It’s safe to say that Kristín Heimisdóttir, a psychologist at HSN in Þórshöfn, is a woman with many different experiences. She has lived in Þórshöfn for 20 years with her family, husband and four children. Besides being a psychologist, she is a hair stylist, personal trainer, singer, composer and writer. She is also a member of a church choir, a sewing club and the water swimming group Baðbomburnar. I’m sure you can pick up more titles for her.

Kristín studied psychology at the University of Akureyri, but after graduating with a BA degree she decided to go further and earn a degree as a clinical psychologist. She moved to Denmark for that, specifically to Odder, a town in Jutland. “As soon as I was 16 years old I announced aloud that I wanted to be a psychologist, but I still have 22 years to go before I start studying the profession, then I was 38 years old with a large household. It was a decision to do this, especially since I have a big family, but we made it work.”

Well placed by local healthcare professionals

Kristín is based at HSN’s Þórshöfn clinic in North Iceland, on the other side of Hófaskarð there are the towns Raufarhöfn and Kópasker, which also have HSN clinics. As in many other places, the situation can always be better when it comes to the number of employees in the healthcare industry, but the situation i the region is still good. “For example, we have highly skilled nurses and one midwife. Then there are well-trained ambulance workers here, but there are always two of them on duty, and then there is always a doctor on duty. We are seeing that local people are going away to get educated, and then returning, which is very satisfying.”

Kristín’s work is relatively new in the region. She works at both HSN and Norðurþing, where she works in school services and occasionally child protection. She works in diagnostic and treatment interviews at HSN, but she has also just started working in the mental health team. She works for all of HSN’s facilities not just in Norður Þingeyjarsýsla county. “Covid taught us that offering remote services via video calls has become a fairly routine practice, but this way I can interview people in Siglufjörður or Sauðárkrókur and elsewhere in HSN’s work area if I go into it. Then I work with people of all ages, children, teenagers and the elderly. In addition, this is a prerequisite for working without a location. When I went to university, I hadn’t thought I would have to move away to work with this. I wanted to be a psychologist working in my hometown and show that it’s also possible.”

Focus now on what happens inside the head, not outside it

Before Kristín decided to let her old dream of studying psychology come true, she had run her own hair salon in Þórshöfn, which she set up when she moved there in 2004.

“In fact, there is a lot of kinship between the two professions. The best times were when you talked to people while the color was waiting in their hair, in some cases I became a trusted friend and people sometimes needed someone to listen to them. So I decided to focus on what happens inside people's head instead of outside it and to do what I always wanted to do.”

Kristín is very conscious of her health and exercises regularly. “I can’t be a good psychologist if I don’t feel good about myself, it’s really a minimum that I’m a role model in a healthy life.” And speaking of exercise, Kristín is a World Class qualified personal trainer and takes up her personal training in Þórshöfn. “It’s like working as a hairstylist, psychology is extremely useful for me in my personal training, because I welcome people who maybe never dared step into it – it’s 99% in our heads.”

Plenty to do in a small place

Þórshöfn has a population of around 400 people and is, by its very nature, a short walk to everything. “I’m really just a few minutes away from almost everything, whether it’s some service I need or the nature itself. It may not be a big town with cafés, but I can go to many wonderful cafés in the homes of people here, which is just wonderful. There’s a lot of good cohesion and a lot of family-friendly atmosphere here, we can easily run home during the lunch break even. This is the quality of life – nature, the time you have and the calmness despite busy days. After the work day, there’s really nothing better than heading out into the peace of nature.”

Kristín took four levels in classical singing and then learned to play the main guitar grips, which benefits her a lot. She started writing songs, being in a band and singing and playing in public. She and her partner Jonni got together a few years ago and wrote songs to poems of a well known poet from Langanesströnd, and they held a concert in Bjarmaland. They also have some songs that can be found on Spotify. She has also published two books for Christmas 2019 and 2020.

“It’s the same way, if I get an idea, I really have to make it happen. They’re classic Christmas books with really long names, but they’re called ‘The story of why Santa Claus stopped being evil’ and ‘The story of when Grýla was young and why she became evil’. There’s an incredible amount of psychological speculation in these stories. I’m not afraid to jump into situations that are unknown to me and try something new. I’ve experienced incredible happiness, but also a lot of grief, and that teaches me what life is now. I’m going to have the courage to live it as well and as fun as I can. If you do that, then fun things happen in the aftermath, that’s my experience. We just need to be good at listening and watching what life is trying to tell us.”