United Kingdom: Optimum Health Clinic (Alex Howard)

I stumbled upon Alex Howard's new video series on youtube yesterday. I found it really concerning.

For background: Alex Howard runs The Optimum Health clinic in London which claims to treat ME. I've don't their '90 day programme' (many years ago). They use various techniques such as the lightening process, EFT, meditation, hypnosis, positive thinking, NLP, positive psychology. And they also have nutritionists who give you very expensive advice and recommend very expensive supplements. The whole thing is very expensive. I think therapy sessions cost £90 for 40 mins over the phone.

Anyway, in these recent videos, Alex is filming 'therapy' sessions with pwME where he encourages them to give a lot of personal details. The sessions are then put on youtube for all to see. Obviously the individuals have given their consent but they've done so having been told that it will help them recover from their chronic illness. They've also presumably already invested a lot of money, time and hope in the Optimum Health Clinic and believe that it will help them.

The videos serve to advertise Alex and his business to others but I'm worried about what benefit the people in them will get long term. I think therapy can be really useful (obviously not to 'cure' ME but in general). However Alex is not qualified except for an undergraduate degree is psychology. He is an amateur psychologist/life-coach. Some of what he says is true and vaguely insightful but therapy is not about the therapist saying the right thing, it's about a relationship of trust and a dialogue that develops over time in a safe space. I fail to see how this is possible when the interaction is filmed for youtube especially as I also don't think that the youtube sessions are part of a long-term therapeutic relationship. The approach seems unethical to me.

I'm wondering if others agree with me about this and if so do you think there's anything we can do? Somewhere we can complain to? I wonder how the charities feel about it and if they can do anything?

[edited to remove link to videos as I don't want this discussion to focus on the treatment choices of any particular individuals but the approach in general.]

 

These will be from his "Reset" course which gas been running for around a year.
Seemingly you can opt out if sharing videos, ut it us an online zoom type format

 

I think any 'therapy' which involves opt-in-by-default publication to the world, of personal video footage of vulnerable patients is highly dubious. I detest that sort of exploitation.

 

Eeeek. That stinks. Unfortunately, quacks seems prolific in convincing desperate patients that they will get better, though their wallet will be lighter.

 

Can you link to the video you are referring to. The link takes you to his profile page.

I assume you are talking about the In Therapy series. He / the OHC produce so many videos it is almost impossible to keep up.

 

They have clearly given their consent to being filmed, so in that respect there is nothing we can (or should) do. I am also bothered by the negative impact filming a session could have (in the way it may influence the course of the conversation, even indirectly), and also by the fact Alex is not really qualified.

 

If vulnerable and desperate ME patients are involved then I think it's worth bringing it to the attention of both @Action for M.E. & the MEA (@Russell Fleming). The individuals involved may not have been overtly coerced, but may have felt obliged to agree. In the same way therapists' clients might feel under obligation to fill in a questionnaire more positively than they otherwise would to please someone they think is helping them.

Is Alex Howard a member of any professional organisation? If he is then we could perhaps raise a complaint about this conduct to the relevant body.

I don't know if it's something that might be covered by Trading Standards or Advertising Standards Authority. It might be worthwhile if someone has the wherewithal to check into it, but it would probably be best to go through ME charities first.

They could, & possibly should, consider putting warnings in their magazines and on their websites to help protect those vulnerable from being exploited & make it clear that no therapist or clinic should ask them to waive their right to privacy.

 

For therapy to work it has to be more than 40 mins

I do believe cfs is caused by an overactive hypothalamus gland but i accept I’m in the minority here

However, the therapies are awful, I’m talking more mickel therapy and reverse therapy and lightning process, they seem to believe emotional issues and disregulation can be resolved by reading a flash card a few times and it is disgusting that they’re getting away with that, I feel so angry towards these scumbags

 

I don't have the energy to check, but he should be a member of the BACP or UKCP, he wont be able to get UKCP membership I don't think because that requires a much higher level of qualification, but the BACP have ethical guidelines which members must follow. Frankly if he isn't a member of one of these professional bodies then people should be warned not to have "therapy" with him under any circumstances.

