Robert Örell
practitioner and trainer
Robert Örell has more than two decades of experience in the P/CVE field working with the rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremists. For more than fifteen years he provided interventions with clients in exit work. For ten years he worked as a director and manager of exit programs (Exit Sweden & ExitUSA).
Currently, he works as a senior international expert focused on capacity development, training, and setting up exit programs. Robert is a senior consultant & trainer for the Violence Prevention Network USA's RESTORE program, where he also serves as a member of the VPN USA board.
His recent work includes advising on setting up exit programs, advising on policy guidelines and recommendations, online counselling in the exit field, and conducting research interviews with former members of violent extremists. He advises on several projects around the world. Robert co-teaches an academic course on the psychology of violence and hate, addressing violent radicalisation and violent extremism.
Since 2011 he has been a member of the Steering Committee of the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN), co-chairing the working group on Rehabilitation. Robert was the director of Exit Sweden for ten years and the program director at Exit USA for three years. In 2020-2021 he advised and contributed to the Council of Europe’s counter-terrorism strategy.
In 2016 Robert held a TEDx at TEDx Vilnius. He studied psychotherapy, social pedagogy and holds a Master's degree in Humanitarian Action and Peacebuilding.