IPSY
Place Cardinal Mercier 10/L3.05.01
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
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- Répertoire
- Jochem Willemsen
Jochem Willemsen
Professeur
I am associate professor of clinical psychology at UCLouvain and I work as a psychoanalytic therapist in the specialized psychological consultation service at Louvain-la-Neuve. In 2019, I joined UCLouvain to teach and to do research in the field of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and criminal psychology. I lead the Louvain Psychotherapy Research Group. I am founding member of the Single Case Archive, a large online archive of published psychotherapy case studies. Prior to my appointment at UCLouvain, I was lecturer at the University of Essex where I developed a portfolio of teaching and research in the field of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and clinical psychology. During this period, I was involved in the establishment of the new Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies (2017). For several years, I took up the role of director of research in this department. Before that, I gained my PhD in psychology from the Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting at Ghent University. The topic of my dissertation was the relation between psychopathic personality traits and symptoms of affective disorders in detainees. During my postdoc research, I conducted research on the treatment of sex offenders.
- Diplômes
Année Label Institution 2000 Bachelor in psychology Rijksuniversiteit Gent 2003 Master in psychology Rijksuniversiteit Gent 2005 Master of quantitative analysis in the social sciences Université Libre de Bruxelles 2011 Doctor in de Psychologie Rijksuniversiteit Gent
- Les cours
Nom ID Psychologie clinique LPSP1201 Déontologie de la pratique psychologique LPSP1309 Analyse de situations en psychologie clinique, psychologie de la santé et neuropsychologie LPSP1311 Questions fondamentales en psychologie clinique LPSP1325 Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods LPSYS2143 La clinique psychanalytique LPSYS2734 Pathologies psychiques actuelles et changements sociétaux LPSYS2740
My general research interests are psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and criminal psychology. Most of my current work focusses on practices and processes in psychotherapy, in which I often, but not exclusively, rely on qualitative methods. I coordinate the Louvain Psychotherapy Research Group. There is a broad consensus that psychotherapy is an effective method of treatment for a wide range of psychopathologies. However, outcome research demonstrating the effectiveness of interventions tells us little about the causal processes at work in psychotherapy. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that differences between therapists explain more variance in outcome than differences between treatment models. Therefore, in recent years, I focused my research on the role of the therapist in psychotherapy: how do therapists make interventions that work, which therapist skills are effective, how does one develop expertise as a therapist? My research approach relies on idiographic methods (mostly case study research) in order to study therapist behaviours within clinical contexts. My research programme is based on two research axes:
Research axis 1 : case conceptualization in the field of psychotherapy research. In recent years, I have co-authored several psychotherapy case studies (e.g., Gunst et al., 2020; Cornelis et al., 2017) and I have published on case study methodology in order help the field move forward to more rigorous forms of case study research (Willemsen et al., 2017). At the University of Essex, I supervised several doctoral students who completed a dissertation on case study research. In collaboration with colleagues from Ghent University, I have co-founded the Single Case Archive, the world’s largest online archive of published psychotherapy case studies that can be used for research, teaching and clinical purposes. I use this archive to do review studies on case studies (Willemsen, Cornelis et al., 2015) and to do comparative/aggregating research on case studies (Willemsen, Inslegers et al., 2015). Much of my work on case studies sits well with psychologists/psychotherapists who are interested in bridging the divide between science and practice and who think that RCTs are not sufficient to develop evidence-based practice in the field of psychotherapy.
Research axis 2: reflective practice in clinical psychologists and psychotherapists. The second research axis concerns therapist skills in effective psychotherapists. More specifically, I'm interested in reflexivity and clinical thinking skills in psychotherapists. Part of my research on this topic addresses fundamental epistemological questions about the different types of knowledge (implicit/explicit, local/general) involved in the work with a unique patient. Together with one of my PhD students, I published a paper on this topic in one of the leading journals in the field of psychoanalysis (Kaluzeviciute & Willemsen, 2020). Another part of my research on this topic is empirically oriented. I am currently doing research with a PhD student on clinical reasoning processes in psychoanalytic psychotherapists. On the basis of this study, we hope to develop and evaluate training material for future clinical psychologists and psychotherapists over the next few years.
