Rafaële Huntjens appointed adjunct professor of experimental clinical psychology

Rafaële Huntjens has been appointed adjunct professor of experimental clinical psychology, in particular of trauma-related and dissociative disorders. Her research focuses on psychological processes that may play a role in the emergence and maintenance of trauma-related and dissociative disorders. Based on these processes, theory-driven intervention methods are developed and evaluated. The framework here is experimental psychopathology, the study of causal mechanisms in the onset, persistence and treatment of psychopathology, using experiments to unravel causal mechanisms.

The research is conducted in close cooperation with various mental health institutions, including GGZ Oost-Brabant, Altrecht, Arkin, ARQ national psychotrauma center and the national Center for Sexual Violence. It is therefore the goal to not only make the research results available to the international scientific literature, but also to actively contribute to the Dutch Mental Health Care practice by for example developing guidelines for diagnostics and treatment.

Rafaële received her PhD from Utrecht University in 2003 and has been working at the RUG since 2006, teaching at bachelor, master and post master level. She is also a senior member of the Dutch-Flemish research school of Experimental Psychopathology (EPP), and is editor-in-chief of The Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry.