Biography

I am professor of clinical child and adolescent psychology and psychotherapy at the Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Germany. I am also a licensed child and adolescent psychotherapist with specialization in cognitive behavior therapy.

My main research interest is to understand why adolescents and young adults engage in dysfunctional behaviors such as disordered eating or driven exercise despite negative long-term consequences. I believe that a better understanding of short-term reinforcing consequences (e.g., reduction in negative affect, social attention) and how they maintain these behaviors within an individual will help deriving better functional models of mental disorders. Subsequently, individual functional models will offer promising targets for personalized precision interventions. Currently, my work focuses on eating disorders. I am using longitudinal, experimental and ecological momentary assessment methods to investigate the functionality of disordered eating behaviors and driven exercise in the laboratory and in real-life.

If you are further interested in my research, want to work with me directly or are interested in a collaboration, feel free to contact me by mail or via Twitter.