Carolien Balvers

Our eleventh alumni presented in this series of Alumni of Psychology is Carolien Balvers. She graduated from the master Positive Psychology & Technology and the master Buisiness Administration (HRM track). She works as a Psychologist at Roessingh Arbeid in Enschede. On February 11, Carolien will speak at the Psychology Career Week 2019 @ the University of Twente in the 'Psychology Graduates: their current jobs' section. 

How long did it take to find your first job?

I was lucky enough to start my first job as a psychologist at the pain department of Revalidatiecentrum Roessingh the week before I graduated. Currently I am working as a psychologist at Roessingh Arbeid. Roessingh Arbeid is connected to Revalidatiecentrum Roessingh and is specialized in reintegration and revalidation.

What are your tasks and responsibilities?

In my job I work with a team consisting of rehabilitation doctors, physiotherapists, movement therapists and work experts. Together we guide patients with chronic pain and fatigue within their work reintegration process.
As the psychologist in this process I educate people group wise, give them mindfulness and I provide individual counseling, mainly according to the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Besides that I conduct some neuropsychological research.

What have you taken along your study which you now profit from?

During the master course I practiced a lot with conversation techniques and I learned about disorders and diagnosing. These skills are now very helpful in my daily practice.  

What do you hope to achieve in your career?

Eventually I would like to become a Health Care Psychologist (‘GZ-psycholoog’). And in the far future I would love to join the board of a mental health institute for example. 

If you think about your study time, which memory comes to mind?

The loads of people I met and the fun I had, especially during my board year at the study association of Psychology, Dimensie.

Which tips and tricks would you like to give to current students?
Make use of the possibilities to do internships. Learning in theory about how to help people is useful, however, the best way to learn is to talk to real patients with real problems. During my internship I got the opportunity to do this for the first time. An exciting time, where I gained a lot of new experiences.

Carolien graduated writing two masterthesis’. In the first thesis, for Business Administration, her aim was to critically look at the data of the symposium ‘back to the future’ and to describe what is expected of the future of HRM, so that organizations and researchers can respond to this.  

In the second thesis, for psychology, she organized feedback on the health app ‘Meetmoment’ which monitores positive health and stimulates the user to improve their healthy behavior.

Any questions to Carolien?

This alumni has given the opportunity to answer questions about his/her work. If you have a question you are invited to mail this questions to amygdala@utwente.nl. Our moderator will bring you in touch with the alumni, who will answer your questions. For direct career opportunities you are advised to get in touch with the Human Resources department of the employer.

Get in touch!

Do you know someone who has a nice job, has an inspiring career of otherwise is interesting to join the Humans of Psychology series? Please get them in touch with us. To be able to keep this series going more alumni are needed.

Published: January 21st, 2019