International Think Tank

We are proud to have hosted an international think tank on the future of psychological treatments, held in Marburg from August 22-25, 2022. The event brought together leading scientists from prestigious universities such as Harvard, Oxford, Regina, New South Wales, São Paulo, and Uppsala, as well as from renowned institutions such as the Karolinska Institutet and the Massachusetts General Hospital. The think tank covered a wide range of topics, including translation, big data and AI, network models, implementing psychological treatments for mass benefit, therapist education and training, state-of-the-art study design, and public outreach. The think tank was great fun, and we look forward to continuing to shape the future of psychological treatment. We have integrated the most important ideas from the think-tank into a position paper that is currently in press @ Clinical Psychology Review. Stay tuned for more updates soon. 

Panel discussion on classification systems for mental disorders

We co-organized a panel discussion at the first german congress of psychotherapy (Berlin, 07.-11. of June 2022) featuring Miriam K. Forbes, Eiko Fried, Stefan G. Hofmann, Johannes Zimmermann, Diego A. Pizzagalli, and Geoffrey M. Reed. We discussed promising avenues to the diagnosis of mental disorders provided by different theoretical frameworks (e.g. advances in the ICD-11, the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology / HiTOP, the Research Domain Criteria / RDoC, in network analytical approaches or in process based therapy / PBT). A review paper that is discussing the topics that were brought up by the panel is published in clinical psychology in europe.

Local symposium for an improved translational exchange within psychology

 We hosted a local symposium in Gießen on July 1, 2022, bringing together scientists from various basic disciplines and clinical psychologists. The goal of the symposium was to improve networking and translational research activities between basic and clinical researchers in Marburg, Gießen, and Frankfurt, and to address any obstacles that may be hindering these efforts. The symposium was a great success, resulting in the establishment of new exchanges between scientists at all participating universities. We are hopeful that these new connections will lead to productive future collaborations. To share the meetings main ideas with the national psychology community, we have published the results in a German journal.

Panel discussion about meta-models for clinical research

PsyChange members Ulrich Stangier, Stefan G. Hofmann and Winfried Rief participated at a panel discussion concerning the importance of meta-models for psychological research during the second German congress of psychotherapy  (Berlin, 10th – 13th of May, 2023). The panel also featured Prof. Svenja Taubner (University Clinic Heidelberg) and Prof. Wolfgang Lutz (Trier University). We discussed topics like the potential of viewing evolutionary science as a meta-model for psychotherapy, the systems perspective towards mental health problems (e.g., Borsboom, 2017) and the importance of translational research for our field. We are grateful that we were given the opportunity to present promising meta-models for the improvement of future clinical psychological science. 

Panel discussion: From basic science to clinical application

PsyChange member Anke Haberkamp participated in a panel discussion targeting translational psychotherapy together with Marcella Woud and Andre Pittig (both University of Göttingen), Tania Lincoln (University of Hamburg), Matthias Berking (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg), Ulrike Lüken (Humboldt University of Berlin). Nowadays, researchers purse different ways of optimizing existing psychotherapeutic methods or developing new ones. One way is to take greater account of basic research. We discussed the necessity and advantages, as well as current barriers of translational psychotherapy and future perspectives. The important and vivid discussion was moderated by Anja Riesel (University of Hamburg) and Jan Richter (University of Hildesheim). The discussion took part at the second German congress of psychotherapy  (Berlin, 10th – 13th of May, 2023).

Regarding translational perspectives, PsyChange members Max Berg and Anke Haberkamp have interviewed experts from the German Psychological Society (DGPs). We are currently synthesizing their ideas into a perspective paper with recommendations for a better translation of psychological science into therapeutic interventions. Stay tuned for updates!