The Founders

Dr. Frederick Aardema, born in 1971 in the Netherlands, is a clinical psychologist, researcher, and professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Addiction at the University of Montreal. With nearly three decades of dedication to understanding and treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Dr. Aardema has become a pioneering figure in the field, transforming the landscape of OCD treatment. He serves as the Director of the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Clinical Study Center at the Montreal Mental Health University Institute Research Center, where he leads innovative research and clinical trials.

As a co-founder of Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT), alongside Dr. Kieron O’Connor, Dr. Aardema has been instrumental in developing and validating this innovative approach. I-CBT offers a reasoning-focused alternative to traditional treatments like Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), addressing the cognitive and imaginative processes at the heart of OCD. His early research, conducted in collaboration with the eminent Professor Paul Emmelkamp, was the first to empirically validate this approach, demonstrating its ability to predict OCD symptoms and laying the foundation for its clinical applications.

Dr. Aardema has significantly expanded I-CBT, refining its applications to include all forms of OCD, including those involving unwanted and unacceptable thoughts. He also authored the first treatment manual for I-CBT in the early 2000s, later published as Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Reasoning Processes in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Related Disorders. This foundational work established a reasoning-based framework that continues to redefine OCD treatment today.

Following his doctoral and postdoctoral research, Dr. Aardema joined the University of Montreal, where he has continued to advance the understanding of OCD through groundbreaking studies. His research explores the role of vulnerable self-themes and feared possible selves, further refining the cognitive-behavioral model for OCD. His extensive body of work, published in leading scientific journals, has significantly contributed to the field, shaping both clinical practice and academic research.

Dr. Aardema has also initiated numerous efforts to make I-CBT more accessible to the public. He created a website to provide information and resources for both the general public and mental health professionals. Recently, he founded an online group with over 4,000 mental health professionals dedicated to learning and applying I-CBT. Through these initiatives, Dr. Aardema is working tirelessly to ensure that I-CBT becomes widely available to anyone in need of treatment for OCD.

Dr. Aardema’s ongoing commitment to advancing I-CBT is evident in his leadership of clinical trials comparing I-CBT to traditional CBT and ERP, consistently demonstrating its effectiveness as a standalone treatment. His publications, including The Clinician’s Handbook for OCD: Inference-Based Therapy and the Resolving OCD series, have become essential resources for clinicians and individuals alike.

The two-volume self-help guide, Resolving OCD, is a tangible reflection of his mission to alleviate the burden of OCD. It embodies his unwavering dedication to empowering individuals to overcome obsessional doubt, reclaim their lives, and experience lasting freedom from OCD. Dr. Aardema remains steadfast in his goal to provide effective and accessible treatment options for everyone navigating the complexities of OCD.

Kieron Philip O’Connor, PhD was born in Malta and spent his first few years in the naval base at Simonstown, South Africa, as his father was attached to the British Navy, and later Admiralty. Later the family settled in the port of Sheerness, Kent, England and then Taunton, Somerset England, where he attended the local boys’ grammar school. Kieron completed his Bachelor of Science degree at London University and Master Degree in Experimental Psychology (1979) at University of Sussex, Brighton, England, and his doctoral degree in Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry in London (1984) under Hans Eysenck. He also completed a British Psychology Society Diploma in Clinical Psychology in 1986 and after going back and forth between England, Europe, Canada and Australia. Kieron decided to immigrate to Montreal, Canada, in 1992, took Canadian citizenship and was awarded a series of researcher fellowships from the Quebec Health Research Fund.

Kieron held professional and clinical credentials from the British Psychological association, the Canadian Behavioral and Cognitive association, the Ordre des psychologues du Quebec and is an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and Fellow of Canadian Psychology Association. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and 60 books and chapters and given over 400 presentations.

