Hypnosis: Stress management and self-care for all

Professor Varga was awarded a Postgraduate Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1986-1990) to study the subjective experiences associated with hypnosis and the role of suggestions in critical states. She was awarded her degree of Doctor of University from Eötvös Loránd University in 1991, and a PhD in 1997 on comparing the subjective and behavioural effects of hypnosis. She was awarded Doctor of Science by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2016 for describing phenomenological synchrony. As a member of the Budapest hypnosis research laboratory, she is investigating hypnosis in an interactional framework, and in this multilevel approach she is focusing on the phenomenological data.

For the past 20 years, she has been working with patients in a hospital setting, mostly critically ill patients, applying suggestive and hypnosis techniques. She is the founder and professor of the postgraduate training of suggestive communication in somatic medicine, which is co-organised by the Hungarian Association of Hypnosis and Semmelweis University School of Medicine, Budapest. She has published numerous articles and books which present her research findings hypnosis, and clinical experiences on the application.

Professor Peters specialises in mental health and the functioning of the human mind and has dedicated his working life to helping people get the best out of themselves and to be in a good place. His current and past experiences include Clinical Director of Mental Health Services within the NHS at a district hospital, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and Undergraduate Dean at Sheffield Medical School. He has spent 20 years as an examination panel member at the Royal College of Psychiatry and has been an expert advisor to World Anti-doping Agency.

He has been a consultant to over 20 Olympic and national sporting teams including Liverpool FC, British Cycling, GB Taekwondo, England Rugby and England Football. Outside of elite sport, Professor Peters works with CEOs, senior executives, teachers, students, hospital staff and patients. Steven Gerrard, Sir Chris Hoy, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Victoria Pendleton, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Lee Westwood, Jonathan Trott and Raheem Sterling are people that have all spoken publicly about how Professor Peters' has helped them during their careers.

As an author, he has written 4 books including the bestselling self-help book of all time in the UK, The Chimp Paradox, which has sold over a million copies - as per Nielsen TCM Chart 2020. His latest book is "A Path through the Jungle', released October 2021. Other achievements include attending Downing Street for winning the senate award twice for his excellence in teaching.

Professor Wendy Burn was appointed as a Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist in Leeds in 1990 and now works part-time in a community mental health team for older people and as the National Mental Health Clinical Advisor to Health Education England. She has been involved in the organisation and delivery of postgraduate training since she started as a consultant and has held many roles in education. She set up the Yorkshire School of Psychiatry and was the first Head of School. She was Dean of the Royal College of Psychiatrists from 2011 to 2016 and President from 2017 to 2020. She Co-chaired the Gatsby Wellcome Neuroscience Project from 2016 to 2022. This focused on modernising the neuroscience taught to psychiatric trainees. Professor Burn is currently Chair of the Clinical group of Equally Well, a project set up to improve physical health in people with a serious mental illness, Chair of the Public Engagement Editorial Board at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and leads the expert group on COVID-19 care for people with mental illness for the World Psychiatric Association