Updated 15 December 2023


The Organisation Committee of the
​​​​​​​European Psychosocial Special Interest Group

The informal committee comprises of psychosocial professionals active in CF care; four psychologists and four social workers. It aims to build on the work of previous committee members who have been central in developing EPSIG and excellent ECFS pre-conference programmes. 
Current committee members are: 
Coordinator: Urszula Borawska-Kowalczyk, Clinical Psychologist, PL, Vice coordinators: Annet Bongen, Medical Social Worker, NL and Dagmar Brocke, Clinical Social Worker, NL; Stina Järvholm, Clinical Psychologist, SE; Katie Smith, Social Worker, UK; Sue Braun, Clinical Psychologist, BE; Jacqueline Boekhoff, Social Worker, NL.


Coordinator: Urszula Borawska-Kowalczyk
Clinical Psychologist, PL

Urszula started work as a psychologist in the CF Center at the Mother and Child Institute in Warsaw in 2002. She continues her clinical work at the Hospital in Dziekanów Leśny, where there is the largest paediatric CF Center in Poland. She received her PhD from the Medical University of Warsaw. As a member of the CF MDT, Urszula is mainly involved in diagnosis, psychological interventions and supporting children with CF and their families. Her research interests include emotional well-being, adherence and the quality of life of children, parents and healthy siblings. She actively collaborates with patient associations and organises lectures and workshops for parents of all chronically ill children.

Vice coordinator: Annet Bongen,
Medical Social Worker, NL

Annet is medical social worker at the CF Center, University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands. She started working in the CF Center in 2001 and works with adults with CF and their families. Annet also works with patients who have lung cancer and their families. She has completed training courses in Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Minfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). 

Vice coordinator: Dagmar Brocke,
Clinical Social Worker, NL 

Dagmar is a clinical social worker at the CF and Lung transplantation Center, University Hospital in Utrecht, The Netherlands. She started at UMC in 2004 and works with adult CF patients and patients who enter the lung transplant care pathway. Dagmar completed training in Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Minfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and uses these therapeutic modalities daily in clinical practice. Her special interests are psychosocial problems of CF-patients post-lung transplantation and fertility issues and prospective parenthood of CF patients after lung transplantation.

Jacqueline Boekhoff
Social Worker, NL

Jacqueline is social worker and member of the pediatric CF-team and the pediatric Rehabilitation-team at the Emma Kinderziekenhuis, department of the Amsterdam University Hospital. She started working at the CF-team in 2007. 
Together with the pediatric-psychologist and the other CF-team members, she supports and gives counceling to parents of children with CF (at the age of 0-18), and their siblings. The psychosocial counceling is aimed at emotional well-being and also practical help and support. 
Jacqueline is passionate about giving back parents their strength and resilience, in a situation where they can feel sad and powerless. And her focus is family-centered-care. 
Jacqueline has contributed to the writing of the chapter on Psychosocial Care, in the Dutch CF-Quality-Standard. 

Sue Braun
Clinical Psychologist, BE

Sue Braun is a clinical psychologist – psychotherapist at the cystic fibrosis clinic in the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel (UZB) in Belgium. She was originally trained in family systems theory (IPRR, 2017-2021, Belgium). Recently she started an additional postgraduate study in the psychoanalysis (Ugent, 2022-…). For many years she worked with couples, families and individuals in a hospital context (UZB) and in a private practice. She was a guest speaker on CF related conferences in Belgium and the ECFS (Liverpool 2019, Rotterdam 2022). She was a 2023 jury member of the King Baudouin Foundation – Alphonse and Jean Forton fund (financial support for research into cystic fibrosis and related diseases in Belgium).

Stina Järvholm
​​​​​​​Clinical Psychologist, SE

Stina works as a psychologist at CF center at Sahlgrenska University hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden. In Sweden, there is four CF centers, all working with both adults and children. Stina started at the adult section of the center in 2012 and has since then combine the work at the CF center with her ongoing service at Reproductive Medicine. In 2017 she received her PhD from the Psychology Department at the University of Gothenburg. Her thesis focus on the psychological consequences of undergoing pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). PGD is a prenatal diagnosis, which is possible after undergoing IVF-treatment and potential for persons with the CF gene.  Her areas of interest in research is psychological aspects in reproductive medicine as well as screening regarding mental health among persons with CF. She is in several collaborations with the Swedish CF patient association for example setting-up programs for peer support and contributes in patient headed podcasts.


Katie Smith
Social Worker, UK

Katie is the social worker in the Paediatric Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Service based at Southampton Children’s Hospital (UK). The service offers holistic care to all children with a CF diagnosis under 18 years old, their parents and siblings. Katie set up the Paediatric CF social work service in 2015 and provides a service to the circa 250 children overseen by the centre and it's 9 regional clinics.
Katie works together with families effected by CF to improve outcomes in their lives. This ranges from offering one off advice to building long term relationships to support families where there are more complex social needs. Working closely with her CF psychology colleagues and the wider medical team, Katie feels privileged to have the opportunity to understand the needs of the child’s wider system which promotes a whole family approach to CF care planning.