Participation in an expert session costs 30 euros. You can participate in all expert sessions for 90 euros!
15% discount for VUB-PE partners (staff, alumni, internship mentors) and VVKP members.
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The Minority Stress Model proposes that structural oppression experienced due to a certain minority identity leads to higher rates of psychopathology, especially for adolescents and young adults. This also holds true for gender-diverse persons, that is, persons who experience their gender beyond the norms or stereotypes of the sex they were assigned at birth. Notably, the rates of death by suicide among transgender youth are substantially elevated compared to the general population. Traditionally, psychology and psychiatry pathologized diverse genders, however, contemporarily, the consensus in the mental health field is, that variation in gender identity is healthy and normal. Despite this progress, stigma and discrimination still play a vital role in chronic psychological distress in gender-diverse people. Gender-affirmative interventions that target the predictors of stress and improve resilience have the potential to improve mental health in gender-diverse persons despite experiencing discrimination and stigma. This talk will give an overview of the construction of gender, intersectionality, and gender affirmative interventions within the context of clinical psychology as well as introduce the current research project POWER.
Laura Maria Lingenti is a PhD student at VUB under the supervision of Prof. Imke Baetens and Prof. Kris Baetens. They earned their bachelor’s degree in psychology and completed their master’s degree in cognitive and clinical neuroscience, specialising in psychopathology, at Maastricht University. Following their studies, they gained experience working for a WLINA*-organisation providing an assisted living initiative for (multi-)marginalised girls, transgender, and non-binary adolescents in Berlin. In 2023, they won the Brussels Innoviris Applied PhD grant for their proposal on designing and testing a resilience-building intervention for gender-diverse persons in Brussels.
In this presentation, Dr. Marie-Claude Geoffroy draws on findings from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development and other population-based cohorts to explore how early adversity -including bullying - and mental health trajectories contribute to suicide risk in youth. Grounded in developmental psychology and life-course epidemiology, this presentation highlights how longitudinal data can inform upstream, developmentally sensitive prevention strategies. Dr. Marie-Claude Geoffroy will demonstrate how insights from life-course epidemiology and developmental psychology enhance our understanding of youth suicide. By attending this expert session, you will gain key insights from longitudinal research on youth suicide and understand the critical role of early intervention in effective suicide prevention.
Marie-Claude Geoffroy is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Canada Research Chair in Youth Suicide Prevention, and a clinical psychologist. She has received numerous awards for her research, including recognition from the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. She has published over 150 articles many in leading journals such as JAMA Psychiatry, Lancet Psychiatry and Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Research about the neurobiological mechanisms of traumatic stress is progressing rapidly. We have gained insights in the underpinnings of psychological mechanisms like avoidance and fear generalization, also allowing for a deeper understanding of processes involved in psychotherapy. This talk will look at recent findings and attempts to bridge insights from neurobiological research to developments in trauma therapy.
Univ. Prof. Dr. Paul Plener, MHBA is the chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Medical University of Vienna and the head of the Dept. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Vienna general hospital (AKH). His research focus is on NSSI, suicidality and trauma-related mental health problems.
Self-harm—particularly nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI)—has long been conceptualized as a core symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and remains a central focus within the emerging domains of early intervention and indicated prevention for personality disorders. Although self-harm and personality pathology are closely intertwined, accumulating evidence indicates that, while they share certain clinical and behavioral characteristics, they should not be regarded as largely overlapping constructs. This distinction underscores the need for caution against an overly narrow emphasis on self-harm during the early identification and treatment of BPD, to avoid oversimplification and to better capture the multifaceted nature of personality pathology. This presentation will provide a comprehensive review of current empirical findings concerning the role of self-harm in early intervention strategies for personality disorders. Specifically, it will explore the utility of self-harm as a potential diagnostic marker, a predictor of risk, a target for therapeutic intervention, and a primary outcome measure in clinical practice. The discussion will culminate in evidence-based clinical recommendations, highlighting the necessity of adopting a holistic, multi-dimensional approach to early detection and intervention that goes beyond self-harm alone.
Michael Kaess is a Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Bern and Director of the University Hospital for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Bern, Switzerland. He previously trained and held academic positions at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and the University of Melbourne in Australia. Professor Kaess is a leading researcher in the field of adolescent risk-taking and self-harming behaviors, with a strong focus on the early detection and intervention of underlying mental health conditions, including affective disorders and borderline personality disorder. His research spans epidemiological, clinical, technological and neurobiological approaches, often integrating these domains to support the translation of scientific findings into clinical practice.