Focus areas:
Chronic diseases/behavioral medicine/psychooncology/transplantation
- Psychosocial stress of patients and relatives in the context of cancer or transplants
- Fear of progression in patients and relatives of chronically ill patients
- Body image (self-image) in chronic illnesses
- Coping with illness
Partnership/family processes
- Analysis of individual and dyadic coping strategies to reduce psychological stress and increase the quality of life of chronically ill patients and their relatives
- Partnership and chronic illness ("www.seiteanseite.de")
- Partnership satisfaction and stability in couples with chronically ill children
Intervention research
- "Side by side" - a psycho-oncological support program for couples with cancer
- Talk, talk, talk - and more: a communication and skills training program for adolescents and young adults (www.tttandmore.de)
- Triple-P parent training
You can find moredetailed information on this homepage at
as well as an overview of the research projects at
Ongoing third-party funded projects
2020-2023 "Optimized psycho-oncological care through an interdisciplinary care algorithm - from screening to intervention (OptiScreen; German Cancer Aid); PI; in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Anja Mehnert-Theuerkauf, University Medicine Leipzig and Dipl.-Psych. Beate Hornemann, UniversitätsKrebsCentrum Dresden
2020-2023 "Longitudinal study of psycho-oncological support needs in patients and their relatives stratified by bio-psycho-social influencing factors (LUPE; German Cancer Aid), in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Anja Mehnert-Theuerkauf (PI), University Medicine Leipzig and Dr. Ute Goerling, Charité Berlin
2019-2023 "Improving treatment outcomes in cardiac surgery through preoperative optimization of patient expectations (PSY-HEART II; DFG, study director Prof. Dr. Winfried Rief, University of Marburg)