I’m working at the intersection of clinical and intervention science with a strong translational research focus.
As a clinical scientist, I study how to best understand, measure, prevent, and treat complex and severe mental health problems after (repeated) exposure to extremely life-threatening events (i.e., trauma such as physical and sexual violence ) and interpersonal threatening situations (e.g., emotional abuse in childhood), mainly focusing on symptoms related to posttraumatic stress disorder (e.g., re-experiencing symptoms) and borderline personality disorder (e.g., affective instability).
As an intervention scientist, my research aims to improve clinical decision-making. Thereby, my ultimate goal is to optimize individual patients’ care. My overall aspiration is to approach Gordon Paul’s classic question to the field: “What treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual with that specific problem, and under which set of circumstances?” (Paul, 1967, p. 111), by using measurement and data to inform and personalize psychological treatments to the individual patient (Herzog & Kaiser, 2022; Kaiser & Herzog, 2023).
Together with outstanding colleagues (#teamscience), I’m using quantitative clinical psychology approaches to answer questions that arise from this translational research focus as follows:
(1) To improve the understanding of the above-mentioned clinical phenomena, I develop new theoretical models to explain heterogeneous psychopathological processes (Herzog, Kube, et al., 2022; Kube et al., 2020), and use different experimental designs to empirically test hypotheses resulting from these theories: e.g., the trauma film paradigm (Herzog, Barth, et al., 2022).
(2) To improve the measurement of the same phenomena, I develop and validate new assessment tools (Herzog, Kaiser, et al., 2022), and apply different assessment methods (e.g., Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM)).
(3) To improve the prevention of related mental health problems, I develop and test scalable, brief, and mechanistically targeted interventions (e.g., expectation-changing interventions such as placebos: Kube et al., 2022).
(4) To improve treatment, I analyze various types of data (e.g., from routine outcome to clinical trial data) with sophisticated statistical approaches (e.g., machine learning algorithms, Bayesian statistics, network analysis) to inform clinical decisions (Herzog et al., 2021; Herzog, Feldmann, et al., 2020, 2022; Herzog, Voderholzer, et al., 2020; Kaiser et al., 2021), along with efforts to implement and disseminate empirically supported psychological treatments (Herzog, Kaiser, & De Jongh, 2023).
(5) To improve the care of patients suffering from these debilitating conditions, I investigate new mental health care models (e.g., from single session interventions to high intense psychological treatments), and implement innovative single-case designs into routine clinical care to facilitate precision mental health care.
My work has been recognized via numerous awards, including a PhD Scholarship awarded by the Philipps-University of Marburg and a Postdoc Scholarship awarded by the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD), and supported by several start-up funding and travel grants. I am a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie/German Psychological Society (DGPs).
Currently, the results of my research endeavors were published in >25 scientific articles and book chapters. I am serving as a reviewer for more than 15 national and international peer-reviewed journals.
As a clinical scientist, I study how to best understand, measure, prevent, and treat complex and severe mental health problems after (repeated) exposure to extremely life-threatening events (i.e., trauma such as physical and sexual violence ) and interpersonal threatening situations (e.g., emotional abuse in childhood), mainly focusing on symptoms related to posttraumatic stress disorder (e.g., re-experiencing symptoms) and borderline personality disorder (e.g., affective instability).
As an intervention scientist, my research aims to improve clinical decision-making. Thereby, my ultimate goal is to optimize individual patients’ care. My overall aspiration is to approach Gordon Paul’s classic question to the field: “What treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual with that specific problem, and under which set of circumstances?” (Paul, 1967, p. 111), by using measurement and data to inform and personalize psychological treatments to the individual patient (Herzog & Kaiser, 2022; Kaiser & Herzog, 2023).
Together with outstanding colleagues (#teamscience), I’m using quantitative clinical psychology approaches to answer questions that arise from this translational research focus as follows:
(1) To improve the understanding of the above-mentioned clinical phenomena, I develop new theoretical models to explain heterogeneous psychopathological processes (Herzog, Kube, et al., 2022; Kube et al., 2020), and use different experimental designs to empirically test hypotheses resulting from these theories: e.g., the trauma film paradigm (Herzog, Barth, et al., 2022).
(2) To improve the measurement of the same phenomena, I develop and validate new assessment tools (Herzog, Kaiser, et al., 2022), and apply different assessment methods (e.g., Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM)).
(3) To improve the prevention of related mental health problems, I develop and test scalable, brief, and mechanistically targeted interventions (e.g., expectation-changing interventions such as placebos: Kube et al., 2022).
(4) To improve treatment, I analyze various types of data (e.g., from routine outcome to clinical trial data) with sophisticated statistical approaches (e.g., machine learning algorithms, Bayesian statistics, network analysis) to inform clinical decisions (Herzog et al., 2021; Herzog, Feldmann, et al., 2020, 2022; Herzog, Voderholzer, et al., 2020; Kaiser et al., 2021), along with efforts to implement and disseminate empirically supported psychological treatments (Herzog, Kaiser, & De Jongh, 2023).
(5) To improve the care of patients suffering from these debilitating conditions, I investigate new mental health care models (e.g., from single session interventions to high intense psychological treatments), and implement innovative single-case designs into routine clinical care to facilitate precision mental health care.
My work has been recognized via numerous awards, including a PhD Scholarship awarded by the Philipps-University of Marburg and a Postdoc Scholarship awarded by the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD), and supported by several start-up funding and travel grants. I am a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie/German Psychological Society (DGPs).
Currently, the results of my research endeavors were published in >25 scientific articles and book chapters. I am serving as a reviewer for more than 15 national and international peer-reviewed journals.
