Voices in Health and Wellness

Authenticity As Competitive Advantage In Eye Care with Helena Stengel

• Dr Andrew Greenland • Season 1 • Episode 59

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Walk into a busy independent optician and you’ll feel it right away: the pace, the care, the quiet choreography that makes a complex clinic look effortless. Helena Stengel, a dispensing optician and director of a 90-year-old UK practice, takes us behind the counter to show how authentic communication and advanced technology can coexist without losing the human touch. We explore what it takes to keep patients seen and heard while running double clinics, mentoring trainees, and staying present for a team that depends on calm leadership.

We dig into the new shape of eye care on the high street: patients arrive curious about OCT scans, biometric lens measurements, and dry eye treatments; GPs and hospitals increasingly point people to opticians for triage; and chains and online providers compete on speed and price. Helena makes the case for a different value proposition—one built on specialist services, precise measurements, and time to listen. When online glasses don’t fit or a symptom needs quick assessment, that extra attention can be the difference between weeks of frustration and a clear path forward.

Helena also opens up about the emotional pressure beneath the smiles: how to filter constant demands, when to step back, and why nature, wild swimming, and simple walks anchor her week. COVID’s hard lessons linger as better hygiene habits and a stronger, busier clinic. Looking ahead, she’s expanding capacity by hiring another optometrist and supporting a final-year trainee toward qualification, aiming to cut waits without cutting corners. If you care about community health, craft, and the reality of leading with heart, this conversation offers practical ideas and rare honesty.

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👤 Guest Biography

Helena Stengel is a Dispensing Optician and Director at Anstee + Proctor Opticians, a longstanding independent eye care provider in the UK. With over a decade of experience running the practice, Helena blends deep clinical expertise with a refreshingly human, community-centered approach to leadership. Her ethos—grounded in authenticity, communication, and care—shines through both in-clinic and online. A mentor, educator, and advocate for thoughtful, bespoke service, Helena exemplifies what it means to lead with heart in today’s healthcare landscape.

About Dr Andrew Greenland

Dr Andrew Greenland is a UK-based medical doctor and founder of Greenland Medical, specialising in Integrative and Functional Medicine. Drawing on dual training in conventional and root-cause medicine, he helps individuals optimise their health, performance, and longevity — with a particular interest in cognitive resilience and healthy ageing.

Voices in Health and Wellness explores meaningful conversations at the intersection of medicine, lifestyle, and human potential — featuring clinicians, scientists, and thinkers shaping the future of healthcare.

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Dr Andrew Greenland:

Welcome to Voices in Health and Wellness, the show where we talk down with real practitioners on the front lines of care of people making a difference in their communities while tackling the realities of running a business, staying human, and trying to maintain balance. I'm Dr. Andrew Greenland and I'm your host for the show. And joining us today is Helena from Anstee and Proctor Opticians, a well-known and trusted name in the UK optical world. Helena is a clinician and practitioner who blends deep clinical experience with an approachable human-centered communication style, both in practice and online. Whether she's helping patients protect their vision or offering advice through a light-hearted social post, she has a way of making people feel seen literally and figuratively. Helena, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon.

Helena Stengel:

Thank you. That was very humble. Thank you for the induction. Nice to see you.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

And maybe you could share a little bit about your role and how it fits into the bigger picture, Ann Steam Proctor.

Helena Stengel:

Okay, um, well, I'm a dispensing optician and the director of Anstee and Proctor for the past nearly five years. I've been running the practice though for 10 years. I had my anniversary actually in October. Um, and as a dispensing optician, obviously every practice ought to have a dispensing optician. I basically look after the front of house, make sure patient care is given, make sure the clinics run smoothly. So uh that's pretty much my role. And then keep a smile on people's faces and make sure their eyes are looked after.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Definitely. So, what does a typical day look like for you if even such a thing exists? And it probably doesn't if you're in a managerial role and you're kind of wearing lots of hats. But give us some sense of what your day looks like.

Helena Stengel:

It's really difficult because every day is literally different because you you get so many different people uh coming through the door, so you really have to uh work with what you have in that moment. Um so if I'm on the shop floor on the day, it'll be the running off the daily clinic from uh making sure they're pre-screened, they're arranged properly, they're booked properly, or if there are any emergency eye care, so I triage them to see which which direction they're gonna go, whether it's to be referred to the hospital or whether they need an appointment. Um, obviously, also ensuring that the spectacles that they get are accurately measured, accurately fitted, accurately uh styled, um, make sure that side works as well, make sure the team um knows what to do, make sure they're all working hard, and they follow, follow that ethos that I'm trying to obviously keep up here. Um but every day is so different. And then the little bits like what we do now, the social media, the the chatting to the community, you just have to you squeeze that in wherever you wherever you can. But at the forefront is always the running of the clinic to make that run smoothly. And um the bookkeeping, the admin, you you juggle that in between wherever you can, whenever you can.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Tell us a little bit about Amsteam Proctor. Give us some sort of sense of what the setup is there, what what your sort of what what is your team and and how big is the operation?

