Members Family LabMembers of the Lab of Relationship and Family Studies (Family Lab).https://www.ugent.be/pp/ekgp/en/research/research-groups/family-lab/membershttps://www.ugent.be/logo.png
Ann Buysse is dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University, and she is also co-head of the Family Lab.
She is co-organizer and trainer of the Postgraduate Training Program in Mediation at Ghent University.
As a researcher, she has a broad expertise in qualitative and quantitative research, interdisciplinary research and fundamental outcome/process research and methodological research in the field of family psychology. Recently she was chief promoter of two interdisciplinary, inter-university research projects on divorce in Flanders (i.e., IPOS (externe link)) and sexual health in Flanders (i.e., Sexpert). Currently she is co-promoter of the GOA-research project on social and genetic parenthood (i.e., Parenthood Research team) and co-principal investigator of an interdisciplinary, inter-university research project into new processes samengstelde families (FittiF).
Lesley Verhofstadt is head of the Family Lab. She conducts and supervises research that increases the scientific understanding of couple/family (dys)functioning, thereby contributing to preventive and therapeutic interventions that are aimed to alleviate the distress of couples, families, and their members. She therefore developed research programs on two main topics:
1. Behavioral, emotional, and cognitive processes underlying relationship dissatisfaction in couples. More specifically:
Psychological needs frustration and emotion regulation
Deficits in everyday mind-reading accuracy
Deficits in dyadic coping/support provision
Conflict management
2. Family stress and coping
This research is centered around the question why the strains and challenges of major life events bring some families closer together and break other families apart. Research is conducted within families confronted with
Pediatric cancer
Expatriate assignment
Imprisonment
As a member of editorial boards of journals for practitioners (Systeemtherapie, Tijdschrift voor Klinische Psychologie) she is strongly committed to facilitate the translation of findings from fundamental couple/family research for practitioners. She furthermore serves as the representative of the sector Research & Education in the Belgian Commission of Psychologists and as a board member of the Belgische Vereniging voor Relatietherapie, Gezinstherapie en Systeemcounseling. She teaches courses on Couple & Family Studies, Couple & Family Therapy, and Counseling Skills, and works as a staff member and trainer within the Postgraduate Training Program in Couple, Family, and Systemic Psychotherapy at Ghent University.
My research interests are focused on the study of sexual minorities (in casu lesbian women, gay men, and bisexual men and women), research methods, and evidence-based policy and practice.
Currently I am coordinating PSYNC, an interdisciplinary research consortium that focuses on improving mental health in all citizensy. Within PSYNC, I specifically focus on working with different groups of stakeholders (policy actors, researchers, practitioners,…) and on valorization (all things related to the translation of research results into products, reserach impact, and science communication).
Recent studies:
The romantic relationships of hetero, homo- and bisexual men and women
Improving mental health (care)
Citizen science, citizen involvement, and societal impact of research
Minority stress and (mental) health
Online and offline survey methods
The relationship between visibility management as a coping strategy and the experience of stress
Characteristics of the sexual debut in gay and bisexual adolescents and young adults.
I have a Ph.D in educational sciences and I'm a systemic and narrative psychotherapist. Furthermore, I'm an accredited trainer and supervisor within the BVRGS and work in a Child- and adolescent mental health service in Ghent (RCGG Deinze-Eeklo-Gent). I'm also an associated trainer at the Interactie-Academie in Antwerp (Belgium) and work in a private group practice, De Luwte, as a supervisor. I'm also working as a voluntary scientific assistant at KULeuven.
The key goal of my work is to better understand and ultimately improve dynamic emotional processes in close relationships. Some of the research I have done, that I am currently doing or will be doing, focuses on:
Emotional linkages between romantic partners: do partners become emotionally attuned to each other, do they catch each other’s emotions, do they become more similar,.. and what can this tell us about qualities of the couple
How do perceptions and emotions interact with each other: are partners’ perceptions of the occurring emotional processes more important than the emotional processes actually taking place, how do certain aspects of their emotions impact their partner perceptions
How do certain emotional processes (emotional disclosure, empathic accuracy or actual empathic understanding, and felt understanding) interact with each other in maintaining high-quality relationships
I'm a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University. I'm the data manager of an SBO project (Strategic Basic Research) about intrafamilial solidarity in postmodern families. This project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Ghent University, the University of Antwerp, KU Leuven and Arteveldehogeschool. Its goal is to lay ground for a new legal and social framework for different kinds of postmodern families (single parent families, patchwork families, .. etc.). My main research interest is in dyadic data analysis.
