Dr Georgina Clifford is Director of the clinic, a trauma specialist and experienced Clinical Psychologist who worked in specialist trauma services in the NHS for several years. She qualified with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) from Royal Holloway, University of London and has completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge: Emotion, memory and the self in complex post-traumatic stress following repeated interpersonal trauma, which can be accessed here. Dr Clifford adopts an integrative approach to treatment, using Trauma focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), EMDR, Compassion-Focused Therapy and Narrative approaches. She has experience and expertise in treating psychological presentations in the aftermath of traumatic experiences, including: accidents; rape and sexual assault; childhood abuse; domestic violence; trafficking, war and torture. She has a special interest and growing expertise in the area of birth trauma. Dr Clifford takes instruction for expert witness work for the court and her opinion has been accepted in a range of courts, including the Central Criminal Court.
Dr Maja Jankowska is a Clinical and Counselling Psychologist specialising in the assessment and treatment of trauma and other psychological and emotional difficulties. She has worked with people presenting with a range of psychological problems as well as those who wanted to learn, develop and grow as individuals. Her PhD was in the area of personal growth and development, and she is particularly interested in practices that facilitate resilience and post-traumatic growth, guiding her clients in their journey beyond the pain of their past and into the discovery of meaning and purpose in life. Dr Jankowska has a specialist interest in performance-related traumas (and she specialises in trauma in the performing arts: freezing, blanking, forgetting lines/notes, issues around criticism, audition rejection and humiliation), intergenerational trauma, workforce wellbeing, and in treating psychological presentations in the aftermath of traumatic experiences. She has training and experience in EMDR, Trauma Focused CBT, Brainspotting (which evolved from EMDR), Brief Solution-Focused Therapy, incorporating techniques from Compassion Focused Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Narrative approaches in her work. Dr Jankowska has a long-standing experience in lecturing in Psychology and CBT and delivering clinical supervision as well as workshops and trainings. She is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of British Psychological Society and a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy. She provides specialist teaching, training, supervision and consultation in relation to trauma as well as work-place wellbeing and stress management. Dr Jankowska takes instruction for expert witness work for the court (under the supervision of Dr Clifford). She is committed to working in a collaborative, enabling and empowering way and is responsive to the needs and preferences of her clients.
Dr Claire Arnold is a Clinical Psychologist with over 15 years experience of working with children, families and adults who have a range of emotional difficulties. Dr Arnold has a particular interest and expertise in working with children and adults who have experienced trauma including accidents, assault, domestic violence, war, torture and childhood sexual abuse. She has been the clinical lead for a specialist NHS trauma service. She has also delivered teaching and training in PTSD as well as providing extensive supervision for other professionals working with trauma. Dr Arnold provides Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET). She has also worked extensively in generic NHS mental health services in senior positions for a number of years. In addition to trauma-focused therapies, Dr Arnold offers therapeutic intervention for anxiety and depression with both children and adults. She holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) from University College London. She also has postgraduate training in Systemic Family Therapy and specialises in parenting support and working with families.
Dr Jennifer O’Connell is a Clinical Psychologist with expertise in supporting people with recent or historic experiences of trauma or childhood adversity. This includes a broad spectrum of experiences, such as witnessing or experiencing a car accident, military trauma, sexual or emotional abuse, bullying, a violent crime, or social humiliation. It also encompasses growing up in environments marked by persistent invalidation or isolation. Dr O’Connell is passionate about supporting others in a warm and down-to-earth manner, and places great emphasis on developing a strong and trusting therapeutic relationship to ensure a sense of safety and mutual understanding. She specialises in Schema Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and can also provide Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT). Dr O’Connell completed a master’s degree in psychological research at University College London, before undertaking her doctoral training and qualifying as a Clinical Psychologist from Royal Holloway, University of London. She is currently completing further postgraduate trauma studies at University College Cork in conjunction with the Wave Trauma Centre in Belfast. Alongside her academic and clinical work, Dr O’Connell is passionate about clinical research, mental health literacy training, and has experience writing psychological impact reports on behalf of survivors of gender-based violence for the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service. She takes instruction for expert witness work for the court (under the supervision of Dr Clifford).
