Hej hej! I’m Sabrina Doering and I’m an early stage researcher (ESR) in the CAPICE project at the University of Gothenburg (Göteborgs Universitet). Together with Ashley Thompson and Marica Leone, I’m one of the CAPICE ESRs based in Sweden.
Living in Germany far too long, I decided to go abroad after high school and started my academic journey by studying psychology in the Netherlands. After three years of riding a bike, come rain or shine, I received my bachelor of science from Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. To specialize in clinical psychology and neuroscience as well as to gain clinical experience, I moved to Switzerland to do a two years master of science at the University of Basel. Within CAPICE, I am lucky enough to combine my research interests along with the opportunity to be educated in the field of psychiatric genetics.

The overarching goal of my PhD project is to try to develop prediction models in order to identify individuals with anxiety/anxiety-symptomatology that have a high likelihood of developing negative life outcomes (for example, mental health problems, poor school achievement, unemployment, sick leave, suicide attempts, and criminality). Throughout medicine it is generally assumed that early detection is associated with a better prognosis, thus my hope is that the prediction models can be incorporated in clinical practice. In addition, the project also aims to disentangle the genetic and environmental underpinnings behind the relationship between anxiety and negative life outcomes.
After living and working in Sweden for eight months, I can only say that it has been a blast. Göteborg itself is such a laid-back place and I had the warmest welcome from my supervisors and co-workers. Although I’ve been almost “warned” that Swedes are generally friendly but reserved, I find them first and foremost open-minded. Besides, they really seem to live up to what is known as lagom: not too much and not too little, which means as much as achieving the optimal balance between life and work. For me, that surely includes having fika multiple times a day – it is basically taking a break from your work, socialize with a cup of coffee and something sweet before going back to work.
This all being said, I am really looking forward to the next coming years within CAPICE, and especially to the next few months in which I will both visit and work at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and eventually finalize my very first paper to be submitted this summer. Exciting!

My workplace – the Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health (CELAM), a part of Göteborgs Universitet which is located just outside of Göteborg.