The origins of my practice were sparked by a personal health crisis involving chronic low back pain after a car accident. In my 20s, just after the Northridge earthquake, I was rear ended in a 6 car pile up on the freeway in Los Angeles. I had back pain that wouldn’t go away. I went through 2 rounds of physical therapy and was still struggling. After finally getting better, I decided to go to medical school myself so that I could help others as I had been helped.  Â
Unfortunately, I had a major setback when I was in medical school when I developed bilateral forearm pain after a work related injury while I was working part time in film. Suddenly it was hard to write, type, drive, cut vegetables, or even open a door knob. I had to dictate exams and get creative on how to get things done in a way that wouldn’t be painful. I hated being dependent on other people to help me. Â
Often I would think to myself, “when is this going to be better?”Â
What came after was not only a solution for my healing, but also an approach to help people struggling with pain, addiction and complex health challenges. My health challenges have motivated me to lean into building resilience and prevention for myself. Fortunately, I am better now and as an older mom with young children, I want to be as strong and healthy for as long as possible.   Â
I left a career in the film industry to become the kind of doctor I most wanted for myself. Â
I spent years working as a camera assistant on set and then in post-production and animation. I worked on movies, Austin Powers, Antz, Shrek, music videos including a Tupak Shakur video, and met lots of actors. It was fun and exciting.Â
But after the injury to my forearms, I had to stop working. When I went to the physical therapist and she asked me how I was, I wanted to talk about how frustrating the pain was. When I went to the talk therapist, she couldn’t do anything to help my pain except talk to me. Â
The compartmentalization in medicine became very clear to me. It wasn’t what I needed. I needed an approach that took into account my whole self. That’s what motivated me to go to medical school, to become the doctor I wished I had for myself. Â
Whether I am treating patients with anxiety, substance use or complex multi-system illnesses that don’t easily fit into a box, I have found the traditional approach is missing something and doesn’t always work.Â
Curiosity, Compassion, Collaboration, Seeing Connections.
Over years of clinical practice, my openness and curiosity pushed me beyond conventional medicine alone. I developed a framework that combines the strengths of Western medicine with what’s often missing evidence-based nutrition, targeted supplements, mind-body approaches, and functional medicine, to support true healing and long-term health.
I enjoy collaborative relationships. I may be an expert in medicine and integrative medicine, but you are an expert in your life. By partnering together, my role is to support you and help you meet your goals, not mine. Â
I enjoy seeing people who were once struggling, blossom over time. As one of my residency professors said to me once, “The grass grows a lot in a year.” Seeing someone go from active substance use to long term recovery, develop healthy relationships, get married or become a parent, makes it all worthwhile. My goal is to help people feel better, have more energy, less pain and ultimately feel more in control of their lives so they can do what’s most important to them. Â
My strength is seeing the connections between symptoms and working to find the unifying factors.Â
If you are looking for someone to "quarterback" your care, someone who can look at the big picture and help make sense of it all, I invite you into my world.Â
Alex Zaphiris, MD MS is a graduate of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program and the UCSF School of Medicine and is board-certified in Family Medicine.Â
She completed a 2-year Integrative Medicine Fellowship with Dr. Andrew Weil and has extensive experience treating patients with addiction and complex diseases. As Clinical Faculty at UCSF School of Medicine, Dr. Zaphiris enjoys teaching the next generation of physicians. She is on staff at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Â
She is the founder of 360-MD and Recovery Superstar, practices medicine in San Francisco and Marin at WholeFamily MD.Â
She is sought out by patients who are motivated to use integrative approaches to prevent and treat a wide variety of medical issues, including depression, anxiety, pain, addiction, menopause, mast cell activation syndrome and other complex medical issues that don’t easily fit into one box.
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