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Nathalie Claes
Summary
Nathalie is a researcher and psychologist passionate about understanding and helping people. She obtained her master in psychology from the KU Leuven in 2012. During her internships as a clinical psychologist, she however became more curious about the fundamental processes underlying (health) behavior and psychopathology. Her scientific curiosity and drive to help people led her to pursue a PhD in Psychology, which she obtained in May 2016. During her PhD, she worked at both the KU Leuven and the University of Ghent investigating the effect of goal competition and goal conflict on pain-related fear and avoidance behavior. Since October 2016, she is a post-doctoral researcher in the Research Group Health Psychology (OGP; KU Leuven) and focuses mainly on investigating decision-making processes and their impact on fear and avoidance as well as strategies to enhance treatment strategies (extinction) for chronic bodily symptoms. The latter research line fits well with her second job as quality manager at Tumi Therapeutics, a multidisciplinary expertise center specialized in the prevention, diagnose, treatment, and research of chronic bodily and stress-related complaints that collaborates closely with OGP. Her task comprises of coordinating research, optimizing and evaluating treatment strategies, and general management.