Clinical Herbalism and Therapeutics

From therapeutic principles of holistic herbalism and how to address specific conditions, to tips and tricks for assessment, formulation, and other nuggets of clinical gold, these posts are all about supporting your work with people.

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.

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Prebiotic Herbs and Gut Restoration

With all the overuse of antibiotics and leaky gut syndrome, we all tend to focus on probiotics and fermented foods to restore the bacterial ecology of the GI- but what about prebiotics? These are important polysaccharide compounds are the food for the microflora in our intestines, helping them to continue to thrive and flourish. Whenever I’m helping a client re-establish their microflora and gut health I’m always thinking in terms of not just probiotics, but the prebiotics as well.

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Adverse Reactions to Herbs – What they are and how to avoid them

One of the biggest fears that we have as herbalists and as practitioners is that not only will our remedies potentially not work or heal the person that we’re working with, but that they might actually do harm, that we might give someone a plant and it creates an issue for them in their body, or maybe that they have a really bad reaction.

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Whitney Popham, founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism with Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) flowers in her herbal garden

The Human Body: Machine or Ecosystem?

Lately, I’ve been talking a lot about this concept of vitalism and how vitalism is one of the more traditional models and approaches to not just practicing herbal medicine but a way that we see life, of being able to see that the natural world is intelligent, that it has consciousness, that it has purpose and meaning.

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How to use Corn Silk as an Herbal Medicine

Most people merely think of Corn as strictly a food plant, but often fail to realize that there is a medicinal component of it as well! So when you shuck your Corn, don’t forget to save the long threads on the inside of the husk- what we call Corn Silk.

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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 allopathy” – using herbs just as replacements for drugs. Instead of thinking of herbs in a “use this for that” kind of mindset, I break down how to see herbs in a truly holistic way.

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The Ginkgo Myth

Ginkgo is famous for its ability to boost your memory, focus, and concentration . . . but if that’s true, why didn’t I feel any

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