2 mins

What is PTSD?

Video Description

Clinical psychologist Emma Smith explains what post traumatic stress disorder means and why some people’s experience of traumatic events is not processed in the same way as other memories. Chelsea Psychology Clinic are a group of London psychologists and psychiatrists offering private psychological therapy and psychiatry treatment from their premises across central London and Chelsea. The private therapy sessions cover the following areas: – Acceptance & Commitment Therapy – Cognitive Analytic Therapy – Cognitive-behavioural Therapy – Couples Therapy – Dialectical-behaviour Therapy – Mentalisation Based Treatment – Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy – Schema Therapy https://www.thechelseapsychologyclinic.com

Video Transcription

PTSD is a reaction to a traumatic life event. We can think of the mind a bit like a factory, and the aim of this factory is to turn the experiences into memories. And when ordinary life events are kind of coming into the factory, they’re being processed and they’re getting laid down in our memories. When we experience a trauma, this is too much for the factory to handle. It’s completely overwhelming, so it doesn’t actually go through the normal process and end up in our memory. So when we get triggered and experience the memory, it’s more like it’s happening here and now. It’s not processed in the same way that our other memories are, and that’s when people can get the symptoms of PTSD, like flashbacks and nightmares. And when people actually have those symptoms, it’s like the trauma is happening here and now.

Dr Emma Smith

Dr Emma Smith

19 June 2022

"Dr Emma Smith completed her BSc (Hons) at the University of Warwick, an MSc in Forensic Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, and her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Christ Church Canterbury University. She worked as a clinical psychologist in a specialist service in a Central London NHS Trust until moving to Sussex where she now works as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the NHS and continues to offer sessions with The Chelsea Psychology Clinic online."

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Dr Elena Touroni

Dr Elena Touroni is a skilled and experienced consultant psychologist with a track record of delivering high-quality services for individuals with all common emotional difficulties and those with a diagnosis of personality disorder. She is experienced in service design and delivery, the management of multi-disciplinary teams, organisational consultancy, and development and delivery of both national and bespoke training to providers in the statutory and non-statutory sector.


Having obtained a first degree in Psychology (BSc) at the American College of Greece, she completed her doctoral training at the University of Surrey. Dr Touroni is highly experienced in the assessment and treatment of depression, anxiety, substance misuse, personality disorder, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, adjustment disorder and relationship difficulties. She works with both individuals and couples and can offer therapy in English and Greek.


Dr Touroni has held a variety of clinical and managerial positions including as Head of Service in the NHS. Further she has held academic positions for the University of Surrey and the Institute of Mental Health lecturing on specialist postgraduate Masters and Doctorate programmes.


She is trained in several specialist therapeutic approaches such as schema therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based approaches and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT). As well as holding a variety of NHS positions, Dr. Touroni is the co-founder of a private practice in Central London that has been a provider of psychological therapy for all common emotional difficulties including personality disorder since 2002. She is the founder and one of two directors of The Chelsea Psychology Clinic.