Dr. B.M. (Branko) van Hulst

I’m a child and adolescent psychiatrist and senior researcher at LUMC Curium. In small teams, we support families at the outpatient clinic, helping children with complex and multiple challenges find their way to recovery. Additionally, through various forms of research and collaborations, I study the impact of psychiatric classification—the names we give to problems such as ADHD, autism, or depression—on children's development.

In the psychologist’s or psychiatrist’s office, the difficulties someone experiences are translated into a mental health problem that can be treated. Labels such as ADHD, autism, and depression play a significant role in this process. As both a researcher and a clinician, I am interested in the consequences of this translation, so that professionals can make well-informed choices. My guiding principle is: we shape the labels, thereafter they shape us. One major risk in current practice is that by focusing too much on individual disorders, we may overlook the context in which these problems arise.