Here you find a 5-minute presentation on my research on the topic of case conceptualisation.
I welcome enquiries about research placements or potential doctoral or postdoc projects that are consistent with my research interests.
Current doctoral supervision at UCLouvain:
- Sam Flores – Étude des négociations morales des victimes de violences sexuelles liées à leurs reconstructions subjectives dans un contexte d’accompagnement thérapeutique.
- Liselotte Cullman – What is the impact of therapists’ multicultural orientation on the working alliance?
- Hubert de Condé – Empirical study on the relation between significant events and the personal and professional development of psychotherapists (co-supervision with Emmanuelle Zech).
- Niccolò Polipo (Special Research Grant doctoral scholarship) – Reflective practice for psychotherapists: A randomized controlled trial.
Doctoral supervision to completion:
- Efi Koutantou (2022) (University of Essex doctoral scholarship) – Young adults, subjectivity and desire of the Other in the context of the Greek economic crisis (co-supervision with Isabel Crowhurst). University of Essex
- Greta Kaluzeviciute (2021) (CHASE AHRC doctoral scholarship) – Knowledge generation and the role of the case study method in the field of psychotherapy (co-supervision with Wayne Martin). University of Essex
- Ben Roux (2020) – Identification and delineation of the dynamic causes of repetition compulsion activity in romantic relationships: An object relations formulation. University of Essex
- Siobhan Ward (2017) – Surviving loss of a twin in childhood: A case study. University of Essex
2024
Willemsen, Jochem ; de Condé, Hubert ; Greta Kaluzeviciute ; Greta Guogaite ; Polipo, Niccolo ; Zech, Emmanuelle. A qualitative meta-analysis examining the impact of personal therapy on clinical work and personal and professional development. In: Counselling and Psychotherapy Research : linking research with practice, Vol. 24, no. 3, p. 853-869 (2024).
2024
Gonçalves, Miguel M. ; Lutz, Wolfgang ; Schwartz, Brian ; Oliveira, João Tiago ; Saarni, Suoma E. ; Tishby, Orya ; Rubel, Julian A. ; Boehnke, Jan R. ; Montesano, Adrian ; Paiva, Dario ; Ceridono, Davide ; Zech, Emmanuelle ; Willemsen, Jochem. Developing a European Psychotherapy Consortium (EPoC): Scientific objectives and logistical challenges. In: Clinical Psychology in Europe, (2024) (Accepté/Sous presse).
2024
Polipo, Niccolò Fiorentino ; Willemsen, Jochem ; Hustinx, Marie ; Bazan, Ariane. Developing psychoanalytic case conceptualization skills through didactic teaching: A randomized controlled trial. In: Psychotherapy Research, Vol. 34, no. 3, p. 379-397 (2024). doi:10.1080/10503307.2023.2241623.
2024
Willemsen, Jochem ; Rost, Felicitas ; Hustinx, Marie ; Fonagy, Peter ; Taylor, David. Examination of a Case of “Treatment Failure” in Long-Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Treatment-resistant Depression. In: The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. Advance online (2024). doi:10.1080/00207578.2024.2352827 (Accepté/Sous presse).
2024
Polipo, Niccolo ; Willemsen, Jochem ; Kallai, Delphine. The operators model of psychoanalytic clinical reasoning. In: The operators model of psychoanalytic clinical reasoning, (2024). doi:10.1177/00030651241247211.
2024
de Condé, Hubert ; Zech, Emmanuelle ; Willemsen, Jochem. The person behind the therapist: A recall study on significant events that contribute to therapists’ personal and professional development. In: Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome, Vol. 27, no. 2, p. 206-220 (2024). doi:10.4081/ripppo.2024.791.
2023
Polipo, Niccolo ; Willemsen, Jochem. Epistemic envy in the keyboard warrior: A Bionian analysis. In: Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, Vol. 28, p. 36–52 (2023). doi:10.1057/s41282-022-00315-y.
2023
Willemsen, Jochem. Op één been kan men niet lopen: over het gebruik van wetenschappelijke evidentie in het klinisch redeneren. In: Tijdschrift Klinische Psychologie, Vol. 53, no.3, p. 219-227 (2023).
