98 hanging herbs

GAEA'S HEART

Examples of herbs growing in my garden

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lobelia_infata
Lobelia Infata

This kind of lobelia is not at all like the clouds of sweet flowers that we plant for decoration in pots. Herbal lobelia is used in serious health situations such as asthma attacks that just won’t stop. It grows in a luxurious stand behind the pond in my herb garden.

black_cohash
Black Cohash

The flowers of black cohosh are so tall they drape over other plants in the late summer. It is the roots of black cohosh, however, that I carefully harvest (so as not to kill the plant.) I use them for female problems and complex issues where pain interacts with other symptoms.

lemon_balm
Lemom Balm

Of all the herbs in my garden, lemon balm is the most prolific, producing gorgeously for me year after year. I cut it back often, and I save every leaf, because it is so helpful for sleep problems, anxiety, and digestive troubles.

vervain
Vervain

I use European vervain to help with pain, inflammation and sleep. There are several different kinds of sleep disorders, as well as at least three different kinds of pain, and so we need a variety of herbs for each different kind. In addition, people are all unique, responding better to one herb and not another. That’s why you’ll see so many different sleep/pain/inflammation herbs in my garden.

CLIENT-HERBALIST RELATIONSHIP

I do not charge you for my time in the initial consultation between us. Nor will I charge you for any time we take having further conversations. I don’t charge for the time it takes me to do scientific research on your specific problem, which I always do for every client. In fact, I only charge you for what it costs me to make herbal treatments for you (plus tax).

I am not in this relationship with you to make money. I am in this relationship because I believe in what I do, and because I want to help you.

Really, I want to help as many people as I can.

And so, for me to take you on as a client, I need to know that my time will be well spent. I need you to take our relationship seriously enough to tell me all I need to know in order to help you, and also, I need to know that you will take my advice to heart and to really give the herbal products I prepare for you a chance to help you.

For herbal products to be beneficial, the herbalist needs to know:

  • any allergies you have
  • any food sensitivities you have
  • all health conditions other health professionals have diagnosed you as having
  • all prescription medication you currently take (name of drug, dose size and how often)

As well, I will ask you a lot of questions about the symptoms you have come to me about, as well as others that might seem not to be. Herbalists don’t think of you as a urinary tract infection, even if those symptoms are what you might have come to me about. You are a whole person. Your body is capable of healing itself, but only if the environment inside your body is right. I will provide you with healing herbs that will work with your own chemistry to help normalize your inner environment, but for me to identify the herbs that do this best, I need to know your whole picture. And so even though you might not tell a doctor about your mild insomnia because you think it’s just a natural result of someone your age having your job and your mother-in-law (etc.), you should tell me. Those symptoms might really not be caused just by what you think. They might have something to do with your major complaint. And so, even if my questions seem irrelevant or a little bit personal, I really need you to answer them as fully and truthfully as you can. (If things are too difficult to talk about, I will understand.)

All of this information-seeking will take a couple of hours in person or on the phone, or maybe even a little longer.

As your herbalist, I promise to keep completely confidential everything you might tell me, including anything you might say about any other of my clients, or anything they might say about you. I will keep detailed records of your health and medical needs and provisions. I will do everything in my power to answer all your questions and provide you with any information you need on the herbal products I provide.

What else do I need from you besides good info? Well, I need you to agree that you will really try to follow the regimen I will suggest to you. This means that when I have finally prepared your herbs (which usually takes less than a week after our initial consult), you will agree to take the herbs in the dosage and frequency per day I suggest, and for as long as I suggest. (Unless you have a allergic or other harmful idiosyncratic reaction to them, and please talk to me if that happens.)

Herbs are not drugs, which are quick-acting because they usually work on only one chemical group within only one part of one system in your body. Herbs will work with your entire inner environment until it comes reasonably close to full health. This takes time. One of your symptoms might feel a bit or a lot better after a few days of taking the herbs, but this isn’t usually a full cure. A cure happens when your bodily environment has been back to nearly full health for so long that it will maintain its regained health without needing the herbs.

How long does this take?

Some herbalists say that the environment within your body takes about as long to become healthy as it took to become unhealthy. What I believe is that it depends on what’s wrong with you and how many systems it has affected, as well as what kinds of herbs are needed, but I think a good try on your part would be to complete a month at least on the herbal regimen I suggest before stopping it.