Mets & South (London)
Council members
David Kraft (Branch Secretary): T: 07946 579645/020 7467 8564 Co-supervision IF THERE IS A TOPIC YOU WOULD LIKE US TO COVER, IF YOU HAVE SOME EXPERTISE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH US, OR IF THERE IS A SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED IN FORMING OR JOINING, PLEASE CONTACT US.
Meet the training team
David Kraft Leon Gevertz Peter Naish
David Kraft (PhD BSCAH Accred.)
David Kraft runs a successful psychotherapy practice in Harley Street. London. He has been teaching on the BSCAH Foundation Training courses since 2013 and has very much enjoyed this experience. David originally trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the London Centre for Psychotherapy; however, after a period of time, he felt that it was important to develop a more integrative approach to treatment. As a result, he decided to train at the National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy: here, he formalized his psychotherapy training and this led to UKCP accreditation and two diplomas—the DHP (NC) and ADHP (NC). David has an MSc in Psychology from Kingston University, and is a member of The British Psychological Society, holding the designated letter MBPsS. David also has a diploma in Clinical Hypnosis (DCHyp) and an Advanced Certificate in Clinical and Strategic Hypnosis (A.Cert.CSHyp). In addition, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a member of council for the Section of Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine. He is also an accredited member of The British Society of Clinical & Academic Hypnosis (BSCAH), a member of its National Council, and on the Academic and Accreditation Sub-Committee. David has been researching psychotherapy and clinical hypnosis for several years now, publishing regularly in academic journals. He has written over 25 articles on many subjects, including: phobic anxiety, covert sensitisation, anxiety disorders, sleep disturbances, hyperhidrosis, sexual disorders, IBS, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, agoraphobia, social phobia and panic disorder. David published his first book, ‘Birdsong in the music of Olivier Messiaen’ in 2013, and is completing his second book, a book of his poetry, which he hopes will come out in 2017. David is currently Honorary Secretary for the Mets and South Branch of BSCAH.
Leon Gevertz (BDS, LDS, Dip. Clin Hyp., FBSCAH, BSCAH Accred.)
Dr. Leon Gevertz is a well respected dentist who has been involved with BSCAH for many years. Leon qualified as a dentist at UCH in 1972 and, shortly thereafter, began working in General Practice. During his career, he has held a number of important roles including Assistant Clinical Director in Bedfordshire and Clinical Tutor at Luton and Dunstable Hospital. Leon began to use hypnosis as an adjunctive tool in 1980 and it was at this point that he joined the British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis (BSMDH). In 1993, he completed the Diploma in Clinical Hypnosis at Sheffield University and gained accreditation with the society in the same year. Since then, he has been involved in teaching health professionals with BSMDH and the now amalgamated society—The British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis (BSCAH). A fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, Leon has been actively involved with BSCAH—he has been Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary of Mets and South—and he has regularly attended conference presentations run by the European Society of Hypnosis (ESH) and the International Society of Hypnosis (ISH). Leon has, during his successful and varied career, helped a huge number of people to overcome their fears and anxieties. This practical experience, together with his theoretical understanding, has helped him to pass on this knowledge to students over the last three decades. A published author in his own right, Leon has focussed his attention on the treatment of dental anxiety, the management of pain, and smoking cessation. Leon is been happily married to Linda, with whom he has spent over forty-four years; he has two children and a granddaughter, Ginny. Now partially retired, he enjoys visits to Holland, playing golf and attending regular conferences on Astronomy. Leon is the current Chairman of the Mets and South Branch, based in London.
Dr Peter Naish
Following a degree in the physical sciences, Peter took another in psychology, finally moving to the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford for his doctorate. Along the way he acquired an interest in hypnosis. This was in the era of scepticism about the subject; the hard-nosed scientific community was of the opinion that it was little more than an example of social compliance, where one person feels the need to ‘go along with’ the expectations of another. Some researchers went so far as to say that the whole process was so ordinary that it was misleading to grace it with a special name of its own: Hypnosis. However, Peter’s research results began to convince him that there really was something out of the ordinary going on. With the advent of brain scanning that position has been vindicated; the hypnotised brain really does behave differently. Peter had a spell carrying out research for the Ministry of Defence and, among the topics he addressed, he became involved with the issue of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Intriguingly, PTSD victims tend to be highly hypnotisable, and Peter developed novel apparatus to reveal the nature of the parallels between PTSD and hypnosis. He continues to explore the links between trauma and brain behaviour. With his long and active interest in hypnosis Peter has been elected over the years to several relevant posts, including spells as President of the Section for Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine, at the Royal Society of Medicine, and Chair of Council for the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis. He is currently President of the BSCAH. He also chairs the Scientific Advisory Board to the British False Memory Society. He was invited onto the Board, because it was known that, carelessly used, therapeutic hypnosis can induce false memories; he is often asked to serve as an expert witness in cases where false memory or the misuse of hypnosis have been alleged. Peter is a strong advocate of the public dissemination of science, and he is a regular speaker at the major British science festivals. He has also lectured at the Science Museum, The Royal Society, the Dana Centre for the Brain and ‘Science on the Fringe’ during the Edinburgh Festival.
