Maria DuBois is a lifetime student of human nature, particularly the aspects which make and keep us healthy. Her curiosity began when she first became a nurse 52 years ago. As she experienced and learned from her patients, she developed a thirst for more knowledge with which to further assist people and herself in their own healing and return to healthfulness.  

She began her further education by obtaining a BS in health education and counseling. While in school, she took part in advocating for gynecological services on campus for female students. Upon graduating she took her skills into new community settings. She worked in rural health centers with mid- level practitioners delivering care to rural underserved populations. She worked with special populations, consolidating their care into the mainstream communities.

She indulged her interest in holistic medicine by moving to California to learn from the teachers and studied many alternative healing traditions and techniques.  She became certified in massage/body therapy and studied medical astrology. She participated in intensive amounts of psychological and body therapies. She became more committed to the treatment of the whole person which includes physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual.

By 1982 she was back in New York and a mother, her passion for holistic compassionate care was exercised in many different areas of care. Her work was primarily in community settings.

She worked in women’s health, mental health case management, Hospice admission coordinator, substance abuse treatment, middle management supervision, in home care and mostly in delivering home care. This was a terrific relearning experience of the need for holistic care. Eventually she found she had surpassed the level of independent practice she could do at her education level.

She returned to school and achieved a master’s degree with post graduate certificate to practice family medicine as a nurse practitioner. She had a goal to bring mental health care into a family practice. The trend in medical care driven by insurance company policies did not allow for enough time to treat patients holistically. She did garner the large share of patients with psychosocial maladies in which different methods were needed for ultimate treatment of their conditions.

After struggling with enormous amounts of overtime, she decided to return to school and specialize in psychiatric medicine. The literature of community health centers in 2005 espoused holistic comprehensive care but it was not properly integrated at that time.

Psychiatric medicine is the one place in which she could exercise her holistic approach. She received another post graduate certificate as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner.

She has been working in a private practice setting for eighteen years now. She had the privilege of sharing her practice for fourteen years with Lionel G. Deutsch MD, who was initially an internist, then turned to psychiatry as his primary practice. Their commitment to holistic, compassionate care was her professional home.

She did return to formal training and education again to become certified as a nutritional therapy practitioner which further enhanced her practice style.

Her style of practice is eclectic and her commitment to holistic care guides her practice. She endeavors to coordinate care with other providers as needed for the clients’ integrity.

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