Members

Director of The RU Centre for Research and Training in Clinical Psychology is Jón Friðrik Sigurðsson, Professor and Clinical Director, Psychology Department, RU.

Members

• Dr. Jón Friðrik Sigurðsson is Professor of Psychology and Clinical Director at Reykjavik University and Professor at the University of Iceland and Landspitali -The

  National University Hospital of Iceland. Between 2001 and 2013 he was the Head of Clinical Psychology Services at Landspitali and between 1988 and 2001 he was a Prison Psychologist at the National Prison and Probation Administration in Iceland. Professor Sigurðsson obtained his PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, in 1998, and an MSc in Health Psychology from the University of Stirling, Scotland in 1988. He is a licensed specialist in Clinical and Forensic Psychology in Iceland. He has extensive experience in providing clinical services and has supervised number of undergraduate, master and PhD students. He has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and three book chapters. He has been the principal investigator in a large number of projects in Iceland in several different areas in clinical and forensic psychology, e.g., mental health patients and offenders; mental health of women perinatal; cognitive behavioural therapy; medically unexplained symptoms; offending behaviour; false confessions. Professor Sigurdsson has been adviser to the Ministry of Welfare, the Althing Ombudsman, and the Police and the Government Agency for Child Protection. He has been a member of a number of investigating committees in Iceland into ill treatment and sexual abuse of children in care homes.

• Dr. Brynja Björk Magnúsdóttir is an Assistant Professor at Reykjavik University. She graduated from Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London with a PhD, has a Cand.Psych. degree from University of Iceland and has obtained specialization in clinical neuropsychology from the Icelandic Ministry of Welfare. Dr. Magnúsdóttir works part-time at Landspitali as a clinical neuropsychologist, which includes diagnosing patients experiencing changes in their cognitive function as well as developing cognitive rehabilitation programs. Dr. Magnúsdóttir’s research has mostly been on cognitive function in people with schizophrenia, including the genetic influences on cognition and the effects of cognitive rehabilitation. Additional research includes aspects of working memory, social cognition and cognitive ageing among others.
• Dr. Hafrún Kristjánsdóttir is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Sport Science Department at Reykjavík University. Dr. Kristjánsdóttir obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Iceland in 2015. She worked as a licensed psychologist at Landspítali from 2005 – 2013. Dr. Kristjánsdóttir research has been in the field of Transdiagnostic Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Clinical Sport Psychology.
• Dr. Heiðdís Valdimarsdóttir is a professor at the Department of Psychology at Reykjavik University, Iceland, and Associate professor at the Department of Oncological Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY USA. Professor Valdimarsdóttir has examined and developed interventions to reduce distress (e.g., depression, intrusive thoughts), improve cognitive function, restore circadian rhythms, and improve immune function among cancer patients and survivors. Professor Valdimarsdóttir has over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is a member of several health psychology societies (e.g., Psychosomatic Society and Society of Behavioral Medicine).
• Jack Ernest James is Professor of Psychology at Reykjavík University. He has a BSc (First Class Honours) and a Master of Clinical Psychology from the University of New South Wales, Sydney. After obtaining certification to practice as a clinical psychologist, he completed a PhD in experimental clinical psychology at the University of Western Australia, Perth. Professor James has held faculty positions in Australia and Europe, where he has been extensively involved in curriculum design, especially in relation to postgraduate professional training in clinical and health psychology. He was appointed Foundation Professor of Behavioural Health Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, and was Founding National President of the Australian Psychological Society’s College of Health Psychologists. He was Professor and Head of the School of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Galway, and Founding Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed Journal of Caffeine Research (now, Journal of Caffeine and Adenosine Research). He has published 3 books and more than 150 peer-reviewed articles. His main research interests include health psychology; behavioural epidemiology; global health; psychophysiology (with particular reference to cardiovascular health); psychopharmacology (with particular reference to dietary caffeine); and applied behaviour analysis. His research has been supported by major granting bodies in Australia, Ireland, Iceland, and the European Union.
• Dr. María Kristín Jónsdóttir is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Reykjavik University. Dr. Jónsdóttir obtained her PhD from the University of Houston in Texas in 1990. She holds a specialist license in Clinical Neuropsychology and has worked as a licensed psychologist since 1991 at Landspitali. She has expertise in dementia/mild cognitive impairment and traumatic brain injury. Her published research has mostly been in dementia and cognitive ageing.
• Sigrún Ólafsdóttir is a licenced clinical psychologist and a PhD student at Reykjavik University. She received a Cand.Psych. degree from the University of Iceland in 2008. From 2008 to 2010, she was one of two prison psychologists at the Icelandic Prison and Probation Administration, and from 2011 to 2014, she was a psychologist at a psychiatric hospital ward and a specialised psychiatric out-patient clinic in Stockholm, Sweden. Sigrún Ólafsdóttir has experience in carrying out psychological assessment, delivering evidence-based treatment both individually and in groups, supervision of psychology students, and organising and structuring psychological services. As part of her PhD studies, Sigrún Ólafsdóttir is doing research on medically unexplained symptoms that cause work disability in co-operation with a research group in the UK.

• Dr. Bryndís Björk Ásgeirsdóttir is an Associate Professor and the Chair of the Psychology Department, Reykjavik University. Dr. Ásgeirsdóttir obtained her PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London in 2011. Dr. Ásgeirsdóttir field of research includes stressful life events, trauma and abuse in the lives of children and adolescents. She has published numerous articles in recognized scientific journals on predictors of child abuse, protective factors in the lives of adolescents when facing stressful life events and on pathways from stressful life events to risk behaviours, including suicidal and self - injurious behaviour, substance use and delinquency.