Over the past 20 years I had watched as first my grandmother and then her 6 sisters (ranging from 30 to 60 years old) were diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. As a family we tried to help them navigate the medical system from diagnosis to losing them one at a time, we experienced firsthand the disconnect between what patients need and what the healthcare system in their fragmented sectors provided.

I helplessly stood by, stunned by barbaric breast removals and endless hours spent in chemo and radio therapy, I watched each strong woman wilt into a broken soul – a wasted loss of hope and life. I knew that out there were amazing doctors who did care, who yearned to make a difference in their patients’ lives – but they were lost on sole paths, navigating through protocols and red tape. I became obsessed and I committed to transforming the healthcare system by bringing together professionals who not only practice excellent medicine/dentistry but who do so with care and compassion.

But as a Paediatric Specialist with Functional Medicine training, I’ve had the great privilege of working with and learning from so many wonderful health professionals over the last few years. There are so many people who went into medicine for the right reasons who are struggling against a broken healthcare system. This is our effort to join together and call for a new professionalism, to counter fear and rebuild trust. It is our hope that our patients will join us in building a better healthcare system that believes in excellence both in treatment and care, one that prioritizes patient values and respects human dignity.

About dr maria theologides:
After graduation from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1994, Dr Theologides gained experience in Johannesburg before relocating to Cape Town at the end of 1995. In 1996 she was offered a lecturing post at the University of Stellenbosch while specialising in Paediatrics, a 4 year degree, completed in 3 years. She has a Masters in Anaesthetics and Sedation in Children. She is the only practicing specialised Paediatric dentist in the Western Cape.  She joined Camps Bay Dental Studio, where she has been exclusively since 2001.

In 2011 she became a certified Heal Your Life Practitioner (Hays Institute, USA). She is also a certified Touch for Health Practitioner and incorporates Kinesiology in her practice for maximum life changes and health. This was followed by training in First Line Therapy; and Functional Medicine – which she runs as a separate practice but also integrates this approach into her interactions with her patients for a holistic methodology to healing and health. She has assisted many patients suffering from depression, anxieties, addictions, acute and chronic health conditions to attain physical, mental, emotional and spiritual balance both within their bodies and lives – freeing them to finally materialise their dreams.

She had an Inspiration column and then a Philosophy column in the Chronicle newspaper and then in the Bay Magazine from 2001-2015.

Having studied both within the dental and medical fields she recognised a big chasm between not only these two disciplines but also within the specialities of western medicine. Her dream has been to move away from the fragmented approach of modern western medicine and to return to a holistic approach where specialists who have mastered their fields are brought together to work as a team for the patient’s wellbeing. This was the basis for the establishment of h.u.m.a.n. – her goal: to change the face of Western medicine and dentistry and so to re-inspire an ethos of caring and hope.

Her belief is that if she undertakes everything in her life with the same attitude whether it be volunteer work, dentistry, functional medicine, kinesiology or her relationships, with an attitude of enthusiasm, an attitude of excellence, she would not only enrich her own life but  would touch the lives of others too. She did not need to perform some heroic act or do something out of the ordinary to make a difference; she just had to be who she was meant to be and do what she was trained to do with a deep seated caring for her fellow human being.

Qualifications:
Paediatric specialist:
BDS (Wits)
BScHon Paediatrics (Stellenbosch)
PDD Paediatrics (Stellenbosch)
MSc Paediatrics – Anaesthetics and Sedation – (Stellenbosch)

Functional Medicine
Integrated Nutrition
Heal your Life Practitioner,
Kinesiology: Touch for Health; ASONT; Principles of Recuperation; Emotional Kinesiology, Blue prints
Dorn and Breuss spinal alignment