Committees
Local organizing committee
Mario Braakman
Mario Braakman is psychiatrist, psychotherapist and cultural anthropologist. He is the president of the 6th WACP and president elect of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry. He is the editor-in-chief of the World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review. He is professor of forensic psychiatry at Tilburg University. In Pro Persona Mental Health he is appointed as director of the psychiatric residency training program. His PhD research focused on the diagnostic validation of ‘posttraumatic stress disorder with secondary psychotic features’ among asylumseekers and refugees. He is the immediate past president of the department of transcultural psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry.
Forugh Karimi
(Forugh) Karimi MD, is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and writer. She comes originally from Afghanistan (Kabul) and lives since 1996 in the Netherlands. She is currently the president of the department Transcultural Psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry (NVvP). In her work as psychiatrist she is specialized in diagnosis and treatment of complex trauma and (severe) personality disorders. She works in her own practice and for Idiomes, Center of Transcultural Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of GGZ Eindhoven.
Hans Rohlof
Hans (J.G.B.M.) Rohlof, M.D. , Ph.D. is psychiatrist and psychotherapist, from Leiden, the Netherlands.
Affiliations: Transparant Mental Health and GGZ Integraal, Leiden, and GGZ Denazorg, Den Haag, the Netherlands.
Secretary of the Johannes Wier Foundation for Human Rights and Health Care in Amsterdam, Treasurer of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry, and past president and Honorary Advisor of the Transcultural Section of the World Psychiatric Association. He is cofounder and treasurer of the department Transcultural Psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry.
Publications: more than 120 different articles, books and book chapters.
Simon Groen
S.P.N. (Simon) Groen PhD is an anthropologist and senior researcher at De Evenaar, Center for Transcultural Psychiatry, GGZ Drenthe Mental Health Care that provides mental health care for refugees and migrants. He is member of the Research Committee of GGZ Drenthe and research leader of the research track Common Mental Disorders. In the Dutch Association for Psychotrauma he is Board Member on diversity and inclusion issues. He was involved in the international field trial for the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview and published on cultural identity in relation to mental health care. He is a reviewer for several journals.
Samrad Ghane
Samrad Ghane is a clinical psychologist, medical anthropologist, and senior researcher at Parnassia Psychiatric Institute in The Hague, the Netherlands with an interest in cultural psychiatry and critical global mental health. He has been involved in the development and implementation of culturally sensitive mental health services for refugees and immigrants across a broad range of settings. Samrad has contributed to culturally informed treatment guidelines for depression and psychosis, as well as general standards on mental health and cultural diversity. His research is mainly focused on psychotherapy process and outcome, cultural competence, and the clinical relevance of cultural concepts of distress.
Katinka Haar
C.H. (Katinka) Haar, MD, PhD, is a child-and adolescent psychiatrist. She has worked as a MD in a refugee camp in Tanzania (1999-2001), which has formed her later career steps. After her years in Tanzania she trained as a public health specialist, specialized in Tuberculosis Care, later on she worked in projects such as HIV-prevention programme development by refugees for refugees; street prostitutes and addicts. In more recent years, she trained as a C&A psychiatrist (from 2009 till present) and trauma-therapist, and has dedicated her time to working mainly with refugee children and families.
Huub Beijers
H.A.P. (Huub) Beijers MSc.is psychologist and medical anthropologist, studied ‘psychiatry and transcultural competencies’ at the University of Paris and is guest member of the board of the department Transcultural Psychiatry of the Dutch Assocation of Psychiatry. Until his recent retirement he worked with people with limited access to mental health services and now is active as a practitioner for patients with a migration background. He was co-editor of the Dutch handbook on the Cultural Interview. His interests are in the field of inequalities in the distribution of mental health(care), cultural (counter)transference, and empowerment and community development.
Jeroen Oomen
Jeroen Oomen MD is a psychiatrist and family therapist, employed by a community mental health organization north of Amsterdam in the Netherlands (GGZ NHN). He is member of the board of the department Transcultural Psychiatry of the Dutch Psychiatric Association (NVvP) and specialized in transcultural aspects of mental health. Throughout his career he has been involved in the mental health of migrant groups en refugees and in global mental health; he has been living and working in Eritrea for 4,5 year from 2003 to 2007 employed by HealthNet TPO (the Netherlands) and the Ministry of Health of Eritrea.
Mihri Heval Özgen
Mihri Heval Ozgen, MD PhD, is a psychiatrist and yogini who immigrated from Mesopotamia to the Netherlands in 2002. Currently, her research is focused on understanding the role of self-acceptance, stress and (interpersonal) trauma in diverse communities with a particular focus on transcultural psychiatry. She has published extensively in research journals, has delivered many invited presentations on both research and training matters, and has supervised numerous projects at the post graduate level. She is the research coordinator of i-psy (intercultural psychiatry department) and serves on the board of the Transcultural Psychiatry section of the Dutch Psychiatric Association (NVvP).
