A/Professor Dr. Dagmar Koethe

Professor Koethe is a psychiatrist with extensive training in diagnosing and treating early mental health disorders, specializing in mood disorders, psychosis, and stress-related conditions such as personality disorders and PTSD. She completed her medical studies at the University of Cologne, Germany, and the Medical College of Bangalore, India, earning her medical degree in 2000 and a doctoral degree in 2002, both from the University of Cologne. She began her psychiatric training at the Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and later returned to Cologne, where she completed her training in psychiatry and psychotherapy, including a year of Neurology at the University Hospital of Cologne. In 2006, she became board-certified as both a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. In 2007, Professor Koethe was appointed as a consultant psychiatrist at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Cologne. Two years later, she moved to the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, where she served as the Medical Head of the Centre of Excellence for Research in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. After a maternity leave, she resumed her career in 2011 as a senior consultant psychiatrist at the University of Heidelberg, where she continued clinical work, research, and teaching, deepening her focus on personality disorders and trauma. In 2014, she received her “venia legendi,” equivalent to a PhD, qualifying her to work as a professor of psychiatry and psychotherapy in Germany. Professor Koethe has a strong commitment to psychotherapy and is an accredited supervisor in Systemic Family Therapy (2011) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT; 2016), as well as a fully accredited psychotherapist in Dialectic Behavioural Therapy (DBT; 2016). In 2017, she relocated to Australia, initially working as a Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and as a Consultant Psychiatrist at RPA Hospital. In 2019, she became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. An internationally recognized expert in psychiatry, Professor Koethe has authored or co-authored over 60 publications in leading journals in her field and contributed to several textbooks and book chapters.