dr. Marieke Toffolo

As Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology I've developed and am coordinating 3 courses "Psychopathology and Prevention", "Diversity in Clinical Practice" and "Psychological interventions for Complex disorders". Additionally, I'm involved in research of Dr. Tara Donker investigating Virtual Reality self-help apps for specific phobia's. Furthermore, I'm hoping to continue my own line of research investigating habits and habit breaking in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Previously, I received a Rubicon Grant from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO) to work as a postdoctoral scholar at the OCD Research Program of the Psychiatry Department of UC San Diego, under supervision of Dr. Sanjaya Saxena. In this research project I investigated a new behavioral treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, aimed at breaking compulsive habits. This research was a follow-up of the studies I conducted during my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. In this project I investigated the reciprocal relationships between checking and cognitive symptoms in OCD and what role this may play in the development and maintenance of the disorder.