Rob van Dijk
R.C.J. (Rob) van Dijk MSc. is a medical anthropologist, and until his recent retirement consultant diversity management of Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Netherlands. Since 1980 he is involved in the development of an inclusive (mental) health care in the Netherlands by doing research, designing culture sensitive instruments, organizing education and advising health care management. He has been involved in the introduction of the Cultural Formulation in the Netherlands and the development and implementation of the Cultural Formulation Interview. He is co-editor of the Handbook Cultural Psychiatry and psychotherapy (2020). The construction of culture in health care has his special interest.
Imma van Galen
Imma I. van Galen-Oosterkamp is a psychiatrist and a board member of the department Transcultural Psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry (NVvP). She works with refugees with no documents who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at ARQ Centrum45 in the Netherlands. She makes medical assessments of suspected victims of torture and inhumane treatment with iMMO (Netherlands Institute for Human Rights and Medical Assessment). She is also a trainer in Narrative Exposure Therapy and enjoys participating in the education of mental health professionals in f.e. cultural psychiatry and PTSD.
Marjolein van Duijl
Marjolein van Duijl, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist specialized in Transcultural Psychiatry and Global Mental Health. She has extensive experience with clinical work, teaching and developing mental health services in various African countries and for refugees and migrants in the Netherlands. Her PhD research covered Trauma, Spirit-possession and Dissociation in Uganda.
Within the Dutch Psychiatric Organization she was a board-member of the Transcultural Psychiatry Section, chair of the Taskforce Refugees and a member of the Covid-19 taskforce.
Currently she works for the Center of Cultural Mental Health, GGNET and is a supervisory board-member of the Expertise Center for Transcultural Therapy, Amsterdam.
Charlotte Clous
Charlotte Clous is a medical anthropologist. She works as a researcher, transcultural staff-trainer and advisor at Veldzicht, a transcultural and forensic psychiatric clinic in the North-East of the Netherlands. She is a PhD candidate at the psychiatry department of UMCG, the academic medical centre of the University of Groningen. Her research focusses on the position of ethnic minority forensic inpatients with a psychotic disorder and loss of Dutch residency rights. By means of hospital ethnography she aims to explore their experiences of in- and exclusion and patterns of sociocultural identification in clinical interactions, and their influence on pathways to recovery.
Kimberley Rakijo
Kimberley Rakijo is a psychiatrist currently working at a FACT team at the GGZE in Eindhoven. The FACT team provides treatment and guidance for people with chronic psychiatric conditions in combination with other problems in their personal and professional lives. Kimberley is also a member of the board of the department Transcultural Psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry and a lecturer at Radboud University in Nijmegen, focusing on cultural aspects of therapy. Kimberley was born in Suriname and moved to the Netherlands in 2012 to complete her medical education and psychiatric specialization.
Naomi Bollen
Naomi Bollen is a child- and adolescent psychiatrist. She has worked as MD on projects providing medical care to communities affected by conflict or natural disaster and people suffering exclusion from healthcare in amongst others Colombia and Myanmar. She has been a board member of the department Transcultural Psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry. Currently she is working in an (intercultural) child- and adolescent psychiatry department in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She is involved in culturally sensitive mental health services for migrants, refugees and their families and in projects regarding global mental health.
Nediye Baydar
Nediye Baydar is a psychiatrist and biomedical scientist. She has experience working with psychiatric patients with different cultural backgrounds and broad variety of different complex problems. During her psychiatry education, Nediye researched the differences in self-stigmatization in Western and non-Western patients who have experienced a first psychosis. Nediye currently works as a psychiatrist at the Department of Acute Psychiatry at the GGzE and is a member of the board of the department Transcultural Psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry. In addition, Nediye is a lecturer in the field of cultural psychiatry and teaches mental health psychologists in training.
Madhu Sokhei
Madhu Soekhai is a resident Psychiatry at the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG). Born and raised in the Netherlands, with parents from Surinam but roots and great grandparents from India, the concept of 'identity' has been an important and curious topic to her. Currently she is doing a residency in Curacao to further explore working in a transcultural environment. In addition to working in a culturally rich and diverse environment, she is fascinated with the interface between somatics and psychiatry. She is the resident (aios) member of the department Transcultural Psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry (NVvP) and member of the workinggroup Diversity&Inclusion of the UMCG.
Marian Tankink
Marian (M.T.A.) Tankink, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and former community psychiatric nurse. She works as a researcher and trainer, mainly in the Great Lake region in Africa and is specialised on the relation between gender, violence, reconciliation, psychosocial wellbeing, and mental health in (post) conflict areas and among refugees. Her PhD focussed on how refugee women respond to personal experiences of sexual violence.
From 2014 to 2019 she was Editor in Chief of 'Intervention, Journal of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Conflict Affected Areas'.
She is guest member of the board of the department Transcultural Psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry.