How Herbalism Works
Herbal medicine, in the hands of a qualified herbalist, is an ancient holistic approach to whole-person healing and wellness. Since time immemorial humans have looked to the plants to help us navigate illness, cultivate resilience, connect to nature, and be our best selves. These benefits are all just as important today as they ever were, and I am so honored to get to share them with you.
Let’s look at one of my favorite questions: How does herbal medicine work? We’ll follow that up with an exploration of issues and situations herbalism can help you with.
What Is Wellness?
This can be defined in any number of ways by any number of people, but from the perspective of ancient herbalism practices, wellness can be loosely defined as being in alignment and harmony with life. Here, we use the word life to indicate both Nature and the energy that animates all beings and processes.
By this definition, when we’re in good health we’re connected to the flow of vital energy and to the world itself. This allows for the inherent intelligence of the body to keep us safe and healthy.
As time goes on, we get a deeper understanding of wellness on a collective level. For example, we now speak about health in function-specific terms like mental health or reproductive wellness or cellular healing. Ultimately, the whole person is a living ecology of organs, systems, processes, functions, and actions- so when one thing isn’t doing well, the rest will also struggle. The approach of truly holistic herbal medicine is to see the person as a whole being, explore where there is disharmony, clarify how the body is trying to heal itself through manifest symptoms, then defining a protocol to help support and nourish that proces.
What Herbal Medicine Isn’t
When we think of illness, we often think about how to suppress or relieve symptoms as quickly as possible. But here’s the issue with this approach: symptoms are the body’s way of trying to fix deeper disease states. Your runny nose is annoying, but it’s your body trying to clear and cleanse nasal tissues from invading pathogens. Nobody enjoys diarrhea, but it’s an effective way to wash and clear out the bowels when toxicity builds up. A cough is your wise body clearing out debris from your lungs and moving blood, nutrients, and oxygen to the respiratory tissues that need healing.
When we think about symptoms in this way, it makes sense that herbalism isn’t focused too much on suppressing them. Rather, we want to support the body in doing what it’s trying to do, trusting in its wisdom, without the need for dramatic symptoms. Here we can bring in herbs, foods, movement, and other practices to help clear the sinuses, purify the bowels, and cleanse the lungs.
Herbal medicine does not suppress symptoms. This is because we want to address the deeper disharmony directly so that it doesn’t have to pop up somewhere else later- which it will!
Traditional herbal medicine is also not particularly concerned with labels or names. Knowing a client has a cold isn’t helpful to me. I need to know what kind of cold is happening in what kind of body. Our medicine is personalized, relational, and dynamic. We don’t treat the cold, rather we nourish the individual and their own experiences of the cold state. For this reason, any herb that’s good for cold might not be good for each person- and in fact many herbs that are good for a named disease state have the ability to strengthen or deepen that issue when given to the wrong person. An herb that can be helpful for asthma in one person will drive inflammation deeper into lung tissues in the next. The nuances are crucial and they are what take herbal medicine from a 50/50 success rate to closer to 100.
How The Herbs Work
Our modern minds are trained to think about medicine as something that comes in when there’s an issue, fixes that issue by force, then leaves us healthy. This is actually not the way herbal medicine works at all!
Our ancient clinical herbalism and spiritual herbalist practices are rooted in the experience of body wisdom- that our bodies know when something is wrong and what needs to happen for a fix. When pathogens invade the upper respiratory system, the body understands that threat and begins producing the disease symptoms of a runny nose and a sneeze to clear it all out. Brilliant! Herbalism doesn’t seek to suppress these powerful symptoms that are the body trying to heal itself, rather they work to support that process by going in the same direction of the healing.
That runny nose won’t be addressed by a professional herbalist by trying to stop it.
Rather, we will bring in herbs that purify the tissues of the upper respiratory system, nourish the production of healthy mucous, protect the sensitive membranes of the sinuses and throat so as to not cause irritation, and possibly bolster the immune system. Alongside all of that, an expert herbalist will also lean in to the fatigue and soreness in your muscles during a cold; giving you a tea to help you sleep and some whole-foods guidance to support the body releasing toxins.
This is truly holistic wellness presented in a way that empowers us on every level!
What Can Herbalism Help With?
In the hands of a qualified and experienced clinical herbalist, there is nothing that the herbs can’t help in some way. Even when someone is on complicated pharmaceutical drugs, is preparing for or recovering from surgery, is pregnant or nursing, is navigating a chronic or severe illness, or is in a weakened overall state. While many, and even most, medicinal herbs might be contraindicated for various people in various circumstances- where there’s will, there’s a way! We can always find a gentle, supportive, and nourishing way to bring the plants in.
In my practice as a clinical herbalist in Salt Lake City, Utah, I have several areas of expertise and specialty; things I enjoy working on with my clients and have a great deal of experience with. Some of these issues are ones I’ve navigated in my own life which lets me bring my own lived experience to the apothecary, others are ones that I see a lot of in my community. Beyond these focus issues, I am a clinical practitioner and am confident in helping you address anything that’s important to you. I am always learning, doing research for myself and my clients, connecting with other herbalists to share protocols and experiences, and learning from my clients directly based on their experiences with herbal medicine.
Anxiety and Stress
No matter how anxiety manifests for you, where you experience in your body, where it’s rooted, or what brings it on, herbs for anxiety and stress can be a profound ally. The depth of herbal medicine allows us to address how you feel during times of calm and times of panic while focusing on the roots of the issues. I love working with clients who are actively engaged in mental health therapy, learning new strategies for navigating stress, and who are excited about the centering and empowering gifts the plants can bring us.
Resilience & Protection
Stress is considered to be one of the leading causes of illness [1] in our country. It’s silent and complex, and we often normalize it to the point that we don’t realize just how bad it’s gotten. Chronic stress depletes our adaptive reserves and has a negative impact on everything from digestion and sleep to immunity and cardiovascular health. Herbs for stress can provide powerful protection from the damaging effects of everyday stressors covering things that come from around us and within us: thoughts, diet, pollution, financial and relationship stresses, chronic illness, and trauma. The right herbs and formulas can also help us become more resilient to stress so that we are not as depleted by its presence and can stay centered and strong.
Sleep, Rest, and Recovery
If you’re not sleeping, you’re not well. Sleep is our body’s opportunity to repair and replenish, grow and learn. When sleep is disturbed we aren’t giving our systems and processes enough of a break to really get things done. Insomnia and restlessness is one of the most common issues I see in the clinic, and it’s one that herbal medicine and supportive therapies can help so much. Unlike pharmaceutical sedatives, herbal medicines for sleep worked with properly don’t deplete the nervous system over time, don’t have a foggy hangover the next day, and don’t cause dependence.
Metabolic Efficiency
The body’s ability to break down food, extract nourishment from it, then expel wastes are part of the catabolic and anabolic processes of metabolism. When these functions aren’t healthy we have a hard time being nourished by our food and start to accumulate cellular and systemic toxins and wastes. This issue is often at the core of many health concerns from digestion to stress, so it’s an area I really like to focus on with a new client. If we can work on the metabolic health of the body, the whole body gets what it needs.
Foundational Immunity
If you’re catching every cold and find that symptoms linger for weeks on end, it may be a sign that your immune system is either too wired or too tired. There are many factors that contribute to immune issues- some causing the immune system to over-react to non-threatening things and some causing the system to let too much in. Herbs for immunity allow us to gently repair and strengthen immunity while letting the body move energy around to other systems that might also be lacking. Various remedies can support us while we’re sick. during common illness seasons, and as a recovery to illness.
[1] Life Event, Stress, and Illness; National Library of Medicine