Helen Koechlin, PhD

My research focuses on chronic pain in children and adolescents. I am interested in psychological factors, especially emotions, emotion regulation and sensory processing sensitivity, that might contribute to the development and maintenance of chronic pain. Knowing more about these factors might also help to detect children at risk to develop chronic pain after an episode of acute pain. Another focus of my research is to examine the safety and efficacy of available interventions for patients suffering from chronic pain. Methodologically, I analyze existing data from randomized-controlled trials by means of (network) meta-analyses, conduct experiments, and am currently planning a small clinical trial that examines the efficacy of animal-assisted psychotherapy for children with chronic pain. Apart from my affiliation at Boston Children’s Hospital, I am an adjunct senior researcher at the Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel.