It’s a long time since I had kids of my own starting a new school term, but I do have a new term starting and I must say [for me] it’s a lot more fun. So firstly, I have sent in my Dissertation which means that my MSc is done, and I can forget about deadlines, and research, and […]
Category Archives: The School of Herbal Medicine
21
Aug
Aug
A few months ago, I wrote two related Substacks; one was called ‘The Slow Work of Mastery’ [1] November 28th 2025, the other was called ‘Thyroid Mastery in 60 Days?’ [2] November 21st 2025, in which I moaned quite a bit about the modern trend to speed-learn, usually by downloading courses from the internet that can be completed in a matter of weeks to get a certificate of ‘competence’. And I quote; And so I grumble […]
19
Jun
Jun
I don’t know how many people think that herbalists just hug trees and sit with sage leaves, but the result of that would be, understandably, a low level of trust concerning medical matters. Speaking of someone who was taught Biochemistry from Lehninger [if you know, you know], and Clinical Medicine from Kumar and Clark, I […]
Health, Herbal Medicine, The School of Herbal Medicine
Bringing Herbal Skills Back Into the Community
22
May
May
There’s a particular kind of energy that appears when people gather around a table covered in jars, leaves, roots, and the warm steam of a freshly brewed infusion. It’s the energy of people remembering that health isn’t something handed down to them. Rather, it’s something they can participate in. When we had our last trustees’ […]
24
Apr
Apr
Something good happens… Sometimes, an orthodox clinician reaches a point in their career where the official story no longer matches the lived reality of practice. The following quotes come from a GP who later integrated herbal medicine into her work, they taken from her book about how and why the medical profession left herbs behind.1 This is a woman we know, as last year [2025] she was Guest Speaker at […]
10
Apr
Apr
And Why It Matters… People often ask why I continue to practise as a herbalist and teach herbal medicine in an era saturated with pharmaceuticals, protocols, and increasingly algorithmic healthcare. The answer is not nostalgia, nor a rejection of biomedicine. It is something far more pragmatic: herbs remain one of the most effective ways to treat illness while preserving […]
28
Nov
Nov
Cramming information does not replace learning a craft A quote from How to Read a Book* has been circling my mind lately; “The viewer of television, the listener to radio, the reader of magazines, is presented with a whole complex of elements – all the way from ingenious rhetoric to carefully selected data and statistics – to make it easy for him […]
With an outdated stereotype…. I was listening to an audiobook when the inevitable scene cropped up: the odd aunt with her mysterious ‘little brown bottles,’ and whiff of menace hanging in the air. We’re supposed to smirk, roll our eyes, and assume her potions are either completely harmless or dangerously poisonous. And if you’ve watched […]
13
Jun
Jun
The hidden costs of some drugs. This has happened before. A patient comes in with an array of disparate symptoms affecting several bodily systems. I am with students. When the patient is out of the room, we discuss differential diagnoses. Sarcoidosis is mentioned. Sjögrens is mentioned. One of the students comments on the patient’s drug […]
18
Apr
Apr
And how should it be done? When I and my fellow tutors catch the joy on a student’s face as they get more and more confident and competent understanding and using medicinal herbs, we feel very much part of a great and wonderful continuum that is keeping something very valuable alive. In the UK now […]