David Peters
David trained as a family doctor, and later in osteopathic medicine and as a musculoskeletal physician. From 1990 until 2005, he directed the highly innovative complementary therapies development programme at Marylebone Health Centre (MHC), a ground-breaking Central London NHS GP unit set up in 1986 to explore new approaches to inner city primary healthcare.
David was one of the founding faculty of the University of Westminster's School of Integrated Health which merged with the Department of Bioscience in 2009 to form the School of Life Sciences where he is now Professor of Integrated Healthcare and Clinical Director.
He has co-authored or edited five books* about complementary therapies, and has led on a series of research projects implementing or evaluating complementary medicine in mainstream settings. One recent project developed community access to acupuncture and stress reduction for people with long-term low back pain. A current project is evaluating the use of acupuncture alongside counselling for men in distress. He was-until 2010-Chair of the British Holistic Medical Association - an open association of practitioners working to develop holistic healthcare (bhma.org) - whose Journal of Holistic Healthcare he edits. David was-until 2013-a founding director of the recently formed College of Medicine whose aim is to encourage more patient-centred and values-based approaches in healthcare.
David's clinical work as a musculo-skeletal physician has been greatly enriched by osteopathy and acupuncture, and by the somatically-oriented psychotherapeutic methods devised by Peter Levine, as well as by his own exploration of working with the relaxation response, yoga and meditation. A particular clinical interest is in dysregulatory syndromes where pain and/or fatigue often overlap, and in the autonomic imbalance and breathing pattern disorders he hass seen so frequently associated with them. He is now directing a new cross-university initiative - the Westminster Centre for Resilience.