Enhancing Trauma Treatment Institute

Head of Mission

 Suzy Matthijssen, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, and internationally recognized expert in the field of trauma and anxiety treatment. She works at PSYTREC and is Director of both the PSYTREC Academy and the Enhancing Trauma Treatment Institute. Suzy obtained her PhD at Utrecht University, where her dissertation, Enhancing Trauma Treatment, focused on developing and evaluating innovative methods to improve trauma therapy. For many years, she spent her time as a Director at the Altrecht Academic Anxiety Centre, combining clinical leadership with research. She is both a CBT Supervisor & Trainer and an EMDR Europe & EMDRIA consultant & an EMDR Europe Trainer, and she has played a central role in developing and disseminating EMDR 2.0, a modernized, evidence-informed version of EMDR therapy designed to enhance treatment outcomes. Suzy provides national and international training in EMDR (2.0), intensive PTSD treatments, and complex anxiety disorders. Suzy is also Vice President of the Dutch EMDR Association (VEN), a member of the Scientific Committee of EMDR Europe, and the former Co-Chair of the EMDR Council of Scholars’ Future of EMDR Project.

Mission partner

Ad de Jongh, PhD, is a mental health psychologist and emeritus professor of Anxiety and Behaviour Disorders at the University of Amsterdam. He is also visiting professor of Northumbria University, honorary professor in psychology at the School of Health Sciences of Salford University in Manchester, at the Institute of Health and Society of the University of Worcester, and at the School of Psychology of Queen’s University in Belfast. He was involved in establishing the Psychotrauma Expertise Center (PSYTREC), where he is working at the research department.

He is an expert in the treatment of anxiety disorders and involved in research on the efficacy of evidence-based trauma-focused treatments for a wide variety of patient groups, including children and adolescents, people with intellectual disabilities and other complex psychiatric conditions such as personality disorders and psychosis. He published more than 500 scientific articles, book chapters and books on his areas of expertise, is an approved trainer for the EMDR Europe association and former board member of the Dutch EMDR association and the EMDR Europe association.