I'm also employed at the VUB. Here, she works as a statistical consultant for the faculties related to the human and social sciences.
My research focuses on the impact of child cancer on families and their individual members (ill child, parents and siblings). Specifically, I examine:
The long- and short-term effects of child cancer on families and their members
The factors that may help families and their members to recover from crisis and to adapt to the stressful circumstances resulting from child cancer
Parents' and siblings' experience of the diagnosis, treatment and consequences for the family life
In order to fully capture how child cancer affects each of the family members, a multi-method (questionnaires, interviews) and multi-informant approach is used.
I am a teaching assistant in the familylab. I teach the practical courses for couple and familytherapy and I am conducting research on survivors of sexual violence.
Being a survivor of sexual violence as an adult man or woman is often accompanied by many changes in several life domains. My research focuses on the psychological and social changes survivors of sexual violence may experience. More specifically, I am interested in:
Which psychological and social changes survivors experience in the aftermath of sexual violence
Whether these psychosocial changes are exclusively negative
Which factors influence these changes
Potential gender differencesin the experience of these changes
To answer these questions, a multi-method (interviews and questionnaires) method will be adopted.
Besides working as a teaching assistant/researcher, I work as a independent clinical psychologist.
I am studying everyday mind-reading (=empathic accuracy), which is how accurate partners can estimate each other’s thoughts and feelings during interactions. More specifically, I aim to investigate:
the influence of motivation (for the well-being of the self, the partner or the relationship) on empathic accuracy
the link between emotions and empathic accuracy
the convergence/divergence of empathic accuracy throughout an interaction
A combination of questionnaires, videotaped interaction task, and empathic accuracy paradigms are used.
I'm working under the supervision of Prof. dr. Alexis Dewaele and co-supervision of Prof. dr. Ann Buysse(Familylab) and Prof. dr. Weihong Zhang (Public Health and Primary Care lab). My primary focus is on the effects of minority stress on romantic relationships and mental health among LGBs, particularly form a cross-cultural perspective.
Currently I am working as a Ph.D-student on the Family Solidarity 2.0 project. My research focuses on intergenerational solidarity in complex families. The goal is to lay a foundation for a new juridical and social framework that is more adapted to the recent changes in intergenerational family solidarity. My role in this multidisciplinary project is twofold.
Researching the psychological aspects of family solidarity in complex families.
Facilitating and managing quantitative data analysis between the different research groups associated to this project.
Teaching staff
Isabelle Deryckere
Description
I am a clinical psychologist with specialisation in systemic therapy (Interactie Academie, Antwerpen) and in gestalttherapy (Instituut voor communicatie, Kortrijk). Besides my job as a practice assistent in the Psychology Master Education, I work with couples and families in a psychotherapeutic centre (PTC Rustenburg) and as an independent psychotherapist.
My former work experiences were in different clinical settings: psychiatry, rehabilitation, (mentally) disabled people, internment, cardiac revalidating, victim support and education.
dr. Katty Kochman
Description
I am a teaching assistant. I assist in classes for Qualitative Data Analysis. I have earned M.A. in Education Science and a PhD in Art Science. I am interested in data analysis and instructional design. I have worked on several interdisciplinary research projects involving topics of motivation, gamification, and process analysis. I also have an active interest in socio-cultural programs and their optimization. Before my doctorate, I worked as a supervisor within the LAUSD for children with behavioral intervention needs.
I am a clinical psychologist, jurist and trained as mediator. Besides my job as a practice assistent in the Psychology Master Education, I am managing director of the abortion clinic in Ghent.
My former work experiences were in different settings: profit sector (HR), non-profit sector (psychologist), lawyer, mediator, reseacher at UGent and Hogeschool Gent and lecturer at Hogeschool Ghent.
I am a systemic psychotherapist and supervisor. I took a start in a child psychiatry institute in Amsterdam (Paedologisch Instituut) as clinical diagnostician and practitioner. I worked for about 10 years with multiproblem families, in the context of Special Youth Care in Flanders. I became a trainer for the "Interactie Academie" in Antwerp from 1999 onwards, finally became staff member for Interactie Academie in 2004 and worked there as a trainer, psychotherapist and supervisor.
I always worked with children, parents and their families, living in complex circumstances and experiencing multiple problems. As a supervisor I work with individuals, training groups and teams in Belgium as well as the Netherlands. I wrote articles on themes like child abuse, aspects of methodical parent guidance, setting issues, playfullness in childtherapy.
