Kim van Oorsouw (K.I.M.)
Since 2006 I've been working as an assistant professor at the Forensic Psychology Section of the Department of Clinical Psychological Science at Maastricht University.
The forensic psychology section investigates issues like (eye-witness)memory, memory distortions, false memories, malingering, feigning amnesia, traumatic memory, lie detection, and more. If you want to know more about these topics, visit the homepages of my colleagues.
For 15 years I have investigated dissociative amnesia, and the effects of intoxication and malingering in the legal psychological context (e.g. the effects of alcohol on crime-related memories (alcohol blackouts) and feigning amnesia. Related to this, I did expert witness casework in criminal law cases. Typical cases involved the investigation of the reliability of statements, claim of amnesia, alcohol black-outs, and risk-assessments..
I am the program coordinator of the Legal Psychology master, and I coordinate courses in the revised bachelor and in the 2-year Forensic Psychology program.
Since 2017 my research focus shifted to the effects naturalistic use of ayahuasca and other psychedelics, on mental health and well-being.
Related to this I give workshops and lectures about this research to mental health professionals and lay audiences, and I supervise (PhD)students in different research projects related to psychedelics and mental health.
Career history
2006 – present: Assistant Professor at the department of Clinical Psychological Science
2001-2006: Ph.D.-student at the department of Experimental Psychology. Dissertation: I honestly can't remember: dissociative amnesia as a metamemory phenomenon. Maastricht University Press.
2001 Master Neuropsychology, Maastricht University. Research at the Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology. Thesis: Effects of acute tryptophan-depletion on depression, anxiety and cognition in rats (See Lieben et al., 2003).
1996 -2001 Psychology, Developmental- and Neuropsychology (University of Maastricht)