Doctoral Researcher Mariëlle Hesselink

Mariëlle Hesselink holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Amsterdam and earned her M.A. in Transcultural Studies from the University of Heidelberg. Her PhD project explores contemporary psychotherapeutic practices that deal with the notion of ritual abuse. Through ethnographic work in the U.K., the Netherlands, and Germany, it examines the introduction and development of the ritual abuse concept in the therapeutic process, the therapeutic methods and diagnoses applied, and the discourses employed within and outside of therapy, including in workshops, professional literature, and survivor accounts.