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100 days to my PhD defence
My PhD officially ended in December 2025, but somehow life has only gotten busier since then. Without going into each development in detail (yet), I wanted to share a few updates here:
โ๏ธ My PhD dissertation has been approved. They say itโs important to celebrate each step of the academic journey. So yes, I followed the protocol and celebrated this oneโwith a postdoctoral family vacation in Thailand.
๐ My defence is scheduled for 02 June 2026 at 16:30. My dissertation title is โ๐๐ฆ๐ต๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด, ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด: ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ (๐ช๐ฏ)๐ท๐ข๐ณ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ดโ. Youโre very welcome to attend, either in person or online. I am reaching out to friends and colleagues. I will just assume people will be pleasantly surprised with my invitation. Haha!
๐ฌ Iโve started a postdoctoral position.
Itโs funded by an NWO XS grant that I co-wrote with Loes Pouwels and Maaike Verhagen. This team science project brings together our research lines on peer relationships and loneliness, alongside methodological innovation using Bray-Curtis dissimilarity. I feel like this has inserted a coin to my โgame overโ state as a researcher. So nice that I can stick around for another 1 year!
๐ Iโve also started my private practice in Rotterdam.
Setting everything up has taken more work than I imagined, including the website and the physical office, but Iโm now available for in-person psychotherapy in Rotterdam every Thursday afternoon. Thanks genAI for saving me hours in making a website. And thanks Li Zhi for making renting a physical office possible!
So yes, Iโm very much ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด, and between life phases. Grateful to carry research and practice side by side into what comes next.