In this episode Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel and Octavia Hamilton reflect on 2022 as they share their personal and professional challenges of the last year as well as their achievements, successes and favourite podcast episodes.

In this episode, Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel speaks to Dr Emma Weymouth who offers a wonderful combination of clinical psychology and nutritional therapy. We discuss the importance of considering the whole person picture in supporting mental wellbeing and how nutrition and lifestyle can offer synergistic benefits when combined with psychological approaches.

In this episode Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel speaks with Dr Dani Gordon about cannabinoids and their uses in a broad spectrum of conditions - from mental wellbeing and sleep support to pain management and women's health. We discuss some of the myths and misconceptions around cannabis use as a plant medicine, as well as responsible and personalised use of this tool within the overall integrative medicine toolkit.

In this episode Octavia Hamilton speaks with Emma Holly, a leading scar massage therapist, educator and researcher who takes us through the full holistic approach to scar care that is becoming common practice and encouraged as part of your recovery process.

In this episode, Octavia Hamilton talks to Dr Tasha Gandamihardja, a consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon. They discuss different options of surgery and reconstruction (if desired) during and after breast cancer treatment and how other breast cancer therapies can impact surgery choices.

In this episode we introduce you to the benefits of yoga and breathwork in cancer support. We start the episode with Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel talking to Vicky Fox, an experienced senior yoga teacher and teacher trainer. Vicky teaches yoga for cancer in person and online, and has recently published a book 'Yoga for Cancer: the A to Z of C'. Next Octavia Hamilton speaks to Sophie Trew, a member of our clinic referral network. Sophie is a cancer thriver, breathwork and mind body coach and a qualified EFT, NLP and Reiki practitioner. Sophie has worked with women in the integrative cancer space for a number of years.

In this episode we introduce you to one of our referral network partners, Kelly Thistlethwaite. Kelly is a yoga and breathwork practitioner specialising in supporting women with perinatal trauma (trauma around birth) and following pregnancy loss.

In this episode Octavia Hamilton and Dr Amy Shacaluga talk with Sandra Greenbank about the role of nutrition and lifestyle in fertility support. We hope this information will benefit many individuals who are seeking to start a family.

In this episode, Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel speaks with Dr Deanna Minich, a nutrition scientist and international lecturer, teacher and author. We cover a wonderful spectrum of topics from how eating the rainbow of colourful whole foods impacts your health and wellbeing to the power of creativity and finding flow in our lives.

In this episode Octavia Hamilton introduces you to Dr Jen Cooney PhD, an expert health physiologist and certified health coach. She has a long and varied career, working predominantly in research and academia with a focus on supporting health and wellbeing in people with chronic disease. Dr Jen has a personal and professional interest in women's health (including PCOS, primary ovarian insufficiency, perimenopause and menopause), focusing on this in her work as a health coach at Synthesis Clinic.

In this episode Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel talks with Dr Jenna Macciochi, a leading immunologist with a special interest in the interaction between lifestyle and our immune systems. We cover a broad range of topics, from building whole-person resilience and making small sustainable lifestyle changes to autoimmune disease. We discuss the important role of nutrition and gut health in maintaining a balanced immune response and how this may play into autoimmunity.

In this episode Octavia Hamilton and Dr Amy Shacaluga talk  with Maria Gresham, who is a fourth year medical student and a former Synthesis Clinic patient. Through her personal experiences, Maria has become passionate about integrative medicine, and in this episode we discuss how this has impacted her training and development as a doctor.

In this episode, Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel speaks with Dr Charlotte Marriott, a consultant, NHS psychiatrist and certified lifestyle medicine physician. Dr. Charlotte's mission is to inform and inspire people to optimise their own health and wellbeing with evidence-based lifestyle medicine and lifestyle psychiatry information.

In this episode of the Synthesis Clinic Podcast, Octavia Hamilton talks to Laura Coleman, the founder of Be.Modern Meditation about the benefits of mindfulness and meditation and how to incorporate these approaches into our lives.

In this episode, we will be introducing you to key members of our multidisciplinary integrative cancer care team at Synthesis Clinic, starting with Aga Kehinde, a health and wellbeing coach and qualified EFT practitioner. We will then meet our registered nutritional therapists, Linda Sims and Emma Marshall. You will hear about our weekly MDT (multidisciplinary team) meetings at the clinic, which provide an opportunity for all our specialists to cross-refer and discuss integrative management with input from our Director, Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel. 

In this episode of the Synthesis Clinic podcast, you will be hearing from one of our wonderful patients, Helen, who has had a truly transformational journey since finding Dr Nina and our team. During her time at the clinic Helen has worked with Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel for integrative medicine input, Octavia Hamilton for post-operative rehabilitation and building strength and Aga Kehinde for emotional wellbeing support.

In this episode Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel and Dr Penny Kechagioglou discuss integrative oncology, which seeks to rationally combine the best of conventional, nutritional, lifestyle and evidence-informed complementary medicine to improve the lives of people affected by cancer. Integrative oncology aims to support better quality of life, improve resilience, minimise the side effects of treatment and improve clinical outcomes.

In this episode, we will be introducing you to key members of our multidisciplinary women’s health team at Synthesis Clinic, starting with Octavia Hamilton, the clinic’s physiotherapist and the co-host of this podcast. We will then meet Dr Amy Shacaluga, consultant gynaecologist passionate about personalised approaches to women’s health, and wrap up with Anna Coles, our Level 4 personal trainer and GP referral exercise specialist (now a member of the Synthesis Clinic referral network).

In this episode, Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel interviews Dr Cheryl Cross, an experienced integrative clinical psychologist specialising in trauma recovery. We discuss the broad psychological and physiological impact of trauma and some important theories that can help us understand our nervous system and how we relate to others, including polyvagal theory and attachment theory. While there are many approaches to working with trauma, this episode focuses on finding appropriate psychological support, including therapies such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) and AF-EMDR. We conclude with some exciting new developments in trauma therapy and a message of hope for trauma recovery and post-traumatic growth.

In this podcast we discuss precision health and integrative medicine in our key specialist areas of women’s health and cancer care and hear some of the amazing patient stories and fascinating conversations with a wide range of healthcare professionals.

In this first episode of the Synthesis Clinic Podcast, Dr Nina and Octavia have an initial conversation about integrative medicine and precision health, how Synthesis Clinic started and our passion for women’s health and integrative oncology.