Dr. Andreas Heißel
google-scholar profile | researchgate profile | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9270-7027
educational commitment
Academic Role
Dr. Andreas Heißel works at the Professorship for Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Potsdam (Germany). His work integrates independent research, university teaching, and the coordination of interdisciplinary research and knowledge transfer at the interface of mental health, physical activity, and health care.
His work is embedded in national and international scientific, professional, and practice-oriented collaborations.
He has an interdisciplinary academic background in sports science, political science, and education and holds a PhD in sport psychology.
Research Focus
Dr. Heißel’s research addresses mental and emotional health across the lifespan, focusing on psychological mechanisms, motivation, and physical activity in preventive, clinical, and real-world health care contexts. Core areas include:
• Mental health, depression, anxiety, and chronic pain
• Basic psychological needs, motivation, and behavior change
• Exercise and physical activity in mental health care
• Mindfulness- and mind–body-based interventions (including breathing- and meditation-based techniques)
• Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), treatment effectiveness, and evidence synthesis (including meta-analysis)
He works across clinical, translational, and services research and publishes regularly in international peer-reviewed journals while actively supporting the transfer of this research into clinical and health care practice settings.
Translational and Transfer Activities
A defining feature of Dr. Heißel’s work is the systematic linkage of research, teaching, and practice. He plays a key role in developing, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based interventions and professional training formats in collaboration with national and international partners and contributes to the coordination of research and transfer collaborations at the interface of academia, health care, and practice. This supports the sustainable integration of research findings into real-world prevention and care contexts.
Teaching and Academic Mentorship
Dr. Heißel teaches at Bachelor’s, Master’s, and doctoral levels in sport and health sciences. His teaching covers exercise therapy and mental health, mind–body approaches, and advanced research methods (e.g., systematic reviews and meta-analyses). He is also involved in the supervision and mentoring of early-career researchers across sport and health sciences, psychology, and medicine.
