My Ph.D. research focused on the intersection of pelvic floor complaints, sexual function problems, and psychological distress in Dutch young adult women who received pelvic physical therapy. For this purpose, I performed:

• An interview study, which was analyzed in two mixed-method designs with Leximancer and Group Concept Mapping (Groupwisdom).
• Two psychometric studies to develop a new instrument: The Pelvic Floor Complaint-related Psychological Burden Inventory (PFC-PBI), and to test the reliability and validity of a new Implicit Association Test (PHSP-IAT) to measure implicit associations between sexual health/sexual dysfunction and pursuing/not pursuing help.
• A cross-sectional study to analyze the predictive value of pregnancy, parity, pelvic floor complaint severity, level of sexual function, and level of psychological burden for receiving pelvic physical therapy. 
• A file review study among pelvic physical therapists to explore recorded combinations of pelvic floor complaints, psychological distress, and pelvic floor muscle function.

In a post-doc position as principal investigator, I performed a multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) in collaboration with the Dutch/Belgian research consortium Samen Sterker. We examined the effect of the Cultural Formulation Interview on the therapeutic working alliance between migrant patients and their clinicians including the role of experienced cultural empathy. 

My ORCiD profile:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2084-2120

My ResearchGate Profile:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alma-Brand

I have been reviewing article for publication in different scientific journals

A presentation about relevant findings for pelvic health professionals: "Characteristics of premenopausal women in pelvic physical therapy practice." 

An interactive workshop with the title: "What can pelvic physical therapists do for people experiencing pain during sexual activities?" I addressed three elephants in the treatment room: (Painful) Sex, (Chronic) Pain, and Psychological burden, and I offered the attendees the opportunity to experience a pelvic floor awareness exercise whilst sitting on balloons.

A presentation providing a general overview of my Ph.D. research with the title: "Why do women seek help in pelvic physical therapy practice?"

A presentation about: "The sexual problems and psychological burden of women with pelvic floor complaints." based on the results of my Ph.D. research at the time.