Healing Plants

Chemically, plants do very basic things for us: most are nutritious, anti-oxidant, pain-relieving, astringent, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, cleansing, balancing, soothing, cooling or heating, laxative or binding, nutritive, sedative or stimulating, emollient, expectorant, immune enhancing, and/or fluid-moving within our bodies and on our skin. A few contain steroid-like substances. Some are deadly poisonous and a few are psychoactive or subject to abuse. It is not necessary to find plants from far away lands; all of these potential effects, and more, are found in the plants of our local area.

Almost all chemically effective medicinal plants have potentially toxic side effects. Nature has gifted plants with these effects for their own physical protection. Working respectfully and knowledgeably with plants, we can cooperate with the side effects caused by their protective mechanisms to stabilize and support our own out-of-balance bodies. It is always necessary to be respectful, grateful and cautious when utilizing medicinal plants, even those we purchase at our local health food stores.

Two Great Tools for Local Botany and Medicinal Plant Enthusiasts

BackCountry CD

A boxed set of 75 Cards. Each 4x6 card features one of the most potent local medicinal or poisonous plants. The full-color card front features a collage of aspects of the plant necessary for identification, along with color quick-find tabs on the edges indicating organ system of action, flower color, month of bloom and habitat. The text on the back details medicinal use. Companion Book and Key included.

Click the button below to order.

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BackCountry CD

A digital photo library to help you learn the Central-Coast and South-Coast local plants. To see sample slides of the CD and to purchase the CD click on the button below.

In the Western world we have a “magic bullet” attitude toward medicines that includes all the violence such an image entails. Western medicines have been developed to effectively target one particular disease process: we kill microbes, take an aggressive approach, and make war on disease. The Western approach is primarily about curing. Plant medicines, like nature, are all about holistic healing. They are not magic bullets aimed at a target, but instead are gifts from the Creator that work with the whole of nature to keep our bodies balanced and support our wellness. Not everyone can be cured, but healing is available to all.

Herbs have a long cultural past which, when honored, gives them power beyond the chemical constituents of their physical selves. In addition to their chemical effectiveness, much of the historic success of herbal medicine in indigenous cultures has been amplified by rituals and sacred worldview connections shared by both the healer and the person seeking healing. Even today, the sacred attitude I bring to the healing use of herbs greatly enhances their effectiveness.

Spending time with plants in the natural world balances the western world’s aggressive approach to disease and dysfunction. Both approaches have their place and are important. The earth teaches us through metaphors, awakens our primal energies, and guides us by example. These are transformative experiences that also heal and sometimes cure as well. Much that we learn in nature, and from ancient healing practices, keeps us grounded and helps us make peace with reality to do whatever needs to be done.

I do not sell herbs in my private practice as an herbalist. The experience of finding or growing them for yourself can only enhance your healing. What my fee covers is simply my time. I will work with you on an individual basis to connect you with healing plants in the way that is right for you. Examples of things we might do include private hikes to harvest and connect you with a plant that can help you, using the plant during your massage, rituals, meditations using plants, and medicinal baths to do at home.

People always ask what sparked my interest in healing and how I have learned what I know, since it is not taught this way in colleges. More information about me and my training is included on the Enrichment page. This kind of knowledge has always been handed down through lineages of healers and herbalists by world of mouth, and this describes my early training as well. Now I continue to enhance these teachings with my own extensive study and research.