It was the late 1990s when, at 19 years old, I found myself in a circle of multi-generational teachers who taught me how to heal. The sound of the drum and the lift of the song woke something up in me as we sat in a circle singing and sharing our life stories. It woke an ancient remembering; that...

My best friend Robert Birch and I have taught together for nearly as long as we’ve known each other. We met in a workshop in 2003, and since then, we’ve facilitated more large community rituals than we can count. Here, we discuss our backgrounds and relationship with ancestral...

This recipe is from my well-loved copy of Herbal Healing for Women by Rosemary Gladstar, published in 1993.

Rosemary calls it Iron-Plus Syrup.

The 'plus', is the addition of vitamin C and other mineral-rich herbs that help the body absorb iron.

*Read my commentary at the bottom.

Ingredients:...

I was 22 years old and working in a health food store when I met a frazzled customer asking for help for her hot flashes and insomnia.

Her eyes were anxious, her voice raspy, and the feeling was desperate.
Out tumbled the story of her heart-wrenching divorce that coincided with her mother's...

When I need to regroup and pause, I go and sit by the Poplar tree. Perhaps it’s the convergence of elements they live among that’s so soothing, with that borderland where river meets rock and gnarly root. Poplars are majestic. Sturdy. Powerful. And in the in-betwixt season of late...

The coronavirus's quick travel around the globe in a few short months in early 2020 highlights our connectivity as human beings. As the metaphor goes, a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil and sets off a tornado in Texas. The hygiene practices and social distancing you or I practice has a...

I get so many requests – much more than I can fulfill – to produce audio recordings of the various meditations, visualizations, and exercises I sometimes guide patients and students through. 
This one is a simple guided meditation for Deep Sleep.
Tips: Creating a soothing...

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be...

I want to shout out and give great thanks to Alexis of www.wortsandcunning.com for creating this awesome graphic explaining how to find your place on sliding scales. Please read their full article here.

The land is burning, and so are our lungs. Here's a list of my favourite respiratory protectors. Drink them up, and be sure to share them with the vulnerable people in your life such as small children, elders, and those who are immune compromised.

If you want to learn more about herbal medicine...

Botanical Name: Crataegus spp.

Common Names: hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, May-tree, whitethorn, or hawberry.

Crataegus is a genus of several hundred species of shrubs and trees in the Rose family, Rosaceae. The species often found where I live in southwestern Canada are...

Sharing our whole self with someone else is risky. It requires boldness and daring to reveal our so-called imperfections, our fears, our longings, our locked away stories. Those parts of self we are taught to hide away from the world. The older I get the more I learn vulnerability takes courage,...