Dr Anne Pargiter
BSc MBCHB (UCT)
A bit about me…
I am a medical doctor specializing in helping women to empower themselves in finding holistic ways to transition through life and aid their journey of healing.
I have been in clinical practice for 39 years & specialising in womens health for 28 years. I was a founding member of The Institute For Mindfulness in South Africa (IMISA) and am a registered Menopause Practitioner with the North American Menopause Society (NAMS). I am also a member of the South African Menopause Society (SAMS) and the South African Medical Association (SAMA).
I work at the interface of body, heart and mind.My interest lies in how I can help you to transition through those difficult stages in your life, how to deal with stress, anxiety and mood changes, and how to do so in an holistic way using different modalities including creativity, meditation, exercise, mindful movement etc. This pertains especially to the years pre and post menopause.
Since 2020 and the disruption of covid in our lives, as well as a number of wars and conflict in many areas, there has been an exponential rise in psychological symptoms, especially anxiety and depression, and associated physical illnesses. For many it feels as though the ground and stability of life has been ripped away and life has become very uncertain. I am happy to help you navigate a new path through this unknown environment.
Menopause is one of the pivotal areas of change in a woman’s life and often requires a helping hand in how to navigate the many areas of change ,be it physical, hormonal, emotional or spiritual. I have close to 30 years of experience in helping women to transition through this phase and would be happy to help you on this journey.
If you are living outside the borders of South Africa, I am not legally allowed to make diagnoses or prescribe medication. I can however educate you in the areas of peri menopause and menopause and give guidance on how to proceed forward on your journey. If you live in or around Cape Town, South Africa, then the session can be combined with a clinical examination in my rooms.
Inspiration
This is a space where I will share poems, sayings and some of my musings, words that move me, touch my soul and have aided my journey of healing. I hope some of them may help you.
I sit at the table of unknowing, and invite you to join me there.
His holiness, the Dalai Lama
If we surrendered to the earth’s intelligence
We could rise up rooted like trees.
Rainer Maria Rilke
The woman who is willing to make the change must become pregnant with herself, at last. She must bear herself, her third self, her old age, with travail and alone. Not many will help her with that birth.
Ursula Le Guin
these are the times in life – when nothing happens – but in quietness the soul expands.
Rockwell Kent
What dignity is there in a life if one
Looks back and sees only the things
That were never said?
We imagine there will always be
Another moment, another evening,
Another chance to speak plainly.
But years pass quietly, and what seemed
Temporary becomes permanent.
Then one day we find ourselves
Remembering not what happened,
But what might have been.
Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day
So few grains of happiness
Measured against all the dark
And still the scales balance.
Jane Hirschfield
Listening creates a holy silence. When you listen generously to people, they can hear the truth in themselves, often for the very first time. And in the silence of listening, you can know yourself in everyone. Eventually, you may be able to hear in everyone and beyond everyone, the unseen singing softly to itself and to you.
Rachel Naomi Remen
Celebrate the glorious mess that you are.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Life is a schoolroom for the soul.
Tenzin Palmo
Death is not extinguishing the light. It is simply putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
Tagore
At any time you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter? What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold? What gift would enable me to do it? A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms and atmospheres. Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up. At this threshold a great complexity of emotions comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossing were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds; to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross.
John O’Donohue
Thank you for being the Best Doc in SA for the past 14 years.
You are unique in your care and concern for your patients and your undivided attention with each appointment.
Your knowledge, kindness and meticulous management of my health and wellbeing is an incredibly precious gift. Thank you for holding me through the last year with so much heart and insight.
Dr Pargiter has been my doctor for the past 8 years. I was deep in the trenches of early motherhood when I first met her and I clearly remember how, besides the medicines she prescribed, she wrote me a list of practical suggestions to improve my overall wellbeing.
This simple list, which included date nights and art classes made me feel heard and acknowledged; the trust I felt was instant – Dr Pargiter is the kind of medical practitioner who knows how to heal the whole person, not just the body.
Over the years, I’ve benefitted from Dr Pargiter’s annual wellbeing checkup, which always includes her signature list of practical ways to manage my health for the year ahead. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019, Dr Pargiter’s holistic and professional approach made me feel 100% supported. She has a unique way of encouraging me to take responsibility for my own health by giving manageable suggestions as well as excellent specialist referrals.
I have known Dr Anne Pargiter for the past 18 years as my general practitioner. Anne is brilliant at diagnostics, shows great insight and I very much appreciate her deep knowledge and sincere integrity.
She has an innate ability to meet you where you are and communicate effectively and productively in a balanced and holistic way.
She has challenged me to work on my recovery and emotional well being and has always given sound advise. A women who is deeply compassionate and caring. She has offered physical, emotional, mental and spiritual support that has always grounded me to a place of safety.
I was bowled over by you kindness in support of our family issues. Thank you for always, without fail, being so incredibly caring.
Thank you for hearing me, seeing me, guiding and caring for me.
I was particularly grateful for your holistic approach to medicine and health. I left feeling inspired and warmed knowing that there are practitioners like you protecting the care of women.