My Journey to Help You Heal
Hello, I'm Dr. Hodis, and I want to share something personal with you right from the start.
Over my 35+ years as a physician, I've sat across from thousands of patients just like you—frustrated, exhausted, sometimes even hopeless after trying treatment after treatment that simply didn't work. That frustration?
I understand it deeply. And it's precisely why I'm offering my patients a different path—one that I believe can finally give you the answers you've been searching for.
Choosing a Deeper Way to Heal: Why I Went Integrative...
Let me be completely honest with you. When I graduated as a licensed family physician in 1989, I was trained in excellent Western medicine. I had all the tools, all the knowledge, all the medications at my disposal. But within just a few years of practice, something troubled me deeply.
I kept seeing the same pattern: patients would come to me with chronic conditions that wouldn't heal. I'd prescribe what I was trained to prescribe. Sometimes it helped temporarily. Often it didn't help at all. I realized something crucial...
Western medicine is brilliant at diagnosis and acute care, but it often falls short with chronic conditions because it focuses on suppressing symptoms rather than addressing root causes.
This realization haunted me. I couldn't accept that this was the best I could offer my patients. So in the mid-1990s, I made what seemed like a radical decision—I decided to study Traditional Chinese Medicine.
My Four-Year Journey Into Chinese Medicine
I want you to understand what this meant. At that time, it was quite unusual for a conventional Western physician to pursue this path. My colleagues thought I was a bit crazy! But I felt in my bones that there were answers in other medical traditions that could help my patients in ways Western medicine alone couldn't.
I committed to four intensive years of study with Dr. Yair Maimon—two years diving deep into classical Chinese medical theory, and two years focused specifically on nutrition and herbal medicine. I'll be honest with you...
It was shocking at first!
The language, the philosophy, the entire way of thinking about the body and disease — it was completely foreign to my Western medical training.
I had to essentially reset my mind and learn to see health and illness through an entirely different lens. But,
Here's what I discovered that changed everything:
Chinese medicine doesn't just ask "what disease do you have?" It asks "why is your body out of balance?" It looks at you as a whole person, not just a collection of symptoms.
Once I grasped this philosophical foundation, the practical applications became remarkably clear.
I could finally see patterns I'd missed before. I could understand why certain patients' skin conditions flared under specific circumstances. I could trace symptoms back to their deeper origins in the body's systems. And most importantly?
I started seeing results with my patients that I'd never achieved with Western medicine alone.
Going Deeper: Specializing in Children's Medicine
The success I was seeing drove me to go even further. I pursued an additional year of specialized training in Chinese pediatric medicine with the renowned Dr. Julian Scott. Why?
Because I was seeing so many children suffering with conditions, being prescribed harsh medications that concerned both them and their parents.
I wanted to offer something better—something safe, effective, and gentle enough for young, developing bodies.
This specialized knowledge became so important to me that just two or three years after completing my Chinese medicine studies, I co-founded Meditef, a company dedicated to developing herbal formulas specifically for children with various conditions, including skin problems.
This wasn't just a business venture for me—it was a mission. I wanted to create safe, effective alternatives so that parents wouldn't have to choose between watching their children suffer or giving them medications they were uncomfortable with. But I still wasn't satisfied,
Adding Western Herbal Medicine and Nutrition
I wanted to understand every possible natural approach to healing. So, I invested two more years studying Western nutrition and herbal medicine.
Why both Chinese and Western herbal traditions?
Because I discovered that each tradition has unique strengths and insights.
Chinese herbalism excels at addressing systemic imbalances and has thousands of years of documented clinical experience.
Western herbalism offers different plants, different preparation methods, and different therapeutic approaches that can be incredibly effective for specific conditions.
By mastering both,
I could offer you the best of both worlds—choosing from a much wider range of safe, effective natural remedies tailored specifically to your unique situation.
The Homeopathy Challenge: Learning to Really Listen
Then came perhaps my most challenging training: three years of homeopathy with Dr. Chaim Rosenthal.
I'll admit something to you—at first, homeopathic principles seemed almost bizarre to someone trained in research-based Western medicine.
The concepts were so different from everything I'd learned that I struggled to accept them.
But here's what that training gave me that transformed my practice:
I learned to conduct incredibly detailed patient interviews that go far beyond surface symptoms. You explore everything,
You become a medical detective, working together with the patient to uncover the deep underlying causes of imbalance.
This skill is absolutely crucial for treating stubborn skin conditions!
What appears on your skin isn't just a local problem—it's almost always a manifestation of deeper imbalances in your body.
Through my homeopathic training, I learned to peel back layers of symptoms, to see connections others might miss, to understand the whole picture of why your body is expressing distress through your skin.
This detective work takes time and patience. But it leads to lasting results instead of temporary symptom suppression. And,
There's another dimension to skin health that I wanted to address,
Aesthetic Medicine - Understanding That Beauty Affects Health
The aesthetic and emotional impact.
I completed two years of aesthetic medicine training at the university level with a team of specialist physicians.
Some people might wonder why a physician focused on healing would study aesthetic medicine. Let me explain my thinking.
As a family physician, I've seen firsthand how skin problems—whether medical conditions or aesthetic concerns like pigmentation, wrinkles, and various imperfections—profoundly affect people's confidence, self-esteem, and mental well-being. Well,
Your mental well-being directly affects your physical health!
The mind-body connection is real and powerful. When you feel good about how you look, your stress levels decrease, your immune system functions better, and your body's natural healing abilities strengthen.
So I wanted to offer comprehensive skin care that addresses both medical conditions and aesthetic concerns, because
I believe you deserve to not just have healthy skin, but to feel confident and beautiful in your own skin. Now,
Let me share some personal interests that might seem unrelated but actually deeply inform how I practice medicine.
My Life Outside Medicine: Connections That Inform My Practice
I'm passionate about photography, particularly nature photography using specialized techniques. This hobby has trained my eye to see beauty and detail in ways that directly enhance my aesthetic medicine practice.
When I look at your skin, I see it with an artist's eye as well as a physician's eye—I can envision not just healing but restoration of your natural beauty.
I also maintain a garden filled with diverse plants, especially medicinal herbs. This isn't just a hobby—it's an extension of my medical practice! Working with these plants, watching them grow, understanding their needs and their healing properties at this intimate level deepens my connection to natural medicine.
I'm literally growing some of the remedies I study and recommend. This hands-on relationship with medicinal plants gives me insights you simply can't get from textbooks alone. And of course,
I share all my work with Sumsum, my cat. He's my right-hand :)
To wrap things up,
What This All Means for You?
Your journey starts here,
This comprehensive, integrative strategy is what finally breaks the cycle of temporary relief followed by recurring problems.
Throughout this website, you'll find detailed information about various skin conditions and our 3-WCM integrative treatment approaches.
Every recommendation comes from decades of study, clinical experience, and genuine care for patient outcomes.
You can trust this guidance because it's built on a foundation of extensive credentials and real-world success with thousands of patients just like you.
I invite you to explore, learn, and when you're ready, to reach out.
I'm here to help you, to listen to you, and to work with you toward the healthy, beautiful skin you deserve.
Your skin—and your confidence—deserve this level of comprehensive, expert care. Let's begin your healing journey together with respect and commitment to your health. Now,
Let me introduce you to my son, my real right hand in this journey...