2023
de Condé, Hubert ; Willemsen, Jochem ; Zech, Emmanuelle. Quelles sont les trajectoires de développement personnel et professionnel de thérapeutes chevronnés ? Exploration de leurs expériences.. In: Psychotherapie-Wissenschaft, Vol. 13, no. 2, p. 51-62 (2023).
2023
Ellen Gunst ; Mattias Desmet ; Jeanne C Watson ; Willemsen, Jochem ; Tom Loeys ; Siebrecht Vanhooren. Sexual Pleasure as Forbidden Secret: a Single-Case Study into Emotion-Focused Therapy with an Emotionally Avoidant Client who Committed Sexual Offences. In: Journal of Sexual Aggression, Vol. 29, no. 1, p. 86-102 (2023). doi:10.1080/13552600.2021.2019845.
2023
Polipo, Niccolo Fiorentino ; Willemsen, Jochem ; Cristiano Vidali. The cunning of clinical reason in psychoanalysis: How a case makes use of reflective agents to conceptualize itself. In: The cunning of clinical reason in psychoanalysis: How a case makes use of reflective agents to conceptualize itself, Vol. Advance online publication, p. 1-20 (2023). doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/teo0000234.
2023
Willemsen, Jochem. What is preventing psychotherapy case studies from having a greater impact on evidence-based practice, and how to address the challenges?. In: Frontiers in Psychiatry, Vol. 13, no.1, p. 1-3 (2023). doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1101090.
2022
Willemsen, Jochem. Defence mechanisms in crime narratives of psychopathic violent offenders.. In: The International Journal of Forensic Psychotherapy, Vol. 4, no.1, p. 37-51 (2022). doi:10.33212/ijfp.v4n1.2022.37.
2022
Meganck, Reitske ; Krivzov, Juri ; Notaerts, Lisa ; Willemsen, Jochem ; Kaluzeviciute, Greta ; Dewaele, Alexis ; Desmet, Mattias. The Single Case Archive: Review of a multi-theoretical online database of published peer-reviewed single case studies. In: Psychotherapy, Vol. 59, no. 4, p. 641-646 (2022). doi:10.1037/pst0000431.
2022
Willemsen, Jochem. The use of evidence in clinical reasoning. In: Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, Vol. 52, no. 4, p. 293-302 (2022). doi:10.1007/s10879-022-09544-9.
2021
Cornelis, Shana ; Desmet, Mattias ; Meganck, Reitske ; Van Nieuwenhove, Kimberly ; Willemsen, Jochem. Extending Blatt’s two-polarity model of personality development to dissociative identity disorder: a theory-building case study. In: Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome, Vol. 24, no.1, p. 1-13 (2021). doi:10.4081/ripppo.2021.505.
2021
Willemsen, Jochem. Trauma, victimhood and subjectivity. In: Psychoanalytische Perspectieven, Vol. 39, no.4, p. 555-572 (2021).
2020
Gunst, Ellen ; Watson, Jeanne ; Willemsen, Jochem ; Desmet, Mattias ; Loeys, Tom ; Vanhooren, Siebrecht. A quest for self‐soothing: A systematic case study into emotion‐focused therapy with an emotionally avoidant client who committed sexual offenses. In: Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 76, no. 4, p. 676-687 (2020). doi:10.1002/jclp.22906.
2020
Kaluzeviciute, Greta ; Willemsen, Jochem. Scientific thinking styles: the different ways of thinking in psychoanalytic case studies. In: The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 101, no.5, p. 900-922 (2020). doi:10.1080/00207578.2020.1796491.
2019
Gunst, Ellen ; Willemsen, Jochem ; Desmet, M. ; Watson, J. C. ; Loeys, T. ; Vanhooren, S.. Into the Wild, Out of the Woods: A Systematic Case Study on Facilitating Emotional Change. In: International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 63, no.15-16, p. 2586-2610 (2019). doi:10.1177/0306624x19866977.
2019
Gunst, E. ; Watson, J.C. ; Willemsen, Jochem ; Desmet, M.. The role of affect regulation in the treatment of people who have committed sexual offenses. In: Aggression and Violent Behavior, Vol. 44, no. 1, p. 99-110 (2019). doi:10.1016/j.avb.2018.10.008.