Dr Daisy Walton-Ellis is a highly specialised Clinical Psychologist with expertise in the assessment and treatment of individuals who have experienced trauma.She worked for six years on the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway, where she completed specialist psychological assessments, formulations, and evidence-based treatment for individuals presenting with high levels of risk and histories of violent and sexual offending, across prisons, secure settings, and the community. She also provided consultation to colleagues within the Prison and Probation Service, offering psychological formulations to support understanding of the impact of trauma on mental health and offending risk. She acted as Women’s Champion for South West London and has a particular interest in working with female offenders. Dr Walton-Ellis has extensive experience within mental health services, including psychiatric inpatient settings, a Crisis Home Treatment Team, and Community Mental Health Teams. She has worked with individuals experiencing complex mental health difficulties, high levels of distress, and significant risk of suicide and self-harm, associated with experiences of trauma and victimisation.She currently leads a clinical psychology service within a cardiac rehabilitation team, providing psychological therapy to individuals affected by trauma related to cardiac events and associated medical treatment. Dr Walton-Ellis has been instructed as an expert witness in Criminal and Family Court proceedings. She provides expert opinion on the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions, and their impact on presentation, decision-making, and risk. She is also experienced in conducting cognitive assessments and diagnostic assessments of learning disability.
Dr. Elizabeth Katherine Gamarra is a Clinical Social Worker specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET). She has previously worked at the Huntsman Mental Health Hospital Intensive Outpatient Program ("RecoveryWorks") and the Urban Indian Center, closely collaborating with Tribal Courts and serving Native American Tribes across the West Coast. Dr Gamarra's work integrates non-Western perspectives on mental health and wellbeing for clients mandated for treatment. Her MPhil in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge Brain Sciences Unit examines mental health data from caregivers with a history of alcoholism and child abuse, investigating discrepancies in how parents recall and report traumatic experiences in the context of Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement. She completed her PhD in Japan as a MEXT and Fulbright Scholar, focusing on the securitization and politicization of health within the United Nations. This work led her to roles with the U.S. Department of State, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, and the Academic Council of the United Nations System, where she applied her clinical expertise to inform policy. At London Trauma Specialists, she works as a Clinical Research Associate, contributing to expert witness reports.
Professor Tim Dalgleish FBPS FMedSci is a clinical psychologist and academic researcher at the University of Cambridge and a consultant clinician in the NHS. He is an internationally recognised expert on depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related conditions. Professor Dalgleish has more than 30 years’ experience working as an expert witness and has prepared more than 400 reports. He provides expert assessments relating to psychiatric conditions in children, adolescents and adults. These include depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD, adjustment problems, and bereavement. He has extensive experience in the areas of personal injury, criminal responsibility, capacity, fitness to plead, mitigation, human trafficking, coercive control, recovered memories of trauma, parental alienation, modern slavery, risk of offending, asylum claims, and family functioning. He specialises in assessing the role of trauma in these contexts. He has extensive experience across the judicial system including within the civil, criminal and family courts and within the criminal injury, tribunal and asylum systems.
Professor Richard Meiser-Stedman is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East Anglia, having joined the university in 2014. His primary research interest is PTSD in children and adolescents. He completed his PhD and trained as a clinical psychologist at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, KCL. Between these periods of study he was a Peggy Pollak Fellow in Developmental Psychiatry, also at the Institute. From 2009-2014 Professor Meiser-Stedman was an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge. While there he led the ASPECTS study, looking at the early natural course of traumatic stress reactions, and an early treatment for PTSD in children and adolescents. From 2016 to 2020 he was an NIHR Career Development Fellow, through which he led the DECRYPT trial, that evaluated cognitive therapy as a treatment for PTSD in NHS child and adolescent mental health services. He has worked on five randomised controlled trials of psychological therapies for PTSD in children and young people, and has published over 125 papers in this area. He serves on the Research and Implementation Board of the Children and War Foundation, and the UK Trauma Council. Professor Meiser-Stedman uses trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). He mainly works with children and adolescents.
