What is Herbal Medicine?
Herbal medicine is one of the oldest systems of traditional medicine in the world and is practised widely today by most cultures around the world.
Herbal medicine is traditional medicine, designed to increase your well being and quality of life. Herbal medicine uses plant only products in the form of liquid extracts, herbal teas, oils, powdered form, creams and poultices. Herbalists uses these preparations with a wholistic treatment approach to maintain and support health. This is done by strengthening your physiological functions and recuperative abilities to assist the healing process and benefit from the many healing properties plants contain.
Typically, a herbalist may practice the following;
Being present and listening to you.
Consider what you say in the context of your whole health, not defined by any illness.
Consider illness or ailments as a part of what is going on for you as a whole.
A gathering of information to build a wholistic health picture.
Entering in a therapeutic partnership with you and working together on practical solutions and strategies to the changes and challenges you face.
Taking a good look into diet, lifestyle, sleep and digestive routines, coming up with strategies and protocols to implement in your health practices.
Wholistic & Vitalistic Approach
When we focus on a single part of our body we find it is actually connected to the rest of ourselves.
Together we will work to come up with a health plan that is achievable, practical and transformational for you in some way.
A wholistic care model is comprehensive health care. This model considers all the factors that make up our health. It is an integration and collaboration of each and every facet of life, health and illness which includes recognition of your predisposition. I work with you as an individual that is interacting with the intricate web of what constitutes our health; genetics, life style, stress, trauma, diet, environmental/chemical / electronic impacts as well as our mental states, attitudes, belief systems and emotional tendencies around our physical ails.
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A vitalistic approach to herbal medicine considers the state of the tissues in the body, working to balance the hot/cold/ damp/dry condition of the tissue that may be in an over tense, stagnant or too relaxed state.
When specific medicine is used for a person, smaller doses are used to effectively stimulate the body’s own healing response.
I treat you as a whole person and not an illness or condition, therefore addressing and working with the underlying root cause.
No two people are the same. Even when people present with similar symptoms the underlying causal dysfunction can be very different.
There is no one way. Every person will find the best way that suits their needs. Herbal medicine can support every form of healing and self discovery.
Herbal medicine can be used in conjunction with other forms of treatment as well as be supportive during allopathic treatment.
Sustainability
I believe it is our responsibility to look after the nature where our medicines come from.
I source extracts that are sustainably harvested, preferably organic and wild crafted, quality and active compounds tested and mostly made in Australia.
The supplements I use are mostly practitioner range of high manufacturing and medicinal standard.
Dried herbs for teas are mostly certified organic and Australian grown where possible.
I have also started making my own percolated extracts which is an enriching and engaging process that gives me greater understanding in the ways of medicine making.
Safety of Herbal Medicine
Herbal medicine is safe when prescribed by a highly trained practitioner and when it is sourced and manufactured of a high standard.
Herbalists rely on traditional and scientific evidence to select the use of herbs for different conditions. The herbal knowledge, wholistic practice and philosophy are also informed by hundreds of years of rich empirical knowledge passed down through academic botanical Materia Medica and mentorship.
Personal Ethos
My vision of wholism as a sustainable perspective and life-style looks like this; nourishing, seeing and caring for all the parts that make us whole as human beings. This extends beyond ourselves to our families, communities and the care for the environment from which our foods and medicines come from. Living sustainably includes a reciprocity of being. As we take or receive the gifts from the earth, so in turn we need to give back to keep this balance healthy. We need to look after the source that provides benefit to us and for us to be beneficial to the earth, to hold a respect for land, traditional peoples and their culture.
I am a part of Estuary Learning, a non for profit organisation that is set up to nurture, protect and teach the wisdom of Natural Earth Medicine.
I acknowledge the Awabakal people, the traditional custodians of the land and waters on which I live, work and raise my children. I pay respect to the holders of knowledge, culture and traditional medicine and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.