Herbal Consultations

An herbal consultation is a 1:1 meeting with a clinical herbalist who will:

• Take a detailed intake of your health history, your dietary and lifestyle habits, and any previous treatments you’ve undergone or medications you’re currently taking.

• Check for any present physical imbalances using a variety of traditional energetic tools from Classic Western Herbalism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Ayurveda (this can include a face, tongue, or pulse assessment).

• Create an individualized protocol (such as herbal tea or extracts) for your specific needs on top of diet, lifestyle, and supplement recommendations.

Part of our role in your healing journey is helping you build your wellness circle of support. 

This may include referrals to other healthcare specialists (such as physicians or cranio-sacral therapists, chiropractors, bio-meridian assessment practitioners etc.) and recommended practices (such as meditation, qi-gong, yoga, etc.) 

What’s equally important is that we help you understand your own herbal assessment. This learning rekindles and enlivens your connection with the herbs you’re taking (and improves their likelihood of working!), and with nature herself–the source of all life and health.

Understanding the “why’s” behind your assessment, the recommendations given, and even a bit about the plants and their preparations is part of this process. 

We’ll even teach you how to make your own herbal preparations if you’re interested, as this makes you less dependent on your herbalist and makes herbalism more empowering and financially sustainable for you.

Energetic herbalism is a methodology that’s been used for thousands of years.

It entails choosing herbs based on a variety of energetic factors–not just based on the physical symptoms expressed. This is because herbs have complex properties that tend to work on many different levels simultaneously.

For us this looks like matching the energetic properties of an herb to the energetic qualities of an imbalance (i.e., hot/cold, damp/dry, stagnant/moving, etc.) so that the body can be encouraged back into homeostasis.

There are many potential herbs for each imbalance and not every person expresses an imbalance the same way. For example, not all women experience the same symptoms during menopause and not all people who exhibit anxiety experience the condition in the same way.

Herbalism strives to balance the “whole” person–body, mind, and spirit–with a “whole” plant. This is more complex than the reductionist modality that breaks a person down to a mere collection of biological and physical symptoms or reduces a plant to its active constituents. 

It’s not that modern research and scientific validation of herbs isn’t important or doesn’t inform how we practice. It’s just that herbs don’t cleanly fit into a “this herb” for “that illness” model (i.e. the western medical paradigm) as they have very broad and complex actions. 

Please don’t take any of this to mean that our current medical model is unnecessary. It’s important that you understand herbs are NOT a substitute for regular medical care and your herbalist doesn’t intend to diagnose, cure, or prevent any disease. 

That said, herbs can relieve many issues–particularly those pesky conditions you’ve already tried to remedy with various treatments to no avail.

Everyone gets excited about their problems being solved quickly! 

However, the timeline for herbal healing focuses on long term benefit and healing from the inside-out. In other words, it takes time.

A general rule of thumb is that for every year an imbalance has existed it will take a month to remedy with natural therapies. 

That said, most folks report feeling better after as little as 1-3 weeks. And with the addition of small diet and lifestyle changes, it’s not uncommon to notice big changes over the course of 2-3 months. Consistency with taking your herbs and following your herbalist’s recommendations are keys to rapid improvement. 

We usually recommend 1-2 follow-up visits spaced 4 weeks apart to monitor how you’re responding to the herbs. These visits last about 30 minutes and entail a brief check-in on how things are going, and a re-assessment of your tongue and pulse to evaluate your body’s response to the protocol.

We work best with those willing to step outside their comfort zone to try new approaches. The healing journey is never a straight linear path, and holding ourselves to unrealistic expectations of perfection only prolongs suffering. 

Most importantly, you’re not alone! We’re here to guide, inform, and encourage you every step of the way.