Helena Stengel:

So Amsteen Proctor has been the uh an eye care provider for 90 years now. So we've got a huge patient database, we've got third and fourth generation of patients come. And it's changed names obviously over the over the years. Um, but the core value to provide eye care um with obviously advanced services like scans is is is sort of what you go with with the time, but it's still the core value of a traditional eye examination, traditional eye care is still still there. Um we have three test rooms, so we run, we try to run double clinics at least every every week. Um we've got two resident optoms and then two optometrists that are locums, and the shop floor team consists of about four or five of us, and then obviously we we work different shifts depending on what the rotor is, what they can do. Um I also I'm also a practice educational lead. So I'm a PEL to a dispensing optician who's in her final year now, and then a new um starter. She will helpfully start the course in the new year. Um, and then we've got another qualified dispensing optician um on the shop floor as well, and then a couple of receptionists.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Got it. You mentioned a little bit about your ethos. So you mentioned the word ethos earlier. What is your ethos for the for the business?

Helena Stengel:

I think to have to be authentic is definitely one to really try to get to the bottom of what the patients at the time maybe problems are to help understand or understand them, ensure that they're comforted, their visual needs are met, that we work together as a team, that we provide the best eye care that we can possibly do, ensure that we communicate that well, ensure they feel welcomed, ensure that they're so welcome that they come back again. Uh that's obviously the main aim for them to return and be comfortable with what we provide. But definitely authentic um style of communication and be honest with them and help them wherever you can. That's sort of I think my ethos. I like to share, implement through the team members. And it works well, they're all doing very well.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Authenticity is absolutely key in any branch of healthcare. But you've been in this space for a while. Have you noticed any changes in how people, members of the public, are approaching eye health and wellness recently?

Helena Stengel:

I think I worked in in both the independent sector as well as the multiple sector, and I do find that patients in the independence, independent sector, they the demand for um detailed care is definitely bigger. They do want that come because they know they're gonna get attention, they know they will receive um detailed eye care services. And I think over the years, how it's how it's changed is that the demand has grown. So I feel they they need even more attention than back 20 years ago when I was in in optics first. And I think that's definitely changed. They're also inquisitive, they want to know more about technology, they can see technology is changing. So it's you know, it's a good thing because they're perceptive to to it. They they want to know, oh, what is this scam? Oh, what is this to? Oh, do you have a new equipment? And they they're more knowledgeable, I think, about technology and technology changes. So that's definitely um a change, I find.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Interesting. And um thinking about the high street, so I don't know, you and you're an independent brand, is that right?

Helena Stengel:

Yeah, yeah.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

So obviously there are some um big chains and there's lots of stuff going on online in this space. What's your kind of take on that and how do you kind of um handle the competition for these services?

Helena Stengel:

I I think people choose what they're gonna what meets their demands. Patients who want a quick in and out, and they just want to you know quickly have a have a pick a spare pair of specs and just be okay if they don't communicate much to anybody. And that that's that's that's fine. I think those patients wouldn't necessarily come come to us. They usually come for the for the energy in the practice, for the products that we have that are just a little bit more bespoke, a bit more different. Um so I I think they're good at what they do, but it just meets a different different clientele, I think. That's maybe fair to say. And the online business. Obviously, I can't change it. I see a lot of patients that try to get glasses online and they just didn't work, and then they come back again and say, Elena, you won't like me, but I've I've tried to go online, but now I'm back again, and please help me, it didn't work. And it's it's it's out there. People experiment, they try, and whatever works. I don't want to dizz the chains, I don't want to diz the online market, there are people behind all of that as well that trying to make it work, but it doesn't always work. But that's where we come in, where we can spend a little bit more time with them, I suppose. Or we try to spend a bit more time and give them a little bit more um of a bespoke product and service.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Interesting. So, apart from giving them more time and attention, is there anything else that you've had to do to kind of kind of differentiate yourself from these other providers?

