My name is Marc Cleiren (1961).  I’m a psychologist, and Associate Professor Leiden University. I founded the Personal Development Centre (PDC), of which I am currently Director Research and development. The PDC is hosted at the Faculty of Social Sciences. 

My focus area in research and teaching is on the personal & professional life journey of people:  from entry in the academic environment toward fully grown professionals. I have developed the Learning My Way approach as an integral teaching program to help people (young and old) to find, anchor and develop their professional purpose and direct their lives in a fragmented world. 

My favorite teaching and research subjects are the quest for purpose and meaning in life, dealing with loss and grief, consciousness development, competence development, communication skills, and the role of group processes in development. I published several books and scientific articles on these subjects (see Core publications). I am researching ways in which Artificial Intelligence applications may assist and accelerate people in their self-development in relation to society.

I lecture and provide workshops in the field of motivation, identity development and communication skills. Over the past 40 years, I have been training professionals and university students on the subject of hands-on talent development, and working with motivational discrepancies. I have developed train-the-trainer curricula and have taught psychological coaching skills to intercultural groups at the Leiden University Institute of Psychology.

As a lecturer on personal development, I also work at Utrecht University (Graduate School of Law, Economics and Governance) at the Executive Master Management of Public Affairs, and previously in the Master Strategic Management. I also teach at the Dual PhD Centre of Leiden in the Hague