Pioneer in Clinical Neuropsychology and Neuropsychotherapy Ritva Laaksonen passed away on January 13, 2025. She was 84 years old, born in Helsinki Finland.
Ritva Laaksonen was a central figure in the development of clinical neuropsychology in Finland. She began her career as a psychologist at the Department of Neurology of the Helsinki University Central Hospital in the early 1970s, at a time when the practices of neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation of neurological patients were only emerging. Ritva’s career continued at the Käpylä Rehabilitation Center of the Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities, where she held the first position of a rehabilitation neuropsychologist in Finland. After this professionally significant period at Käpylä, Ritva returned to the Department of Neurology of the Helsinki University Central Hospital as the head of psychology, where she was instrumental in establishing the HUS rehabilitation outpatient clinic. Under her guidance, many neuropsychologists took their first steps in the field. Later, Ritva worked as a private practitioner as a neuropsychologist, psychotherapist, supervisor, and trainer. In 1984, she and her colleagues founded Larmis, one of the first private firms to provide neuropsychological services in Finland, and later the KL Institute, which provided both neuropsychological and psychotherapy services.
From the start of her career, Ritva actively built a knowledge base in close collaboration with domestic and international professionals, thus helping to create a theory- and research-based approach which became characteristic of Finnish clinical neuropsychology. She was also involved in developing rehabilitation towards a theory-driven, process-oriented direction, while emphasizing multidisciplinary collaboration. A significant impetus for the paradigm shift in clinical neuropsychology was provided by a training visit to Finland in the early 1970s by Mariusz Maruszewski, a Polish student of Aleksandr R. Luria. This development was accompanied by a close collaboration with Anne-Lise Christensen from Denmark, whose books were widely read by Finnish neuropsychologists. Ritva was a central figure in building contacts with representatives of the empirical approach, such as Arthur Benton from the USA, who became a long-term supporter of Finnish neuropsychology from the 1970s onwards.
Internationally, Ritva is probably the best-known Finnish clinical neuropsychologist. She participated in countless conferences and served as a teacher and a mentor in all the Nordic countries for decades. Ritva was instrumental in the founding of the Nordic collaboration group that began organizing Nordic neuropsychology conferences, with the first held in Finland in 1982. The structure for international collaboration was provided by the International Neuropsychological Society (INS), and the Finnish Neuropsychological Society, with Ritva as a central figure, organized an INS Mid-year Meeting in Lahti in 1988. Ritva was elected to the INS Board-of-Governors for the period 2003–2005. As a result of this work, Finland hosted the INS Mid-year Meeting for the second time in 2009. Training was a central theme throughout Ritva’s career. Collaboration with the Department of psychology at the University of Helsinki began early on first within the basic education of psychologists and later in the specialization training of neuropsychologists. Ritva was a key figure when the Finnish Neuropsychological Society began organizing systematic specialization training in neuropsychology in the 1980s under the auspices of the psychology and neurology departments. This later led to the university-based specialist training program in neuropsychology. Ritva also played a central role in training the supervisors and trainers in neuropsychology in our country.
The psychotherapeutic and neuropsychological approaches were integrated into Ritva’s work from the outset. She had already expanded her professional expertise into psychotherapy in the 1970s by being trained as a cognitive psychotherapist. Ritva herself felt that her life’s work culminated in neuropsychotherapy in the early 2000s. She initiated a continuing education program in neuropsychotherapy and edited an internationally renowned handbook on neuropsychotherapy, with its second edition currently in preparation.
In addition to her work with patients and training, Ritva Laaksonen was a researcher who published peer-reviewed articles, wrote chapters in domestic and international books, participated in international research groups, and also published articles, guides, and books intended for the general public. Active participation in associations was one of Ritva’s ways to influence the development of the field both in Finland and internationally. She was a founding member and later an honorary member of the Cognitive Psychotherapy Association, the Finnish Neuropsychological Society, and the Finnish Neuropsychotherapy Association. Ritva served as the president of the Finnish Neuropsychological Society for 10 years and was named honorary president after rotating out. She was awarded the Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland in 2011 for her contributions to the field of neuropsychology and received the internationally esteemed INS Paul Satz Award for her lifetime achievements in 2020.
Ritva’s interest in the work of her colleagues persisted until the end, and she always wanted to hear the latest news of the professional field. Extending well beyond professional inspiration, the profound impact of Ritva’s persona is felt among all her colleagues, friends, and close ones. Ritva was an inspiring and warm person who enjoyed companionship and knew how to relax amidst any hustle and bustle.
