Russell has been a social worker since 1986.
He has completed post graduate training in counselling and psychotherapy plus many years of training, workshops and conference participation/presentations, much of which is on the assessment and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and co-morbidities; working with military populations and their families, as well as managing service delivery to this client group.
Russell worked for the then Veterans and Veterans’ Families Counselling Service (VVCS) now Open Arms, for 25 years as a counsellor and later in various management and leadership roles.
Since 2014 he has been operating his own consultancy as an accredited mental health social worker, a clinical supervisor, mentor and trainer. Russell is a branch committee member of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Tasmanian Branch (Immediate Past President) and is a member of the Australian College of Social Workers (ACSW) clinical division working party.