Claudi Bockting
Principal Investigator
Claudi L. Bockting PhD, professor in Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at the department of Psychiatry in Amsterdam University Medical Centers and is one of the founders and directors of the interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Mental Health of the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands. She also works since over 30 years as a licensed clinical psychologist. She was a visiting professor at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School at Harvard University (2023).
Dr. Bockting (co-)authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals such as Nature, World Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry and Lancet Psychiatry and offers international intervention workshops, including digital interventions, for depression, anxiety and relapse prevention. She received an honorary doctorate of the University of Basel (2022) and an elected membership of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts for her work on improving mental health outcomes in common mental conditions worldwide. She is the recipient of Fellowships at institutions such as Beck Institute International Scholarship Philadelphia, Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Amsterdam, and the World Health Organization.
Our Team
Nadia van der Spek
Senior Researcher
Nadia received her PhD from the VU University in 2016 studying under prof.dr. Irma Verdonck-de Leeuw and prof.dr. Pim Cuijpers. She has conducted several intervention studies in the field of mental health. She coordinates the academic workplace Shift Left. Nadia is interested in interventions targeting personal relations, and social connection in mental health care settings, as well as suicidality and suicide prevention. As a scientist practitioner, Nadia combines her research with clinical work, and she is director of De Amsterdamse, a psychological treatment center for young adults, and for family therapy.
Evi-Anne van Dis
Postdoctoral Researcher
Evi-Anne earned her PhD from Utrecht University in 2021, specializing in the mechanisms of anxiety disorders and their treatment under supervision of Prof. Dr. Iris Engelhard and Dr. Muriel Hagenaars. Her research spans both fundamental experimental studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on innovative interventions for anxiety and depression, such as the PROFIT-study. Alongside her clinical research, Evi-Anne is committed to promoting the responsible use of generative AI in scientific and societal contexts. As a scientist-practitioner, she combines her research with her work as a practicing psychologist.
René Freichel
Postdoctoral Researcher
René is in the final stages of his PhD at the University of Amsterdam at the Centre for Urban Mental Health, where his thesis revolved around longitudinal network models for studying cognitive control as a transdiagnostic risk factor of psychopathology. His work leverages advanced quantitative methods to investigate the temporal dynamics of suicidality and anxiety, with the ultimate goal of informing personalized intervention strategies. Alongside his research, René is also pursuing clinical training as a psychotherapist (in cognitive behavioral therapy) in Germany.
Angélique Cramer
Associate Professor
Angélique received her PhD cum laude from the University of Amsterdam (Psychological Methods group) in 2013. She is one of the pioneers of the network perspective on psychopathology in which mental health conditions are hypothesized to be the potential outcome of symptoms and other relevant factors that interact with one another in a complex network structure. Currently, she works at the Centre for Urban Mental Health with a focus on designing and testing (multilevel) interventions for common mental health conditions, within a complex system methodological framework.
First Promotor PhD Students
Agnes Ayuningtias
Agnes is a PhD student in Department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam University Medical Center under the University of Amsterdam. She's working on projects under supervision of Prof. Claudi Bockting. Agnes completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at University of Surabaya and her master degree in Psychology (clinical) at University of Indonesia. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she worked as a clinical psychologist in Bali, Indonesia. She is interested in mental health, particularly about common mental health disorders, interventions and well being.
Joost Gülpen
Joost is a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam UMC. His research focuses on improving treatment outcomes for patients in partial remission from depression, which is a serious debilitating and distressing clinical phase, associated with a broad range of adverse outcomes. He is running a multicenter randomized controlled trial, the HERSTEL-study, to test a multimodal treatment aimed at reducing residual symptoms and preventing depressive relapse. Additionally, he uses both conventional and individual patient data (IPD) meta-analyses to evaluate treatment efficacy, identify moderators, and explore associations with prognostic markers in this patient group. Joost also has a background in clinical practice.
Neelke de Jonge
Luana Gâvan
Luana is a PhD candidate at Amsterdam UMC under prof. Claudi Bockting and dr. Nadia van der Spek, also in collaboration with KU Leuven and prof. Guy Bosmans. She received her Master’s degree from the University of Amsterdam in 2021 and has worked in the clinical practice as a psychologist. Her research focuses on improving outcomes for suicidality and understanding the ways in which interpersonal contacts can impact suicide-related outcomes. Luana is part of the REPAIR-study team, a pragmatic multicenter randomized controlled trial which investigates the (cost-)effectiveness of Attachment Based Family Therapy for suicidal young adults in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Suzanne Robberegt
As a PhD-student, Suzanne has contributed to the design of the StayFine app, app-based interventions, to prevent relapse in depressive, and/or anxiety disorders in young individuals. She conducted a pilot study, a meta-analysis examining the effectiveness of relapse prevention interventions for young individuals, and designed and coordinated the randomized clinical trial into the efficacy of the StayFine interventions. Her other research interest includes the clinical application of the network approach. Alongside her PhD, she works as a psychologist with young individuals in specialized mental health care (GGZ Oost Brabant).
