I currently work as a postdoctoral researcher on a Research Council of Finland's project focused on developing and validating a novel method for evaluating therapist competence. This approach is designed to be sensitive to prior training and adaptable to further skill development. Grounded in the theoretical framework of process-based therapy (PBT), the method introduces a standardized competence task that measures therapeutic skills in a precise and clinically meaningful way across various schools of psychotherapy. While psychologists and psychotherapists undergo extensive training to ensure high competence, there is limited scientific evidence linking therapist competence to treatment success. Existing evaluation methods often rely on subjective self-assessments or external ratings of natural therapy sessions, which are influenced by factors such as client characteristics and session context. This research aims to address these limitations with a more objective and comprehensive assessment tool.
Additionally, starting in 2025, I will also be partly involved in another Research Council of Finland's project aimed at promoting adolescent well-being with the online ACT program Youth Compass. Despite the serious consequences of youth mental health problems, services tailored for youth are scarce. For youth, who spend more time online than other age groups, technology and mobile devices offer flexible and powerful tools that provide new opportunities to enhance the delivery of mental health services. A new brief online ACT-based intervention (iACT) showed that it support youth well-being and career planning, increase youth ability to withstand pressure and increase psychological flexibility. In this new project, we will collect and analyze extensive feedback and usage activity data of iACT, broaden usage to new user groups, develop a
new group intervention model and continue to extend the dissemination work.
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I earned my PhD in 2024 with a research focused on the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) training on university students' social and public speaking interaction anxiety. Results indicated that after attending three sessions, a significant decrease in self-reported social and communication anxiety and a significant improvement in process and behavioral measures occurred. Additionally, we observed how students’ psychological flexibility improved over time and across contexts using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) phone measurements in their daily lives. While trained with the same "automated" VR intervention, the processes of change vary significantly between individuals, highlighting the importance of treating each person as a unique individual. This study provides new knowledge on how to use VR as an instrument to offer modern process-based interventions.
Additionally, in the last few years, I have been working on the European international research project VRperGENERE, which aimed to reduce intimate partner violence by deploying cost-effective prevention and rehabilitation tools based on immersive Virtual Reality (VR). The research at the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ aimed to 1) promote healthy dating relationships by empowering young women to respond assertively to psychological abuse and 2) reduce recidivism of IPV offenders by using VR scenarios as a tool in rehabilitation programs. The international project included collaboration with Spanish partners such as Blanquerna University in Barcelona.
Research Projects
Teaching
Awards
- 2023 ACBS World Conference - Nicosia, Cyprus
