Midlife vitality for High-Achieving Women: Functional Medicine, Emotions Coaching and Sustainable Change

In this episode of Confidence to Thrive, Owlicity director Christopher Cloke Browne speaks with Sonia Jenkins, author, former NHS nurse practitioner of 45 years, and midlife wellness expert, about helping high-achieving women over 50 restore energy, sleep, and emotional resilience through The Sonia Jenkins Method.

Sonia shares how her own experience of developing type 1 diabetes in her 40s led her to retrain in functional medicine and essential emotions coaching, combining them alongside medicine to support sustainable, personalised change.

They discuss reframing midlife as a powerful turning point, the importance of lifestyle, nervous system regulation and emotional wellbeing, and the challenge of “noise” from conflicting health advice.

Sonia emphasises moving from information to integration, listening beyond a 10-minute snapshot, and helping women reconnect with body signals rather than relying on willpower or quick fixes.

Episode time stamps

• 00:53 Meet Sonia Jenkins
• 05:44 Explaining Sonia's midlife mission
• 08:52 The importance of listening and intuition
• 12:07 Cutting through noise
• 17:50 From information to integration
• 20:08 The biggest opportunity is already here

Follow Sonia Jenkins on the links below

Website - soniajenkins.co.uk

Book - The Invisible Midlife Woman https://www.soniajenkins.co.uk/the-book

The Sonia Jenkins Method - https://www.soniajenkinsmethod.com

Who are Owlicity?

This podcast was brought to you by Owlicity Insurance Advisors who support your business ambitions. Owlicity advises practitioners, owners, and entrepreneurs of healthcare practises on mitigating risks so your business can thrive.

Learn more about how Owlicity can support here: Owlicity.co.uk

Call us on 0203 988 8090

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Functional medicine and GMC registration: legal and regulatory risks for doctors

In this episode of Confidence to Thrive, Owlicity director Christopher Cloke Browne speaks with Andrea James, a Keystone Law partner specialising in professional discipline and healthcare regulatory law, about whether functional medicine practitioners should keep GMC registration.

Andrea explains that “medical practice” is not defined in the Medical Act and the GMC will not give role-specific advice, but warns that giving up registration can be high risk for doctors who still rely on their medical background in clinic work or marketing.

She highlights reserved activities (such as prescribing, Mental Health Act assessments and signing death certificates) and the broad criminal offence of implying you are registered when you are not, meaning the GMC could pursue criminal prosecution rather than fitness to practise proceedings.

They discuss that most complaints they see originate from other doctors and are often defensible when patients are given clear, upfront information, and Andrea flags separate, more prescriptive CQC registration risks under regulated activities.

Episode time stamps:

00:53 Meet Andrea James

02:28 Do you need GMC registration

04:34 Criminal risk explained

07:44 Why complaints happen

09:35 Defending functional medicine

12:34 Working with mainstream care

14:51 What counts as medicine?

17:22 CQC registration basics

19:37 Practical legal advice

Connect with Andrea James and Keystone Law

https://keystonelaw.com/lawyers/andrea-james

https://keystonelaw.com/

Who are Owlicity?

This podcast was brought to you by Owlicity Insurance Advisors who support your business ambitions. Owlicity advises practitioners, owners, and entrepreneurs of healthcare practises on mitigating risks so your business can thrive.

Learn more about how Owlicity can support here: Owlicity.co.uk

Call us on 0203 988 8090

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Nutrition, Neurodegeneration and Functional Medicine: Raising Standards and Building Multidisciplinary Care

In this episode of Confidence to Thrive, Owlicity director Christopher Cloke Browne speaks with Dr Kirstie Lawton PhD, CNHC-registered nutritional therapy practitioner and founder and director of You Nutrition, a clinic, research hub and educational platform specialising in neurological and neurodegenerative conditions including motor neuron disease/ALS, Parkinson’s, dementia/Alzheimer’s, brain injury, neuroimmune conditions, and complex paediatric cases.

Dr Lawton shares her path from public health nutrition and international work to functional nutrition and argues for evidence-based functional approaches alongside conventional medicine.

They discuss challenging “nothing can be done” narratives, improving quality of life, concerns about ultra-processed PEG feeds, and the need for multidisciplinary teams, higher practitioner standards, new training courses, and research using clinic data.

