Erica Bohnen is a lecturer in the unit Developmental and Educational Psychology of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University and a health care psychologist.

More information about Erica Bohnen

"You can only be a good lecturer if you have experience as a practitioner. Science and practice are two sides of the same coin. We ask our students to combine them; and so should we."

Erica Bohnen is a lecturer in the unit Developmental and Educational Psychology of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University and a health care psychologist.   

Erica coordinates and teaches courses as part of the University’s psychology programme. These courses are interpersonal professional skills, psycho-diagnostics, and solution-focused therapy. She is also the internship coordinator, and in that role she visits many health care institutions and supervises peer-consultation sessions.

She received her Master’s degree in didactics from Leiden University, and started her professional career at the same university in the department of Child and Education studies, focusing on learning problems and developmental psychology. In addition to her work there, she has held jobs as a psychologist at a pedological institute in Leiden, and subsequently at Effatha/ Kentalis, a school for the deaf, the hard of hearing, and the communicatively impaired. Her main tasks at these institutes involved diagnostics and teacher counselling.   

For many years, Erica has been involved in Master’s degree education in Special Educational Needs (SEN) for teachers in primary, special and secondary education. Working with students who teach children and adolescents during the day and study to get a Master’s degree in the evenings provides a great opportunity for tailor-made programmes that promote a strong connection between theory and practice.

Erica has worked as a health care (GZ) psychologist in a general practice since 2004. She works with children, adolescents, adults and families. She has a system-focused view on health care and aid, which means that she emphasises the interaction between people, and the interaction within the context in which they (have to) live.  Following her training in system therapy, Erica recently completed her solution-focused therapy training.

Erica’s systemic approach is further reflected in the fact that she is the first certified Families and Schools Together (FAST) trainer in The Netherlands. FAST is a prevention programme that is based on system theory principles. The founder of the programme, Lynn McDonald, trained the first team of FAST counselors in this country, and Erica - as a member of that team - went on to train teams in Leiden en Utrecht. FAST has been successfully implemented in a number of neighbourhoods in the city of Utrecht, The Netherlands, as part of the Dutch “strong communities” programme. Parents and children of different nationalities came together to talk to each other and to teachers, and to enjoy their time together. This has resulted in a stronger, more caring and cooperative community in those neighbourhoods. Plans are underway for a new start in cooperation with childcare organisations.