Claudi Bockting

TEDxTheHague
November 8, 2025
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TEDxTheHague
November 8, 2025
Zoom Out

Profile

Claudi L. Bockting, PhD, is a Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at Amsterdam University Medical Centers and a licensed clinical psychologist with over 30 years of experience. She is also one of the founders and directors of the interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Mental Health at the University of Amsterdam and was a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School (2023).

Her research focuses on innovative digital and AI-supported interventions to prevent depression, anxiety, and suicidality. She is the developer of Preventive Cognitive Therapy (PCT), a groundbreaking treatment demonstrated in multiple trials to prevent depressive relapse for up to 20 years. She has (co-)authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel, and is an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts for her work.

Talk Topic

In her talk, “Disrupt the rhythm of depression,” Professor Bockting addresses one of the most challenging aspects of depression: its high rate of recurrence. Why do people who have recovered so frequently experience a relapse? Do we develop “psychological scars” from an episode? And what factors put us most at risk?

Professor Bockting will explore these critical questions and discuss how we can disrupt this recurrent rhythm. She will introduce Preventive Cognitive Therapy (PCT), a psychological intervention she developed specifically for individuals in remission. The talk will cover how this approach targets key risk factors like stress sensitivity, dysfunctional beliefs, and emotion regulation and will discuss the use of imagery and phantasy as powerful tools, all supported by scientific evidence demonstrating long-term preventive effects of up to 20 years.

Claudi Bockting