Dept. Clinical and Biological Psychology

Dr. Stefanie Mayer

Dr. Stefanie Mayer is a clinical psychologist and researcher whose work focuses on the psychological and biological pathways—neuroendocrine, immune, and cellular aging mechanisms—linking stress exposure, particularly childhood adversity, to adult mental health outcomes such as depression. A central aim of her research is to develop more effective psychological interventions that directly target stress mechanisms to improve treatment outcomes for difficult-to-treat populations.
Dr. Mayer studied Psychology at the University of Würzburg, supported by a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, and earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2017, where she trained with Drs. Nestor Lopez-Duran and James Abelson (supported by a Rackham International Student Fellowship). She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Health Psychology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) with Dr. Elissa Epel and received an Early-Stage Investigator Fellowship from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (ABMR).
From 2021 to 2025, Dr. Mayer was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UCSF and affiliated faculty at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health. Her work was funded by a Career Development Award from the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA), focusing on the reversibility of childhood trauma effects through mindfulness-based interventions. Clinically, she is trained as a psychotherapist with extensive experience in mindfulness-based treatments, depression, and childhood trauma. She is a member of the NIA-funded Stress Measurement Network and brings expertise in conceptual stress models and multi-method stress assessment. She has conducted experimental, longitudinal, and clinical intervention studies in both healthy and psychiatric populations and has served as PI and Co-I on multiple NIA- and foundation-funded grants.
Since November 2025, Dr. Mayer has led an independent junior research group at the University of Ulm, funded by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung (approx. €1.7M, 2025–2031). Her current project, Targeting stress reactivity in Major Depressive Disorder with childhood maltreatment, focuses on developing and piloting a trauma-focused, mindfulness-based group therapy designed to address stress-related mechanisms in depressed individuals with childhood trauma.

Contact

Stefanie Mayer
Nachwuchsgruppenleiterin

✉ stefanie-2.mayer(at)uni-ulm.de
☎ +49-(0)731/50 xxxxx

Consultation hours
on appointment

Research Interests

  • The role of childhood adversity for adult health and health span
  • Biological and psychological risk and resilience pathways that link stress and health across the lifespan and across generations
  • Development and evaluation of novel interventions, including mindfulness-based and integrative health approaches, to mitigate and reverse the negative effects of childhood adversity 
     

Research Grants

2025 – 2031Baden-Württemberg Foundation – Special Program for International Academic Freedom
Title: Targeting stress reactivity in Major Depressive Disorder with childhood maltreatment: Development and pilot of a trauma-focused mindfulness-based group therapy. 
Role: Principal Investigator
2019 - 2024U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) – Pathway to Independence Career Development Award (K99/R00 AG062778)
Title: Understanding and reversing the effects of early life adversity on midlife health: Improving daily psychological stress responses using an ecological momentary intervention. 
Role: Principal Investigator
2013 - 2017Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation – Student Award Program (1989.SAP)
Title: The role of stress in depression: Incorporating hair cortisol into a longitudinal study of chronic stress. 
Role: Principal Investigator

Honors and Awards

2020Early-Stage Investigator Fellowship, Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research
2016Young Investigator Travel Fellowship, International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology
2014Young Investigator Travel Fellowship, International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology
2012Rackham International Student Fellowship
2009Max Weber Program, scholarship for English intensive training in Cambridge, England
2009 - 2010German National Academic Foundation, scholarship for academic research training in the USA
2008 - 2011German National Academic Foundation, scholarship for outstanding academic achievement
2007 - 2009Max Weber Program, scholarship for outstanding students at Bavarian universities

