King's College London

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Reinders is a Senior Research Associate with Lecturer status at the Centre for Affective Disorders, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London (KCL). Dr Reinders has an H-index of 23 according to Google Scholar (19 in Scopus). Dr Reinders is an emerging leader in the field of pathological dissociation, having received multiple awards from the ISSTD for her work in this area. She is considered an international expert in the neurobiology of pathological dissociation as evidenced by invitations to deliver plenaries at internatioanl conferences. Dr Reinders was recently appointmented chair of the ENIGMA Dissociation Working Group. As chair she will lead an international team of researchers aiming to establish neuroimaging biomarkers for dissociation in a trans-diagnostic manner.

Chair ENIGMA-Dissociation Working Group:

http://enigma.ini.usc.edu/ongoing/enigma-dissociation-working-group/

Twitter: @AATSReinders

Website: www.neuroimaging-DID.com

RESEARCH

As part of her PhD Dr Reinders has worked on the Frontiers of Psychiatry and was among the first to publish on brain imaging in pathological dissociation. Her research was the first to show, on the basis of brain activation data, that different personality states in patients with dissociative identity disorder (DID) show different brain activation patterns in response to listening to trauma-related autobiographical texts. In an important follow-up study she showed that these personality-state-dependent brain activation patterns cannot be simulated. This research has been pivotal for the etiology discussion of DID and counters the view that DID is an iatrogenic disorder.

In a separate study Dr Reinders used structural data to show that DID and posttraumatic stress disorder share trauma-related neurostructural biomarkers. This work was the first to provide evidence that DID is related to early traumatization and is clinically relevant because it provides evidence for the DSM classification of DID. In a recent publication Dr Reinders showed how brain imaging can aid the diagnosis of DID using machine learning algorithms. This paper was awarded the 2020 Pierre Janet Writing Award of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), which is given to an individual for the best clinical, theoretical or research paper in the field of dissociative and/or trauma within the past year. This award follows other awards such as the Morton Prince Award for Scientific Achievement (2017) of the ISSTD given for outstanding cumulative contributions to research in the area of dissociative disorders.

TEACHING

Clinical training: Simone delivers training session for clinicians during an all-day training event organised by the Traumatic Stress and Dissociation Service, a National Specialist Service at Maudsley Hospital, IoPPN, KCL (https://www.slam.nhs.uk/national-services/adult-services/trauma-and-dissociation-service/). 2017, 2018 and invited for 2021.

Teaching and assessment: Excellent in module development and delivery

Module development: In the academic years 2014/2015, 2015/2016, 2016/2017 Simone created, developed and led the module “Horizons in Psychiatry: Designing, Funding and Publishing a study” as part of the flagship MSc in Psychiatric Research at the IoPPN, KCL (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/courses-data/modules/7/horizons-in-psychiatric-research). Curriculum development included setting learning standards and learning objectives as well as organizing engaging and high quality presentations for students by inviting prominent internal and external researchers.

Lecturing at the IoPPN, KCL: Simone has been lecturing in various MSc Programs since 2009

• Early Intervention in Psychosis: Research Methods Module.
• Mental Health Studies: Mind and Brain Module.
• Psychiatric Research: Neuroimaging Module.

Lecturing at the University of Groningen, NL: Between 2003 and 2013 Simone lectured in BSc and MSc courses on the topic of trauma-related dissociation.

Coursework marking:

• 2016: Marker for the Essay and MCQ of the Neuroimaging module of the MSc in Psychiatric Research.
• 2013: Marker for the “Strategic interventions for psychological well-being in organisations (OPP2)” module of the MSc Organisational Psychiatry and Psychology of the Mental Health Studies Program at the IoPPN, KCL, UK.

Experience of working, motivating and supervising students: I have successfully supervised PhD, MSc, and BSc students in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Switzerland

• Simone is currently supervising 2 PhD students in collaboration with Professor Dick Veltman of the Amsterdam University Medical Center
• Simone is currently supervising 1 Research Assistant
• PhD: 5 PhD students have completed their thesis under Simone's main/co-supervision; 2 at the Groningen University; 2 at the IoPPN, KCL and 1 international.
• MSc: 18 students completed. Simone always motivates students to convert their MSc thesis into a manuscript; many received a distinction; several continued to a PhD project.
• BSc: 4 students completed.
• Simone completed the Supervisor Training Workshop at the IoPPN, KCL in 2010.