Anna Seewald

Dr. Anna Seewald is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Junior Research Group Leader at Philipps University of Marburg's Department of Clinical Psychology within the School of Psychology. She works in the Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy I research group led by Prof. Dr. Winfried Rief and serves as a therapist at IPAM (Institut für Psychotherapie-Ausbildung Marburg). As a Junior Research Group Leader at the LOEWE Center DYNAMIC, she utilizes network models to better understand mental disorders and improve treatment precision.

Dr. Seewald earned her PhD in Psychology from Philipps University of Marburg (2020-2023) with her dissertation focusing on outcome expectations in psychotherapy. She concurrently completed her training as a Psychological Psychotherapist in Behavioral Therapy at IPAM (2020-2024). Her academic background includes a Master's degree (2019-2020) and Bachelor's degree (2015-2019) in Psychology from Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, with an exchange semester at Monash University Melbourne.

Her research focuses on dynamic network models of mental disorders, competency-oriented psychotherapy, psychotherapy expectations and their modification, and the warmth and competence dimensions of psychotherapists. Her work investigates how therapist characteristics influence patient expectations and treatment outcomes, with particular emphasis on expectation violation mechanisms in psychological treatments.

• Teaching Award 1st Place | Best Seminar Summer Semester 2023
• Teaching Award 1st Place | Best Seminar Winter Semester 2022/23

Dr. Seewald teaches seminars on anxiety disorders at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research has been supported by the Research Training Group 2271 "Breaking Expectations" funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), and she collaborates with the Transregio SFB 289 on expectations in clinical outcomes. Her publications demonstrate a strong focus on experimental approaches to understanding therapist effects on patient expectations and treatment outcomes.