Publications

  • Hamlat, E. J., Mayer, S. E., Laraia, B., Moffitt, T. E., Surachman, A., Dutcher, E. G., Zhang, J., Lu, A. T., Yang, T. T., Mashash, M., Slavich, G. M., & Epel, E. S. (2025). Maternal childhood adversity accelerates epigenetic aging of children. Health Psychology, 44(5), 479–488.
  • Coopersmith, A. S., Wolkowitz, O. M., Mellon, S. H., Wu, G., Rampersaud, R., Hansen, N., ... & Mayer, S. E. (2024). Dispositional optimism predicts antidepressant treatment response in major depressive disorder: potential relevance for positive psychology interventions. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1-11.
  • Blades, R., Mendes, W. B., Don, B. P., Mayer, S. E., Dileo, R., O'Bryan, J., ... & Epel, E. S. (2024). A randomized controlled clinical trial of a Wim Hof Method intervention in women with high depressive symptoms. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 20, 100272.
  • Verhoeven, J. E., Wolkowitz, O. M., Satz, I. B., Conklin, Q., Lamers, F., Lavebratt, C., ... & Månsson, K. N. (2024). The researcher's guide to selecting biomarkers in mental health studies. BioEssays, 2300246.
  • Dutcher, E. G., Verosky, S. C., Mendes, W. B., & Mayer, S. E. (2024). Localizing somatic symptoms associated with childhood maltreatment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(19), e2318128121.
  • Crosswell, A. D., Mayer, S. E., Whitehurst, L. N., Picard, M., Zebarjadian, S., & Epel, E. S. (2023). Deep rest: An integrative model of how contemplative practices combat stress and enhance the body’s restorative capacity. Psychological Review, 131(1), 247.
  • Laraia, B., Brownell, K., Friebur, R., Perera, R., Brown, E., Mayer, S. E., Feng, I., Clermont, S., Ritchie,  L., &  Epel, E.S. (2023). Cohort profile: the longitudinal National Growth and Health Study (NGHS) of black and white girls from Northern California tracking how behavioural and psychosocial risk factors predict cardiovascular risk and biological ageing in midlife and in offspring. BMJ Open, 13:e072957.
  • Abelson, J. L., Sánchez, B. N., Mayer, S. E., Briggs, H., Liberzon, I., & Rajaram, N. (2023). Do diurnal salivary cortisol curves carry meaningful information about the regulatory biology of the HPA axis in healthy humans?. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 150, 106031.
  • Mayer, S. E., Guan, J., Lin, J., Hamlat, E., Parker, J. E., Brownell, K., ... & Epel, E. S. (2023). Intergenerational effects of maternal lifetime stressor exposure on offspring telomere length in Black and White women. Psychological Medicine, 53(13), 6171-6182.
  • Kuhlman, K. R., Abelson, J. L., Mayer, S. E., Rajaram, N., Briggs, H., & Young, E. (2021). Childhood maltreatment and within-person associations between cortisol and affective experience. Stress.
  • Mayer, S. E., Surachman, A., Prather, A. A., Puterman, E., Delucchi, K. L., Irwin, M. R., Danese, A., Almeida, D. M., & Epel, E. S. (2021). The long shadow of childhood trauma for  depression in midlife: Examining daily psychological stress processes as a persistent risk pathway. Psychological Medicine, 1-10.
  • Kuhlman, K. R., Mayer, S. E., Vargas, I., & Lopez-Duran, N. L. (2021). Early life stress sensitizes youth to the influence of stress-induced cortisol on memory for affective words. Developmental Psychobiology, 63(5), 1597-1605.
  • Mayer, S. E., Conklin, Q., Ridout, S. J., & Ridout, K. K. (2021). Telomeres and Early-Life Stress. In Stress: Genetics, Epigenetics and Genomics (pp. 279-287). Academic Press.
  • Mayer, S. E., Peckins, M., Kuhlman, K. R., Rajaram, N., Lopez-Duran, N. L., Young, E. A., & Abelson, J. L. (2020). The roles of comorbidity and trauma exposure and its timing in shaping HPA axis patterns in depression. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 120, 104776.
  • Vargas, I., Haeffel, G.J., Jacobucci, R., Boyle, J.T., Mayer, S.E., & Lopez-Duran, N.L. (2019). Negative cognitive style and cortisol reactivity to a laboratory stressor: A preliminary study. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 1-14.
  • Mayer, S. E., Prather, A. A., Puterman, E., Lin, J., Arenander, J., Coccia, M., Shields, G. S., Slavich, G. M., & Epel, E. S. (2019). Cumulative lifetime stress exposure and leukocyte telomere length attrition: The unique role of stressor duration and exposure timing. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 104, 210-218.
  • Mayer, S. E., Lopez-Duran, N. L., Sen S., & Abelson, J. L. (2018). Chronic stress, hair cortisol and depression: A prospective and longitudinal study of medical internship. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 92, 57-65.   Featured as an Editor’s Choice Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology.
  • Epel, E. S., Crosswell, A. D., Mayer, S. E., Prather, A. A., Slavich, G. M., Puterman, E., & Mendes, W. B. (2018). More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 49, 146-169.
  • Erickson, T. M., Mayer, S. E., Lopez-Duran, N .L., Scarsella, G. M., McGuire, A. P., Crocker, J., & Abelson, J. L. (2017). Mediation and moderation of a compassionate goal intervention on neuroendocrine responses to the Trier Social Stress Test. Stress, 20(6), 533-540.
  • Mayer, S. E., Snodgrass, M., Liberzon, I., Briggs, H., Curtis, G. C., & Abelson, J. L. (2017). The psychology of HPA axis activation: Examining subjective emotional distress and control in a phobic fear exposure. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 82, 189-198.    Editorial commentary: Diemer, J. (2017)
  • Shull, A., Mayer, S. E., McGinnis, E., Geiss, E., Vargas, I., & Lopez-Duran, N. L. (2016). Trait and state rumination interact to prolong cortisol activation to psychosocial stress in females. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 74, 324-332.
  • Vargas, I., Mayer, S. E., & Lopez-Duran, N. L. (2017). The cortisol awakening response and depressive symptomatology: The moderating role of sleep and gender. Stress and Health. 33(3), 199-210.
  • Lopez-Duran, N. L., McGinnis, E., Kuhlman, K. R., Geiss, E., Vargas, I., & Mayer, S. E. (2015). HPA-axis stress reactivity in youth depression: Evidence of impaired regulatory processes in depressed boys. Stress, 18(5), 545-553.
  • Mayer, S. E., Abelson, J. L., & Lopez-Duran, N. L. (2014). Effortful control and context interact in shaping neuroendocrine stress responses during childhood. Hormones and Behavior, 66(2), 457-465.
  • Lopez-Duran, N. L., Mayer, S. E., & Abelson, J. L. (2014). Modeling neuroendocrine stress reactivity in salivary cortisol: Adjusting for peak latency variability. Stress, 17(4), 285-295.
  • Abelson, J. L., Erickson, T. M., Mayer, S. E., Crocker, J., Briggs, H., Lopez-Duran, N. L., & Liberzon, I. (2014). Brief cognitive intervention can modulate neuroendocrine stress responses to the Trier Social Stress Test: Buffering effects of a compassionate goal orientation. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 44, 60-70.