Sandra Mulkens, PhD, is an endowed professor of Feeding and Eating Disorders at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. Besides, she is a certified Clinical Psychologist-Psychotherapist/Cognitive-Behavioural Therapist (CBT). Her research focuses on the maintenance and treatment of eating disorders - particularly Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) - and on body image disorders such as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), including the link with cosmetic surgery.
Next to her research, Sandra teaches about psychopathology, eating disorders, BDD, CBT, and interviewing skills at Maastricht University, and in numerous post master courses and workshops. Furthermore, she conducts clinical work: in the past, she has been treating patients with social phobia, BDD, boulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. In 2019, she set up an outpatient treatment program for adults with ARFID in the Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC) where she currently treats patients with ARFID. Besides teaching, conducting research (including supervising PhD candidates on topics of eating disorders and BDD/cosmetic surgery), and carrying out clinical work, Sandra fulfilled several extra curricular positions: she served as board member (2014-2020) and president (2020-2023) for the Dutch Academy for Eating Disorders, as co-chair for ICED 2023, and member of the ICED planning committee 2021 and 2025. She also served as a steering group member for K-EET (‘improving care for eating disorders in Dutch youth’) from 2020-2023, and is currently process leader of a regional K-EET collective. She also currently serves as the chair of the working group to revise the care standard for eating disorders in The Netherlands and was a member of the previous care standard committee. Furthermore, Sandra is involved in several projects to improve care for eating disorders through the development of e-learnings, and via footage to train therapists in CBT (PsyFlix). Last but not least, she publishes about her work in scientific journals and book chapters and recently co-authored the first Dutch book on diagnosis and treatment of ARFID.