 

It doesn’t look like he even has any credentials in counselling so wouldn’t be on BACP

https://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com/management-team/

 

& from his LinkedIn page as well, there is no mention of any counselling qualifications or professional training. He has a BSc in Psychology and now styles himself as a “therapeutic coach”.

 

You just beat me to it @lunarainbows!

Their Director of Research Dr Megan Arroll is a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol)

From bps.org.uk

I just don't have the capacity to do anything much about it at the moment.

 

Maybe this is something for @Valerie Eliot Smith to consider. As she is a barrister interested in health law she will know the law as it applies here.

 

It would be cheaper for her to talk to a good friend

Same effect

 

Thank you for the tag, @Snowdrop. This clinic, the Optimum Health Clinic (OHC) in north London, comes up for discussion every so often. Like many others, it provides a range of expensive complementary therapies which some patients genuinely seem to find helpful (although personally I would not recommend it).

From a legal perspective, if the OHC has proper consent from the interviewees to show these videos, then there's no problem. If any of the interviewees do have an issue then it's for them to complain to the clinic. There is a huge amount of sensitive personal information being shared here but, obviously, the interviewees are aware of that as they are the ones providing it. It worries me a great deal but, on the face of it, there's nothing unlawful about these videos.

From a professional and ethical point of view, Alex doesn't appear to have any formal qualifications as a psychotherapist. If he did, he would be regulated by his professional association's code and the fundamental principle of patient confidentiality would be at issue here.
However, there's nothing to stop anyone from setting themselves up in a therapist-type role by using a different title, as Alex has with the term "therapeutic coach". As long as he doesn't misrepresent his credentials (and he doesn't appear to) then he can practise in this way with impunity.

On the face of it, there doesn't seem to be any breach of the Advertising Standards Authority's code as this doesn't look as though it's being used for overt advertising - although it's great PR, of course.

I don't like this model of clinical practice at all but the OHC has been going since 2004 and appears to be very successful. It may be that they do provide a good service for patients who have the physical and financial resources to make use of it.

[Edited to add:] If the OHC is making unsubstantiated claims about their treatment or cure for "ME/CFS" then that's another matter. However, I can't see that they are doing that, unless anyone else has noticed anything different.

Note: As well as being a lawyer, I completed about half the training to become a BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) therapist before I became too ill with ME to continue.
I have also done twelve years of my own therapy and assisted in facilitating group therapy under the supervision of a group facilitator https://valerieeliotsmith.com/about/

 

Youtube is awash with "experts" in various alternative fields demonstrating their powers and posting sessions with their clients. About 6 years ago when I first became ill I watched an EFT practitioner conducting a session with a client on youtube. I was invited to tap myself on the head and give myself permission to love myself. I must say it left me feeling a lot better, because I hadn't laughed so hard for months.

I expect many of the clients believe in it, consider that they are exercising their choice, that they have the right to spend their time on money on whatever they believe in, and would resent / feel patronised by being defined as vulnerable. Perhaps many members here have tried such things in the past and wouldn't have liked being told they were being conned and in need of protection at the time. I've certainly sat in self-help groups listening to ME sufferers who were up for this kind of thing, and learnt the futility of even joining in the conversation.

So basically I don't see what can be done about it. It's everywhere, and the clients can be just as entrenched as the practitioners. Some clients become future practitioners.

Makes me sick, but I don't know what can be done if no-one's breaking any rules and both parties are willing participants.

 

Let’s say for arguments sake cfs is caused by emotions

Since when has reading out a flash card been the way to deal with emotions?

I remember doing mickel therapy and it did bring emotions up, by the start of the therapy I was at university one day a week and working four days a week but by the end of the week I was sat on the floor punching myself in the head with only a flash card for help, where do you turn after that?