Hello and welcome. I’m Dr Rabia, and I am so glad you found your way here.

Women wait an average of four years longer than men to receive a correct diagnosis. In autoimmune disease, that gap stretches to seven years. I grew up watching women suffer in silence. I became a doctor to change that.

This post is for you if you have ever sat in a doctor’s consulting room and left feeling unheard. If you have been told your exhaustion is “just stress,” your joint pain is “just your age,” or your symptoms are “just anxiety” — and something deep inside you knew that wasn’t the whole story. If you have ever felt that medicine was treating your body but missing you entirely.

That feeling is exactly what led me to create The Soulful GP. And if I am honest, the roots of that feeling go back much further than medical school.

“Your body is not failing you. It is communicating. And you deserve a doctor who listens.”

My journey to holistic medicine

I grew up in the foothills of the Himalayas — a place of breathtaking beauty and, for women, profound silence. Women were seen, but not heard. Their pain was expected to be endured quietly. Their needs came last. Their voices, if raised at all, were rarely taken seriously. I watched the women around me carry enormous physical and emotional burdens without ever being asked how they truly were.

I carried that with me when I left for the UK. It is, in many ways, the reason I became a doctor — and the reason I became the kind of doctor I am.

I hold a degree in medicine and a BMedSci from the University of Southampton, alongside a further BSc in Infection and Immunology from University College London. I trained as a GP in the UK and am MRCGP-qualified, and I previously worked as a Clinical Fellow in Rheumatology — an experience that profoundly shaped how I understand the connection between the immune system, hormones and chronic disease. I now have a special interest in women’s health, lifestyle medicine and rheumatology, and I am also a GP trainer with the privilege of teaching medical students and helping shape the next generation of doctors.

But the moment that truly changed how I practise medicine did not happen in a lecture theatre or a research paper. It happened in clinic. I was seeing a patient — a woman in her early forties, exhausted, in pain, and quietly defeated after years of being passed from specialist to specialist. Her bloods were “borderline.” Her scans were “unremarkable.” She had been told, more than once, that she was probably just stressed.

When I sat with her and asked not just about her symptoms but about her life — her sleep, her relationships, her sense of purpose, the grief she had been carrying — everything began to make sense. Her body was not failing her. It was communicating. And nobody had been listening.

That is the kind of medicine I want to practise. And that is what this space is about.

“I grew up in a place where women were seen but not heard. I became a doctor so they would be both.”

What I believe

I want to be transparent about the values that underpin everything I share here:

I believe your symptoms are real, even when you have been told otherwise. Dismissal is not a diagnosis.

I believe science and spirituality are not opposites — they are partners. The evidence base for the mind-body connection is vast, robust and growing. Every piece of guidance I share here is grounded in peer-reviewed research and clinical evidence. Caring for the soul is not soft medicine; it is good medicine — and the science backs that up.

I believe the most powerful thing a doctor can offer is genuine, unhurried attention. To truly treat a patient, we cannot just diagnose and prescribe. We need the whole picture — the mind, the body and the soul.

I believe that health information should be accessible to everyone, regardless of background, language or postcode. And I believe it should always be rooted in science — not trends, not anecdote, not fear. Everything I share on this platform is evidence-based. Full stop.

Advocating for women and disadvantaged communities

A significant part of my passion lies in women’s health. Too often, women’s pain is dismissed or normalised. Whether it is the complex overlap between perimenopause and autoimmune conditions, the silent burden of chronic fatigue, or the way that symptoms in women are still routinely under-researched and under-recognised — I am dedicated to helping women advocate for themselves and find the answers they deserve.

I am particularly committed to raising awareness within disadvantaged communities, including the South Asian community, where cultural stigma, language barriers and systemic inequalities can make accessing good healthcare even harder. I regularly participate in community talks to break down those barriers and ensure that vital health information reaches the women who need it most.

I am also deeply passionate about getting more girls interested in science. I believe that the next generation of medical breakthroughs will come from young women who were once told science “wasn’t for them.” Changing that narrative is something I take personally.

Did you know? 80% of all autoimmune disease patients are women — yet women’s symptoms are still routinely under-researched and dismissed as ‘just stress’.

Giving back: INJU Charity and the soup kitchen

Healthcare has always extended far beyond the clinic walls for me. I am proud to be one of the founders of INJU Charity, an organisation dedicated to supporting those in need. I also volunteer regularly at a local soup kitchen — and honestly, those Saturday mornings remind me more about health than almost anything else. Community, connection and being seen: these are not luxuries. They are medicine.

Outside the clinic, you might also find me in a school hall, trying to convince a room of teenage girls that immunology is one of the most exciting subjects on earth. (It is. I will not apologise for that.)

What to expect from this blog — and what’s coming

Through this blog, I want to create a space where we can explore health in its entirety — always through the lens of science. Everything I write here will be evidence-based, drawing on the latest peer-reviewed research and clinical guidelines. But evidence-based does not have to mean impenetrable. One of my core commitments is to take the latest research in women’s health, rheumatology, lifestyle medicine and mental wellbeing and make it genuinely digestible — stripping away the jargon so that the science speaks clearly to you, wherever you are in your health journey. Groundbreaking research should not be locked behind language that only specialists can decode. You deserve to understand what the evidence actually says about your own body.

Here is a taste of what is coming:

• Why South Asian women are disproportionately affected by certain autoimmune and hormonal conditions — and what to do about it
• What lifestyle medicine actually means in practice, beyond the buzzwords
• The real relationship between stress, inflammation and chronic disease
• How to advocate for yourself in a medical system that does not always make it easy

And watch this space — we have exciting things in the pipeline. Women’s health seminars and STEM workshops are coming up, and I cannot wait to share more details with you very soon. Whether you are a patient, a student, a parent, or simply someone who wants to understand their body better, there will be something here for you.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for being part of a growing community that believes health is about so much more than the absence of disease. I am so excited to walk this path together.

With warmth and wellness, Dr Rabia — The Soulful GP

If this resonated with you, share it with one woman in your life who needs to hear it. And follow me on Instagram @thesoulfulgp for more evidence-based women’s health content. Have a topic you’d like me to cover? I’d love to hear from you.