Ruhr University Bochum
Mental Health Research and Treatment-Center

Bochumer Fenster 3/20
Massenbergstraße 9-13
44787 Bochum
Germany

Tel.: +49 234 / 32-21502
Fax: +49 234 / 32-14369

E-Mail:
trace-group@rub.de

Twitter:
@TRACE_RUB

Marcella Woud obtained her PhD in 2014 (with distinction) at the Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Following her PhD, she started working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Mental Health Research and Treatment Center at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. In 2015, Marcella enrolled in the German training to become a licensed psychotherapist (specialisation: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), which she completed successfully in April 2020. In 2021, she became a Junior Professor of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) and the head of the research group Translational Research in Anxiety, Cognition & Emotion (TRACE). In October 2023, Marcella started her position as a full professor at University of Göttingen.
Marcella’s research focusses on the assessment and modification of cognitive biases including biased associations, appraisals, and interpretations in the context of emotional psychopathology, with a specific interest in PTSD, depression, and anxiety disorders. This research combines both experimental and clinical studies. Further, Marcella examines potential mechanisms underlying cognitive biases, including neuronal and psychophysical markers. Her  research was/is funded by the Daimler Benz Stiftung, an Emmy Noether grant, a Collaborative Research Centre grant (Sonderforschungsbereich), and the Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz 2023 award, with the latter three being funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG).

Office:
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Georg-Elias-Müller-Institute of Psychology
Department of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology

Kurze-Geismar-Str.1
37073 Göttingen

E-Mail (Bochum): Marcella.Woud@rub.de
E-Mail (Göttingen): Marcella.Woud@uni-goettingen.de

Antonia Döring is a third-year PhD student in clinical psychology. As an undergraduate student at Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, supervised by Dr Julie Niziurski, she studied the effect of emotion regulation on voluntary and involuntary memories. After graduating in 2020, she spent 7 months working in an oncological rehab center and began her training as a psychological psychotherapist at St. Marien-Hospital Eickel in 2021. At the same time, she began working on her PhD on the cognitive mechanisms of post-traumatic stress disorder since 2021. Her research focuses on cognitive factors that mitigate or prevent the development of post-traumatic stress symptoms after experiencing a traumatic event. Since 2024, Antonia is working as a psychotherapist in a counselling center for young people, many of whom have experienced traumatic and stressful events in the past. Her objective is to gain a deeper understanding of the cognitive processes that contribute to the development of psychiatric symptoms in some individuals following stressful experiences, while others do not exhibit such symptoms.

E-Mail: Antonia.Doering@uni-duesseldorf.de

Marius Kunna is a third-year Ph.D. student in clinical psychology (supervised by Prof. Dr. Marcella Woud & Dr. Fanny Dietel) and part of the TRACE lab here at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB). After receiving his B.Sc. from the RUB, he specialised in clinical psychology in his master’s programme. In 2021, he graduated from the RUB with an M.Sc. in psychology. In his master thesis he examined Joiner’s Interpersonal Theory of Suicide by investigating the role of interpersonal hopelessness in predicting suicidal ideation. His current research focusses on the underlying mechanisms of computerized interpretation training in the context of social anxiety. Marius is part of the DFG-funded research project “Mechanisms of interpretation biases in anxiety – bridging experimental investigation and clinical translation”.

E-Mail: Marius.Kunna@rub.de

Annalisa Lipp is a second-year Ph.D. student in clinical psychology (supervised by Prof. Dr. Armin Zlomuzica & Prof. Dr. Marcella Woud) and part of the TRACE lab at Ruhr University Bochum. After receiving her B.Sc. from Maastricht University, she specialised in neuropsychology in her master's programme at Maastricht University. Under the supervision of Dr. Kathrin Cohen Kadosh at University of Surrey, she investigated the effect of neurofeedback on anxiety in adolescents for her master thesis. Annalisa’s current research focuses on disgust and fear extinction in patients with anxiety disorders and healthy controls and methods to improve extinction learning. Annalisa is part of the Collaborative Research Centre (Sonderforschungsbereich) “Extinction Learning”.

