Tamara Anne Russell, PhD,
DClinPsych

Lecturer

Email: tamara.russell@aleftrust.org

Personal website: drtamararussell.com

Biography

Dr. Tamara Russell is a clinical psychologist, neuroscientist, martial artist and mindfulness trainer. She works as an academic and clinician, exploring the use of embodied mindfulness in the work of transformation and self-development. Tamara is involved in international collaborations looking at how mindfulness training changes the structure and function of the brain. She is the Director of the Mindfulness Centre of Excellence, London, an organization dedicated to the wider dissemination of mindfulness, with a particular focus on innovation in the delivery of mindfulness across a variety of sectors and populations.

Tamara is a Visiting Lecturer at King’s College London, Neuroimaging Department, The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, where she teaches on the topic of mindfulness to undergraduate students, and trainee psychiatrists on the Maudsley MRCPsych rotation. At Alef Trust Tamara is a Tutor on the Learning through Integral Practice and Lectures on Contemporary Mindfulness for the Masters in Transpersonal Psychology and Consciousness Studies.

Research interests

Tamara’s work centres on applied translational neuroscience as relates to mindfulness-based approaches.  These projects look at how the understanding of the neural mechanisms that underpin mindfulness can inform applied and clinical practice. Using a neuroscience framework (the neurocognitive model), this work supports healthcare workers (spanning medical students to GPs, psychiatrists and administrators), educators (across the spectrum of education), and workplace (employees, managers and senior executive teams and boards). The applied translational neuroscience model explores how attention, emotion regulation, decision making and intentions are improved by mindfulness practice and mindful working processes. This is positioned within a bio-psycho-social-spiritual model which integrates different sources of knowledge in the service of self-development and well-being.

Key publications

Ken Tanaka, G., Russell, T. A., Bittencourt, J., Marinho, V., Teixeira, S., Hugo Bastos, V., Gongora, M., Ramim, M., Budde, H., Aprigio, D., Fernando Basile, L., Cagy, M., Ribeiro, P., Gupta, D. S., & Velasques, B. (2022). Open monitoring meditation alters the EEG gamma coherence in experts meditators: The expert practice exhibit greater right intra-hemispheric functional coupling. Consciousness and Cognition, 102, 103354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2022.103354  

Russell, T. A. (2017). #whatismindfulness? Watkins.

Russell, T. A. (2015). Mindfulness in Motion. Watkins.

Russell, T. A., & Arcuri, S. M. (2015). A Neurophysiological and Neuropsychological Consideration of Mindful Movement: Clinical and Research Implications. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9, 282. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00282