Biography

I am a Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) since 2012. After graduating in Psychology and Pedagogical Sciences in 1995 at the University of Gent. I obtained my Ph.D. in Natural Sciences on ‘Autobiographical memory; Consciousness, the Influence of Early Stress and Neuronal Correlates‘ with Summa Cum Laude at the Bielefeld University in Germany in 2004. Between 2004 and 2005, I stayed at the Centre of Interdisciplinary Research of the University of Bielefeld, pursuing an interdisciplinary research project on emotion, which resulted in the monograph: Vandekerckhove, M., von Scheve, C., Ismer, S., & Kronast, St. (Eds.), (2008). Emotions: Social Necessity and Biological Inheritance. Regulating Emotions: Social Necessity and Biological Inheritance. An interdisciplinary perspective. Oxford, England: Blackwell Press Publishing Ltd. After years of fundamental research and clinical work in Germany, I started to work part-time in Family Medicine at the University of Antwerp on stress and diabetes (2005-2007). I was a lecturer in the Bachelor’s in Psychology at the University College of West-Flanders (50%, 2005-2006). During that same period, I also worked as a clinical psychologist for my own psychotherapeutic practice (10-20%, until present), and for the Centre of Mental Health Care (GGZ) in Kortrijk, Psychomatic Centre, UZ-Gent (50%, interim for 6 months). Additionally, I worked as a Clinical Psychologist on a volunteer basis at the Psychiatric Department of the General Clinic and Hospital (PAAZ), Jan Palfijn Hospital, Ghent, Belgium (20%; 2008-2009) for the Personality Disorders section at Sint Amandus in Beernem, Belgium (20%, since Sept. 2009 - March 2010).
In 2012, I became a full-time Professor in Biological Psychology at the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology (VUB) and I became head of the research group of Biological Psychology and of the special education profile ‘Biological Psychology’. I have taught a range of courses such as Biological Psychology II and III, Capita Selecta in the Neurosciences, Behavioral Psychodiagnostics, Behavioral- and Personality Disorders, and Sexuology. For several years, I served as a member of the research council at VUB, as well as a member of the Scientific Research Foundation (FWO).
In 2013, I obtained funding for a Strategic Spearhead Research program (SPR15) on the Affective and Social brain, awarded by the VUB on ‘bottom-up experiential versus top-down cognitive emotion regulation, an Orchestred Research Action Program (GOA), an Interdisciplinary Research Project, and other projects awarded by the VUB, and external funding, such as by the FWO and an innovative research program on the impact of terrorism on health and wellbeing of Innoviris, Brussels, Belgium. Since 2017, I am a member of the Department of Imaging and Clinical studies at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy at the VUB; the Center of Neuroscience, (C4N), Jette. Since 2020, I am also affiliated at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, UGent.