Group leader
PhD, Docent in clinical and developmental psychology
Marjo Flykt works as university lecturer in teaching of child & adolescent clinical skills to students in psychology master program. She has two psychotherapy trainings (parent-infant psychotherapy and emotion-focused couple therapy). In addition to her research career, she has long experience in working as clinical psychologist and psychotherapist with young children and their parents.
Her main research interests include parent-child interaction, and attachment, mentalizing, and emotion regulation processes from pregnancy to adolescence. She is interested in intervention studies and has wide collaboration networks with clinicians in the social and mental health field.
Doctoral researcher
Assi Peltonen specialises in the efficacy of child psychiatric treatments and feedback-informed treatment. Holding a master’s degree and being a licensed Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapist, she explores intervention impacts on children and adolescents’ mental health and factors influencing treatment effectiveness. Her research also focuses on improving mental health practices and policies through evidence-based research and routine treatment monitoring.
Doctoral researcher
Dominika Borucka is also a clinician working as a school counsellor in the International School of Helsinki. Dominika gained a Master's Degree in Psychology from the University of Derby (UK) and has also worked as a nurse in pediatrics and psychiatry. Born in Poland, Dominika has spent over half her life abroad, having lived in Luxembourg, Belgium, and, since 2021, Finland. Her primary interests lie in Emotion Regulation, Mental Health Prevention, and Dance Movement Therapies.
Doctoral researcher
Enni Hatakka graduated as a psychologist in 2023, currently working with children and families and conducting her PhD studies in the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). Her research is part of the longitudinal CHILD-SLEEP-cohort study, where she focuses on maternal and paternal postpartum bonding and its impact on later child development and wellbeing.
Doctoral researcher
Eveliina Mykkänen enrolled at the University of Tampere, Department of Psychology. She started her research in early 2024 and her current studies are part of a larger project called “Machine understanding of early interaction”, in which she examines different aspects of early interaction, such as emotional availability, maternal reflective functioning and unpredictability of maternal behavior. She is also interested in emotions automatically detected from facial expressions. Her principal supervisor is Mervi Vänskä from Tampere University, but part of her research is related to Flykt's perinatal intervention research projects.
Doctoral researcher
Hanna Lampi is a Family Psychotherapist- and trainer, an Occupational Therapist specialising in OT with children and adolescents, and a Nurture and Play trainer. Her PhD research considers Sensory Processing in both parents and children and, i.e. the association with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), emotion regulation problems, and depressive symptoms in Holding Tight – a treatment system aimed at perinatally substance-using parents.
Doctoral researcher
veli-matti.w.karhu@helsinki.fi
As a psychologist with experience in child protection services, Veli-Matti is dedicated to improving the well-being of vulnerable populations. His dissertation focuses on trauma-informed care in adolescent residential settings. Veli-Matti is particularly interested in the relationships between staff and youth, the effectiveness of evidence-based trauma-informed practices, and the role of mentalization and dialogue in residential care settings.
Doctoral researcher
Yan Li has a prior background in early childhood education and has ever worked on a project at Technische Universität Dresden focusing on emotion regulation in partnerships. Since 2023, her research under the "Miracles of Development" project explores how parental mental health impacts their relationships and extends to examining early life environments on child development.
Research nurse
Post-doc researcher
Petra.nyman-salonen@helsinki.fi
Petra Nyman-Salonen is a post-doctoral researcher with a PhD in psychology and a special psychologist in psychotherapy (practicing psychotherapist). She has also studied couple therapy. Her research interests range from nonverbal interpersonal coordination to the efficacy of couple therapy interventions.
In close collaboration with the following research groups: