Key Takeaways
At GGZ inGeest, one of the Netherlands’ leading mental-health institutions, the boundaries between therapy, research, and education are intentionally porous.
Dr. Inge Jager, Clinical Psychologist – Psychotherapist and Chair of the Expertise Line for Depression, Anxiety & Compulsions and Psychosomatics, embodies this integrative vision.
Her work at the De Nieuwe Valerius location in Amsterdam shows how modern care grows stronger when science, teaching, and clinical practice flow through the same corridor.
Story & Details
A Day Built on Rhythm and Purpose
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the outpatient clinic at De Nieuwe Valerius opens its doors to people seeking treatment for depression and anxiety.
Fridays turn toward research – designing studies that trace how emotions, cognition, and body interact.
Mondays belong to education, mentoring trainees who will one day shape Dutch mental-health care.
This weekly rhythm mirrors a national approach that treats knowledge as something living: every therapy session feeds inquiry, and every dataset eventually reshapes therapy.
The Expertise Line
Within GGZ inGeest, each major diagnostic domain – from mood disorders to trauma – is organized as an “Expertiselijn,” a cross-disciplinary network that unites clinicians, researchers, and trainers.
Dr. Jager leads the line for Depression, Anxiety & Compulsions and Psychosomatics.
Here, treatment models are continuously refined through academic partnerships, most notably with Amsterdam UMC, the university medical center that shares both staff and research platforms with GGZ inGeest.
This structure ensures that clinical decisions rest not only on professional intuition but also on ongoing scientific validation.
Research in Motion
Studies emerging from this collaboration often bridge neurobiology, psychotherapy, and quality-of-life outcomes.
Data gathered within routine care become the seed for longitudinal research, turning everyday clinical notes into instruments of discovery.
Rather than isolating research in laboratories, GGZ inGeest and Amsterdam UMC bring it to the therapy room itself – a living lab where human complexity replaces artificial control.
It is science with a pulse.
Ethics and Transparency
Institutional openness is not decoration here; it is infrastructure.
The organization maintains public contact numbers, clear appointment policies, and explicit cancellation rules.
Such transparency transforms administration into part of the therapeutic environment.
It signals that trust extends beyond the therapy hour – into phone lines, schedules, and the language of everyday logistics.
Communication as Care
Even small gestures – bilingual information sheets, polite ecological reminders about printing, carefully written email replies – reveal a culture where communication itself is a form of care.
In this setting, clarity replaces bureaucracy; accessibility becomes empathy.
Patients, students, and researchers inhabit the same ecosystem of attention.
A Model for Tomorrow
The synergy between GGZ inGeest and Amsterdam UMC represents more than institutional cooperation.
It is a prototype of how mental-health systems can weave therapy, ethics, and discovery into one continuous act.
Dr. Jager’s schedule, moving from clinical chair to research meeting to classroom, becomes a metaphor for a discipline that refuses to fragment the human mind – or its own methods of understanding it.
Conclusions
Integration as Ethos
When treatment, research, and education coexist, care becomes both personal and systemic.
The clinician’s insight refines research questions; data from studies refine treatment.
This loop keeps the field vibrant and accountable, preventing stagnation on either side.
In this context, ethos is the invisible framework of values that guides how people think, act, and collaborate.
It is not a policy or a slogan, but a shared instinct — the collective character of an organization that does the right thing even when no one is watching.
At GGZ inGeest, integration is not an extra duty; it is part of that ethos.
It shapes daily choices: to teach while treating, to question while caring, to see research not as distance but as closeness to reality.
The Dutch Precision
Dutch mental-health institutions are known for turning clarity into culture.
Their open communication, ethical frameworks, and commitment to bilingual transparency demonstrate that good science and good care thrive on the same foundation: honesty.
At De Nieuwe Valerius, that honesty sounds like a warm voice on a public phone line, a carefully crafted research protocol, and the steady rhythm of a clinic that learns as it heals.
Sources
GGZ inGeest — Official Website: https://www.ggzingeest.nl
GGZ inGeest – De Nieuwe Valerius Location: https://www.ggzingeest.nl/locaties-en-contact/de-nieuwe-valerius/
Amsterdam UMC — Research Collaborations Overview: https://www.amsterdamumc.org/en/research.htm
Appendix
Expertise Line (Expertiselijn)
A cross-disciplinary framework inside Dutch mental-health institutions that clusters specialists around a specific theme – for example, depression or psychosis – combining treatment, research, and education to ensure continual improvement.
De Nieuwe Valerius
A GGZ inGeest site in Amsterdam’s south side, dedicated to outpatient services and specialized programs for mood and anxiety disorders.
It also serves as a training and research base linked to Amsterdam UMC.
Psychosomatics
A field exploring how psychological processes influence physical health.
Within GGZ inGeest, psychosomatic research examines how stress, emotion regulation, and bodily awareness intersect in depression and anxiety treatment.
Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist in the Netherlands
In the Dutch system, these are protected professional titles requiring postgraduate specialization and national registration.
Practitioners often combine therapy with research and supervision, ensuring that scientific progress remains connected to direct patient care.
Amsterdam UMC
Amsterdam University Medical Centers (Amsterdam UMC) unites the Academic Medical Center (AMC) and VU University Medical Center (VUmc).
Its partnership with GGZ inGeest enables shared appointments, joint PhD supervision, and rapid translation of findings into practice.
Transparency in Care
Dutch mental-health institutions emphasize clear communication – public phone lines, cancellation policies, and multilingual resources – as ethical pillars.
Transparency is viewed not as formality but as a therapeutic stance: it builds trust and autonomy simultaneously.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 