You may be considering having surgery or other less invasive procedures. This could be to alter your appearance, such as cosmetic surgery or laser treatment, to reduce your risk of disease, such as risk reducing mastectomy, or to improve function, such as targeted muscle re-innervation or osseo-integration. As part of this process a psychologist may be recommended to you or you may feel it would be helpful to see a psychologist.

A good surgeon will want to treat you as a person, in a holistic way. For example, it is very rare that you would see a surgeon and only be concerned with the physical change in that part of the body. Usually, you also expect other changes. For example, that you may wish that you are more able to do certain activities, be less worried, feel more confident, and so on. If these other hopes are not explored, you may not understand what surgery may not give you. Similarly, outcomes from surgery are not guaranteed and a period of adjustment following major surgery is needed. Understanding how you may cope with surgery is helpful in your care. A better appreciation of you from a psychological perspective is therefore important.

Occasionally, though not necessarily, a surgeon may have concerns about your emotional well-being or aspects that could undermine a good outcome from an intervention. In fact, in the area of cosmetic surgery, the British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons suggest that a surgeon should assess the person’s psychological state and refer on for further assessment and treatment where there are concerns.