Bruno Almeida de Brito

Q: How long have you been a TIR trainer?
A: Since 2014

Q: What inspired you to become a TIR trainer?
A: As a professional working with trauma and crisis intervention, I was trained in most of the techniques available for psychological trauma. TIR was the only one that I found to be effective, person-centered and safe to work with very traumatized clients

Q: What do you find rewarding about it?
A: The simplicity of the the technique and its effectiveness.

Q: Are you willing to travel to deliver training, if so under what conditions?
A: Yes, I’m willing to travel, specially in Europe or Portuguese speaking countries, like Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, etc.

Q: Do you have a private practice?
A: Yes I do. Most of my week is dedicated to private practice.

Q: Besides TIR, what other things are you interested in?
A: Crisis intervention, psychological first aid, international humanitarian aid, clinical psychology

Q: Describe your professional background?
A: I am licensed in clinical psychology since 2001 and completed a Masters on risk, trauma and society in Lisboa’s ISCTE, in January 2009. I worked for the Portuguese Association for Victim Support as the Training Center Coordinator from 2009 to 2013. I managed the network of support for friends and families of homicide victims.. In the recent past I have worked in the Republican Guard and also used to be a consultant for the National Authority for Civil Protection for psychosocial support issues.

I am frequently invited to speak as an expert in the European Union in psychosocial assistance for critical incidents and mass emergencies. I have been recognized as an EU Civil Protection Expert for psychosocial intervention and psychosocial teams’ coordination. My work took me to Sri Lanka for humanitarian proposes after the tsunami there, and I represented PT in the EU Civil Protection Exercise (EULUX) in Luxembourg, as a psychosocial expert, in May 2007.

In 2002 I was trained in Field Traumatology at the University of South Florida’s Traumatology Institute. Already a psychologist working in a firefighting station, I went to the USA searching for some answers about how to intervene in traumatic situations, in the critical incident and after it, at the onset of the symptomatology of PTSD. In pursuing this interest, I took other CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management) workshops and TIR (Traumatic Incident Reduction) training, attending a TIR workshop in Ascot, UK later in 2002, and returned the next year to take the LSR (Life Stress Reduction) training. I took advanced CISM training in 2006, in Frankfurt.

I also have experience in the support of activities, such as: Police intelligence area, hostages and crisis negotiation, disaster victim identification and other criminal investigation related areas.