The Founders

Frederick Aardema was born in 1971 in the Netherlands. After completing his secondary education, he earned a Master’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of Groningen in 1997. During this period, he developed a keen interest in an inference-based conceptualization of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), suggesting that obsessions stem from reasoning confusion. This interest led to his first published empirical study in 1999 supporting an inference-based approach to OCD.

In 2000, Aardema pursued a doctoral degree under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Paul Emmelkamp, a pioneer in comparing cognitive treatment of OCD with behavior therapy. Simultaneously, he collaborated with Dr. Kieron O’Connor in Montreal, who, along with psychologist Sophie Robillard, originally conceptualized the inference-based model in theoretical publications. These collaborations resulted in a series of psychometric, experimental, and treatment outcome studies providing empirical support for an inference-based model of OCD in the early 2000s. Aardema also expanded the model to include an inference-based account of repugnant obsessions and other unacceptable thoughts. During this time, he wrote the first I-CBT treatment manual for OCD, later published in the book “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” with Kieron O’Connor and Marie-Claude Pelissier.

Upon completing his doctoral degree, Aardema continued his research on inference-based approaches during a four-year post-doctoral period in Montreal, Canada. He further explored the role of vulnerable self-themes and feared possible selves in the development and maintenance of OCD. This research synthesized various findings and theories about OCD into a coherent model, explaining obsessions in relation to vulnerable self-themes. This work culminated in an extended cognitive-behavioral model published in a special issue on feared-self-perceptions in the Journal of Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders, co-edited by Aardema and Dr. Kelvin Wong.

In 2009, Aardema became an independent researcher at the Research Center of the Institute of Mental Health of Montreal and joined the department of psychiatry at the University of Montreal. He also accepted a position as a Research Assistant Professor at Concordia University. In 2011, he received a research scholarship from the Quebec Health Research Fund (FRQS) and the New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Recently, he was awarded a senior research scholarship from the FRQS and currently holds a position as Research Associate Professor at the University of Montreal.

Throughout his career, Aardema has focused on developing and validating inference-based treatments for OCD, as well as related research in areas such as introspection, dissociation, feared self-perceptions, body-dysmorphic disorder, and overvalued ideation. Together with Dr. Kieron O’Connor, he co-directed the Obsessive-Compulsive and Tics Disorders Study Centre and led his own research lab at the Research Center of the Institute of Mental Health of Montreal. In 2012, he published “The Clinician’s Handbook for OCD: Inference-Based Therapy.”

Aardema has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and abstracts, and frequently presents at international scientific conferences. He serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals in clinical psychology and is an associate editor for the International Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy. He actively trains the next generation of researchers and clinicians in evidence-based treatment for OCD. Recently, he published a multicenter randomized trial in the Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics comparing I-CBT with traditional CBT and mindfulness. A new large-scale clinical trial comparing I-CBT with ERP is currently underway.

Over the past 20 years, research has shown that I-CBT holds promise in overcoming some limitations of standard treatments. Aardema’s goal is to provide all OCD patients with viable and effective treatment options, including those who do not benefit from standard cognitive-behavioral interventions. He has initiated many efforts to make this treatment more accessible to the public, including creating a website to provide information and resources for the general public and mental health professionals. Recently, he started an online group for over 3,000 mental health professionals interested in I-CBT. Through these efforts, Aardema hopes to make I-CBT widely available to everyone needing treatment for 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.