Helena Stengel:

I think to keep up to date with equipment is one huge thing to incorporate uh new services like specialist services, like um colour filter assessments for children, or um bespoke lenses where we scan um the eyes to sort of create a biometric um image to create more tailored lenses, um, scans, you know well enough about scans, OCT scans to provide the specialist services that are there, dry eye clinics doing uh Blafex treatments, there's just a whole number of lists I think that that that I could go on about, but I don't know if the listeners are gonna be interested in it. But it's basically making sure that the specialist services are provided because the multiples often don't touch those areas because they're not mega profitable, then then they're there as a service, but we we still we still need to be able to provide a service, and a lot of the high street opticians have the pressure from hospitals now. So service has to you have to provide specialist services because the hospitals and GPs that they don't see them for a lot of it to start with. They often say, Oh, have you seen your optician first? So to be able to provide emergency eye care and um triage services, I think is definitely a big thing here. So for us on the shop floor to be trained in those areas is important because we filter a lot before they just go to AE or something.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

I hope that answered the question. Yeah, yeah, no, thank you. And one of the reasons I wanted to chat to you is the podcast theme, why smart health practitioners struggle with work-life balance. And from the outside, your online presence is joyful and light, but I imagine it doesn't always feel that way behind the scenes. So, what are some of the pressures or expectations you're balancing day-to-day?

Helena Stengel:

God, I forgot that was the subject. No, I'm joking. Um, do you know what I think to people see the surface, and a lot of them only want to see the surface, they want to see me happy and engaging and making sure everything is good and happy. But you're quite right, behind the scene, there's a lot going on, and um this I think for me the hardest thing is um filtering if things haven't gone well, or if there is more of a um more care needed within a team, for example, or if there is that they really get to me. So if people are not happy around me, I take that home massively, and I shouldn't, I really shouldn't. But that's one thing I think that's difficult to juggle at times. The the constant tearing from all sides, they need something answered, they need something from you, even though you try to give as much as you can. But at times um you have to sort of sit back a little bit and step back maybe for a second and say, actually, let me try to see it from a different angle to maintain my own sanity. Because even though you want to try to find an answer quickly and help them quickly, it doesn't work like that. So this stepping back at times is is needed for sure. Um, because you do get bombarded with a lot of um um need for help and questions all the time. So that I think is the hardest thing to juggle for me.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Is there anything that you do to stay grounded grounded in the face of what you've just said?

Helena Stengel:

Uh yes, I try to literally ground myself wherever I can. I've got a really lovely network within my community now, which help a lot. Um, I've lived in London for 13 years, and you can probably hear I'm I'm not from the UK. I'm born in Germany, um, and I moved over here when I was 18, and it took a long time to sort of find um that support, a partner as well, who is very, very uh supportive. But I think the staying in touch with nature is probably one thing that I definitely would recommend, and that helps me a lot. I started even just to go for a gentle walk in the evenings or on the weekends, wherever I can, just go for a walk, get out there. I wild swim. I I love wild swimming. Um, that really helps me hugely, however, it's getting a bit too nippy, so um, that's not very great. Um, it's just getting a little bit too cold. And the swimming pools, as you may know, they're just very, very crowded and doesn't help me relax. Um and try to be active. At times I also find they come in phases. So I used to have a phase where I played badminton a lot, almost three, four times a week. And if if one might have enough for that of that at a at a time, maybe find a different balance or different activity and get back to that perhaps later. So that helps me as well, not to get deflated. Oh, I haven't gone to the gym or haven't gone to badminton, just find something else to help you around. And that sort of helps me a little bit to make sure um I stay active, stay on with fresh air, stay with be with nice people. That always helps, even if it's just uh going for coffee with a friend. So I think the communication with with good people and surround yourself with like-minded people that helps me a lot as well.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Thank you. And we're a few years past COVID. I was just curious to know how COVID affected the business and has it affected how you do things now. Are we still looking at the aftermath of COVID even now in 2025 in the line of work that you're in?

Helena Stengel:

COVID was really difficult. It was a it was a tough time. We had to furlough the team, we had to um put a lot of measures in in place to protect us and the public. I think we've from my perspective, I think we've come out stronger though. Um the practice is is getting busier, we've got um a lot of new patients, so COVID was tough, and you know, we deal with long COVID um now, but uh from my perspective, I think we're on a very good path here, and um I don't think there are many um things that have affected us negatively since COVID. People have become a little bit more um wary of um healthcare, I think. Um little little bits and bobs we obviously kept uh in place, like the sanitization, the cleaning of the of um using sanitizers, and you know, little routines had sort of stayed with us, or wearing masks on occasions, being more mindful of if you don't feel well, don't come in practice. You know, the team is is a little bit more aware of that as well to actually maybe um today I shouldn't go or this week because I have a cold coming, I can feel it, or patients as well. If they say, Oh, do you know what I'm not feeling very well, even if it's just a cold, I think they're a bit more aware of, you know what, I don't really even want to give anybody a cold either. You know, who knows if it may be COVID or not? But I think we've been a bit more mindful of that, and patients have been more mindful of that. But overall, I think I can definitely say that we've come out stronger.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Amazing. And if we we view COVID as a challenge, have there been any other challenges that you've had to overcome in your work in recent times?

