Speaker

Dr Natascha Van Zyl is a visionary, values‑driven healthcare professional with over 30 years of progressive experience across clinical practice, academia, public health, and service development. She is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society, a Registered Health Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council, a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health, a Senior Fellow of Advance HE, and a registered Lifestyle Medicine and Complementary Healthcare practitioner.

Renowned for her integrative, trauma‑informed approach, Natascha has pioneered innovative therapeutic pathways, specialist obesity and bariatric care models, and cutting‑edge behavioural science curricula. Her clinical practice blends psychological therapies (ACT, CBT, SFBT, MI, mindfulness) with lifestyle medicine approaches, drawing on additional training in counselling, naturopathy, physical therapy and nutrition. She specialises in behaviour change, long‑term conditions, obesity, bariatric surgery care, addiction, and psychobiological medicine.

As Clinical Director of Psychological Therapies and Bariatric Care at The Health Matters Group, she provides clinical leadership across the specialist multidisciplinary weight‑management pathway. Her work includes psychological assessment, intervention, MDT consultation, supervision of psychological practitioners, and service development aligned with national guidelines. Her NHS consultancy work in Bariatric Care involves Tier 3 Bariatric assessments and collaboration with MDTs (Tier 3 and 4) across the Trust/s.

In her academic portfolio, Natascha is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Health Psychology and MSc Course Lead at the University of Portsmouth, overseeing curriculum design, teaching, research supervision, and professional training. Her extensive academic leadership includes a previous tenure at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, where she integrated behaviour-change training into core curricula and led programmes (e.g., Graduate Diploma in Integrative Functional Nutrition). As a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and experienced programme designer, she is recognised for pedagogic innovation and compassionate leadership.

A published qualitative researcher, Natascha has contributed meaningfully to the understanding of long‑term weight‑loss maintenance, psychosocial well-being post-bariatric surgery, and lived experiences of chronic illness. She remains active in research, digital health, and patient‑public involvement, with a portfolio spanning systematic reviews, IPA studies, qualitative explorations, and national collaborations.

Across clinical, academic, and public health domains, Natascha brings a rare interdisciplinary perspective grounded in compassion, evidence‑based practice, and a deep commitment to empowering individuals and shaping psychologically informed, integrative healthcare systems. She welcomes networking and collaboration opportunities.

Her professional memberships include:

British Psychological Society (Chartered)

Health and Care Professions Council (Registered Health Psychologist)

Royal Society for Public Health (Fellow)

Advance HE (Senior Fellow)

Complementary Natural Healthcare Council (Registered CAM Practitioner)

British Society of Lifestyle Medicine (Lifestyle Medicine Practitioner)

Association for the Study of Obesity and The Obesity Society

British Obesity & Metabolic Surgery Society

Behavioural Science and Public Health Network