Biography of Dr. Hanya Barth – Founder and Physician
 
 
Dr. Hanya Barth is one of the most well known, knowledgeable, and loved physicians in the Bay Area. She is the founder/principal physician of Compassionate Health Options. We are a group of counseling facilities located in various locations throughout Northern California. As a doctor, mother, and grandmother, Dr. Hanya Barth has come to understand her own chronic medical conditions and appreciates the value of alternative, complementary health care, good nutrition, exercise and a positive attitude. Her story is one of inspiration and compassion.
 
Born in New York City to Austrian emigrants, Hanya received her undergraduate education at Sarah Lawrence College, a college known for its rigorous academic standards, and at the highly respected La Sorbonne in Paris. In 1974 she obtained her license as both a physician and surgeon from the University of Florence in Italy. When she returned to the States she began a residency in Internal Medicine at Memorial Hospital in Worcester, MA but after a year and a half realized that her heart was really in Family Practice, where she could treat patients and their families in a more holistic way. For this reason she moved to California and did another residency in Family Practice at SFGH and then moved to Mendocino County. As a Family Physician, she started delivering babies at home and in the hospital, sewing up cut fingers on her dining room table, advising people on whatever issues they had, both mental and physical. For 10 years she carried on an active practice balancing it with her role as a mother of 7, organic gardener, keeper of goats, horses and hens, and School Board elected official. A desire for a better education for her children drew her to San Francisco where she moved the family and began working at a Methadone Clinic in the East Bay. After a serious illness that interrupted her work, Hanya used her vast experience as a physician and opened Compassionate Health Options to start providing integrative, holistic medical care.
 
In addition to her busy practice and life filled with children, grandchildren and pets, Dr. Barth finds time to downhill ski, play tennis, hike, bike, and practice Qigong and meditation.   

“I love medicine, there is nothing in the world that I can think of that I would rather do. I love helping patients find the best way to heal and to stay healthy. I am grateful everyday for the windfall that came to me to open my heart and mind to help patients live happier and healthier lives.” –– Hanya Barth, MD