Have you ever felt your mood lift after a walk or run, or noticed how cycling to work sharpens your focus? Many of us have experienced how even brief physical activity can boost our mood, concentration, memory, and overall well-being. While the physical benefits of exercise are widely recognized, its impact on mental health is just as profound. Exercise can help prevent and treat serious conditions such as major depressive disorder (MDD; Morres et al., 2019; Schuch et al., 2018). Yet for people with MDD—marked by persistent low mood and loss of interest—staying active can be particularly difficult. Structured, professionally supervised exercise therapy offers a feasible and supportive way for these individuals to engage in physical activity. Its biological and psychological effects also make it a promising complement to established treatments such as pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). My dissertation explored how exercise therapy can enhance standard depression care. It first assessed its clinical and economic effectiveness and the factors that influence its use in specialized mental health services. It then examined core psychological mechanisms that may explain exercise’s antidepressant effects, and finally evaluated the feasibility of pairing exercise sessions with CBT as a targeted augmentation strategy.
Michèle Schmitter (born 1993 in Tönisvorst, Germany) studied Psychology at Tilburg University, where she completed the Master’s in Clinical Psychology and the Research Master in Individual Differences and Assessment. She gained research and teaching experience in cognitive neuropsychology, developmental psychology, and forensic psychology. After her clinical training at PsyQ’s TopGGz Center for Anxiety Disorders—where she also contributed to research on PTSD and Competitive Memory Training—she joined Pro Persona in 2020 as a junior scientific researcher and became an external PhD candidate at Radboud University. Her doctoral work focused on the ZonMw-funded Sporten Versterkt RCT on exercise for depression, complemented by projects on exercise mechanisms involving memory and rumination. In 2023, she completed a research internship at the University of Texas at Austin examining exercise for PTSD. Michèle currently works as a researcher at Pro Persona and as a postdoctoral researcher at the University Medical Center Groningen.