Professor Tim O'Brien
Research interests
Tim’s research interests reflect the varied professional spaces in which he works:
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, particularly Social, Emotional and Behavioural needs.
The impact of distributed cognition on team performance
Domains and dimensions of human wellbeing
The phenomenology/construction of culture
Ontology of inclusion
More information
Tim is a Professor [part-time] in the Department of Educational Psychology, Inclusive and Special Education.
Tim's academic work includes:
Honorary Professor in Psychology and Human Development at UCL Institute of Education
A Chartered Psychologist [British Psychological Society]
A Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine [UK]
A Peer Reviewer for The International Journal of Wellbeing
A former Senior Lecturer at Westminster College, Oxford.
Tim's work in the applied field includes working in a range of contexts:
He has worked in English Premier League Football for over twenty years and is currently Head of Psychology and Wellbeing at an English Premier League Club.
He is a member of the UK Government Expert Advisory Group on Mental Health and Wellbeing
He is a member of the UK Government Expert Advisory Group on Teacher and Leader Wellbeing.
Awards
Tim was the first person in the UK to be awarded The Fulton Fellowship.
He has also been awarded The Hines Page Scholarship (UK/USA)
Publications
Tim's first book was: O'Brien, T. (1998) Promoting Positive Behaviour. London: David Fulton.
His most recently published book is: O’Brien. T. (2016) Inner Story: Understand your mind. Change your world. Createspace: USA.
Recent publications/articles include:
- O'Brien, T. and Guiney, D. (2019) Staff Wellbeing in Higher Education: a research study.
- O'Brien, T. and Roberts, A. (2019) A domains-based approach to Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs.
- O'Brien, T. (2020) Has inclusion become a barrier to inclusion?
- O'Brien, T. and Guiney, D. (2021) Wellbeing: how we make sense of it and what this means for teachers.
