Dr Hanlie qualified at the University of Pretoria in 2005 and spent the early years of her career in private general practice in Kempton Park, working with families and patients across the full range of primary healthcare needs.
In 2013, she opened her own practice in Pretoria. It was around this time that her clinical interest in weight management and metabolic health moved from the periphery of her work to the centre of it. The patients arriving at her practice with weight concerns were often the same patients who had been told, repeatedly, that their weight was a willpower problem. She didn't accept that framing — and the more deeply she looked at the science, the more clear it became that medical weight loss done properly was a different discipline altogether.
She still sees general practice patients alongside her weight loss work. But the part of her week she gives most of herself to is the one where she gets to walk alongside someone making a real, lasting change to their health — not just managing a symptom, but helping them live a healthier life on their own terms.
That is the work she is known for. Not the prescription. The relationship. The bi-monthly check-ins. The honest conversation about what is working and what is not. The decision, made together, when it is time to graduate from active treatment to maintenance — and the support that continues from there.
Holistic Life Institute was built around this way of working. Patients aren't passed through. They aren't sold a programme and forgotten. They are seen, supported, and accompanied for as long as they want to stay on the path.