Past PhD students and postdocs

Arne Leer

Arne Leer was a PhD Candidate at the Dept of Clinical Psychology (2011-2015), under the supervision of prof. dr. Iris Engelhard (2nd promotor: Marcel van den Hout). Title of his dissertation: “Blurring aversive memory: Exploring a novel route to fear reduction.” This was followed by a position as postdoctoral researcher (2015-2019) on the project “Critical investigation of the mechanisms at work in EMDR”. His main interest are etiology, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety-related pathologies. His PhD and postdoc projects were financed by grants awarded by the Netherlands Ministry of Defense to Iris Engelhard.

Marthe Egberts

Marthe Egberts was a PhD Candidate at Clinical Psychology (2014-2019), under the supervision of prof. dr. Rinie Geenen, prof. dr. Peter van der Heijden, dr. Nancy van Loey and dr. Rens van de Schoot. Her research was also conducted in close collaboration with prof. dr. Iris Engelhard and prof. dr. Marcel van den Hout. She was affiliated to the EPP-lab as a guest researcher. Title of her dissertation: “Family scars after pediatric burns.”.

Kevin van Schie

Kevin van Schie was a PhD Candidate at Clinical and Health Psychology (2013-2018), under the supervision of prof. dr. Marcel van den Hout and prof. dr. Iris Engelhard. Title of his dissertation: “Changing unwanted memories: a Consideration of Three Methods.”.

Sophie van Uijen

Sophie van Uijen was a PhD Candidate at Clinical and Health Psychology (2012-2018), under the supervision of prof. dr. Iris Engelhard and prof. dr. Marcel van den Hout. Title of her dissertation: “Safety Behaviors and the Persistence of Irrational Fears”.

Puck Duits

Puck Duits was a PhD Candidate at Clinical and Health Psychology (2010-2016), under the supervision of prof. dr. Iris Engelhard, prof. dr. Alfons Hamm, dr. Danielle Cath and dr. Joke Baas. Title of her dissertation: “Fear less. Individual differences in fear conditioning and their relation to treatment outcome in anxiety disorder.”

Marieke Toffolo

Marieke Toffolo was a PhD Candidate at Clinical and Health Psychology (2011-2015), under the supervision of prof. dr. Marcel van den Hout and prof. dr. Iris Engelhard. Title of her dissertation: “Better super safe than slightly sorry? Reciprocal relationships between checking behavior and cognitive symptoms in obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

Eliane Dek

Eliane Dek is a professional health care psychologist and was a PhD Candidate at Clinical and Health Psychology (2008-2015), under the supervision of prof. dr. Marcel van den Hout and prof. dr. Iris Engelhard. Title of her dissertation: “Check, check, double check: checking the autopilot causes distrust. Experimental studies on the effects of compulsive perseveration”.

Karin Giele

Karin Giele was a PhD Candidate at Clinical and Health Psychology (2009-2014), under the supervision of prof. dr. Marcel van den Hout and prof. dr. Iris Engelhard. Title of her dissertation: “Practice does not make perfect. The ironic effects of compulsive perseveration.”

Jun Moriya

Jun Moriya is a visiting researcher working together with dr. Elske Salemink. His research focus is attention and working memory in social anxiety. Now, he is also interested in interpretive bias in social anxiety and interaction between interpretive bias, attentional bias, and working memory.

Jun received his PhD in 2010 from the University of Tokyo under the supervision of Prof. dr. Yoshihiko Tanno. During his PhD studies he worked with Prof. dr. Yoshinori Sugiura at Hiroshima University and Prof. dr. Rudi De Raedt and Prof. dr. Ernst Koster at Ghent University. Then, he worked as an Assistant Professor at Rikkyo University, and now works as an Associate Professor at Kansai University.

Suzanne van Veen

Suzanne van Veen was a PhD Candidate in the Dept. of Clinical Psychology, funded by a TOP grant of ZonMw and supervised by Prof. Iris Engelhard and Prof. Marcel van den Hout (public defense: February 7, 2020).

Gaëtan Mertens

Gaëtan Mertens obtained a master’s degree in experimental psychology at Ghent University (2012) where he also completed his PhD about fear learning via verbal instructions under the supervision of prof. Jan De Houwer (2016). He worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the VICI grant of prof. Iris Engelhard investigating new techniques of reducing fear based on the reactivation of traumatic memory. His interests include: associative learning, memory updating and plasticity, fear and anxiety, and psychophysiology.

Elze Landkroon

Elze Landkroon was a PhD Candidate in the Dept. of Clinical Psychology (2016-2021, Public defense Oct 1, 2021), financed with the VICI grant ‘A new approach to fear reduction by disrupting reconsolidation of threat memories’ awarded to prof. Iris M. Engelhard. Elze Landkroon was supervised by prof. Iris Engelhard, dr. Elske Salemink, and dr. Katharina Meyerbroker.

Evi-Anne van Dis

Evi-Anne van Dis was a PhD candidate in the Dept. of Clinical Psychology (2016-2021; Public defensie Oct 8, 2021), supervised by prof. Iris Engelhard and dr. Muriel Hagenaars. The aim of her PhD project was to investigate the spreading of fear and methods how to counter fear generalization and/or return of fear. She also conducted a meta-analysis about efficacy of CBT for anxiety-related disorders.

Nicole Montijn

Nicole Montijn has been a PhD Candidate at the department of Clinical Psychology since April 2017. She studied the role of episodic future thinking in anxiety disorders as part of a NWO VICI grant awarded to prof. dr. Iris Engelhard. Episodic future thinking is an aspect of memory which allows us to pre-live possible future events in order to adapt current behaviour to achieve goals or avoid risk. In anxiety disorders this, usually highly adaptive feature, forms an important component of the pathology. As patients suffer from the constant anticipation of threatening future events. This project focused on the mechanism by which these future events are constructed, and how this contributes to its pathological nature in anxiety disorders.  Nicole Montijn was supervised by prof. dr. Iris Engelhard, dr. Lotte Gerritsen, and dr. Dieuwke Sevenster. Research interests include: Episodic memory systems; future memory construction; Mental time travel; time perception; fear generalization and anticipation.

Mandy Woelk

Mandy Woelk was a PhD candidate at the department of Clinical Psychology at Utrecht University and the Centre for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology at KU Leuven since November 2018. She studied the underlying mechanisms of Imagery Rescripting: a therapy that aims to change the meaning of aversive memories. The project is funded by an FWO grant awarded to dr. Muriel Hagenaars and dr. Julie Krans (Radboud University Nijmegen). Besides Muriel and Julie, Mandy was supervised by prof. Filip Raes and prof. Bram Vervliet from KU Leuven.

Miriam Lommen

Miriam Lommen was a PhD candidate from 2008 until 2012 (Public defense: May 3, 2013), supervised by prof. Iris Engelhard and prof. Marcel van den Hout, financed with NWO Open Competition awarded to prof. Engelhard. Her dissertation is titled “Vulnerability to PTSD”.