Nina Heinrichs

Nina Heinrichs is Full Professor of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and Psychotherapy at Bielefeld University, Germany, and is also a licensed psychotherapist. She studied psychology at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany and was then a research fellow at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CARD) at Boston University, USA. Until now, she has worked as full professor at different universities in Germany, among them the University of Braunschweig, University of Bremen and Bielefeld University.  

Dr. Heinrichs has published in the area of anxiety disorders in children and adults, and in prevention and early intervention with children and couples who face threats to their physical or psychological health, with a major focus on early childhood adversity in general and childhood maltreatment specifically during more recent years. Her research seeks to improve the understanding of psychological factors on health outcomes of individuals, including children as well as adults. Understanding the factors that contribute to mental health (as well as associated health domains like physical and sexual health), and continue to improve services across the lifespan are a focus of her work. She is fascinated by the ways people’s live change over time, unintentionally or intentionally, and how individuals adapt to changes in their environment. A specific research interest lies in studying recursive influences of dyadic relationships (e.g. in parent-child relationships or in couple relationships) that may help identify more general principles of what makes relationship work and how that relates to mental health in individuals and families. She is currently researching the increased risk of being re-affected from any type of violence when someone was exposed to child maltreatment in the past.