Main image credit: Jenni Elizabeth.
What does a day in integrative medicine really look like? Dr Simone Silver shares a candid reflection that moves between patient care, clinical thinking, and the beautifully imperfect reality of everyday life. Her perspective brings warmth and depth to a model of medicine that is as personal as it is scientific.
The Reality Behind the Role
My day starts with screaming kids. Not the sexiest part of my day, but it’s true, and anything that is true is worth mentioning. The juggle between professional life, modern life and family life is so raw and real for me, as it is for so many of us.
Sometimes I feel that getting the kids ready, out of the house and to school on time (sometimes) is actually the most difficult part of my day, which puts the undermentioned challenges of parenting into perspective, considering that work as a doctor carries with it significant responsibility and pressure.
But there are privileges to both parenting and caring for patients, which truly touch my heart and stir my soul every day. When the day starts and ends, I can, with complete honesty, reflect on how grateful I am to live my life.
Stepping Into the Practice
Once the kids are at school on time (sometimes and hopefully) and I have made it to our medical practice unscathed (sometimes and hopefully), with the ritualistic on-the-go cup of coffee in the car, a new world of wonder immediately opens up for me.
My day consists of consulting with several patients, each on their own health journey and each with their own unique stories. This is my favourite part of the work that I do, bearing witness to and being a participant in the human story in all its colours and shades.
Understanding the Patient Journey
When we enrol a new patient at our practice, the process initially involves two in-depth consultations of 60–90 minutes with myself or one of my associate doctors.
It is through this considered, in-depth process that we really get to know and understand our patients from many different angles and aspects. We spend time learning about their backgrounds, life stories, careers and stressors, as well as their hopes, goals and aspirations for what they would like to see differently in their lives and health.
Our focus, in addition to addressing current health problems, is on preventing future ones. We understand in medical science today that our future health picture can be shaped by the choices and habits of today.
The Integrative Medicine Canvas
I use the analogy of the integrative medicine journey being akin to an artist creating a beautiful canvas. The artists are actually the doctor and the patient, co-creating, clarifying and designing the canvas – the health and life picture of the patient’s desires.
In the first consultation, we dive a little further into the personal sphere than a typical medical consultation, without foregoing any of the important medical points and physical examinations.
From this initial consultation, it becomes clear to us as clinicians what further investigations or tests might be beneficial for each patient within the context of their own health journey. These may include blood testing, hormone panels, genetic testing, stool tests, or further questionnaires around stress and mental health assessments.
These tests can be considered part of the ‘why’ in the health canvas story. We need to understand not only what it is that we want for ourselves and our lives, but why this is important. We cannot create meaningful change without insight and purpose.
Connecting the Dots
Once the necessary tests have been completed and all the information has been sent back to us, each doctor goes through a process of assimilating the information and applying it to the context of each patient’s story – a process of “connecting the dots”, so to speak.
Once this ‘detective work’ of information collation and understanding is complete, we see our patients for their second consultation. It is during this time that we explain all the test results in detail and summarise the key health and life areas to strengthen and build.
Creating Personalised Treatment Plans
We also share our suggested medical and lifestyle management plans with our patients, which are highly personalised and tailored to each individual’s physiology and life context.
It is this recognition of person-to-person uniqueness that is the pinnacle of personalised and integrative medicine.
Our management plans can comprise many modalities of treatment. Returning to the artist analogy, just as an artist needs a variety of tools – brushes, sponges, water and different shades of paint – creating a health and life canvas requires clarity, understanding and the right tools.
Our medical plans often combine therapeutic tools such as pharmaceutical medications (where needed), supplements and nutraceuticals, hormones, nutritional guidance, exercise recommendations and psychological support.
For me, this is the most exciting part of my day, bringing all the pieces together in an integrative and meaningful way, and teaching patients how to apply these tools in a practical, achievable way. The process should feel empowering.
Learning, Collaboration and Growth
In between consultations and after hours, our team of doctors and professionals meets regularly to share interesting cases and insights. We are constantly learning from one another and take turns teaching each other.
This thirst for knowledge and excellence creates a stimulating and rich work environment, keeping us up to date with the latest science and connected with our wider network. Collaboration is a vital part of success in any field.
A Life That Feels Full
It is this constant learning, collaboration and journey of self and health integration that makes my days feel rich and meaningful – alongside the screaming kids, spilt coffee and quick make-up in the car too.
About the author
Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery (MBBch) Medicine
Dr Simone Silver (“The Integrated Doctor”) graduated with her medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand in 2007.
Even as a medical student, she was intrigued by the concept that not only are all the body systems connected in an intricate manner, but that a network of environmental, psychological, hormonal, genetic and dietary factors all influence physical and emotional well-being and propensity for disease.
Over the years, as her studies branched into the field of Functional Medicine, her interest in individualised healthcare became an inexhaustible passion.
She practised at the Integrative Medical Centre in Johannesburg until 2014, when she moved to Cape Town and opened her own practice, Hormonal Health + Wellness Centre, and moved to a beautiful new premises in the V&A Waterfront in August 2025.
Dr Simone lectures to both healthcare professionals and patients alike.
Her areas of particular medical interest are Hormonal Imbalances across all ages, particularly in women, Menopausal Health, Chronic stress and Burnout management.
Her fascination with the interplay and complexity between health and factors such as environmental, social, hormonal and genetic factors soon became an inexhaustible passion
She is passionate about sharing her expert knowledge on Integrated Medicine and her unique perspective of the “Artistry of Health” through speaking and events, both locally and internationally.
She values self-growth and awareness and is excited by life’s daily opportunities for continued learning and development.
Dr Silver says, "as "The Integrated Doctor", I strive to blend scientific principles with individual uniqueness, treating medicine as an art form.”