Universiteit Leiden

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Marieke Tollenaar

Assistant Professor

Name
Dr. M.S. Tollenaar
Telephone
+31 71 527 3454
E-mail
m.s.tollenaar@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
ORCID iD
0000-0001-5060-2729

The research of Marieke Tollenaar involves the study of (neuro)biological processes that play a role in mental health, including stress hormones, epigenetics, and the immune system. She specifically focuses on the long-term consequences of early life stress and childhood maltreatment.

More information about Marieke Tollenaar

The research of Marieke Tollenaar involves the study of (neuro)biological processes that play a role in mental health, including stress hormones, epigenetics, and the immune system.  She specifically focuses on the long-term consequences of early life stress and childhood maltreatment.

Research

The research of Tollenaar focuses on (neuro)biological processes that play a role in mental health, and the impact of early life stress (e.g. childhood maltreatment), trauma, and acute stress on these processes. To this end, she studies the role of stress hormones, dysregulations in the immune system and epigenetic changes in the development of stress-related disorders or symptoms. In addition, she studies the role of dysregulations in emotion regulation and empathy in response to stress or trauma, and the possible consequences of these dysregulations for the intergenerational transmission of stress and childhood maltreatment.

Teaching

  • Coordination and lecturing the elective ‘Psychological and Neurobiological Consequences of Childhood Abuse and Neglect’, which is also part of the Dutch interdisciplinary minor ‘Kindermishandeling en Verwaarlozing: een levensloopperspectief’. 
  • Supervision of (Research) Master theses and research internships. 
  • Supervision and internal coordination of bachelor projects within Clinical Psychology.
  • Instructor for the course ‘Experimental Clinical Psychology’ in the master Clinical Psychology.
  • Organisator PrAIa Hackathon Easing Teaching.

Short CV

Tollenaars background is in Biological Psychology (graduated cum laude in 2003), after which she pursued a PhD at the department of Clinical Psychology at Leiden University on the impact of stress on memory (graduated in 2009). After a postdoc on the long-term effects of prenatal stress at the department of Developmental Psychology of the Radboud University, she returned to Leiden University in 2011 to work as an assistant professor in Clinical Psychology. After her studies she was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley for a semester, and in recent years she spent several months both at McGill University and the University of Toronto to strengthen research collaborations.

In addition to teaching and research she is involved with the PrAIa initiative in Leiden, in which the practical applications of AI within academia are being explored. Furthermore, she expanded her clinical experience with cognitive behavioral therapy in the last few years , after which she has started with coaching work. She is also regularly consulted as an expert in the field of stress and childhood maltreatment in law cases, or for external research questions and popular science magazines.

PhD candidates

  • Mirjam Wever (2017 - graduated from Leiden University on 11 January 2024).
  • Lisanne van Houtum (2017 - graduated from Leiden University on 19 September 2023).
  • Nicole Creasey (2021 - graduated from the University of Amsterdam on 1 November 2023).
  • Lisa van den Berg (2011 - graduated from Leiden University on 30 June 2021).
  • Leonie Visser ( 2012 - graduated from the University of Amsterdam on 8 December 2017; cum laude).

Assistant Professor

  • Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen
  • Instituut Psychologie
  • Klinische Psychologie

Work address

Pieter de la Court
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden
Room number 2B32

Contact

  • No relevant ancillary activities
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