dr. LP (Linda) Dekker

Biography

Dr. Linda Dekker is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology of Erasmus University Rotterdam.

In 2019 she successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled "Tackling Teenage: Psychosexual functioning in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)" at the Erasmus MC - Sophia Children's Hospital. 

Dr. Dekker's current research focuses on two main themes, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and sexuality. Particularly, she is interested in sexuality in potentially vulnerable populations or potentially vulnerable situations, as well as supporting and optimizing support where possible, particularly vulnerable populations.

She is the founder of the Rotterdam Autism Consortium (R.A.C.), a collaboration between the EUR and clinical partners in the region of Rotterdam. In 2021, dr. Dekker together with the R.A.C. acquired a grant from ZonMw to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on families with children with ASD.

Dr. Dekker is also a founding member of the Erasmus Love Lab. This is an interdisciplinary research team with backgrounds in Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Clinical Psychology, Children's and Youth Psychology, and Sociology. Here, sensitive topics relating to intimate relationships, love, and sexuality in various research groups are studied.

Her current teaching responsibilities focus on coordinating a practical on "Sexuality & Relationship therapy" (MSc) and co-coordinating the course "Eating, Sex, and other needs" (BA3), next to supervising clinical and research internships. In addition, she provides guest lectures and supervises Honours students and Advanced Research Program students.

Clinical specialties: Diagnostics (specifically ADI-R & ADOS - research reliability achieved); Tackling Teenage training program (certificate), sexuality and relationships.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; sexuality; psychosexual functioning; adolescents; adolescence; developmental psychology.