Team

Founder and Clinical Director - Alex Howard BSc(Hons)
Alex Howard is the founder and director of the clinic. Alex suffered from M.E. for seven years, and spent two years virtually bed-bound. After reaching the point of near suicide, Alex made the commitment of doing everything he could to turn around his own situation and help others in similar situations. Alex is the author of “WHY ME? My Journey from M.E. to Health and Happiness,” producer of a number of groundbreaking audio programmes including “Learn to Relax,” “The Sleep Inducer,” “Healing M.E. The Holistic Way” two new DVD's due out in September “Beat Fatigue with Yoga” and “Freedom from M.E.” and is on an going journey of pursuing and integrating into the clinic the very latest ideas available. Since his recovery Alex has worked tirelessly and with great dedication to help those affected by M.E., with the clinic now having a database of over 5,000 people.

Director of Nutrition - Niki Gratrix Dip ION, mBANT
Niki spent a number of years in corporate banking before deciding to follow her path and retrain as a health practitioner. Niki's training, which developed into a mission to integrate the best of what is available in integrative medicine today, has seen her travel all over the world and qualify as a clinical nutritionist, yoga teacher, personal trainer and NLP practitioner. Niki has read over 1,000 books in the field of health and healing, and is fast becoming one of the worlds leading experts on treating M.E. Her protocols for treating the physical components of M.E. are the cutting edge, and she has recently been approached to train other nutritionists in her unique approach.

Director of Psychology - Anna Duschinsky MA(Hons)
Anna suffered from M.E. for a number of years, and through determination and tenacity was able to make a full recovery, using many of the techniques now offered by the clinic. Anna holds a degree from Cambridge University, numerous qualifications in mind-body approaches, and is known for her caring and compassionate style. In her role as Director of Psychology at the clinic, Anna has been responsible for researching all of the latest approaches out there to treating M.E. from a non-physical view point, and has been responsible for creating the most cutting edge protocol we believe to be available in the world today

Visionary Psychology Practitioners

Ashley Meyer Dip.Clin.Hyp.NLP.Coach CMP NLP EFT - Advanced
Ashley Meyer first met Alex when he helped him to proof read one of the early drafts of “WHY ME?” and they have been friends ever since. Ashley had a very successful career in the corporate events industry before discovering his real gift lay in helping and supporting others. Ashley initially trained as a Clinical Hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner, continuing to develop his therapeutic skills and becoming passionately involved in Meridian energy therapies (EFT & TAT). He is now a certified trainer of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and is also one of the trainers at the clinic’s practitioner training course. Ashley has worked with the clinic for over two years and has a very thorough understanding of the psychological aspects of M.E. With his warm and giving manner, Ashley is a very skilful therapist.

Sarah Marshall
BSc(Hons) Dip Clin Hyp Coach CMP NLP EFT-Advanced
Sarah had M.E. for over 5 years, ending her career in IT. Having had her life taken away from her, she embarked upon on her own journey of discovery about why she became ill, what was preventing her from recovering her health, and how to turn that around; this eventually led to a full recovery. Sarah went on to train in many of the techniques that she has found beneficial to her recovery. Before joining the Optimum Health Clinic she had treated hundreds of M.E. patients and brings her own insights and excellent experience to the clinic team. Sarah is known for her enthusiasm, and her caring and intuitive approach.

Clinical Nutritionists

Tanya Page BSc(Hons) dip ION
Tanya is a clinical nutritionist with a background in food technology and process engineering. After gaining a 1st class honours degree in Food Technology at Reading University in the early 90s, Tanya's interest in health through nutrition was sparked when her terminally ill mother appeared to gain some precious months through eating well. This inspired her to put her food industry career on hold and re-train in nutritional therapy. She went on to produce the best dissertation in her year with her work on essential fats and their role in cancer treatment. Tanya joined the clinic team in July 2006, and since then has played a key role in the research and testing of the clinics protocols, and has extensive experience working with patients with M.E.  In addition to her technical experience and background, Tanya is also known for her caring and empathic style.

Sanna Anderson dip ION, mBANT
Sanna spent the first 10 years of her career in the financial industry enjoying the challenges of the corporate world. She has always been a keen cook and is passionate about good food, but it wasn’t until experiencing the dramatic effects of a diet change on her own health that she realised the impact good nutrition can have on the quality of life.

Sanna joined The Optimum Health Clinic in the very early days in a support role as one of its first employees. She was responsible for helping to develop the clinic's nutritional protocols, especially our metabolic typing system. Sanna has always been popular with patients for her kind and caring style, and this alongside her strong knowledge of the biochemistry involved with M.E. patients, makes her a truly effective practitioner.

Support Staff

Caroline Spencer
Caroline originally met Alex on a retreat where they had been spending a week together, contemplating, amongst other things ‘the meaning of life’. On the journey back from the retreat, Caroline mentioned she was looking to change jobs. Alex made a mental note that if anything came up at The Optimum Health Clinic she would be a great addition to the team; a year later, the role of Operations Manager became available. Caroline’s excellent organisational skills are instrumental in maintaining the calm in our busy admin office. She is frequently the first point of contact with our clients on the telephone; her compassionate and caring manner make her an invaluable asset to our team.

Lois Thorpe
Lois suffered from M.E. for eight years. At her first appointment with Alex he asked her to build the clinic's specialist website,www.FreedomFromME.co.uk. As her health improved she has worked on a number of other projects for the clinic and is now also fulfilling her dream of studying music at university. Lois is a freelance webdesigner, and if you would like to use her for one of your projects we can't recommend her highly enough.