Kieron initially trained in Psychophysiology and completed his Master’s thesis on electrophysiological characteristics of Senile Dementia and became an expert resource on an electrocortical wave termed the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV); writing a frequently cited textbook chapter when still a student. He showed that cortical expectancy could be maintained under certain conditions for short periods of time in senility; a finding which had clinical applications for the management of the elderly.

Kieron O’Connor completed his doctorate on individual difference in Smoking Behavior, supervised by Hans Eysenck, and developed and validated a smoking subtype questionnaire and a model of smoking behaviour integrating expectancy with sensorimotor aspects and neurochemical effects. This model led to a smoking treatment package B.R.E.A.K. (Boredom, Relaxation, Emotion, Attention, Keeping company) developed in collaboration with a community worker and applied to smoker cessation groups around London and Montreal and since adopted by InfoTabac. The program advocates taper guided by situational preference and individual difference in smoker type.

Kieron O’Connor also created subsequently a program with clinical colleagues on the basis of research for tapering benzodiazepine dependence (P.A.S.S.E.) which has been validated in Quebec and published as a guide and is currently in use throughout Quebec and currently being adapted to aging populations by Dr. Sebastien Grenier. He also set up a group on qualitative research (GREQ) with Gilles Dupuis and André Marchand, whose aim was to research into the meaning of symptoms and subjective experiences in clinical psychology to deconstruct large abstract terms such as anxiety.

Kieron’s psychophysiological and clinical training led to the development of model of: Tourette disorder, tic disorder and body-focused repetitive disorder emphasising underlying cognitive psychophysiological processes producing difficulties regulating tension and emotion and triggering tics and habits in a cognitive psychological model (CoPs). The CoPs program has been validated in adults clinically and neuropsychologically in collaboration with Marc Lavoie, PhD and is currently being compared to more traditional behaviour therapy and has been adapted to young children by Julie Leclerc.

Based on his clinical observations of patients with OCD, together with the psychologist Sophie Robillard, Kieron O’Connor noted that people with obsessions were not really phobic about observable objects and events, but about what “could be” or “might be” there. These clinical insights led to a novel approach to viewing obsessions as a product of inductive reasoning, an in particular “inverse inference”, where people mistake imaginary probability for real possibilities.

The phenomenon of inverse inference was then widened into the concept of inferential confusion which led to a new therapy, inference-based cognitive-behavorial therapy (I-CBT), which has been developed and expanded in collaboration with Frederick Aardema. More recently, Kieron O’Connor has adapted the IBT model with colleagues to the treatment of hoarding disorder (compulsive accumulation) which has been published a manual. He was a founder-member of a Quebec wide committee composed of over fifty municipalities and twenty disciplines (inspectors, patients, partners and fire services) to develop guidelines and a concerted effort to combat this psychologically, socially, economically costly disorder.

Up until 2019. Kieron O’Connor co-directed the OCD study center with Frederick Aardema to advance knowledge of treatment of OCD. Kieron O’Connor has always been very committed to community work, to knowledge translation and to actively training students, clinicians and other professionals as well as lay people and family members. Kieron was also strongly involved in community initiatives and has been an organiser and expert resource and sat on the board of community organizations (AQPAMM, AMI-Quebec, FQTOC). Most recently, he acted as a consultant with a Quebec-wide initiative to tackle hoarding.

Kieron passed away on August 27th 2019 at 3:45 in the morning. With his passing, the research community has lost an exceptionally valuable individual with a great passion for scientific research. He was one of the founders of the Centre de recherche de Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (CR-IUSMM) and an exemplary clinical researcher with a great commitment towards his colleagues, friends, students and patients. In the course of 30 years, Kieron has shaped numerous careers in both clinical practice and research. He was a source of inspiration for anyone fortunate enough to spend time with him. His presence and sense of humour always brought people closer together.

Kieron continued to work and write papers until the very end. His work and legacy will continue and carried forward by the many colleagues who have been inspired by him. Kieron was a humble, big-hearted man with a generous spirit that has touched us all.