Alex Howard is CEO of the Alex Howard Group, an international group of organisations which includes leading clinic The Optimum Health Clinic, online learning platform Conscious Life, online coaching program the RESET Program™, and professional training programs Therapeutic Coaching and Therapeutic Nutrition.
Alex is passionate about making physical and emotional healing accessible to everyone, and in the last few years, his Super Conference series has been attended by over 1 million people. Since March 2020, Alex has also been documenting his therapeutic work with real-life patients via his In Therapy with Alex Howard YouTube series.
Alex has published academic research in publications such as the British Medical Journal Open and Psychology and Health, and is the author of Why ME? and Decode Your Fatigue. Alex’s third book, It’s Not Your Fault: Why childhood trauma shapes you and how to break free, is now available.
At the age of 18, I hit rock bottom. I wasn’t actively planning how to end my life, but I’d lost all hope of how to continue living it. Having spent several years suffering from severe ME/CFS, a complex chronic illness with no mainstream treatment and no prospect of recovery, I was beyond desperate.
At the point of my deepest hopelessness, I made the commitment that if I found a way out, I would dedicate my life to helping others to do the same. I spent the next 5 years on an intense and transformational journey back to optimum health, and my work ever since has been my attempt to make good on that commitment.
25 years later, and along the way I seem to have found a way to connect my love of psychology and therapeutic work, with building organisations which make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. For many years I considered myself a therapist by day and an entrepreneur by night. These days I’m not sure what my job title is, but what drives me is helping others to experience the same transformation and healing which saved my life.
I’m the ridiculously proud father of 3 daughters (currently ages 6-12), and so I’m a combination of taxi driver, chef (my home-made chips are particularly popular), and homework supervisor (help?). My wife Tania is a counsellor specialising in adolescents, and I consider myself her greatest challenge. We spend our weekdays in London, and weekends and holidays at our farmhouse in Hampshire.
My happy place in the country is walking our two dogs Nala (a Cockapoo) and Sizzle (a miniature Dachshund) in the woods, when on a good day I might also be joined by one of our daughters not complaining about being dragged along. For my fortieth birthday during lockdown, I treated myself to a hot tub. It was the best investment I ever made, and I’m slightly embarrassed to consider how many hours I’ve spent in it!
My happy place in London is watching live music. My music taste is a little confusing. On the heavier side I love Funeral For a Friend, Linkin Park, Tool, Holding Absence, Bring Me The Horizon, Pendulum and Metallica, and on the softer side Ben Howard (no relation!), Ed Sheeran, Mumford and Sons and Foy Vance, to name just a few. I also have a not so secret love of musicals… Les Miserables and Phantom of The Opera floor me every time.
In terms of my personal practice, I meditate unreliably most mornings, eat a very boring diet (years of experimental treatments in my teens kind of messed up my microbiome), have started lifting weights (we have a gym below our office!), and I consider everything an opportunity to grow and learn more about myself and the world. If at my funeral my wife says I was a good husband, and my children say I didn’t screw them up too much as a father, I’ll be happy.
Come along on the journey as real people work with issues such as trauma, anxiety and grief. It’s a taste of being in therapy yourself, but from the comfort of your own home.
I’m very proud to work with some amazing people across the Alex Howard Group companies
