Helen Russell holds a B.Sc. Government/Political Science, in 2016 she was awarded the CACASS Scholarship of Excellence for her M.A in Criminology and achieved a first-class honours degree from University College Cork. She is module creator, co-ordinator and lecturer on Women, Coercive Confinement and Social Control for the Criminology/Sociology Department at UCC, delivering this module to second and third year Criminology and Sociology undergraduate students.
A Trauma Education Consultant, Helen worked with WAVE Trauma Centre, Belfast lecturing/tutoring on the Post Graduate Diploma in Trauma Studies UCC, teaching the following topics to a diverse range of professional adult learners including medics, probation officers, counsellors, psychologists and others: Subjects include: Trauma and Addiction: Key Issues, Methods and Structures, Trauma and Post Traumatic Growth, Complex Loss, Grief, Trauma and the Social Context, Public Health Challenges in Post-Conflict Societies and Social Approaches to Trauma: Family, Society and International and Trauma and Frontline Workers. She also provides psychoeducation to a large range of stakeholders in relation to trauma, her main interest lying within the area of trauma and interpersonal relationships.
She is sole host of the Podcast Series, ‘Reflections on Irish Criminology’. This project explores the experiences of a selection of professors and others who make up the diverse criminology/law community across the island of Ireland. This podcast series proved so popular it led to the publication of the book ‘Reflections on Irish Criminology: Conversations with Criminologists’ Published in Dec 2020 by Palgrave Macmillan Publishers London of which she is co-author. This book is now ‘recommended reading’ across universities worldwide within the Criminology discipline.
Other roles include Training and Awareness Project Manager with Belfast and Lisburn Women’s Aid, here she develops and delivers a wide range of training programmes on Domestic Violence, Coercive Control, Trauma, Trauma Informed Practice to a wide variety of stakeholders both statutory and non-statutory incl. the PSNI, the GP Federation, Belfast Trust and Women’s Aid staff. She is currently delivering bespoke Trauma and Trauma Informed Practice training to the staff of Hydebank Women’s Prison, Belfast. She has previously worked with women and children as a women’s refuge manager and as a client support worker to both male and female victims of domestic abuse.