Kongres 2025.

Professor Yvonne van Zaalen (1966) studied speech therapy at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences and speech therapy science at Utrecht University’s Faculty of Medicine. In 2009, she received her PhD from Utrecht University’s Faculty of Humanities. Professor Yvonne van Zaalen is an educator, researcher, clinician, and in-demand speaker.

As Professor of Relational Care at the Hague University, the Netherlands, Dr. van Zaalen is responsible for scientific research and education related to health innovations and technology with a specific interest on interprofessional collaboration, cultural responsivity and diversity.

Since 2006, she has been involved in developing the vision of practice-oriented research, research ethics, patient participation, research data management and the design of interprofessional education within various degree programmes in universities of applied sciences. Yvonne’s research focuses on the full inclusion of people (patients and professionals) from a diversity background in health care and research.

Dr. van Zaalen has years of experience in leading national and international clinical research projects in the research area of communication, multidisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration and communication in healthcare. She is author of eighteen books in the field of cluttering, research, ethics, health care and interprofessional collaboration.

As a speech-language scientist she did her PhD on differential diagnosis in fluency disorders (including imaging techniques). Her contributions to understanding cluttering, its assessment, differential diagnosis, and treatment have made her one of the world’s leading experts in the field. Her popular workshops disseminate knowledge about cluttering all over the world. Yvonne has been a senior fluency therapist for more than 30 years. She is a past president of the International Cluttering Association and is a recipient of the Deso Weiss Award for Excellence in the Field of Cluttering, sponsored by the Stuttering Foundation of America.