Dr Jasmine Chin is an experienced consultant clinical psychologist who has worked in mental health services in the NHS for over 20 years. She qualified with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (PsychD Clinical Psychology) from the University of Surrey and has additional post qualification training in Systemic Psychotherapy, Narrative Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR). She also has trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction/Cognitive Therapy (MBSR/MBCT) from the University of Bangor and varying somatic (mind-body) trauma trainings, all of which enable her to attend to distress held in the body. Dr Chin has a particular interest in working across the lifespan and in all of her work considers the impact of community trauma and intergenerational trauma on the individual's presenting difficulty and significant relationships. Equally, she attends to the strengths and values inherent in all systems and individuals, using this to support a collaborative approach to change. Dr Chin previously worked in NHS adult mental health services for over 10 years including services for parental mental health. She has also worked with pre-proceedings family court assessments and adult criminal and civil proceedings. She currently holds a clinical leadership & management role in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in social care and a therapeutic role with adult creative artists. She holds a PG.Dip (Distinction) from UCL, London in CYP-IAPT Management & Leadership.
Dr. Sarah Whittaker is a clinical psychologist expert in the assessment and treatment of trauma. She has worked extensively in specialist trauma services in the NHS and charity sector providing treatment to veterans and people who have experienced rape and torture. She is clinical director for an international organisation that provides specialist psychological services to former hostages, people impacted by terrorism and traumatic deaths, and victims of human right abuses. She has worked around the world including in Iraq, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of Congo and therefore understands cultural influences on the expression of trauma and treatment. She has acted as an expert witness in a large scale war crimes investigation and for the UK Asylum Courts. Dr Whittaker adopts an integrative approach to understanding and treating trauma. She uses trauma focused cognitive behavioural therapy and narrative techniques and draws on existential and philosophical concepts to help people understand and explore the traumas they have experienced and start to feel safe, helping them to find ways of moving forward.
Dr. Clare Watson is an experienced Clinical Psychologist who has worked in the NHS for the past 15 years. Since qualifying, she has developed a specialism in trauma-informed care, providing compassionate and effective treatment for individuals impacted by trauma, including childhood abuse, bereavement, PTSD, complex PTSD and dissociative disorders. Dr. Watson takes an integrative approach, tailoring therapy to the unique needs of each client. She combines evidence-based therapies such as Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) with relational and body-based modalities. Throughout her career, Dr. Watson has supported individuals of all ages; and she offers a therapeutic approach that is open minded and accepting of a diversity of experiences and lifestyles. She places great value on building strong therapeutic alliances based on trust, empathy, and collaboration. Trained in specialist trauma assessment and expert witness report writing, under the supervision of Dr. Clifford, Dr. Watson is committed to helping clients gain self-understanding, reclaim control and reduce the daily impact of trauma as they progress on their unique healing journeys.
Dr Courtney Stich is a Clinical Psychologist specialising in assessing and treating traumatic memories and difficult experiences that keep one from moving forward with their life. Those painful experiences may range from a lifetime of violence to a single life-altering experience. Traumatic memories can lead to intrusive images, anxiety, sadness, guilt, shame, feelings of contamination, or sleep difficulties that define PTSD or complex PTSD (CPTSD). Dr Stich believes it’s important to face these memories with compassion, so you can reclaim the next part of your life. Dr Stitch enjoys working with people from all walks of life and across the world. Her NHS roles have involved working in specialist teams with refugees, survivors of childhood abuse, sexual violence, torture, and experience of psychosis. Her clinical doctorate from UCL focused on treating PTSD, particularly disgust and contamination after trauma, and her MSW from Smith College focused on understanding suicide risk in a veteran population in the US. Dr Stich’s practice is evidence-led, and she is trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Imagery Rescripting, EMDR, Narrative Exposure Therapy, & Relational Psychotherapy.
Nimrod is a PhD Candidate and a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, UK, where he studies the cognitive underpinnings of evidence-based psychological interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He holds a Master's in clinical psychology from Tel Aviv University and worked with youth and adults at various mental health clinics before, during, and after his clinical training. He works with London Trauma Specialists as a Clinical Research Associate.
Alice Roe is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, where her research focuses on understanding the emotional, cognitive and social factors related to mental health in adolescence, with a particular focus on the impact of trauma. Prior to this, she worked at the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, conducting research in the family courts. She works with London Trauma Specialists as a Clinical Research Associate.