapeutically with Sexual and Gender Minority Clients in 2012. I am part of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Health Psychology Training Committee and a long standing member of the Psychology of Sexualities Section Committee. I am co-author of two recent papers: one about about the Psychology of Sexualities Section and another about Psychology of Sexualities Research.

Presentations: I gave a recent talk on LGBT Mental Health at UEA as part of UEA LGBT History Month 2017. I am Chairing a Symposium on Sexuality and Well-being at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in May 2017. I was delighted to be part of BNP Paribas Diversity and Inclusion initiative UK PRIDE Week in 2016 to talk about LGBT mental health and am delighted to have been asked back again this year.

Update August 2018

LGBT health impact: In July I co-organised a recent seminar  with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology at Parliament on LGBT Health Inequalities used to provide significant evidence on  LGBT health disparities. My slides will be available on POST website soon.

 

Update October 2018

LGBT health impact: I have submitted evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry on LGBT health and social care.

Copy of my submission in my blog.

 

My research bio is here