Herbal Medicine
The Chinese pharmacopeia offers an extensive library of powerful herbs that, when tailored specifically towards your current state, the season, and your constitution, can match your needs like a glove and support your body to heal in surprising ways.
I use tongue and pulse diagnosis as well as an in-depth consultation to understand your current needs and support you to attain your health goals. This can be done by phone, tele-health or, in-person.
I recommend an initial 4 weeks of herbs with weekly check-ins to assess your symptoms and update the formula if needed. When we find the right match for you I will prescribe it on a monthly basis.
I prefer to prescribe raw formulas that you boil as a tea at home as they are stronger and more effective. If it is more effective for your needs and life rhythm I may prescribe powdered teas or pills instead.
With all of the herbs, I seek out the highest quality as well as organic, pesticide free and domestically grown, even from my own market garden, whenever available.
The brilliance of Chinese herbs lies both in the depth of knowledge about each individual herb but also in the chemistry of how the herbs combine to create new compounds in the cooking process. Though each herb is powerful on its own, I will never prescribe a single herb because their greatest strengths come out in the synergy between herbs.
Photo by Asja
There are many roles in one formula. You have one herb that may be the largest ingredient and its action is the goal of the formula. There will also be others that support that action, while others have the opposite temperature to ensure it's not harmful. Others will give your body more capacity to digest especially if there are some strong or slightly toxic herbs to protect the stomach. Some that are considered helping direct the herbs - to the sinuses, the hands, the lower body, etc. This is a truly brilliant and complex science and can create much relief even in very complicated conditions.
Herbal Background
I have been a student of herbal medicine, truly, since I was a child, as my mother gave me herbs from our garden like Lemon Balm and Mint.
When I was in my Master’s course I took care of our school garden and got the opportunity to build close relationships with these plant benefactors. I continue to work with them both dried and fresh from my own garden. As soon as I finished my Master’s in TCM I went directly into studying the Shang Han Lun and Classical Chinese Herbalism.
I had seen these more ancient formulas do wonders in the school clinic and I knew I needed to dive deeper into this branch of herbalism. I studied first for over a year with Genvieve Le Goff who practices in the lineages of Fire Spirit School and of Tian (Bawei) Heming. I learned so much there but then felt I needed a much deeper study to truly use these formulas to their highest potential. I then requested Anna Werderitsch, L.Ac. of Chelsea Family Acupuncture to mentor me in the lineage of Hu Xi Xu as taught by her mentor Suzanne Robidoux.
This year-long mentorship gave me the keys to a depth of healing knowledge I had longed to bring into my practice. I have since seen people have incredible results after one three-day course of herbs: healing from long-covid symptoms, long-term digestive pain, or a chronic cough that completely disappeared. I do not credit myself with this but these incredible lineages passed on from father to son for generations and are now available to those willing to learn.
I have also dived deep into the herbal lineage of Mazin Al-Kafaji. LAc. He is a 50-year senior practitioner who has spent much time in China and with his own incredible mentors, learning TCM herbal dermatology. He teaches a powerful 3-part system to treat eczema, psoriasis and nearly any dermatological condition with baths, internal teas and topicals that will not only take someone out of extreme discomfort but help their body to be more resilient to triggers over time so that they do not need treatment in the future.
I have taken classes with him in the treatment of infant eczema as well as rheumatoid arthritis and I have studied his work and other treatment protocols with my mentor Dave Melly, LAc. who was a TCM dermatologist himself for decades. It is truly remarkable what can be done with Chinese herbs for these types of conditions, particularly the changes possible I see in children which can be astounding and long-lasting.
Interested in Working With Me?
“Humanity, take a good look at yourself. Inside you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation. You’re a world—everything is hidden in you.”
Hildegard von Bingen
I offer a rotating list of homemade herbal products - contact me for details!