A teaching model that sat on the desk of one of the world’s longest-serving neurologists for 43 years now lives in Beaconsfield, where it quietly links a family’s past with the science shaping modern care.
Visitors to S-Thetics Clinic often notice a small anatomical brain resting among the technology. It is not a prop, and it is not for show. This is the Balaratnam Brain, and it carries more than four decades of clinical history into every room it sits in.
A model from 43 years of neurology
The brain belonged to Dato Dr Chelliah Balaratnam, father of our Medical Director, Miss Sherina Balaratnam, and one of the longest-serving Consultant Neurologists in recorded history, a doctor for 62 years until his retirement at the age of 88. From 1979 until December 2022, the model sat on his desk at the Bala Neuro Medical Clinic in Kuala Lumpur. With it in hand, he explained the anatomy of the brain and a range of complex neurological conditions to thousands of patients across his career.
It was the model he reached for when describing how he diagnosed and treated Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, degenerative muscle diseases, spinal cord disease and the changes that come with accelerated ageing. For 43 years it was a daily fixture of one of the most respected neurology practices in the region.
I grew up at the Bala Neuro Medical Clinic, and I think I learned the brain almost by osmosis.
MISS SHERINA BALARATNAM
From neurology to a new language of neuroscience
Miss Balaratnam spent much of her childhood inside her parents’ clinic, watching EEG scans being read and listening to her father explain how the brain ages, adapts and protects itself. It was there, too, that she first discovered her own passion for medicine, a path that would lead her through 7 years of NHS reconstructive plastic surgery and into 14 years specialising in aesthetic medicine. That early immersion now feels strikingly current. The vocabulary of modern aesthetics has moved steadily toward neuroscience and longevity, and many of the ideas she absorbed as a child sit close to its centre.
One of those ideas is inflammaging, the slow, low-grade inflammation associated with ageing. It is a concept she has been addressing at S-Thetics for a decade, long before it became a familiar term, through a considered combination of topical and energy-based approaches. Seen in that light, the Balaratnam Brain is less a keepsake and more a thread, running from a Kuala Lumpur consulting room to a clinic in Beaconsfield.
How that heritage shows up at S-Thetics
- EXOMIND: a treatment designed to support mood and wellbeing, focus, quality of sleep and stress management, pairing a structured session with brain-focused technology. Manufacturer data reports describe its intended role in everyday mental wellbeing.
- LED light therapy: used to support skin and tissue health as part of a longevity-led approach to care.
- Hyperbaric oxygen facials: offered in the clinic’s upstairs treatment suite to support radiance and recovery.
- Topical exosomes: applied alongside energy-based devices to support the skin’s own repair signals.
- Energy-based devices: central to the clinic’s decade-long work addressing inflammaging and skin longevity.
What this means for our patients
The Balaratnam Brain is a quiet reminder that good medicine is built on understanding, patience and a genuine commitment to healing. Miss Balaratnam brings that same philosophy to every consultation: science-led, considered, and centred on the person in front of her. The model that once helped a father explain the brain to his patients now sits behind a daughter doing the very same thing, in her own way, for a new generation of patients in Beaconsfield.
→ Book a consultation at sthetics.co.uk/book
S-Thetics Clinic, 45 Wycombe End, Beaconsfield HP9 1LZ
About Miss Sherina Balaratnam
Miss Sherina Balaratnam MBBS MRCS(Edin) MSc(UCL) is the Medical Director and Founder of S-Thetics Clinic in Beaconsfield. She has been a qualified doctor for more than 26 years, including a 7-year background in NHS reconstructive plastic surgery, and has spent 14 years specialising in aesthetic medicine. She founded S-Thetics in May 2015 and is recognised internationally for her science-led, patient-centred approach to aesthetic medicine and longevity.