Episode time stamps:

• 01:03 Introducing Dr Kirstie Lawton
• 01:27 You Nutrition Clinic and team overview
• 02:21 Early influences and career path
• 05:26 The switch to focus on neurodegeneration
• 06:43 Doctors and functional medicine
• 12:33 Mission and education Plans
• 16:22 Nutrition basics and mitochondria
• 17:58 Challenging the use of ultra processed food
• 20:28 Regulation and professional divide
• 24:37 Advocating a multidisciplinary care model
• 31:39 Opportunities for research

Follow Dr Lawton's work via the links below:

Insta:

@younutritionkids

@nutritionandthebrain

@drkirstielawton

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-kirstie-lawton-phd/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/drkirstielawtonphd

Blog: www.nutritionandthebrain.com/blog

Clinic website: www.younutritionclinic.com

Educational platform: www.nutritionandthebrain.com

Who are Owlicity?

This podcast was brought to you by Owlicity Insurance Advisors who support your business ambitions. Owlicity advises practitioners, owners, and entrepreneurs of healthcare practises on mitigating risks so your business can thrive.

Learn more about how Owlicity can support here: Owlicity.co.uk

Call us on 0203 988 8090

Follow us on social media

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YouTube

This episode is recorded on the exhibition floor at the Integrative Personalised Medicine Congress 2026 at the QEII Centre in London,

With more than 3,000 registered attendee - and many more walk ins - IPM26 is a third bigger than last year.

Walking on the floor, both Roger and Christopher highlight how there is a stronger buzz to proceedings and broader mix of exhibitors, from supplements and fungi to diagnostics, lab testing, compounding labs and prescription-focused stands.

One significant change is a higher GP attendance than ever before, suggesting functional medicine is gaining a foothold in mainstream practice.

They also highlight the expanded programme of talks and workshops, including a session by the Chief Medical Officer, a significant event for the sector.

Also noted by Christopher and Roger is the bigger international speaker presence, especially from the US.

Discussion also covers the scientific depth of nutritionist training, multidisciplinary clinic teams, prominent lifestyle oncology content, increased networking, and examples shared of reported Alzheimer’s reversals.

Who are Owlicity?

This podcast was brought to you by Owlicity Insurance Advisors who support your business ambitions. Owlicity advises practitioners, owners, and entrepreneurs of healthcare practises on mitigating risks so your business can thrive.

Learn more about how Owlicity can support here: Owlicity.co.uk

Call us on 0203 988 8090

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When Insurance Fails: A Real-World GMC Case and the Risks of Working Outside Your Competence

In this episode of Confidence to Thrive, Owlicity directors Christopher Cloke Browne and Roger Houston discuss a real case showing how quickly things unravel when medical insurance and scope of practice are misaligned.

This case involved an individuals who was asked to administer a treatment remotely supervised via video by another doctor, despite stating she was not competent.

Something went wrong and the patient complained to the clinic, resulting in the clinic reporting the incidence to the CQC, who then referred the doctor to the GMC via a third-party complaint.

The insurers repudiated cover for both negligence and GMC disciplinary costs because the procedure was outside her declared sphere, leaving the individual to face potentially being struck off and personally covering legal costs and a potential negligence claim.

In the episode, Christopher and Roger discuss how this could have been avoided and what medical practitioners need to do to ensure they are covered.

Episode timestamps:

• 00:45 Overview of the case
• 01:54 The treatment
• 03:12 The patient complaint
• 05:55 Insurance repudiation
• 08:36 Lack of phone support
• 10:51 Clinic liability questions
• 12:48 CQC reporting explained
• 15:10 How this could have been avoided
• 17:08 Other insurance piitfalls
• 23:45 Being proactive around insurance

Who are Owlicity?

This podcast was brought to you by Owlicity Insurance Advisors who support your business ambitions. Owlicity advises practitioners, owners, and entrepreneurs of healthcare practises on mitigating risks so your business can thrive.

Learn more about how Owlicity can support here: Owlicity.co.uk

Call us on 0203 988 8090

Follow us on social media

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AI in Private Healthcare: Opportunities, Liability, Insurance and Data Protection Risks

In this episode of Confidence to Thrive, Owlicity director Christopher Cloke-Browne discusses how AI is reshaping private healthcare and the risks practitioners may overlook.

Christopher outlines growth opportunities including AI-driven note-taking, diagnostic support, and treatment planning (including patient-specific cancer applications), framing AI primarily as a productivity tool.

