Once upon a time..
.. there was a little girl telling everyone her job would be "someting with sports" when she would grow up. Considering this, it was quite logical she studied both Human Movement Sciences at Maastricht University and physical therapy at the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences in Heerlen, the Netherlands. During her last two training years, she already gained experience in the sports field as a masseuse at the youth academy of soccer club MVV in Maastricht.
After writing her MSc thesis at the KNVB Sports Medical Center she succefully finished both studies in September 2007. |
The magical attraction of knees and research
Working at my first real job at Sports Medical Center Papendal I noticed my true passion was treating people with knee injuries. However, I also really enjoyed looking for new treatment possibilities that were not scientifically proven yet. I wanted to be part of the community of people who develop new expertise! This is why I decided to start my PhD journey at the end of 2011. I was still working parttime as a sports physical therapist and was an external PhD student at the Radboudumc Nijmegen simultaneously. After more than 7 years of hard work and enjoying my journey, I succesfully defended my thesis on 14 March 2019. Since then, I am proudly wearing the title of doctor in Human Movement Sciences!
Happily ever after?
In October 2022 I decided, after working as a sports physical therapist for 15 years, to fully focus on my career as a researcher. I've been working as a post-doc researcher at the Sports & Orthopedics Research Center from the Anna Hospital Geldrop - Anna TopSupport Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and found out this is what I really love to do. I still dream about the best care for everyone with knee pain or a knee injury, whether this is with a doctor in the hospital or with a physio in a private practice. The results of our scientific studies help reaching this goal. I also really like sharing results of our studies with other health care professionals. In this way, results are implemented in day-to-day practice really fast!