Beray Macit is a second-year Ph.D. student in clinical psychology and psychotherapy research in the TRACE lab at Ruhr University Bochum, supervised by Prof. Dr. Marcella Woud and Prof. Dr. Armin Zlomuzica. After receiving her B.Sc. in psychology at Trier University, she worked as a research intern at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, where she studied classical conditioning in the sexual behaviour of animals. Afterwards, Beray specialised in clinical psychology within the master programme of Trier University. In her master thesis, she examined the relevance of different cut-off scores in the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale to explain the interrelationships of anxiety and depression with outcomes within the waiting period for heart transplantation. Subsequently, she completed the psychotherapist training at Ruhr University Bochum and certified as Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist in April 2021 before starting her Ph.D. Currently, Beray’s research focusses on cognitive bias in acrophobic patients versus healthy controls, and the effect of cognitive bias modification contingency training on coping ability, therapy outcome, and generalization of therapeutic effects in acrophobic patients. She is part of the Collaborative Research Center 1280 “Extinction Learning”, which is funded by the German Research Foundation.

E-Mail: Beray.Macit@rub.de

Aleksandra E. Rupietta is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in clinical psychology. As an undergraduate at the Ruhr University Bochum she studied involuntary traumatic memories and their neuropsychological basis under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nikolai Axmacher and Dr. Gerd Waldhauser. After graduation in 2018 she worked for five months at a neuropsychological rehabilitation centre. In January 2019 she started her PhD studies and focussed again on intrusive memories and trauma, however, from a more clinical perspective. Her main interest is understanding the development and maintenance of intrusive memories following trauma, as well as related symptoms and possible mechanisms influencing these symptoms. Concurrently, she started a psychotherapy training programme in April 2019 focused on Behavioural Psychotherapy and graduated in April 2022. Since May 2022 she works as a psychotherapist in an outpatient clinic. Her aim is to better understand the mechanisms underlying trauma related disorders and intrusive memories and to optimize interventions for PTSD patients as well as preventive programmes for traumatized individuals. 

E-Mail: Aleksandra.Rupietta@rub.de

Laura Blank is a student assistant and part of the TRACE lab here at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB). She completed her bachelor studies at RUB and graduated in 2023. Now she is in the first year of her Master's programme Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy there. Before starting her Bachelor programme in 2020, she pursued a career as a paramedic.

E-Mail: Laura.Borris@rub.de

Lilith Laflör is a student assistant for Prof. Dr. Marcella Woud and a Bachelor's graduate from Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf. After her last position as an assistant in neuropsychological rehabilitation, she is now focusing on the clinical field of psychology. In her Bachelor's thesis, she focused on interpretation bias in the context of depressed mood and social anxiety.

E-Mail: Lilith.Lafloer@rub.de

Helene Struve is a student assistant and part of the TRACE lab. She completed her Bachelor's degree at Kiel University in 2023. In her Bachelor thesis, she focused on the development and validation of a questionnaire assessing self-stigmatization in mental disorders. Now she is in the second year of her Master's degree in clinical psychology and psychotherapy at Ruhr University Bochum.

E-Mail: Helene.Struve@edu.rub.de

Dr. Simon Blackwell

Postdoctoral Researcher (University of Göttingen)

Simon.Blackwell@uni-goettingen.de

Dr. Mira Preis

Postdoctoral Researcher (University of Göttingen)

Mira.Preis@psych.uni-goettingen.de

Dr. Elinor Abado

Postdoctoral Researcher (University of Göttingen)

Elinor.Abado@uni-goettingen.de

Franziska Mißmann, M. Sc.

Doctoral Student (University of Göttingen)

Franziska.Missmann@uni-goettingen.de

Pauline Hartmann, M. Sc.

Doctoral Student (University of Göttingen)

Pauline.Hartmann@uni-goettingen.de

Marielaura Hörning-Suermann, M. Sc.

Doctoral Student (University of Göttingen)

Marielaura.Hoerning@uni-goettingen.de

Ulrike Herms, M. Sc.

Doctoral Student (University of Göttingen)

Ulrike.Herms@uni-goettingen.de