Rumi Peynovska

Let me first introduce myself. I graduated in Medicine nearly thirty years ago. Throughout my studies I have had a keen interest in psychiatry. The psychology and pathology of human behaviour, cognition and perception being so complex and intricate have always intrigued me.
The metamorphosis of people when in crisis have made me aware of how much more knowledge psychiatry, as an academic and clinical specialty, needs to acquire in order to help its patients.

Witnessing the suffering caused by mental disorders, both for patients and their families, has inspired my professional desire to work in the field and look for effective treatments if not cures.

Lead by this desire I did a postgraduate degree in Clinical Neuroscience at The Institute of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, UK and later on widened my studies in different psychotherapeutic approaches, as I needed to know and understand the workings of the human brain and mind in a very intimate way.

My encounter with Clinical Hypnosis came a few years later. Completely by coincidence.  Meaningful coincidence.
I have been working with different psychotherapeutic techniques for the treatment of panic attacks. I have found that Hypnotherapy combined with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is the most efficient therapeutic approach.

As a result, I have used Clinical Hypnosis in my work with great success for the past twenty years.
Clinical Hypnosis is not a therapy by itself but a useful clinical tool that can be applied as an adjunct in any medical or surgical specialty.

Since this meaningful discovery, my professional life has revolved around implementing Hypnosis into mainstream clinical practice. Together with Dr Partridge and The Mind and Body Foundation, we established one of the first NHS clinics in Oncology at Imperial Healthcare Trust in 2007. We ran the clinic for seven years and had great results helping patients undergo their cancer treatment.

I helped people go successfully through their medical or surgical treatment, overcome their anxiety associated with the life threatening disease, sleep better, avoid the unpleasant nausea and vomiting associated with the chemotherapy, recover faster after the radiotherapy, overcome claustrophobia if they had to wear a protective mask during the radiotherapy, overcome needle phobia if they were scared of needles, improve the function of their immune system by improving their mental state, to name just a few of the issues cancer patients could get help with.

Despite the remarkable results we achieved, due to NHS financial constraints, the clinic had to close. However, we continued our work and here, on this platform, you can download any therapy programme that is of interest to you.
Apart from working with people who go through cancer treatment, I also help people who suffer with chronic pain, functional bowel disorders, like irritable bowel syndrome, hypermobility syndrome, patients suffering with anxiety, sleeping difficulties, panic attacks and addictions.

On the academic side, I lecture on the medical uses of hypnosis and I have developed and run training courses for medical doctors, dentists and other healthcare professionals who would like to apply hypnosis in their clinical practice.
I was part of a dedicated team who developed and delivered the first MSc course in Hypnosis in Research, Medicine and Clinical Practice at Bournemouth University, UK.
At present, we are working on implementing similar postgraduate training in other UK universities, so that more healthcare professionals are educated and trained in the medical uses of hypnosis.

I am a past President of the Section of Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), London, UK which is one of the largest providers of postgraduate medical education, as well as past Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis.
I am still an active member on the Council of Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine at the RSM, where I have delivered many professional presentations in different scientific forums on the clinical applications of Hypnosis.

Most importantly, based on the clinical and academic evidence we have so far and on my own long professional experience, I am a firm believer that when applied appropriately and consistently, Hypnosis can easily help any person who genuinely seeks to change his mental and physical state and who would like to get actively involved in their treatment.