PhD student HSRI: Ellen Boumans

Can you tell us something about you?

My name is Ellen Boumans. In march of 2023 I started as a PhD candidate at Tilburg University. My project focuses on the effectiveness of personalized cognitive rehabilitation treatment for people with somatic symptom and related disorders (SSRD), and people with burn out. The reason for this is that both patient populations often experience cognitive difficulties, so it is important to know what type of treatment works the best. We will answer this question from both a clinical perspective (e.g. neuropsychological test performance) and a more fundamental perspective (e.g. brain activity and activity of the stress system). The project is a collaboration between the Department of Medical & Clinical Psychology, the Department of Human Resource Studies, and GGz Breburg. Before I obtained this position, I worked as a psychologist in elderly care, where I worked with both psychogeriatric patients (people with dementia) as well as patients who mainly had somatic difficulties. I also have experience in rehabilitation care, mostly with patients with acquired (traumatic) brain injury, and to a lesser extent with people recovering from cardiac failure. I have a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and master’s degrees in Neuropsychology and Clinical Psychology.

Did cross-departmental research play a role during your bachelor's/master's studies? To which extent?

Yes. During my bachelor’s degree my focus was on ‘Brain & Cognition’, so quite a few courses were taught by people with a background in for example physics or medicine instead of psychology. That also applied to the research that was done. At the master’s degree level an example of cross-departmental research would be a thesis I wrote. This thesis revolved around a project which was a collaboration between researchers at the memory clinic, computer engineers and linguists.

What excited you about this multidisciplinary project you applied for?

To study the SSRD population, we will collaborate with GGz Breburg’s Clinical Centre of Excellence for Body, Mind and Health. That also offers me the opportunity to combine my research with clinical tasks. This allows me to further develop my skills as a psychologist during my PhD, in addition to the development of my research skills. That is ideal for me, because after obtaining my PhD I would like to continue combining research and clinical work. In addition, since I don’t have a background in human resource studies, adding the knowledge and skills from that field to my project is also something I look forward to.

Why is cross-departmental research important for your PhD project? What does it add to the project?

Despite their shared cognitive difficulties, we will be looking at two different patient populations. It would have been possible to do this from the viewpoint of just one department, but by combining two departments, we can look at the problem in a broader and more in depth way.

What do you like about cross-departmental research?

It allows you to look at a problem in both a broader and a more in depth way, by combining different types of skills and knowledge.