My background is quite diverse from studying as a midwife, an herbalist, a family nurse-practitioner, and a yogi. I value Earth Medicine, conventional science, and the innate healing power of our own bodies. I respect plants, science, my clients, and the planet. When I work with clients, I do have a sense of philophies that guide me and this is where I find connection.
Having the spirit of a healer is both an art and a science. It is about compassion and meeting each person where they are at on their healing journey. It's about empowering them through education to be their own best healer. These philosophies are my compass of sorts, a way of engaging with my clients.
Each Individual is an Evolving with Their Own Inherent Wisdom
From our very core, at the cellular level, each of us have an inherent healing power. My goal is to support the body so that its natural state of dynamic balance can do the work of healing. Sometimes my craft is about nudging that healing process. This may be identifying noxious influences in the environment to improve the system, such as detoxifying our diet, our home, our relationships, and our thoughts and perceptions. It may mean using botanical medicine or food to support the body's underlying well-being and functioning in order to allow intrinsic healing to occur, but it will also include nature, sleep, joy, and maybe, at times, herbs or pharmaceuticals. Our bodies can be overburdened, exhausted and need rejuvenation so recognizing that, identifying the need and the degree of support necessary, is my role. Yours is investing in self.
Empower through Education & Guiding in Self-Care
My heart has always been education. I feel education is empowering and I love to share knowledge so you can delight in all the beauty this life journey has to offer, along with me. I do feel though that we are each responsible for our own well-being and do not see my clients as dependent upon me for healing. I'll provide guidance, resources, and encouragement, even community, but the work is yours. I know well though, that knowledge doesn't always equate to application. There is much working against us, so creating a healthy lifestyle that enables you to independently maintain a state of optimal well-being, and to have the knowledge to make modifications and adjustments necessary to maintain optimal health, can still be an incredible hurdle alone. I am transparent about my own struggles, my own hurdles and my desire is to offer you community and accountability. This is life long work.
The Client Maintains Power and Authority over Self
This maybe defines me as a practitioner more than any other principle. My relationship with my client is not based on a hierarchical model. Rather, it is based on a partnership model, that values equality between the practitioner and the one seeking care. Midwives and herbalists, and clinicians, should not have authority of their clients, but neither are we ultimately responsible for the client. This healing journey again, is your work. We are the resource, the educator, and the compassionate listener. We are on a mutual journey together in effort to best understand your condition and needs, and to gather the necessary resources for improving the client's condition. Responsibility is in your hands, and certainly shared with me, but you know your needs best.
Offer an Integrative and Holistic View First
I listen, a lot. I take a broad view of the many factors in your life that impact your health and wellness. My plans are then broad and based on many factors that impact dis-ease rather than just focusing on symptoms or illness, or a single manifestation of dysfunction. If you come to me to address a chronic herpes outbreak, we will talk about stress, your emotional triggers, your boundaries, and part of your treatment plan will include attention to stress reduction along with utilization of adaptogens and nervine herbs to support both immediate and long term stress. We won't simply utilize antiviral herbal medications.
Healing is an Opportunity for Personal Growth
We don't seek out these hurdles so we can grow and heal, but they are opportunities for us. Illness provides us an opportunity to consider our place in the universe, our place in our life's journey, and also our place in our family, in our relationships, and in out lives. It provides a great time for reflection and introspection, and an opportunity to re-invent oneself. We can evaluate our lifestyle habits, our mental habits, and even our beliefs and how they may be interfering with our well-being. My role again is compassion and understanding as you work to find meaning and opportunity in these times.
Treating the Person, Not the Symptoms
This isn't a PR stunt; it literally means my philosophy is to go deeper than the body's warning sign and identify the root problem of any issue. Giving medications to silence discomfort is like pulling the batteries out of your smoke detector. Ignore this without correcting the problem and eventually your house will burn down. Many discomforts are your body's natural attempt to replair, heal, or protect the body. Symptoms are our allies. They are the cookie crumbs that walk us towards the work that needs healed.
Empathetic, Caring, & Non-Judgmental
My work is to offer you a safe place to heal, and recognize and honor the highest ideals in each individual. We are all human and in our own way, doing our best. I have no rigid set of rules, no routines assigned to everyone. Rather, I engage in the belief that equilibrium comes from our choices, our freedom, and the consequences of such, not part of a cycle of guilt, blame, and punishment. Our choices too, are so incredible complex and unique to each of our own journeys. Our patterns differ, as do our coping strategies, our traumas, our environments, and our resources. Again, we are all just doing our best. I offer flexibility, acceptance, and patience. I will offer you therapeutic connection, but this work is yours.
Unique Approaches for Unique Individuals
There just isn't ever one presentation or one approach or one way to manifest health and wellness, no matter how similar two things or people may present. Patterns emerge and decades of experience can help me discern potentials, but this is a mutual journey we identify together, as well as craft plans and engage in healing. Your personal experience is as important as my expertise in the science and art of healing. Intuition is also part of our work together, part of decision-making, as is intellect and emotions. We must pay attention to all the nuances of healing, but intuitive knowing comes from academic understanding and decades of diverse experience. I am open to all the various forms of knowing. Dis-ease is always seen in the context of your lived experience.