Team
 Founder
and Clinical Director - Alex Howard BSc(Hons)
Alex Howard is Founder and Managing 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.
Since his recovery Alex has worked tirelessly and with great dedication
to help those affected by M.E., and is the author of “WHY ME? My Journey
from M.E. to Health and Happiness,” has released over 100 audio CDs including
the clinic's highly successful www.SecretsToRecovery.com,
and in addition to thousands of hours of clinical work, has given hundreds
of talks all over the UK.
In addition to his role as Managing Director of the clinic,
Alex is also heavily involved in The Optimum Health Clinic Foundation, researching
and writing several new books, is a presenter for www.Conscious.tv,
and still heavily dedicated to his own journey of personal development.
Alex also still does a very limited number of client sessions, teaches on the
clinic's professional training courses, and runs the clinic's Conscious Transformation
seminars (www.ConsciousTransformation.co.uk).
 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.
 Linda
Hall Dip.Clin.Hyp.NLP.Coach.EFT
Linda’s original background was as an artist, before moving
into the complementary health-care field in 1993, working in holistic
massage. Linda undertook further training in healing and counselling,
and went on to become a sought after meditation teacher. Having suffered
from M.E. herself for eight and half years, and originally coming to
the clinic as a patient, Linda draws on her own experience and immense
knowledge in the fields of health and psychology. Linda runs meditation
groups by conference call for the clinic (information at www.MeditationForLife.co.uk)
and also works with patients one-on-one by telephone. Clinical Nutritionists
 Tanya
Page BSc(Hons) dip ION, mBANT
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.
Click
here to view Tanya's recent video blog.
 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.
Click
here to view Sanna's recent video blog.
 Amy
Pamment BA(Hons) dipCNM MBANT
Amy spent the first 10 years of her career in the challenging
world of broadcast media working for BBC and ITN News. Over time the
high pressure environment of daily news caused a decline in her health
which eventually led to M.E. As her own health deteriorated, she
began to look for answers in nutritional therapy and decided to forge
a new career helping others to overcome chronic illness. After completing
her training as a Nutritional Therapist and regaining her own health,
Amy worked with one of the UK’s most high profile nutritionists
Dr Marilyn Glenville, who specialises in women’s health and fertility,
before joining the team at The Optimum Health Clinic. Amy brings
a wealth of knowledge from her own personal experiences with M.E., and
is hugely popular for her compassionate and empathic approach.
Click
here to view Amy's recent video blog.
 Lesley
McLauchlan DipBCNH MBANT
Lesley chose to study food and nutrition having suffered from ME as
a teenager. She witnessed the amazing effect that changing her
diet could make, and went on to fully recover and spend the first part
of her career in the food industry. Subsequent years have been
spent furthering her education in nutrition and keeping up to date with
the latest research, as well as running her own successful practice
treating ME as well as other health conditions. She
joins the clinic team with a wealth of experience, and is well-known
for her calm and positive approach.
Support Staff
 Caroline
Spencer BA (Hons)
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 in 2007, 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 in her subsequent role of New Patient Co-ordinator.
Her compassionate and caring manner make her an invaluable asset to the team.
 Bebe
Kohlap
Bebe entered into nutrition quite unexpectedly when she went
to an open day at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, just to find
out what they did and, to her surprise, left enrolled on a 3 year diploma
course. Following the course she became a tutor and also ran a branch
of the Optimum Nutrition Company, which sold various companies' supplements
to students and patients of nutritionists. She then went on to work
for one of the UK’s leading health writers, managing his events
and website. She joins the clinic team as Clinic Manager co-ordinating
and managing all appointments on the nutrition side.
 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.
 Steve Wright
Steve is currently recovering from ME and doing the clinic's
practitioners' course. Steve has a background in traditional Biology having
specialised in modules of Immunology and Neuropharmacology at University. Apart
from health and psychology his other passion is music and music-technology.
He has been a DJ and producer for over 10 years with 2 record releases under
his name, previously running his own club nights. His main role for the clinic
is audio and video editing for the clinic's various media projects, including
Secrets to Recovery and authoring the clinic's DVD in conjunction with Conscious
TV.
 Charlie
Kane
Charlie originally became involved at the Optimum Health Clinic working
as a freelance photographer and is responsible for some of the staff
photographs. Having decided that photography was not her calling, she
followed in her mum's footsteps
(Caroline, our New Patient Co-ordinator) and officially joined the clinic
as part of the busy administration team. Additionally, she studies arts
psychotherapy part time at The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education
which she is extremely passionate about. She also had an exhilarating
time participating in the clinic’s firewalk fundraiser back in
2009 and is very much looking forward to being further involved in future
charity events.
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