Understanding the Right Herbal Practitioner for You: Clinical Herbalists vs. Community Herbalists
While seeking out the advice of herbalists, you may wonder how to find the right practitioner for you. In herbalism, practitioners have varying focuses, specialties, and training that can affect what they can offer you.
Typically, herbalists usually choose between two paths by either becoming a clinical herbalist or a community herbalist. Both types of herbal practitioners work to help people heal with herbs, but they each operate in different contexts and purposes within their communities. It’s important to understand the differences of each as you learn about and seek health advice regarding herbs.
Clinical Herbalists:
Clinical herbalists help people with specific health concerns and use intuition, science, and folk understanding of herbs to match people with the right herbs for their bodies, needs, and goals. The whole idea of working with a clinical herbalist is to have a lifestyle coach who can recommend lifestyle changes and particular herbs for your unique health concerns.
Education & Training: Most clinical herbalists usually undergo some sort of evidence-based and science-based training. Education typically includes botany, herbal medicine, pharmacology, anatomy, and physiology. Their primary focus is on providing personalized herbal care to individuals with specific health concerns.
Client-Centered Approach: Clinical herbalists work to help individuals with their unique circumstances and provide herbs that are tailored to fit individual needs. Each herb is just as unique as each person; thus, they focus on matching each plant to the appropriate person and ailment. They work with clients to assess their current state of health, develop individual wellness plans, and monitor clients’ progress over time. Most clinical herbalists operate their practices through 1:1 consultations, formulating custom herbal blends, and providing ongoing support for clients on an as-needed basis.
Multifaceted Care: Most clinical herbalists encourage you to work with conventional medicine. Although you can find clinical herbalists who are anti-modern medicine, most of them encourage their clients to incorporate conventional medicine within their wellness regime. Herbalists cannot replace doctors or other healthcare providers, but they can support you on your health journey. Many clinical herbalists understand that healing often occurs with a multi-faceted approach and that health care is caring for a whole person, which can often require multiple healing modalities.
Focus on Chronic Conditions: Clinical herbalists often work with people who have chronic health concerns or are on medications. Their breadth of expertise can be very specific or broad and range from specialties in pain management, autoimmune disorders, reproductive issues, gut health, mental health, spiritual health, and so much more. Clinical herbalists focus on supporting the health of the whole person by helping clients change lifestyle habits and through tailored herbal support to meet their health goals.
Overall, clinical herbalists offer holistic care by blending herbal wisdom with contemporary healthcare practices. They consider the individual’s lifestyle, environment, and unique body type to offer unique herbal protocols. Clinical herbalists focus on individual needs rather than general herbal advice, like that of a community herbalist.
Community Herbalists:
Community Herbalists focus on serving their communities through education, empowerment, and accessibility to herbal knowledge. While they are a wealth of folk herbal knowledge, they tend to offer broad wellness advice at the grassroots level.
Community Outreach: It may come as no surprise, but community herbalists focus on helping their immediate community. Typically, they can be seen educating and empowering their communities by teaching others how to sustainably wildcraft, make herbal medicine, and use herbs for general health support.
Accessibility & Affordability: Most community herbalists I know strive to make herbal medicine and knowledge accessible and affordable, regardless of someone’s ability to pay. Their accessibility plans may vary but many offer sliding scales, donations, or free herbal clinics to provide individuals in their community with low-cost herbal remedies.
Emphasize Prevention and Empowerment: Community herbalists encourage and empower people to take preventative health measures to support their health. They teach people how to incorporate herbs into their daily lives to support overall health and vitality.
Cultural & Environmental Awareness: Community herbalists emphasize the importance of learning from folk traditions, having a cultural appreciation for herbal practices, and diving into ancestral histories when learning about herbs. They also promote ethical and sustainable foraging to make sure that people seeking the use of herbs become stewards of the ecological communities they harvest from.
Overall community herbalists empower people to take preventative health measures to support their health. They often work to provide accessible education and teach through a folk understanding of herbs. Many educate others on the environmental sustainability of harvest practices and how to make herbal medicines for themselves and their families.
Which Is the Right Herbalist for You?
What Are You Looking For: It all depends on what you are seeking from an herbalist. Do you need herbal recommendations to help you with a particular health condition? Then the advice of a clinical herbalist would probably be best suited for you. Do you want to learn how to make your herbal remedies at home to use for yourself and your family as preventative care? Most likely, a community herbalist would be appropriate for this.
Labels Can Be Helpful: Some herbalists consider themselves to be one or the other, but many choose aspects of both clinical and community herbalism. I consider myself to be both a clinical and community herbalist. My whole life, I was never able to fit in one box and honestly, I don’t feel like any of us have to. These labels are helpful for those seeking herbalists so they can understand what each herbal practitioner is offering, and which herbalists are appropriate when. However, many herbalists consider themselves to be both community and clinical herbalists, it can help clients and students feel at ease since they know their information can be both broad and specific, depending on the context.
My Herbal Practice
My practice is clinical in the way I help people 1:1 with herbs. I am academically trained as a research scientist, so I find it important to work through an evidence-based approach when I recommend herbs for an individual’s health. I still use folk medicine in my practice, but most of my recommendations and rooted in a scientific approach. Additionally, individual herbs must be suited for an individual’s body type and ailments, otherwise dangerous health consequences can occur.
I also very much consider myself to be a community herbalist because I enjoy educating others about sustainable foraging, plant identification, and local ecology as well as providing accessible and empowering options. My bachelor’s and master’s degrees are in wildlife ecology – one of my deepest joys is teaching people about sustainability, habitat, and how interconnected we are with ecosystems. All herbalists and foragers must know how to safely harvest plants as well as how to protect the habitats they forage from. And of course, it’s always fun teaching others how to prepare their medicines in their homes! Many would also consider me to be a community herbalist because I believe it is vitally important to provide accessible options and to empower everyone to take charge of their health.
If you are seeking help with specific health concerns, it is pertinent that you seek the advice of someone with a clinical herbalism background. Not all herbs are meant for all people. Many herbs can interact negatively with medications, and you must get herbs that match specifically for your body and unique ailments to avoid negative health consequences.
Clinical herbalists, like me, are trained to understand your unique circumstances regarding your body type and health concerns. We are trained in understanding which herbs will suit you to support your health goals. We consider not only the physical symptoms but also the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of an individual.
If you are seeking advice on how to heal with herbs, I encourage you to book an herbal consultation with me. My herbal consultations analyze your health history to uncover imbalances, patterns, and root causes, aiming to create a tailored approach addressing your unique needs and goals. Consultations include unique and personalized herbal, supplement, and lifestyle advice. Experience a tailored holistic approach for optimal health. Join me in this transformative journey and start prioritizing your well-being today.
If you would like to learn more about the community herbalism side of things, like plant identification, foraging, and how to make herbal medicines, join my newsletter. Through my newsletter, get updates about my herb & foraging walks, blog, and educational information about herbs for your health.
