Heather Prayor-Patterson, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Connecting the Mind and Body for Optimal Health
“This interdisciplinary model we have at the Seavey Clinic recognizes the importance of primary care and mental health care in the same setting.”
When patients at the Seavey Clinic feel stuck in negative health habits, they turn to Dr. Heather Prayor-Patterson.
An Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory School of Medicine, Dr. Prayor-Patterson is a specialist in health psychology, with a focus on chronic health issues such as obesity, chronic pain, chronic insomnia, and diabetes. In her role at the Seavey Clinic, she helps patients overcome the mental obstacles to reaching their health goals.
“I help people change how they think about their health,” she says. “We brainstorm how to coordinate new ways to make healthy choices.”
Dr. Prayor-Patterson describes her style as structured and active, incorporating cognitive behavior therapy, meditation, technology tools, and other strategies to help her patients replace unhealthy habits. In doing so, they often find relief from the anxiety and depression that are often at the root of problems such as insomnia and emotional eating. With her help, patients learn to increase mobility and activity despite chronic pain, get better quality of sleep, quit smoking and tackle mild dependency on alcohol, marijuana, and electronic devices.
Initially being a pre-med student, Dr. Prayor-Patterson did not pursue a deep understanding of the reasons why people struggle to make the changes they need to improve their health. She considered becoming a heart surgeon. However, her fascination with how animal behavior informs human behavior led her to put aside MD plans and become a psychologist instead.
Her career took her through research labs where knowledge is gained from basic science, and clinical settings where discoveries are applied to real people. These experiences influenced her work today that goes beyond a patient’s medical records into their decision making and emotional triggers.
To determine underlying causes, she digs deeply into her patients’ background and psyche, gathering information from their medical records and building a relationship with them. Patients often have not revealed to anyone the extent of dependency until Dr. Prayor-Patterson’s non-judgmental manner puts them at ease.
One patient was diabetic and not compliant with his insulin. Dr. Prayor-Patterson was puzzled, because the patient followed the prescribed therapy for his heart condition. Why was he diligent about one disease but not the other?
A deep dive into his history revealed that his heart event “felt like a brush with death.” That motivated him to change his habits to take care of his heart. But diabetes had not caused serious complications, and he was the type of person who needed a wake-up call. “He had not hit rock bottom,” she says.
She had to motivate him to take his diabetes seriously. She tapped into an aspect of his personality that shone through in his history: his competitiveness. She challenged him to a competition with his physician, with bragging rights as the prize.
“Any nugget I can find to motivate and create a spark of interest,” she says, “I will try it.”
Specialties
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Health psychology
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Chronic conditions
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Insomnia
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Obesity
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Diabetes
Research Interests
Disparities in chronic health conditions in African Americans and information needs of lower-income, minority cancer patients; prevalence of mental health diagnoses in weight loss surgery candidates and relevance of the timing of the psychological evaluation during the pre-surgical bariatric process
Major Publications
Post-Graduate training:
- Health Psychology Fellowship, Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, 2012
- Health Psychology Fellowship, Sleep Disorder Center, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, 2012
- Health Psychology Fellowship, Primary Care, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, 2011
- Health Psychology Fellowship, Center for Headache and Facial Pain Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, 2011
- Predoctoral Clinical Psychology Internship, Salem Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Salem, VA, 2010
Doctoral program:
- University of Alabama, Birmingham, 2010
Graduate:
- University of Alabama, Birmingham, 2007
Undergraduate:
- Emory University, 2001
Licensures
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Illinois, issued 2013
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Georgia, issued 2016
Honors and Awards
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Loyalty Leader Award in the Psychiatry & Behavior Sciences department, NorthShore University HealthSystem, 2016
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Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute Research Day Psychology Award, 2012
Professional Memberships
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American Psychological Association, 2008 – 2010, 2017 – present
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Ohio Psychological Association, 2011 – 2012
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Midwest Pain Society, 2013 – 2016
Major Publications
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Martin, M.Y., Prayor-Patterson H., Kratt, P., Young K., & Person S. (2007). Characteristics of Insufficiently Active Hypertensive Black Women who volunteer to be in a Physical Activity Promotion Intervention: An Application of Social Cognitive Theory and the Transtheoretical Model. Ethnicity & Disease, 17, 604-102.
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Martin, M.Y., Person, S., Kratt, P., Prayor-Patterson, H., Kim, Y., Salas, M., & Pisu, M. (2008). Relationship of health behavior theories with self-efficacy among insufficiently active hypertensive African-American women. Patient Education and Counseling, 72, 137-145.
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Martin, M.Y., Kohler, C., Kim, Y.I., Kratt, P., Schoenberger, Y.M., Litaker, M.S., Prayor-Patterson, H.M., Clarke, S.J., Andrews, S., & Pisu, M. (2010). Taking less than prescribed: medication nonadherence and provider-patient relationships in lower-income, rural minority adults with hypertension. Journal of Clinical Hypertension, 12, 706-713.
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Martin, M.Y., Kim, Y., Kratt, P., Litaker, M., Kohler, C., Schoenberger, Y., Clarke, S., Prayor-Patterson, H., Tseng, T.S., Pisu, M., & Williams, O.D. (2011). Medication Adherence among Rural, Low Income Hypertensive Adults: A Randomized Trial of a Multimedia Community Based Intervention. American Journal of Health Promotion, 25, 372-378.
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Dignan, M., Evans. M., Kratt, P., Pollack, L.A., Pisu, M., Smith, J.L., Prayor-Patterson, H., Houston, P., Watson, C., Hullet, S., & Martin, M.Y. (2011). Recruitment of low income, predominantly minority cancer survivors to a randomized trial of the I Can Cope cancer education program. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 22, 912-924.
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Martin, M.Y., Pollack, L.A., Evans, M.B., Smith, J.L., Kratt, P., Prayor-Patterson, H., Watson, C.D., Dignan, M., Cheney, L.C., & Pisu, M., Liwo, A., & Hullet, S. (2011). Tailoring cancer education and support programs for low-income, primarily African American cancer survivors. Oncology Nursing Forum, 38, E55-59.
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Sullivan, A.B., Scheman, J., LoPresti, A, & Prayor-Patterson, H. (2012). Interdisciplinary treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis and chronic pain: A descriptive study. International Journal of MS Care, 14, 216-220.
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Martin, M.Y., Evans, M.B., Kratt, P., Pollack, L.A., Smith, J.L., Oster, R., Dignan, M., Prayor-Patterson, H., Watson, C., Houston, P., Andrews, S., Liwo, A., Tseng, T.S., & Hullet, S., Oliver, J., & Pisu, M. (2014). Meeting the informational needs of lower income cancer survivors: Results of a randomized control trial evaluating the American Cancer Society’s “I Can Cope”. Journal of Health Communication, 19, 441-459.
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Hay, J.L., Harris, J., Waters, E., Clayton, M., Ellington, L., Abernathy, A., & Prayor-Patterson, H. (2009). Personal communication in primary and secondary cancer prevention: Evolving discussions, emerging challenges. Journal of Health Communication, 14 Supplementary 1, 18-29.
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Diefenbach, M., Turner, G., Carpenter, K.M., Sheldon, L.K., Mustian, K.M., Gerend, M.A., Rini, C., von Wagner, C., Gritz, E.R., McQueen, A., Prayor-Patterson, H.M., & Miller, S. (2009). Cancer and patient-physician communication. Journal of Health Communication, 14 Supplementary 1, 57-65.