The Moment I Realized I Am Truly a Clinical Herbalist
I didn’t realize I had crossed the threshold into clinical herbalism in a classroom.
It didn’t happen when I earned my certifications or completed an apprenticeship.
It didn’t happen while reading monographs or memorizing plant actions.
It didn’t even happen when I supported a friend through a serious health situation, watching their body shift from struggling to breathe through laughter to eventually returning to backpacking mountains with ease.
The moment I knew I had truly crossed the threshold came when it was my body that needed clinical support.
Consciously stepping from hobby herbalist into clinical herbalist happened the day I chose to leave the comfort of my home and set out for a work-trade situation with an active UTI (urinary tract infection).
I chose to leave a place where I knew I could draw the line at any moment, where antibiotics and conventional care were easily accessible and instead enter Puna (a lush, jungle-like area of Hawaiʻi), knowing I would have no real bathrooms, no true privacy, and that I would still be expected to show up and work.
I did this with intention.
I carefully selected herbs that could support me while I supported others during the festival. I mixed the dried herbs in a jar and wrote on it "LOVE YOURSELF".
I worked with the plants I had brought, plants I had spent time with, listened to, and understood beyond their names.
I stayed consistent.
I paid attention to my body’s signals.
I adjusted as needed.
And my body responded.
Not instantly, but clearly and in a way that I knew was working.
It was in the moments that followed, deep in the humid, sweaty climate, waking in the middle of the night to tend to my body while everyone else slept, that I realized:
I don’t just study herbalism.
I live it every day.
Being a clinical herbalist isn’t proven in the moments where others look to you.
It’s proven in the moments where you have to show up for yourself and trust what you know.
Herbal healing sometimes looks like structured protocols and carefully formulated blends.
And sometimes it looks like preparing for the unknown and trusting yourself enough to walk into it anyway.
Sometimes, those paths intertwine like they did in this UTI situation.
When I returned home and the UTI had fully cleared, I stopped questioning my path and committed fully to my work as a clinical herbalist.
A note on the word "cure" in the photograph. This picture is from a PERSONAL medicine of mine and is not for sale. The medicines I make are not intended to cure or diagnose disease nor are they substitute for care from a qualified medical practitioner.