The Mikiel Health Family

Meet Our Team

Meet Dr. Indira Maharaj-Mikiel, MD

Many People find it difficult to find a doctor who offers a wide variety of primary care services to treat the symptoms of their health challenges while also working on uncovering and addressing their root cause so that they can find their way to a deeper level of healing and overall wellness. That’s where Dr. Indira Maharaj-Mikiel stands out. She has more than a decade of experience as a primary care physician addressing family and corporate wellness but with a critically important difference – a background in psychology studies and a dedicated focus on healthy weight management.

“I draw on my psychology and counseling expertise to help patients lose weight by improving their relationship with food,” says Maharaj-Mikiel, founder of Mikiel Integrative Health in Abilene, TX, noting that a client “must change the way they think – not just the way they eat – to reach and maintain a healthy weight.”

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Obesity is a proven cause or exacerbating factor in more than 230 chronic and serious illnesses including 13 cancers. That statistic alone was enough to convince Maharaj-Mikiel that her calling is in helping patients understand and address unhealthy weight as part of their chronic health issues and overall wellness.

But where many physicians simply prescribe medication and make diet and exercise recommendations, Maharaj-Mikiel understands that the most effective approach to weight loss and management involves psychological and emotional support as well as physical treatment. To that end, she employs a more holistic and comprehensive approach, addressing each of those three aspects via her proprietary Lighter Way Method, designed to help clients free themselves from physical emotional and psychological burdens that – quite literally – weight them down so they can easily shed pounds and keep them off. Adding functional medicine into the mix, she has developed a much-needed niche, guiding patients through weight loss and food addiction healing in an intuitive way that forgoes pharmaceuticals and surgery for a more holistic, mind-over-matter approach.

Founded in 2020, Mikiel Integrative Health serves patients via three primary pillars:

  • Preventative medicine, including minor surgeries and procedures designed to prevent or manage chronic disease.
  • An obesity clinic that utilizes Maharaj-Mikiel’s proprietary “Lighter Way Method” for weight loss and maintenance, including customized prepackaged meals and counseling.
  • A medial spa offering skincare, laser hair removal, yoga, meditation and other stress-management modalities to help patients look as good as they feel.

“I treat my patient as a whole, not just a patient’s condition,” Maharaj-Mikiel says. “I evaluate their psychology, sociology, daily habits, family life, even their community involvement to customize a more effective and sustainable lifestyle approach to reaching and maintaining a healthy weight. Unlike conventional doctor-patient relationships, my patients have an active and significant voice in their health care. They leave my practice not with a simple diagnosis and prescription, but a thorough education and understanding about the factors that caused their weight problems and the best ways to lose the weight, keep it off and enjoy better overall health.”

Chandra Mikiel

Medical Assistant

Kandice Everitt

Director of Nursing

Vicki Morris

Patient Care Coordinator