Ricardo Trinidad
Ricardo is currently in training to become a clinical psychological specialist. Ricardo is a PhD-student in the REPAIR-study under Claudi Bockting. He is interested in the role of interpersonal (family-)connections in relationship to mental health.
Theogene Uwizeyimana
Theogene is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam University Medical Center. His research focuses on the application of digital interventions to address common mental health conditions, such as depression, among mothers in Rwanda and explores the impact of these conditions on their offspring.
His work is supported by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie GROW COFUND Programme. Theogene previously worked at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda, where he coordinated research activities for the USAID-funded Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) program. He was awarded the Best Young African Researcher Award in 2023 by the Merck Foundation. Theogene holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Mount Kenya University Rwanda.
Wilco Janssen
Wilco is a senior psychologist at 113 suicide prevention and a PhD student at 113 Suicide Prevention and the Amsterdam UMC. His work focuses on enhancing the understanding and prevention of suicide. He is a teacher for the postmaster training program for mental health psychologists and frequently speaks on suicide prevention, especially on the limitations of suicide risk assessment and possible alternatives.
Nineke Wilts
Nineke Wilts is currently working on her PhD at Amsterdam UMC and is a contributor to the StayFine research project, which is an app focused on relapse prevantion of anxiety and depression in adolescents. Before starting her PhD, she completed a research master in Clinical Psychology at Maastricht University. She is interested in researching innovative ways to improve depression and anxiety outcomes in adolescents, with a specific focus on relapse prevention.
Neelke is currently in training at the psychiatry department of the Amsterdam UMC to become a clinical psychologist. Since graduating in 2002, she has been working as a psychologist, both with adolescents and adults. As a PhD student she is involved in the StayFine study. In this study we use individual networks and other sources of information to personalise intervention matching to a supermarket of intervention apps in adolescents who suffered from a depressive- and/or an anxiety disorder. The digital interventions are guided by individuals with lived experience. Among other research aims, we study the effect of this personalised interventions to prevent relapse. In this way she wants to contribute to improving the emotional well-being of adolescents in this challenging phase of life.
Bas Kooiman
Bas Kooiman is PhD candidate under prof. Maaike Nauta, dr. Yvonne Stikkelbroek, prof. Claudi Bockting and prof. Casper Albers at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. His research focuses on underlying mechanisms and predictors of anxiety and depressive disorder relapse in youth. Bas contributes to design, coordination and (randomized clinical trial) research of the StayFine app: a personalized app-based modular relapse prevention intervention for youth in remission of depressive and anxiety disorders. Secondly, Bas is involved in coordination, coding and data synchronization of the PADDY project, a global independent patient dataset (IPDMA) of over 80 trials examining treatment of anxiety disorders in young people (incl. the ‘Wat werkt voor wie’ project).
Second Promotor PhD Students
Vera Korenblik
Vera studies the role of the gut microbiota in depression under prof. Claudi Bockting, prof. Stanley Brul, dr. Anja Lok and dr. Aniko Korosi. Vera received her Master's degree from the University of Amsterdam in 2022 and is now a PhD student at the Centre for Urban Mental Health. Embedded in both the faculties of medicine and science, she investigates the role of butyrate, a bacterial metabolite. Vera conducts clinical and preclinical studies to establish whether supplementation with butyrate is an effective treatment to reduce depressive symptoms. In her free time, Vera plays field hockey and board games. She also has a passion for bird watching and cooking home-made Italian pasta.
Nancy Schipper
Nancy is a PhD student researching treatments for depression using Virtual Reality interventions to target anhedonia and behavioral activation in depression . A proof of concept study is ongoing, with a randomized momentary assessment design.
Another related study concerns a micro momentary assessment randomized controlled trial evaluating the effect of Virtual Reality for psycho-education on self-stigma in depression (with GGZ Delfland).
Rutger van der Linden
Rutger is a PhD candidate affiliated with both the Quantitative Data Analytics Group and the Centre for Urban Mental Health. During the bachelor’s degree Medical Informatics at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), he discovered his interest in the use of AI for enhancing health(care). This fascination made him pursue a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence at the Vrije Universiteit (VU), specializing in ‘AI for health’. His current research focuses on developing and implementing machine learning algorithms to personalize digital mental health interventions as part of the European RECONNECTED project. This project aims to better understand how global developments impact the mental health of European citizens and to provide digital solutions to nine vulnerable communities in order to protect their mental health.
Affiliated PhD Students
Shakuntala is a PhD candidate at Amsterdam UMC working on the Social Connection project. The aim of this project is to use computational analysis to identify and predict quality social connections and reductions in loneliness in patients with depressive symptoms. This study will be embedded in the recently founded Innovation Lab Mental Health, a research collaboration between Amsterdam UMC and Arkin, which is coordinated by Nadia Van der Spek.
Shakuntala M. Ramnath
Research Assistants
Mariejean Albers
Mariejean received her Master of Science in Neurosciences from the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam in 2022. Mariejean has been conducting two studies on depression, i.e., the PROFIT-study and the rTMS-PCT-study. She is currently working as a research assistant and functions as executive researcher on both studies. She is interested in research that has a direct impact on people’s wellbeing.