Siebrecht Vanhooren

Siebrecht Vanhooren (PhD) is professor of clinical psychology at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium.

He teaches counseling skills, psychological interventions, and humanistic, person-centered, experiential, focusing and existential psychotherapies at undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level at KU Leuven. He is the director of the person-centered therapy training programs and the existential well-being counseling program at KU Leuven.

He is a senior staff member of the Research Group Clinical Psychology, the co-director of Meaning & Existence research center and of the Center for Experiential-Existential Psychotherapy Center at KU Leuven. He is a committee member of The Eugene T. Gendlin Center for Research in Experiential Philosophy and Psychology at The Focusing Institute (New York). His research includes existential concerns, meaning in life, posttraumatic growth, experiential-existential psychotherapy, focusing, existential empathy, and dreamwork. He received the inaugural award for Distinguished Contributions to Existential Therapy Research at the 2026 World Congress of Existential Therapy in Denver.

Siebrecht further works as an person-centered, focusing-oriented, and experiential-existential psychotherapist and supervisor at PraxisP (KU Leuven). Last but not least, he loves spending time with his family and friends, hiking in nature, gardening, stargazing, and is a volunteer at his local Jewish community. Being Belgian, he enjoys a good piece of chocolate and tries to get a warm sound out of his saxophone.