Spiritual Healing, Alchemy, and Herbalism
What kind of images come to mind when you hear the phrase “spiritual healing with herbs”? Maybe you picture someone passing smoke over someone’s body with a feather, hands hovering in the air, or a ceremony with a powerful visionary plant. Those practices have their place in the right hands. However, spiritual healing with plants […]
Blue Vervain: The Herbalist’s Remedy for Tension & Anxiety
Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) has long been one of my staple relaxants, and it’s the perfect remedy for our overworked, burned-out culture. You can use Blue Vervain for a full-spectrum approach to alleviating tension, whether psychological or from a stiff neck. This herb acts as the conduit between your nervous and musculoskeletal systems, so you […]
Exploding Head Syndrome: Understanding Heat-Pattern Headaches
Headaches can be devastating — in terms of the physical pain and the psychological and emotional wear and tear. If you’ve ever tried to use herbs to treat a headache, you may have had mixed results because headaches are tricky to treat with herbs. But why are they so difficult to treat? In this […]
The Hidden Danger of Herbal Fads: What Herbalists Should Know
If you walk into a smoothie shop or health food store, you’ll likely be bombarded by the newest “superfoods” and cure-all herbs. Like so many things in our modern culture, herbal medicine goes through waves of fads, and it seems like there’s a new one every season. Though shining a spotlight on the sexy herb […]
Is Comfrey Safe? An Herbalist’s Guide to Traditional Use
Current herbal advice says you should never take Comfrey internally, but how did people traditionally use this plant? In this post, we’re talking about Comfrey (Symphytum officinale), which is usually taught only from a topical perspective for cuts, scrapes, minor wounds, and injuries. However, Comfrey has long been understood as a plant that can be […]
A Journey Through the Water Element Signs and Herbs
All of life is born from water: from the mythological primordial ocean to the evolutionary-biology view that life originated in the waters, to the cosmological perspective of God separating the waters from heaven and Earth. All mammals grow within the womb’s embryonic fluids, and as birth begins, the water breaks and touches the Earth. Life […]
The Book Every Herbal Practitioner Should Own
What separates a typical herbalist from an effective herbal practitioner? In this review of Margi Flint’s The Practicing Herbalist, we’ll explore one of the most comprehensive guides available for developing strong assessment skills, conducting effective client intakes, and building a successful clinical herbal practice. Here’s what you’ll learn in this review: What makes The Practicing […]
Why Herbal Remedies Fail: 5 Things to Look For
Why don’t herbs always work? Is it the wrong dosage, the wrong timing, or the wrong herb? If it is the wrong herb, what led you to choose the incorrect remedy? More often than not, the wrong remedy is chosen because important clues were missed during the client intake interview: clues that reveal a client’s […]
Herbal Dosing for Infections: The 4 Biggest Mistakes
As an herbalist, you’ll often treat acute infections such as influenza, the common cold, urinary tract infections, and gut infections. When herbal remedies don’t work, the problem isn’t usually the herbs themselves, it’s the dosing strategy. To be successful, you must get your dosing right. In this post, I’ll break down the four most common […]