About Me
In the year 2000, I was wrestling my way through traffic to get to my uninspiring retail job like most days when I started wondering aloud what I was really supposed to be doing with my life. As I drove around a construction site full of machines and hills of upturned dirt, the windows were down and the smell of the dirt took me back to my Great Grandmother's garden where we spent every summer working and playing. I knew that it had to do with plants but I was clueless as to what and how. Fast forward a few hours, while in the checkout line at a Health Food store I opened a magazine to a full page ad of an herbal school and bells went off.
So one cashed out 401K later, two certifications from the school, followed by more self education with several years spent working and teaching at a local herb farm I started helping people as The Empirical Herbalist. I chose the name because of what it means.
em-pir-i-cal- based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience
This is the heart of working with plants and people. The more time and energy you spend with them, the more their story opens up to you and it's easier to understand if not the 'why' they work but at least the how. We look for movement of issues or conditions. Newness where there was only old leftovers or hope where there was despair. Herbs like people have a multitude of subtleties and energies just like we all do and the relationships each person has with each herb is always touching to see.
Today, that light bulb moment in traffic has lead me on a wonderful adventure. I've met and worked with beautiful interesting people of all ages. My youngest clients have been newborn babies and my oldest in her nineties. I've journeyed with people through struggles like detoxes, grief from the passing of a loved one and what looked like an insurmountable diagnosis. I've celebrated with clients as they reached their healthy life goals, smiled as new moms' nursed the babies that they were told never would be and hugged people who finally found some relief after years of searching.
Herbs are amazing. They have been overlooked and forgotten for far too long. I am honored to work with them and hope to share them with you.
So one cashed out 401K later, two certifications from the school, followed by more self education with several years spent working and teaching at a local herb farm I started helping people as The Empirical Herbalist. I chose the name because of what it means.
em-pir-i-cal- based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience
This is the heart of working with plants and people. The more time and energy you spend with them, the more their story opens up to you and it's easier to understand if not the 'why' they work but at least the how. We look for movement of issues or conditions. Newness where there was only old leftovers or hope where there was despair. Herbs like people have a multitude of subtleties and energies just like we all do and the relationships each person has with each herb is always touching to see.
Today, that light bulb moment in traffic has lead me on a wonderful adventure. I've met and worked with beautiful interesting people of all ages. My youngest clients have been newborn babies and my oldest in her nineties. I've journeyed with people through struggles like detoxes, grief from the passing of a loved one and what looked like an insurmountable diagnosis. I've celebrated with clients as they reached their healthy life goals, smiled as new moms' nursed the babies that they were told never would be and hugged people who finally found some relief after years of searching.
Herbs are amazing. They have been overlooked and forgotten for far too long. I am honored to work with them and hope to share them with you.