How it all started
I discovered the wonderful world of Herbal Medicine after working in agriculture and education. After six years of study I qualified as a Registered and Accredited Medical Herbalist, and became a member of the main governing body: the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH). 15 years further on and I’m still just as passionate about health and happiness in the context of the natural world, connecting plants and people.
Why Herbal Medicine?
Herbal medicine is the use of whole plants or plant extracts to get your body to make itself better – the body generally has amazing abilities to heal itself. Herbalists use herbs creatively as teas, alcohol extractions called tinctures, creams, salves and joint rubs, and you can incorporate them into your food, as in nettle soup or omlette!
Does it work?
You yourself use more herbs than you think: Coffee to wake you up, Chamomile tea to sleep, Lavender as a relaxing bath, Rosemary and Sage to help digest your roast dinner…. A trained herbalist can help target herbs in the right combination and at the right dose to help a person with serious and/or complex conditions. Herbal medicine treats the person, not the disease, and looks in a holistic way at all aspects of your life that could impact on your health. However, if someone needs, say, a knee operation, has a deep seated infection, and to see what is going on, we are so glad of surgery, of MRI scans, that antibiotics generally still work and then the herbs can work alongside, building the person up and supporting recovery – best of both!.
“There is so much that we in the modern world can learn from our tribal ancestors. Their understanding of the beneficial properties of the natural world was vast. Where ancient peoples have survived, along with the prehistoric landscapes which nurtured them, we are anxious to preserve this exotic knowledge and to learn from it.”
— The Celtic Wisdom of Trees – Jane Gifford.
Hills Herbals 