Dr. Leenaars is a registered psychologist in private practice in Windsor, Canada, and is a member of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and was a member of the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. He was the first Past President of the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention (CASP), and is a past President of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), the only non-American to date.
He has collaborated with 100 colleagues in over 20 nations, and has published over 100 professional articles or chapters on violence, trauma, suicide, homicide, genocide, and related topics. He has published 10 previous books, and is Editor-in-Chief of Archives of Suicide Research, the official journal of the International Academy for Suicide Research. Dr Leenaars is a recipient of the International Association for Suicide Prevention’s Stengel Award, CASP’s Research Award, and AAS’s Shneidman Award, for outstanding contribution in research in suicidology. He is recognized for his international efforts in suicide prevention, and has served as an expert witness in legal cases dealing with wrongful death, suicide, and homicide.