My research focuses on depression, youth, transgenerational transmission of common mental disorders, and psychological interventions. This includes approaches to prevent common mental disorders in youth and pregnant women and investigating the effects of common mental disorders during pregnancy on offspring.

In addition, my research is focused on investigating the current evidence for predictors of common mental disorders, including anxiety, depression, and addiction. I am currently coordinating a large meta-analysis on the onset, relapse, maintenance, and recovery of those common mental disorders (the Mega Meta project). I have experience in conducting nationwide randomized controlled trials, including ecological momentary assessment, large meta-analyses, reviews, and lab experiments, to cooperate with (international) multidisciplinary researchers and clinicians from different fields. I currently work at professor Claudi Bockting’s lab, location Amsterdam UMC (AMC), University of Amsterdam; at the Centre for Urban Mental Heath; and together with dr. Anja Lok (microbiome research).

For the most recent publications, go to my publications page.

Current Projects

HERSTEL study

The Mega Meta project

Outpatient clinic for young adults with affective disorders

 

International Presentations

September 2021 – European Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (EABCT). Digital and live conference, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Symposium: Relapse prevention in depression in times of corona: What works for whom and how? Talk: Predicting and preventing depressive relapse in adults.

September 2019 – BABCP 47th Annual Conference 2019. 
Bath, UK. Symposium presentation. Symposium: Maintaining recovery after depression: predicting and preventing relapses. Talk: Evidence for leading psychological theories of depressive relapse and recurrence: A meta-analytic review of prospective studies.

July 2019 – 9th World Congress of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 2019. Berlin, Germany. 
Symposium presentation. Symposium: Relapse Prevention in Depression with Cognitive Behavioral Interventions: At the Cross Roads Toward Sustainable Interventions. Talk: Tapering Antidepressants in Pregnant Women with Preventive Cognitive Therapy: An Ecological Momentary Assessment RCT.

November 2018 – Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) 2018 convention. Washington D.C., USA. Symposium presentation and poster presentation. Symposium: Innovative Interventions for Perinatal Mood Disorders: Developing and Evaluating Strategies to Improve Maternal and Child Outcomes. Talk: Psychological Interventions for Common Mental Disorders During Pregnancy. Poster: Within-individual emotional changes during tapering or continuation of antidepressants during pregnancy: Results from a micro-trial.

June 2018 – Society for psychotherapy Research (SPR) 49th annual international meeting. Amsterdam, NL. Symposium presentation. Symposium: Towards sustainable treatment and relapse prevention for depression. Talk: Within-individual emotional changes during tapering or continuation of antidepressants during pregnancy: Results from a micro trial.

February 2018 – MQ Mental Health Science Meeting 2018. Londen, UK. Poster: Offspring outcomes after prenatal interventions for common mental disorders: A meta-analysis. Travel bursary received from MQ.

July 2017 – 15th European Congress of Psychology. Amsterdam, NL. Symposium: Are we on the right clinical track in research on etiological theories of depression? Talk: Evidence for psychological maintenance theories for relapse and recurrence.

October 2016 – Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) 2016 convention. New York City, USA. Symposium presentation and poster presentation. Symposium: Treatment of Depression and Anxiety in Pregnancy: Outcomes for Mother and Child. Talk: Preference of Relapse Prevention Strategy for Depression During Pregnancy. Poster: Stop or Go? Relapse Prevention Training With Guided Tapering of Antidepressants During Pregnancy: Study Protocol of a Pragmatic Multicenter Noninferiority Randomized Controlled Trial.

May 2015 – Symposium ‘Wetenschap in Beeld’. Utrecht University, Utrecht, NL. Co-organized the symposium and short presentation on the Stop or Go study.

September 2014 – EABCT 2014. Den Haag, NL. Symposium: Biased information processing in childhood anxiety. Talk: The Reciprocal Relationship between Confirmation Bias and Fear in Healthy Children.