Dr Franca Warmenhoven (F.C.)

Franca Warmenhoven trained as a medical doctor. From 2004 until 2007 she did her general practice residency training at Maastricht University, during which time two main interests were born and developed: Firstly, she developed an interest in palliative care and secondly an interest for the practice of mindfulness and acceptance-based strategies in health care and other domains of society. The first interest resulted in committing herself to a research project at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre where she successfully defended her PhD on depression in palliative care (2013). She has worked at the Department of Educational Development & Research Maastricht University leading a national project to integrate palliative care into medical education and currently works as a teacher at the Skillslab of Maastricht University.
Franca has taught mindfulness to different groups among which cancer patients, people with dementia, school children, and companies and has contributed to the development of adapted mindfulness training curricula. She is also a trainer in the teachers training for mindfulness teachers. Next to mindfulness, Franca also practices aikido and finds that the principles of this Japanese martial art are very useful in daily life. Franca lives with her husband and daughter in the hills of the south of the Netherlands where she enjoys walking with her dogs.