Dr. Benu Gopal
About Dr. Benu
Rooted in Science. Guided by Intuition.
Dr. Punyapriya (Benu) Gopal, MD
Integrative Practitioner | Reiki Master Teacher | EMDR Practitioner
I am a physician. I am also a Reiki Master Teacher. For most of my career these two roles lived in separate parts of life.
My medical training was in Radiation Oncology-a technically demanding and emotionally intense specialty. You work with people whose bodies are being treated with precision and whose inner lives are being asked to bear something enormous, often in silence while moving on the best they can to not burden their families.
My turn towards Reiki came from my response to fill a need that I didn't know I could fill, but had the support and guidance to try. I started my Reiki journey as a volunteer practitioner at Yale New Haven Hospital. Session after session, my skeptic mind was blown away. Something was happening in those sessions that my clinical framework couldn't fully account for. I continued to observe and practice.
One thing led to another and in the last thirteen years, I have had the privilege of coordinating the Reiki Volunteer Program at Hartford Hospital-the nation's foremost and longest running hospital based Reiki program. I have worked with many compassionate volunteers and thousands of patients-and I still do not have a complete explanation for everything I have witnessed.
What I do have is a structured, clinically informed practice, a research informed curriculum, and a very clear sense of where this work helps and where it does not.
I work with cancer patients, people in palliative care, healthcare professionals experiencing burnout, and people navigating a health challenge or life transition that conventional care addresses only partially.