Helena Stengel:

Every day brings a challenge. I think um the my biggest challenge is how to handle the challenges. So they're definitely things I need to improve, and I'm trying to improve how I take um the challenges. So, for example, like I said earlier, not to take them too hard because I can't change um if somebody feels a certain way. I can try to make them feel better, but I think how um I filter things um is my big my biggest challenge I'm trying to work on. And the rest will all fall into place. The practice is a big practice, and it's been the building is from the 1700s, so there is a lot of challenge that comes on a day-to-day basis just because of the size of this undertaking. Um, patients are lovely. I wouldn't do this if I don't don't love what I do. I really, I really wouldn't, and I think that's what keeps me doing it because I really I really enjoy it, and they're just part of you know the challenges that come or the they're just part of it. You just have to learn to deal with them, and I think yeah.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

And if you had a magic wand, then you could fix one thing in the business or your work life tomorrow. What would that be?

Helena Stengel:

That's funny. Um I think if I had a wand, I would fix all the spelling mistakes I make on my communication to patient. If there's a marketing letter that goes out, if there is an email or anything on social media every time I look back on it, even though people read over it and checked it for me, like, oh, there's another spelling mistakes, they're so embarrassing and they really drive me nuts a bit. So if patients are watching this, please forgive me uh for the spelling mistakes. But in addition, I yeah.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

I was gonna say that must be a fairly easy fix for that. I mean, with with where we are with technology and AI and spell checking, there must be an easy solution.

Helena Stengel:

You'd be surprised. Spellcheck doesn't help with the grammar.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

True.

Helena Stengel:

Or spell check doesn't I've written and give you an example. So obviously we have a wreath making every year, so we do community events as well, and we we get together or bring the community together and try to engage with them and um do something nice. And being German, I'm a big lover of Christmas. Um, I do a yearly wreath making. Um, but instead instead of saying minced pie, I said minced pie. So please come and have a minced pie. Belchek didn't pick up on it, unfortunately. So there you go. But then the other thing I would do with my magic wand is put genuine smiles onto people's faces. I think that's sometimes what I miss because I'm quite an optimist and I'm quite positive, and I can be overwhelming, and I do know that. But I think if everybody just sort of can have this little bit more of warmth and love and kindness and smile and in them, I think that would make our place a better place. And lots of other things, including war, health. There are obviously definitely things I would change with a wand, but I think the imminent things um are these little things that would just make my life a little bit easier.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Lovely. And if you were starting your journey again from scratch tomorrow, with knowing everything that you know now, is there anything you would do differently if you had your time again?

Helena Stengel:

God, Andrew. Um okay. This might go a bit deep now, but as a woman, and I I don't want to touch into this too much, but we try to prove ourselves so much into this work life and to put our own stamp on it and to make it in the world. And I had to obviously learn the language. I had to study it here, and I had to really fight hard for where I am now. It wasn't it wasn't an easy journey, it was really, really tough. But the one thing that I would maybe do differently, and it sounds um it sounds maybe silly to some people, but to just step back sooner and say, okay, where what do I actually need from a female perspective? For example, I haven't got children, I would maybe, because it's just a um a little bit late, I might be too late, but I would maybe have changed that. I would have maybe had children when I was younger, so that I'm not in that situation where I am now, where I'm like regretting that a little bit. So if there are other women that are trying to do business and trying to go into the business world and be entrepreneurs, that's fantastic. But don't miss that little time that you have as a woman to conceive naturally. So I think that's something that I would definitely have done differently.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Thank you for that very honest answer. And um, finally, if we were to say that um you had a hundred new clients that came through the door tomorrow, Anstean Proctor. Uh, what would break first, or would you be able to handle them all?

Helena Stengel:

Um I think I'd open the bottle of Posecco first. Keep them all happy. Um what would break first? Nothing. I because you know I'm in Britain, I'm in the UK, let's face it. People love queuing. I would create a queue outside the shop. That's it. Easy fix. No problem, we wouldn't break. They don't mind queue, queuing is is in your genetic.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

It's a British tradition, you're right.

Helena Stengel:

Oh, totally. So no problem. People you can come, feel welcome to.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

And looking ahead, um, what do you envisage things doing over the next six to twelve months? Do you have any particular plans for the business or your work?

Helena Stengel:

Um, as I said earlier, my my student, she's in her final year now. So to get help her and support her wherever I can is is means a lot to me so that she will qualify. That's definitely one thing is that's a huge focus in the next six months. And also, I'm trying to increase the team. So I'm trying to look for another option right now. Um, so that's definitely one thing also that I'm focusing on to uh increase availability, clinic availability for less less waiting times.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Yeah. Thank you so much. On that note, like to thank you for your um conversation. It's been very refreshing. Thank you for your honesty, your authenticity. I love how grounded your approach is. It's clear you care deeply about people, both in the practice and beyond. So thank you very much for your time. Uh appreciate it. Thank you.