Dr. Ruth Van der Hallen is an assistant professor of Clinical Psychology at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In 2012, she obtained a Master of Science degree in Psychology at the KU Leuven, Belgium, majoring in Clinical and Health Psychology. In 2016, she obtained a Doctorate in Psychology for her dissertation titled “Little things, big things: Perceptual organization in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)” and a Postgraduate degree in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for her dissertation titled “The fall of the Wall: On renewed (sexual) desire and identity” at the KU Leuven, Belgium.

Her current research is focused on "Resilience in face of mental health challenges". As a research and clinical psychologist, she investigates how each of us deals with adverse circumstances and aims to further our understanding of mental health. Current projects include (1) an international survey study on the impact of client suicide in mental health practicitioners, (2) a mixed-method investigation of the impact of COVID-19 on families with ASD, (3) a large-scale investigation of the relationship between coping, defense and our tendency to lie and (4) a citizen science-based intervention on coping and resilience in (young) children. Her research typically includes children, adolescents as well as adults, clinical and non-clinical pathology and a diverse range of research methods (longitudinal, cross-sectional, citizen science, interventional, network analysis). Topics of interest include individual differences, coping, trauma, suicide prevention, well-being, psychopathology, lying, secrecy, VR/AR technology, e-health, interventions, open science, network analyses and SEM. Open to collaborate and open to invites from the media. 

In terms of teaching, Dr. Van der Hallen is active within the Bachelor in Psychology and Master in Clinical Psychology at the EUR. She is the coordinator of a master course on “Personality Disorders” and pratical on "CBT 2: Therapeutic Techniques",  supervisor of both research and practical internships and facilitator of peer-to-peer consultation sessions. She is available as guest lecture on topics related to coping, personality (pathology) and psychodynamic practice.

Dr. Van der Hallen has been active as a clinical psychologist/psychotherapist since 2012. She specializes in one-on-one psychodynamic psychotherapy with adults that present with personality pathology, issues related to gender or sexual identity, (sexual) trauma, suicide survivors and loss.

Keywords: Individual differences; Coping; Personality; Personality pathology; Trauma; Loss; Adverse Life events; Secrecy; Suicide Survivors; Posttraumatic growth; Psychodynamic Therapy; Psychoanalysis; Autism; Information processing; Predictive Coding