The Optimum Health Clinic (OHC) was established in 2004 by Alex Howard with a simple mission – to become the clinic he wished had existed in the 7 years he was severely chronically ill.
We believe the key to achieving optimum health is an integrative, personalised and evidence-based approach.
Across the last 20 years we have worked with over 10,000 people in more than 50 countries and won a number of industry awards along the way. We have specialised in complex fatigue related illness since our inception, and have developed highly regarded frameworks and protocols for working across a broad range of health concerns such as anxiety, sleep issues, chronic pain, trauma, digestive issues and nervous system dysregulation.
Integrative means we are not tied to any one approach, but instead we bring together the different jigsaw pieces that make optimum health possible. Using Therapeutic Coaching™ and Therapeutic Nutrition, we work with you on both your physical body and your mental and emotional bodies.
Personalised means we recognise that everyone is different, and that although we strive to have the most cutting edge protocols and frameworks available, we recognise that the effective applications of these needs to be different for everyone.
Evidence-based means that our protocols are informed by the very latest research, and that we are committed to adding to this research through our clinical studies. Our studies have been published in academic journals such as British Medical Journal Open, Psychology and Health, Medical Hypotheses, and Journal of Integral Theory and Practice.
.jpg)
Alex Howard is Founder & Chairman of The Optimum Health Clinic, which he set up after his own 7 year struggle with ME...
.jpg)
Kirsty worked within the executive recruitment industry for 10 years, operating at senior management level...
.jpg)
Jess completed a psychology degree in 1995 followed by a PGCE in primary education and, after a 10 year career in teaching...
.jpg)
Bebe entered into nutrition quite unexpectedly when she went to an open day at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, just to...
In 1996, soon after his 16th birthday, Alex Howard was diagnosed with ME/CFS. He spent 2 years almost housebound and desperately waiting for mainstream medicine to provide answers. After reaching rock bottom age 18, Alex made the commitment that he would commit everything he had to find a way back to health. Over the next 5 years, Alex discovered there is no one answer to optimum health, but different answers for different people at different stages of the healing journey. Alex’s healing journey is told in his first book, WHY ME? My Journey from ME to Health and Happiness.
In 2003, having made a full recovery and qualified as a psychology practitioner, Alex set up The Optimum Health Clinic in London’s Harley Street. His vision for the OHC was for it to be the clinic he’d wished had existed on his own healing journey, with a commitment to a personalised, evidence-based and integrative path to healing. The OHC grew rapidly, driven by continual clinical innovation and a true commitment to helping those who had so often been failed by other approaches. At the heart of Alex’s vision for the OHC was the principle that a combined nutritional, psychological and medical approach was critical to achieving optimum health.
By 2005, the OHC was wanting to find more suitably experienced psychology practitioners to join its fast growing team, and so the Therapeutic Coaching™ practitioner training was launched as a clinically based integrative psychology training program. The following year, the OHC was recognised by leading industry publication CAM Magazine, winning its highly coveted “Outstanding Practice Award” for its commitment to clinical excellence.
By 2011, with well established (but always evolving) protocols, the OHC turned its attention to research. A landmark study was published in the British Medical Journal Open which demonstrated statistically significant improvement in all OHC treatment groups at 3 months. Further papers were published in Psychology and Health, Medical Hypotheses, Psychology Research and Behavior Management, Nutrition Practitioner, and Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. To this day, the OHC continues to have a strong commitment to developing evidence-based protocols and publishing its own work.
In more recent years, Alex launched leading online conference platform Conscious Life. Over 1 million people have attended its conferences on subjects such as trauma, anxiety, fatigue, sleep and relationships. Alongside this, Alex’s online coaching program, the RESET Program, has become one of the world’s leading programs on how to reset your nervous system. Alex’s latest books Decode Your Fatigue and It’s Not Your Fault (which explores the impacts of childhood trauma), continue to add to the OHC protocols.
The OHC has worked with over 10,000 clients in 50+ countries over the last 20 years. It is widely considered one of the world's leading integrative medicine clinics, with particular specialisms in fatigue, trauma, anxiety, sleep and nervous system regulation.
Many of the clinic’s practitioners have experienced their own healing journeys with the clinic, and have gone onto train to help others. The OHC is privately owned by the Alex Howard Group which has nearly 100 staff in offices across 3 continents and still feels like one big family.
