Lessons from Local Leaders:

Maggie Sanders

Maggie Sanders: Where Medical Excellence Meets Aesthetic Artistry

The needle approaches their face—the first thing anyone sees when they look in the mirror, the most vulnerable part of themselves. For many people, this moment requires an extraordinary level of trust. Maggie Sanders understands this deeply. Before she even begins a treatment at Modern Med Aesthetics in Reston, Virginia, she’ll answer twenty to thirty questions. Sometimes more. As many as it takes.

“I’m going at them with a needle in my hand, right straight to their face,” Maggie explains with characteristic candor. “And it takes a lot for even myself to allow somebody to get with a needle to my face. So I really just take my time, explain everything. And if that’s not enough to put them at ease, we’ll keep asking questions.”

This isn’t just good bedside manner. For Maggie, an aesthetic nurse practitioner with over twenty years of medical experience, it’s the foundation of everything she does.

A Ten-Year Journey to Purpose

The path to opening Modern Med Aesthetics wasn’t quick or simple. It took Maggie approximately ten years from the first spark of inspiration to opening her own practice—a journey that required strategic thinking, patience, and unwavering commitment to doing things the right way.

Working as an emergency room nurse, Maggie was about ten to twelve years into her career when someone introduced her to the world of aesthetic injectables. The moment was revelatory: “I think I really wanna do this.”

But here’s where Maggie’s story diverges from many aesthetic providers. She was an RN at the time, and she recognized that staying at that level would place limits on her autonomy. Rather than rushing into the field, she made a calculated decision: go back to school to become a nurse practitioner first.

“I didn’t want any limits set on me,” she reflects. “So I kinda put that on the back burner a little bit and said, well, let me go back to NP school so I have a little bit more autonomy in being able to do that.”

That patience and long-term thinking? It defines how Maggie approaches everything—including how she guides her patients through their own aesthetic journeys.

More Than Vanity: The Life-Changing Power of Aesthetics

Maggie’s introduction to injectables came through an unexpected and profound avenue: treating HIV patients with Sculptra.

HIV medications can cause patients to lose fat throughout their body, including their face—a visible marker of their condition that affects far more than appearance. When Maggie learned to inject Sculptra to restore volume and life to their faces, she witnessed something transformative.

“Giving them that ability to be able to put life back into their face—not just for cosmetic reasons, it’s life changing for them,” Maggie explains. “They’re so grateful. If I can make a difference in somebody’s life just in three sessions every two years and they’re grateful, I can translate that into the aesthetic world.”

This experience fundamentally shaped Maggie’s philosophy. She understands that when someone walks into Modern Med Aesthetics, she knows nothing about what they’re carrying—the baggage, the struggles, the reasons they’re seeking care.

“They come to me wanting to feel good, to feel better, and I’m able to give ’em that just for a short bit of time,” she says. “It makes it very rewarding for me.”

Whether it’s HIV patients, mothers, grandmothers, or even fathers coming in for Botox, Maggie sees beyond the surface to the human need for confidence and self-care that unites all her patients.

The Weight of Twenty Years’ Experience

There’s a distinct advantage to having an aesthetic provider who spent over two decades working in emergency medicine. Maggie didn’t just learn to perform procedures—she learned to anticipate problems before they escalate, to remain calm under pressure, and to handle complications with expertise and composure.

“I worked in the emergency room where I dealt with emergencies and traumas. I learned to anticipate before somebody crashes,” Maggie notes. “Using that experience in aesthetics, I’m able to deal with complications if they happen and let them know that they’re in good hands and that I can keep a calm demeanor just to make sure that they don’t escalate and get panicked.”

This background gives her patients something invaluable: the confidence that they’re in the hands of someone who can handle any situation with medical precision and grace.

Empowerment Through Knowledge

For Maggie, information isn’t just helpful—it’s transformative.

“Information and knowledge is power,” she emphasizes. “I do feel like I have a lot of information to share and when I’m able to share that with my clients, it’s empowering for them. I’m in the business of making somebody feel good, look good, and really take self care very seriously.”

This commitment to education manifests in every interaction. Before treatments begin, Maggie ensures her patients understand not just what she’s doing, but why. She explains the science, discusses the options, and answers questions until her patients feel genuinely ready.

But her transparency extends beyond the benefits—she’s equally forthright about the risks.

“People have to know that there are a lot of risks with aesthetics,” Maggie states plainly. “There’s a lot of benefits too. So just knowing what could potentially happen, whether it’s bad, and all the good.”

This honesty builds the kind of trust that transforms one-time patients into lifelong clients.

The Natural Approach: A Journey, Not a Destination

Walk into some aesthetic practices and you’ll hear promises of dramatic transformations. Walk into Modern Med Aesthetics and you’ll hear something different: aesthetics is a journey.

“It’s not about coming in and getting a bunch of things done all at once,” Maggie explains. “I tell them that it’s a journey. It’s not just about one thing. It’s not just about Botox. It’s not just about fillers. It’s really also taking care of the skin.”

Here’s what makes Maggie’s approach unique: she acknowledges that eighty percent of the results her patients see happen outside her office. What they put in their bodies, what they put on their skin, how they care for themselves—these factors matter enormously.

“If they can allow me to share the products to use, they come back so much happier because they are seeing results,” she notes.

And when it comes to the actual treatments? Maggie is firmly in the “less is more” camp.

“Aesthetics does not have to look unnatural,” she insists. “I’m all about keeping things very natural, not overdoing things. I would hope that they see me and say, well, you look like you haven’t had anything done—which I have. When they see that, they’re like, okay, well I think I can be on board with that.”

The Cutting Edge: Regenerative Medicine and Biostimulators

The aesthetic field is constantly evolving, and Maggie stays at the forefront through continuous education—which she considers her own form of self-care.

Currently, she’s particularly excited about regenerative medicine, which uses the body’s natural healing capabilities through peptides and growth factors to stimulate collagen and elastin production.

“I use things like biostimulators to inject into the neck or the face, or hands and even knees if somebody has crepey skin,” Maggie explains. “It just injects that goodness, as I call it, to allow the body to take that, to build more integrity in their skin and build more collagen and elastin.”

This approach aligns perfectly with her natural aesthetic philosophy—working with the body’s own processes rather than against them.

Looking ahead, Maggie plans to expand into wellness services, particularly bioidentical hormone replacement therapy for perimenopausal women and men dealing with declining testosterone levels. It’s another example of her holistic approach to helping patients feel their absolute best.

Creating Space for Vulnerability

Sometimes patients come into Maggie’s office and simply start talking. About their lives, their struggles, their reasons for being there. Without prompting, they share their vulnerability.

“People come with a whole lot of baggage that I know nothing about,” Maggie acknowledges. “But for them to be able to share what’s going on in their lives and show some vulnerability takes a lot. Just coming in for self-care takes a lot of effort for some people. Some people don’t know how to do it.”

When patients settle into her chair, Maggie makes a point to acknowledge this courage: “Thank you for taking the time to see me. But also even more so taking time to take care of yourself. Because that’s so important.”

This recognition—that self-care itself is an act of strength—creates an environment where patients feel safe, seen, and supported.

An Event to Celebrate: HydraFacial Arrives

This holiday season, Modern Med Aesthetics is hosting its first-ever holiday event, open to everyone. Originally conceived as a space for partners and spouses to shop for their loved ones over cocktails and appetizers, the event has evolved into a celebration for the entire community.

The centerpiece? The launch of HydraFacial services—something Maggie’s clients have been requesting for some time.

“Initially I really only wanted to be doing injectables, weight loss, things like that,” Maggie admits. “But my clients are like, well, you don’t do facials. So I chose HydraFacial because it’s a widely recognized brand and it’s not only relaxing, but it actually shows results on their skin. I’m all about results.”

It’s a perfect example of how Maggie listens to her patients and evolves her practice to meet their needs.

Standing Out in Reston

While neighboring Loudoun County seems to have med spas popping up constantly, Reston remains relatively underserved—giving Modern Med Aesthetics a unique position in the local market.

But Maggie doesn’t focus on competition. Instead, she focuses on what she can control: being the best provider she can possibly be.

“Sometimes I really just have to quiet the noise and just work on being the best provider that I can be with my clients,” she reflects. “That’s being authentic, showing my vulnerability and telling them what I know. And also advancing my knowledge through training—doing more injectables training, more wellness training. Because in order to share more knowledge with my clients, I need to pour into myself as well.”

This commitment to continuous improvement ensures that Modern Med Aesthetics offers not just current best practices, but cutting-edge treatments backed by the latest research and training.

The Smile That Fuels the Soul

Ask Maggie what inspires her most about her work, and she’ll point to those moments when a patient walks out feeling more confident than when they walked in.

“Even just that short amount of time with somebody gives me hope that I’ve brightened somebody’s day or empower them in some way, shape or form,” she says. “I don’t know what goes on outside of my office. They could be dealing with other things. So just that small glimpse of smile, that happiness—it just really fuels my soul.”

This is why Maggie does what she does. Not for the before-and-after photos (though she has plenty). Not for social media likes. For those genuine moments of transformation when someone sees themselves differently, feels themselves differently, and walks back into their life with renewed confidence.

Advice for the Hesitant

For anyone considering starting their aesthetic journey but feeling nervous or unsure, Maggie offers clear, practical guidance:

Do your research. Ask lots of questions. And if your provider isn’t giving you answers that put you at ease, find a different provider.

“It’s not always about the before and after pictures that you see on their social media,” Maggie cautions. “I have a lot of clients who don’t want their pictures shared on social media. So how is somebody gonna be able to come to me just through my social media alone?”

Instead, she encourages potential patients to seek out word of mouth recommendations—to ask about bedside manner, about how other patients felt in the chair, about the overall experience.

“There’s always a good fit for everyone,” she assures.

The Heart of Modern Med Aesthetics

At its core, Modern Med Aesthetics isn’t just about looking good—though that’s certainly part of it. It’s about the intersection of medical excellence and aesthetic artistry. It’s about a provider who spent a decade preparing to do this work the right way. It’s about someone who learned the life-changing power of aesthetic treatments through HIV patients and carries that understanding into every interaction.

Most of all, it’s about Maggie Sanders: a provider who approaches each needle stick with respect for her patient’s vulnerability, who answers thirty questions before even starting because trust matters, who sees aesthetic care as a form of empowerment, and who genuinely lights up when a patient walks out smiling.

In a field that can sometimes feel transactional, Maggie has created something different—a practice where patients are seen, heard, educated, and cared for throughout their entire journey.

For anyone in the Reston area seeking aesthetic services that honor both their features and their humanity, that’s not just valuable. It’s everything.

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