PhD Project

I am fascinated by the idiosyncratic and dynamic role symptoms can play within a patient, and how symptoms 'behave' across diagnostic boundaries. During my PhD within the New Science of Mental Disorders consortium and Amsterdam Emotional Memory Lab, I will investigate intrusive memories as a potential transdiagnostic driver of dysfunctional thoughts, urges and behaviours. I hope to combine network analysis, applied clinical knowledge, and experimental and mechanistic research to further understand symptom relations.

My supervisory team consists of Dr. Renée Visser, Prof. Merel Kindt, Prof. Anita Jansen, Prof. Anne Roefs, and Dr. Lourens Waldorp.

Biography

I completed my Bachelor (honours, cum laude) and Research Master (cum laude) in Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, specialising in clinical psychology and psychological methods. During my Research Master, I also completed a clinical internship in specialised mental healthcare, working as a psychologist-in-training with a wide range of patients e.g. ADHD, PTSD, depressive-, anxiety-, and personality disorders. Inspired by my experiences in clinical care and interest in mechanistic psychological research, I used Perceived Causal Networks to capture how mental health practitioners conceptualise the causal relationships between symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder in my master thesis.