He explains that in clinical professional services, liability cannot be delegated: the treating professional remains responsible for judgments and records, and AI cannot currently be treated like a defendant under negligence tests such as Bolam.

Christopher also highlights major data protection concerns under GDPR, including where consultation data is processed, stored, and which jurisdiction applies, illustrated by a case involving voice-stress software and server location.

Episode time stamps

• 00:45 AI opportunities in private healthcare practices
• 04:23 Using AI for note taking and diagnostics
• 05:34 Liability and insurability of AI
• 09:13 AI as a support tool
• 11:07 Data protection issues around AI
• 15:46 Real world AI risk stories
• 19:06 The reality of the insurance market's view on AI
• 21:08 AI in aesthetics businesses - good or bad?
• 24:05 Practical steps for healthcare practitioners and businesses

Who are Owlicity?

This podcast was brought to you by Owlicity Insurance Advisors who support your business ambitions. Owlicity advises practitioners, owners, and entrepreneurs of healthcare practises on mitigating risks so your business can thrive.

Learn more about how Owlicity can support here: Owlicity.co.uk

Call us on 0203 988 8090

Follow us on social media

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Mental Health Practice Regulation: ADHD Prescribing, Repeat Prescriptions and Reducing Claims Risk

In this episode of Confidence to Thrive, Owlicity director Christopher Cloke-Browne talks about navigating regulation and risk when building and growing a private mental health practice.

Christopher explains that the private sector, including functional medicine, has led mental health provision while the NHS has been under capacity, creating fewer consistent standards to draw on in a deeply individualistic and higher-risk area.

He also notes the rapid rise in ADHD diagnoses and medication, the shift toward online diagnosis, and the tightrope of selecting and monitoring medication given side effects and repeat-prescription risks.

Christopher warns of ethical and regulatory exposure where financial incentives drive prescribing, highlights the likelihood of future claims or class actions around misdiagnosis/overmedication, and stresses rigorous documentation, clear criteria, regular review, and swift complaints handling, alongside considering non-medication options such as lifestyle and social prescribing.

Episode time stamps

• 00:41 The growth of mental health services in the private sector
• 02:23 The gaps in regulation standards
• 03:55 The ADHD prescribing debate
• 05:39 Ethics and financial incentives
• 07:32 The question of repeat prescription reviews
• 09:29 The risk of class action - and defence
• 15:38 Neurodiversity and Spotify
• 19:36 The importance of keeping up with policy
• 22:01 Key takeaways
  
  

Who are Owlicity?

This podcast was brought to you by Owlicity Insurance Advisors who support your business ambitions. Owlicity advises practitioners, owners, and entrepreneurs of healthcare practises on mitigating risks so your business can thrive.

Learn more about how Owlicity can support here: Owlicity.co.uk

Call us on 0203 988 8090

Follow us on social media

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Off-label prescribing in functional medicine: indemnity, informed consent and defensibility

In this episode of Confidence to Thrive, Owlicity directors Christopher Cloke-Browne and Roger Houston discuss off-label prescribing and how functional medicine practitioners can protect themselves.

They define off-label use as prescribing outside British National Formulary licensed indications or doses, and explain how standard indemnity policies often exclude such use, leaving practitioners uninsured and unprotected.

They discuss the significance of Owlicity’s functional medicine indemnity with explicit off-label cover, the growing underwriting focus on detailed disclosure and “statement of facts,” and the need for contract certainty.

Their discussion also covers the need to build defensible practice through evidence, enhanced monitoring, and transparent informed consent - particularly important with emerging, unregulated treatments like peptides - as well as the added regulatory risk from GMC scrutiny and third-party complaints from other clinicians.

Episode time stamps

• 00:45 What is off-label prescribing?
• 02:25 The pitfalls of generic insurance
• 06:19 Evidence and innovation
• 08:50 The reality of underwriting
• 10:15 Why peptides offer a unique challenge
• 12:55 The importance of informed consent and disclosure
• 15:24 GMC complaint risks
• 17:04 Thyroid case study
• 24:04 A practical checklist for practitioners

Who are Owlicity?

This podcast was brought to you by Owlicity Insurance Advisors who support your business ambitions. Owlicity advises practitioners, owners, and entrepreneurs of healthcare practises on mitigating risks so your business can thrive.

Learn more about how Owlicity can support here: Owlicity.co.uk

Call us on 0203 988 8090

Follow us on social media

LinkedIn

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YouTube