Georgia Pomaki

At 13 years of age I already knew that I was going to be part of the helping professions, the question was which one. The medical system and work couldn’t answer my questions about where health and illness come from. I couldn’t understand why some people could live such healthy and fulfilling lives despite the adversity they faced, while others had everything they needed in life except for health. And so, when the time came, I turned my interest to psychology. After my B.A., I decided to train as a clinical psychologist and get a good understanding of human behaviour and how to help change it when it all goes horribly wrong. I graduated from a 4-year Clinical Doctoral program at Aristotle University in 1999, where I specialized in Systems Therapy. I liked Systems Therapy because it focuses on families (in every shape or form) and not just individuals. While training as a clinical psychologist, I realized that there are many, many, people with health problems, but a psychological treatment can only treat one person at a time. I was excited by the thought of implementing changes at a wider level and with those changes help improve the health of dozens or hundreds of people. So, I moved to the Netherlands to take up a Ph.D. student position at the Department of Health Psychology. In October 2003 I was awarded my Ph.D. degree with the thesis entitled "Self-regulation at work", under the supervision of Prof. Stan Maes. For my thesis I concentrated on self-regulation and goal theories and how these can help us understand stress and well-being at work. By helping large organizations become more worker-oriented we were able to have a positive influence on worker health. I collaborated with occupational health researchers from 7 European countries on a study about teachers' stress and burnout. I also participated in a large, 4-year intervention project at a Dutch academic hospital. In 2003, I worked in the Health Psychology Section at Leiden University on a temporary contract as assistant professor. In 2004, I moved to Canada in order to work at the University of British Columbia, after having been awarded a 3-year Marie Curie International Fellowship from the EU. In 2004 I was also awarded a 3-year Michael Smith post-doctoral fellowship. My work has focused on determinants of health in a variety of populations (individuals with spinal cord injury, employees, teachers, and the community). I have taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Leiden and UBC. I have recently worked as a research scientist at the Occupational Health and Safety Agency for Healthcare (OHSAH) in BC, where I did very exciting work with the health authorities to help workers with mental health conditions return-to-work and stay-at-work. I am particularly interested in interventions that can help workers or members of the community stay healthy and better combat stress. I like my research to have practical implications and am also very interested in testing theory as it can be applied to explain stress and health.