Nicole Geschwind (N.M.)

Since 2013, dr. Nicole Geschwind is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience and a member of the research group “Clinical Psychology”. Her current position involves research and teaching. Until 2018, this position also included clinical work in a center specialized in mood disorders. Her research and teaching interests center around resilience against, treatment of, and recovery from major depressive disorder. Other interests include positive psychology and mindfulness. Geschwind's ambition is to contribute to a better understanding and use of upward spiral processes in psychotherapy and change.

At a regional mental health care institution, she worked as a psychologist in the mood disorder team and was involved in setting up clinical research projects.

Her PhD thesis (2007-2011) focused on vulnerability to and resilience against depression, using data from daily-life experience sampling methodology to investigate person-context interactions. In a large randomized controlled trial, she examined whether mindfulness training potentially made vulnerable individuals more receptive to rewarding situations in everyday life. During a post-doc position at the KU Leuven (2011-2012), she studied the role of positive emotions on the generalization (spreading) of fear of movement-related pain from one movement to other, similar movements.