Optimum Health Centre - There's a new kid on the block and the excitement is real!
Think a range of health services offered under one roof, a diverse team of passionate health professionals willing to go the extra mile, an unconventional approach spending an hour plus as the patient thus cancelling out the rushed consultation room anxiety, online calls for those in other parts of the world and most importantly - identifying the root causes of your chronic health condition/s followed by the resetting of the nervous system and reversing of chronic inflammation, to be able to tap into your body's self healing capacity... With the ultimate goal of living a happy, pain free life and enjoying optimum health - all whilst being offered guidance and support by the health professionals all supporting your necessary lifestyle changes and possible interventions... A wealthy future awaits!
Optimum Health Centre is located in Howick, KZN Midlands, South Africa. The centre is currently offering an exciting 15 minute FREE Mini Consultation, discussing all your health goals and how you may benefit from the services provided.
For your convenience this session can take place online, over the phone if you live far from Howick, or face-to-face at the Howick rooms.
About Alistair Mork Chadwick
Alistair Mork Chadwick, the founder of the Optimum Health Centre, has a Masters degree in both phycology and education.
He has a strong believe that a team of health professionals collaborating, versus one doctor only, has the ability to dig deep into the individual's health concerns and work together to draw up a personalised treatment plan for each person... An incredible journey to health.
Alistair has a real passion for helping people, which is quite obvious in how he deals with each individual's situations. He is incredibly insightful and happy to share his knowledge with anyone wanting to learn more about themselves.
Alistair completed a Masters in Counselling Psychology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) at the end of 2007, just one month after his first child was born. He completed a Masters in Adult Education at the same university a few years prior to this. And before this, he completed a Masters in Environmental Science at the University of Lund in Sweden. Alistair is a scientist at heart, and he specializes in providing scientifically supported psychological / neurological interventions.
Alistair has explored a large range of psychotherapeutic approaches as well as meditation, spirituality, and mindfulness, while simultaneously exploring the connection between emotional resilience, neurobiology, and physical well-being. He has been practicing as a psychologist since 2008 and continues his education to provide cutting edge expertise, tools, and services for emotional and physical healing.
Alistair lives in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, with his two sons and their three-legged cat. He enjoys hiking, traveling, and cooking and eating delicious food.
Liza says, "I'll go back to Optimum Health Centre for the expertise and passion of the health professionals, which is clearly felt as you enter the calm space. The time invested in empowering me as an individual, makes me feel excited to walk my health journey with a dedicated multi-disiplinary team, in a cost effective manner, who wants to witness the improvement in my overall health by offering guidance and support on my journey."
Author credit: Liza Williams - Freelance Wellness Blogger (Pictured here RHS) Liza Williams signature
Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Liza has a deeply rooted love for all things wellness and her career as a Somatologist has taken her to various parts of the world.
She enjoys connecting with people and her hobbies include travel and tourism, photography, music, and aesthetics.
Liza lives with her family in Nottingham Road, Midlands, South Africa.
Alistair Mork Chadwick writes:
‘How your nervous system influences the development of ongoing health issues’
Research shows that poorly managed chronic stress is a key underlying factor in a huge number of ongoing health issues. Sadly, many of us experience some level of chronic stress but have not truly mastered its effective management. And, for most of us, this appears to be due largely to the poor health of one’s nervous system.
Strange as it might sound, the health of your (adult) nervous system is most often due to your relationship experiences during your first few years of life. Specifically, if you were raised by a caregiver, e.g. your mum, who was not able to provide you with consistent and effective calming or soothing when you experienced distress, then your nervous system will not have been able to develop in the healthiest manner. This is often the case when a caregiver is a first-time parent, or is experiencing post-partum depression, or is busy with income-generating activities, or is preoccupied with marital or other worries, or simply has an unhealthy nervous system him/herself.
I am not sure what sort of calming or soothing I received from my primary caregiver/s when I was an infant, but I know that I have struggled with an unhealthy, or what is termed a “chronically dysregulated”, nervous system for most of my life.
So, what are the signs of a chronically dysregulated nervous system? Well, a common sign is that one very easily enters the stress response – the fight or flight response - often without being aware of it. This means that when one feels anxious or worried (i.e. the “flight”-related emotions) or frustrated or angry (i.e. the “fight”-related emotions) the accompanying physiological changes, such as muscle contraction and shallow chest breathing, will often happen outside of one’s conscious awareness.
And, looking back at my early adult years, I can see how my chronically dysregulated nervous system kept me (blissfully) unaware of my daily stress and prevented me from managing my stress effectively such that I would experience the stress response for much of each day, without realizing it, until my system would become overwhelmed and then I would shut down emotionally (and enter the “freeze response”).
And when I was in either the stress response or the freeze response, I would answer the “how you are?” question from friends and family with a genuine “I am fine, thanks.” I was completely unaware that I was anything but ‘fine’. So, a key sign of a chronically dysregulated nervous system is often a general disconnection from both one’s emotions and from one’s physical or body sensations such that one has little ability to accurately identify what one is feeling, when difficult emotions, such as anxiety or anger, arise.
Unfortunately, most people with a chronically dysregulated nervous system never become aware of this fact, and so, on a daily basis, move from the stress response to the shut-down/freeze response, neither of which allow the body’s natural capacity to heal to be fully activated. This commonly results in one or more chronic health condition to gradually develop, such as mental health conditions including major depression and anxiety-related disorders as well as more obvious physical health problems such as auto-immune conditions, cancer, cardio-vascular disease, gut-related disorders (such as IBS), endocrine/hormone-related illnesses, etc, etc.
My almost 30-year battle with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a testament to the above disease process arising out of a chronically dysregulated nervous system. In learning how to heal my own nervous system and in supporting many others through a similar process, I have seen how important it is for an individual to begin engaging with simple daily practices that both develop one’s ‘somatic mindfulness’, i.e. one’s awareness of what is happening in one’s physical body, as well as strengthen one’s ability to bring regulation into one’s nervous system quickly and effectively. This ensures that one does not spend extended periods of time in either the stress response and/or the freeze response but, rather, ensures that one spends most of one’s waking hours in a state of healing and calm aliveness.
My healing journey is one of the reasons I established the Optimum Health Centre here in Howick earlier this year and brought together a multi-disciplinary team of health professionals that are as passionate as I am about assisting individuals to identify and resolve the root cause/s of their ongoing health issues… one of which is very often a chronically dysregulated nervous system.
The OHC TEAM
Alistair Chadwick - Psychologist
Dr Irwin Friedman - General Practitioner (Community Health specialist)
Helen Gatley - Occupational Therapist
Lisa Glaister – Health Coach
Kathryn Millar – Health Coach
Mandy Rawlins - Physiotherapist
Keri Strachan – Dietician
Dr Stephan Vosloo - General Practitioner (Functional Medicine specialist)
Optimum Health Centre can all be contacted via phone on: 079 472 5309 / 066 269 8229 or via email on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.