My Herbal Mistake
Have you ever been too afraid to start practicing as an herbalist out of fear of making a mistake? Most of us are kind, empathic people who care a lot about the people we serve. We’re into plant medicine and the healing arts because we care so deeply and want to make a positive impact in…
Strategies for a Holistic Respiratory Formula
The art of herbal formulation is… well just that- an art!! The #1 mistake too many herbalists make when it comes to formulating is that they think about what organ system they want to work with and BAM- throw every herb they can think of that does something to that system and hope that it will work.…
Therapeutics for the Respiratory System
I believe the respiratory system is of the most important organ systems to know how to treat with herbs because it’s one of the primary systems consistently and commonly afflicted in modern life- especially during this time of year; the “cough, cold and flu season.” From an allopathic perspective, a cough is typically treated with an…
Prebiotic Herbs and Gut Restoration
So I was drinking my tea the other morning and thinking about my last video I did talking about digestive health and I realized that my tea was a great example of a particular and often overlooked method of gut healing with herbs: prebiotics. With all the overuse of antibiotics and leaky gut syndrome, we all tend…
Gut Health and Clinical Herbalism
When I was studying herbal medicine in university at Bastyr, my teachers taught me that in traditional western herbalism, the human organism is likened to a tree whose roots are the digestive system. In this way, the health of the entire organism is utterly dependent on the health of the digestive apparatus- from the mouth all…
Community Monographs (you definitely want to check this one out!!)
So during our newest 3-part video series, I issued a challenge to the Evolutionary Herbalism community to pick a plant… any plant…. and do a monograph writeup based on the 5 key elements of how to use an herb holistically. This framework includes researching and directly experiencing: 1) the taste of the herb, 2) the actions,…
Alchemical Herb Profile: Red Root (Ceanothus cuneatus)
Red Root, or commonly called “Buckbrush” around here – is a wild shrubby plant that flourishes all around the hills where we live. Though this variety of Ceanothus is poky, dense, and hardy – not the most welcoming looking plant around – it exudes the most sweet, heavenly fragrance throughout the forest while its fluffy…
Alchemical Herb Profile: Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
“A weed is a plant whose virtue is not yet known.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Though Dandelion is a common “weed” found in most people’s yards, it is full of medicinal properties that are valuable to know. I often think that those herbs which show up all over the place, growing up through the cracks in…
Herbal Alchemy: The Water Element
Learn how to use the Elements as a lens for classifying and using herbal remedies. The Alchemical herbal perspective involves looking at the planetary rulerships of different herbs, their organ and tissue affinities, as well as providing a sophisticated and refined way of preparing herbal medicines according to astrological influences. In this video, I reveal how…
Holistic Herbalism and the Adaptogen Myth
What’s the most common mistake most people make when they start using herbs? After years of teaching and traveling across the country, I’ve seen people over and over make the assumption that if they’re using herbs, they’re holistic. It’s actually not true! Many herbalists and naturopaths actually practice what I like to call “green…
