Dr Ellen Goudsmit joins ME Association panel of advisers

The ME Association have appointed Dr Ellen Goudsmit as a consultant on psychological issues. Dr Goudsmit is a registered health psychologist with a background in medical and psychological research.

Dr Goudsmit is a visiting research fellow at the University of East London, and is a co-editor of ME and CFS References, a list of all published papers on ME, CFS and related conditions, compiled for the Melvin Ramsay Archive since 1989. She has been a long time critic of the CBT-model for CFS. She devised the strategy of pacing for ME and introduced the concept of psychologisation (the emphasis on where there is little or no evidence to justify it).

Dr Goudsmit studied clinical psychology and psychophysiology for her Dutch Master’s degree. Her PhD described three studies of people with Ramsay-defined ME and post-viral fatigue syndrome.

In 2009, she was elected a fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS). She is also a member of the International Association for CFS/ME.

Dr Goudsmit is an advocate for specialist clinics where physicians and other health professionals can choose from an arsenal of interventions depending on the symptoms, circumstances and preferences of the patient. As she was part of the BPS team which scrutinised the NICE guidelines and as she has already analysed the studies on CBT and GET, we hope that we will be able to use her knowledge to provide expert advice on the imminent publication of the PACE trial.

Dr Goudsmit, who was born in Amsterdam, has had ME since childhood. She became a British citizen two years ago.