Dr. Elke Vlemincx is Assistant Professor at the Health Sciences department at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, since 2020. She obtained her PhD in Psychology at KU Leuven in 2010. She obtained personal postdoctoral funding that allowed her to work internationally, in Ann Arbor, Hamburg, Seattle, Louvain-La-Neuve and Leuven until 2017. From 2017 to 2020, she worked as Assistant Professor at Queen Mary University of London.
Her research interests focus on dynamic regulation of psychophysiological processes underlying mental health and wellbeing. She investigates mechanisms of stress and emotion regulation, psychophysiological flexibility and resilience, interoception and symptom perception, aiming to optimize mental health and wellbeing interventions.
One research line focuses on respiratory psychophysiology, in which she uses breathing as an exemplar and a tool of dynamic psychophysiological regulation, demonstrating bidirectional associations between breathing patterns and psychophysiological stress regulation. She has pioneered research on the psychological functions of sighs with implications for breathing regulation, emotion and stress regulation, and symptom perception.
A second research line focuses on transversal skills and socioemotional learning. This research aims to study the embedding of socioemotional skills in secondary and higher education to enhance wellbeing, resilience, positive health and employability of students.
She has published research papers in leading journals in psychophysiology (e.g. Psychophysiology, Biological Psychology, European Respiratory Journal). She was also the past president of the International Society for the Advancement of Respiratory Psychophysiology in 2020-2021.
