Collaborating with my graduate and undergraduate students is a very important component of my work that I am very passionate about. It is an important piece of my mission to get my students enthusiastic about mental health and its interaction with our physical wellbeing. I would like my students to carry our lab’s mission into their future career of improving the care for individuals who suffer from persistent somatic distress.

In my opinion, in our academic work there is nothing more important than building up a team whose members enjoy working together, enjoy sharing their knowledge and expertise, and care for each other. After many years of experience in mentoring students, I think that these types of teams are the best way of enlightening enthusiasm in early careers, making the training an enriching experience, helping students to focus on their strengths, and creating progress together that makes a difference.  My mentoring style is characterized by balancing support and autonomy according to my students’ needs, an atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding, team spirit, commitment, passion, and enthusiasm. The central aims of my mentoring style are to help my students to develop further their professional skills and expertise but also to give them space for personal growth and to develop their individual identity and professional role as a psychologist.