Professorship of «Experimental Psychopathology and Psychotherapy»

Prof. Birgit Kleim, PhD

What factors lead to the development of mental illness and, conversely, which promote resilience and resistance in the context of potentially traumatic events? What active mechanisms make current and evidence-based psychotherapy effective? And how can we make them even more effective, by translating findings from basic science, for example on autobiographical memory and "offline" memory consolidation during sleep? We investigate these questions using empirical and experimental methods in naturalistic and randomized clinical as well as experimental laboratory studies. The dual affiliation of the Department of Psychology and the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich (PUK) supports the link of our research to clinical practice (and vice versa). Characteristic for our research is a close integration of experimental psychopathology research with the further development of current effective psychological interventions. The department includes a sleep/EEG laboratory, which extends and complements the capabilities of our research.

The focus of our teaching is based on our research interests in «Experimental Psychopathology und Psychotherapy». More information about our teaching can be found in the course catalog.

The affiliation with the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, PUK, enables an extension of teaching and research in the field of psychotherapy into the applied clinical setting of the largest psychiatric university hospital for adult psychiatry in Switzerland. As a department, we are professionally involved in the expansion and evaluation of psychiatric services at the PUK, where we also conduct research projects.  Thus, the therapeutic offers are also up to date with the latest research. Concerning outpatient treatment, we are involved in the treatment of stress and trauma-related disorders within the framework of the Outpatient Clinic for Specialized Psychotherapy,  ASP, at the PUK. Psychology students have the opportunity to work as interns in this setting, as well as in PUK's inpatient psychotherapy programs, and to participate in research projects in this area to gain early insight into psychotherapeutic practice, as well as psychotherapy research.

• Prof George Bonanno, Teachers College Columbia University, USA
• Prof Adam Brown, New School of Social Research, USA
• Prof Anke Ehlers, University of Oxford, UK
• Prof Kim Felmingham, University of Melbourne, Australia
• Prof Isaac Galatzer-Levy, New York University, USA
• Prof Raffael Kalisch, University of Mainz, Germany
• Prof Iris Kolassa, University of Ulm, Germany
• Prof Wolfgang Lutz, University of Trief, Germany
• Prof Katharina Schultebrauks, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, USA

• Haag, C., So, M., Vainre, M., Kleim, B., Dalgleish, T., & Hitchcock, C. (2024). Positive autobiographical memories to counteract low mood in remitted depression: A longitudinal daily-life investigation. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 10.1037/emo0001330. Advance online publication. 

• *Marciniak, M. A., Shanahan, L., Myin-Germeys, I., Veer, I. M., Yuen, K. S. L., Binder, H., Walter, H., Hermans, E. J., Kalisch, R., & Kleim, B. (2024). Imager-A mobile health mental imagery-based ecological momentary intervention targeting reward sensitivity: A randomized controlled trial. Applied psychology. Health and well-being, 16(2), 576–596. 

• *Schaeuffele, C., Meine, L., Schulz, A., Weber, M., Moser, A., Paersch, C., ... & Kleim, B. (2023). Short-and Long-term Efficacy of Transdiagnostic Cognitive Behavioral Therapies for Emotional Disorders: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.  Nature Human Behaviour, 8,  493–509.

• *Homan, S,. Gabi, M., Klee, N., Bachmann, S., Moser, A.M., Duri, M., Michel, S., Bertram, A.M., Maatz, A., Seiler, G., Stark, E. &, Kleim, B. (2022). Linguistic features of suicidal thoughts and behaviors: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review.

• *Weber, M., Schumacher, S., Hannig, W., Barth, J., Lotzin, A., Schäfer, I., Ehring, T., Kleim, B. (2021, Jul). Long- term outcomes of psychological treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review and meta- analysis. Psychological Medicine, 51(9):1420–1430.

• *Grueschow, M., Stenz, N., Thörn, H., Ehlert, U., Breckwoldt, J., Brodmann Maeder, M., Exadaktylos, A.K., Bingisser, R., Ruff, C.C., Kleim, B. (2021, Apr. 15). Real-world stress resilience is associated with the responsivity of the locus coeruleus. Nature Communications, 12(1):2275. 

• Galatzer-Levy, I., Abbas, A., *Ries, A., *Homan, S., Sels, L., Koesmahargyo, V., Yada, V., Colla, M., Scheerer, H., Vetter, S., Seifritz, E., Scholz, U., Kleim, B. (2021). Validation of visual and auditory digital markers of suicidality in acutely suicidal psychiatric inpatients: Proof-of-concept study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(6):e25199.

• *Paersch, C., Schulz, A., Wilhelm, F.H., Brown, A.D., Kleim, B. (2021). Recalling autobiographical self- efficacy episodes boosts reappraisal-effects on on negative emotional memories. Emotion. 

• *Azza, Y., Grueschow, M., Karlen, W., Seifritz, E., Kleim, B. (2020). How stress affects sleep and mental health: Nocturnal heartrate increases during prolonged stress and interacts with childhood trauma exposure to predict anxiety. Sleep, 15(43):6.

• Kube, T., Berg, M., Kleim, B., Herzog, P. (2020). Rethinking post-traumatic stress disorder – A predictive processing perspective. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 113:448–460.

• *Haag, C., Robinaugh, D., Ehlers, A., Kleim, B. (2017). Understanding emergence of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder through acute stress symptom networks. JAMA Psychiatry, 74(6):108–109.

• *Kalisch, R., Baker, D., (...) Kleim, B. (2017). The resilience framework as a strategy to combat stress-related disorders. Nature Human Behavior, 1:784–790.