Katja Boersma
Katja Boersma Position: Professor School/office: School of Behavioural, Social and Legal SciencesEmail: a2F0amEuYm9lcnNtYTtvcnUuc2U=
Phone: No number available
Room: L2641
About Katja Boersma
Background
Katja Boersma is Professor of Psychology and a member of the Center for Health and Medical Psychology (CHAMP). She received a masters in psychology from Groningen University (major in clinical-, minor in social psychology) in the Netherlands in 1998, and is a licensed psychologist in Sweden since 2001. She completed her PhD working at the behavioral medicine unit of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic at the University Hospital in Örebro and defended her doctoral thesis "Fear and avoidance in the development of a persistent musculoskeletal pain problems. Implications for secondary prevention” in 2005. She is employed at Örebro University since January 2007.
Research
Katja's main research interests concern the fields of health psychology and revolve around understanding the role of psychological processes in the experience of persistent pain and its potentially negative consequences. With diverse methodologies she studies the individual differences in for example emotional suffering, functional disability, overuse of prescription medication and sick leave. An overarching goal is to develop and improve upon methods for the prevention and treatment of chronic pain problems. Examples of current research projects and themes are:
1. Mental health and sick leave from a life course perspective - mapping trajectories from childhood to retirement age (IDA Work project);
2. Treatment development for patients with comorbid emotional and pain problems (Hybrid project);
3. Patient - doctor communication in the context of persistent pain;
4. Persistent pain and its impact on work- and participation from a life course perspective.
Education
Katja's main teaching responsibilities are within the psychology program at Örebro University. Current areas of teaching are health psychology (semester 8) and examination and supervision of masters theses (semester 10).
Research projects
Active projects
- Understanding long-term opioid treatment to patients with chronic non-cancer pain in order to develop a method that promotes proper treatment.
- Effect of multimodal rehabilitation for patients with chronic pain problems
- The Hybrid Project. Transdiagnostic emotion focused treatment for emotional and somatic comorbidity. A SCED on implementation and effectiveness in primary care
- Mental health and sick leave from a life course perspective - mapping trajectories from childhood to retirement age (IDA Work project)
- ReActivate: Physiotherapist led intervention for adolescents with pain and psychological distress
- Researchers and school in close collaboration to help young people
Completed projects
- Hybrid emotion-focused exposure for chronic pain
- An RCT testing the effectiveness of a hybrid emotion-focused treatment for chronic pain patients with co-occurring emotional problems
- Discovering how youth sleep: A longitudinal study of why poor and good sleep develops
- Internet treatment for people with bipolar disorder - a pilot study
- Prevent Sick leave (PS): An RC T on the effects of a workplace focused program to prevent stress- and pain-related sick leave
- Psychological interventions for sensitivity to odours
- Co-morbid social anxiety and chronic pain - A study of common factors and a randomized trial of new treatment strategies
- Stress: A transdiagnostic intervention for youth
- Social - Anxiety - Pain
- Implementing Early Workplace-based preventive Interventions for Pain-related Disability
- The three-cities study
- How does pain catastrophizing impact on Pain? Mediational analyses.