Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and Psychotherapy

Cara Luisa Wicher, M.Sc.

Graduate Student (currently on internship)
Email: wicher@uni-wuppertal.de
Tel.: 0202-439 5509
Room: RG3.03.025

 

 

I study social and emotional risk and protective factors of self-harm (i.e., non-suicidal self-injury; suicidal thoughts and behaviors) in childhood and adolescence (e.g., loneliness, connectedness with peers, emotion regulation). Because encouraging individuals to “reach out” and disclose self-harming thoughts or behaviors to those around them is key to suicide prevention, I am particularly interested to better understand circumstances under which youth feel safe to share intentions of self-harm and what may help them overcome suicidal crises in everyday life (e.g., reasons for living). To reliably investigate these rare but potentially consequential phenomena, I use intensive longitudinal data to capture relevant processes and their fluctuations via Ecological Momentary Assessment in youths’ everyday lives.

Academic background

from 10/2024 Psychological psychotherapist in training, Psychotherapeutic Practice, Wuppertal
01/2024 – 08/2024 Clinical Internship, Psychotherapeutic Practice, Wuppertal
since 01/2024 Graduate Student at the University of Wuppertal, Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and Psychotherapy
01/2023 – 12/2023 Clinical Internship, Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatic Medicine and Neurology, Evangelical Foundation Tannenhof, Remscheid
since 01/2023 Clinical Training (Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy), APP Cologne
12/2022 – 12/2023 Research Assistant, Chair of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and Psychotherapy (Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Kaurin), University of Wuppertal
somce 12/2022 Doctoral Studies, School for Human and Social Sciences, University of Wuppertal
2021 – 2022 Research Assistant, Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Kaurin)
2019 – 2022 Student Clinician, Pediatric Outpatient Psychiatry Service, Klinik Walstedde, Drensteinfurt, Germany
2021 – 2022 Master of Science in Clinical Psychology, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany
2017 – 2021 Bachelor of Science Psychology, University of Cologne, Germany

Publications

Wicher, C. L., Buecker, S., Philippi, P., & Kaurin, A. (2026). Daily manifestations of maladaptive personality traits and loneliness across social contexts in youth. Development and psychopathology, 1–14. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579426101230
Preregistration protocol: https://osf.io/xptuv

Kaurin, A., Krakau, L., Wicher, C. L., Philippi, P., & Shiner, R. (2026). Adolescents’ pathological personality traits, mentalizing, and daily social interactions linking Criteria A and B from the DSM-5 alternative model for personality disorders. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 135(2), 306–319. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0001074
Preregistration protocol: osf.io/9bvr5/

Wicher, C. L., Dombrovski, A. Y., Hallquist, M. N., Buecker, S., Wright, A. G. C., & Kaurin, A. (2025). Daily loneliness and suicidal ideation in borderline personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 16(5), 415–426. https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000725
Preregstration protocol: https://osf.io/u5nak/ 

Teismann, T., Kaurin, A., Wicher, C.L., Friedrich, S. (2024). Risikoabschätzung: Suizidalität und Fremdgefährdung. In T. Teismann, P. Thoma, S. Taubner, Wannemüller & K. Von Sydow. Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie: Ein verfahrensübergreifendes Lehr- und Lernbuch (S. 187-198). Hogrefe Verlag.

Recent preregistrations

Congress contributions

Wicher, C.L., Kaurin, A. Suicidal Behavior in Childhood, Adolescence, and Young Adulthood: The Latest Research Findings [Presentation]. Specialized Event on Suicide Prevention Among Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults, organized by the Wuppertal Crisis Service. Wuppertal, Germany. 

Wicher, C. L., Matz, H., Baumert, A., Halabi, S., Demirgünes, E., Kaurin, A. (2025). Daily reasons for living in youth suicide prevention [Poster]. Society for Ambulatory Assessment Conference (SAA), Leuven, Belgium.

Wicher, C. L., Buecker, S., Philippi, P., Kaurin, A. (2025). Loneliness in the everyday life of adolescents: The role of maladaptive personality traits [Lecture]. 4th German Psychotherapy Congress (DPK), Berlin, Germany.

Wicher, C.L., In-Albon, T., Teismann, T., Friedrich, S., Kaurin, A. (2024). Suicide prevention in childhood and adolescence: On the everyday assessment of "Reasons for Living" [Poster]. 20th European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour (ESSSB20), Rome, Italy.

Wicher, C.L., Kaurin, A., Friedrich, S., In-Albon, T., Teismann, T. (2024). Suicide prevention in childhood and adolescence: On the (everyday) assessment of “Reasons for Living”. [Lecture]. 3rd German Psychotherapy Congress (DPK), Berlin, Germany.

Wicher, C.L., Kaurin, A., Friedrich, S., In-Albon, T., Teismann, T. (2022). Disclosure of suicidal thoughts and intentions by children and adolescents in psychotherapy. [Lecture]. 1st German Psychotherapy Congress (DPK), Berlin, Germany.

Wicher, C.L., Kaurin, A., Friedrich, S., In-Albon, T., Teismann, T. (2022). Disclosure of suicidal thoughts and intentions by children and adolescents in psychotherapy. [Lecture]. German Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychiatry (DGKJP) Congress, Magdeburg, Germany.

Last modified: 05.06.2026