Using senses for herbal medicine exploration with Erika Galentin

Using senses for plant exploration with Erika Galentin
Erika: Let's say that I'm sitting with a patch of stinging nettle and instead of just walking by and saying, "Oh, you're nettle and you're this and you're that. And I know you're good for this and you taste like that." I'm having a one way conversation , when you think about it, with the nettle. Instead of sitting down with that patch of plants and turning off the whole "I know you because I know your name", and really just taking a moment to be present with those plants and to focus on specifically our sense experiences or sense perceptions, to broaden our knowledge base about that particular plant. So really looking at the plant, really smelling the plant, really tasting the plant, feeling what it's like to be stung by the plant, and really being present with that rather than just going, "Oh, you're nettle and you're this and you're that."
Lana: You're listening to Plant Love Radio episode number 62.
Welcome to Plant Love Radio, a place where you'll discover how to create a balanced, vibrant and resilient life through the wonders of herbal medicine. I'm your host, Lana Camiel, a college professor, drug information pharmacist, and an herbalist. You'll love my amazing guests, herbal teachers, clinicians, medicine makers, growers, and artists.
Thank you for joining me on this adventure. Let's get the show started.
Hello Friends! I hope you're doing well. As an educator, I'm always curious how people learn and retain new concepts. Last year I came across a course that looks at herbal learning from a very unique perspective. For its creator and my today's guest, Erika Galentin, using senses for plant medicine exploration is non-negotiable.
Erika is a clinical herbalist aroma therapist, distiller grower, and medicine maker consulting from Sovereignty Herbs in Ohio. She's a professional member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists in UK and the American Herbalists Guild in the United States. Over a decade of clinical practice guides, Erika to encourage positive relationship between plants and people and people in their bodies.
She's a firm believer in celebrating the role of emotions and psyche play in our well-being. In addition to clinical practice, Erika is both a student and a teacher of horticulture, native medicine, plant conservation and ecology and study of plants and their medicinal virtues.
Erika and her company are kindly supporting today's episode with a giveaway raffle of her new book, a Family Guide to Aromatherapy, and a course promotion for the podcast supporters. For all the resources mentioned in today's episode, please head over to https://plantloveradio.com/62. Enjoy
Erika. Good morning. How are you?
Erika: I'm very, very well. Good morning. Thanks for having me here.
How Erika got started on the herbal medicine path
Lana: I'm very excited to have this conversation. I wanted to begin by talking of how you got started in herbal medicine. When did you realize that plants are actually important part of your life ?
Erika: Yeah. Great question. I left, home, graduated from high school back when I was 17, I moved all the way across the country, from Philadelphia to Eugene, Oregon, actually, and had what I often refer to as my barefoot revolution.
So I come from a long lineage of medical doctors, as well as researchers and pharmaceuticals. But I also come from really long lineage of gardeners. so there was this interesting backdrop to my upbringing and what the people in my family focused on for their life's work.
but nonetheless, I was raised in a suburban area, really detached from nature. And you know, when I moved to Oregon, back in the late nineties, it was like, Oh my goodness. my mind was blown. There was organic farming and the eating local. That's where I first discovered this idea of medicinal plants and using herbs to heal yourself, and to support your health.
and at the time I was at the university of Oregon doing my undergraduate in anthropology with a focus on medical anthropology. I was really interested in how different cultures from across the world, view health and disease. And so it was four years kind of diving into the more cultural side of medicine.
I thought, you know what, I don't really want to be an anthropologist. I want to be an herbalist kind of taking the best of all those worlds and putting them together. And, I searched desperately at the time.
we're looking at early two thousands now for schools in the United States. I was very much an academic, very much wanting a kind of university style education and realizing that that wasn't available in the United States.
I ended up moving to Scotland, in the UK where I did a four year program at the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine and the University of Wales, to get a bachelor of science in herbal medicine. And then I spent several years in clinical practice after that, before I returned to the United States, that was a bit of my story, the short version, believe it or not.
Lana: So, you talked about how it began, but I know that since that time, your philosophy on herbal medicine has evolved. Can you talk a little bit about that?Evolution of Erika's philosophy
Erika: Yeah, sure. I think like most of us who are raised within Western culture, especially Western medical culture, we're always taught about, using, substances to treat problems. So, when I first approached herbal medicine, I was really coming from that cultural worldview of using herbs to treat problems.
So you have a headache. Okay. Use a Wood bettony or Rosemary. Or you're constipated use yellow dock, and looking at things from that very linear a plus B equals C perspective, right. Because that's how we're trained. I mean, that's how pharmaceuticals work. That's how surgery works.
You press the button with whatever substance or procedure you're using and boom, your problem solved. But what happened over the last, 20 or so years that I've been studying herbs? I've really become to recognize that it holds kind of worldview or paradigm about using herbs treat problems.
It doesn't really work. and that really where herbal medicine shines is in. Partnering with the body and hiring the body to then overcome its own problems. Right? So the power and the knowledge base is already a part of our physical system. and, just like good nutrition and movement.
The herbs are yet other tools that we can use to help negotiate physiology, support the body, where it needs a little bit extra help. And that really the body itself is doing the work. and so it's kind of an inverted perspective, from when I started.
Lana: Okay. Great. Thank you. So I came across some of your writings. And you were talking about the importance of empowering people with plants. Why is this such an important concept for you? And how did everything that you have done in your own practice reflects this?
Erika: Yeah, good question. So it's interesting. It kind of feeds into, how my perspectives on the role of herbal medicine have changed over the years, to what I consider to be a very disempowering system of medicine that we currently find ourselves in here, especially in the United States.
Up near 90% of my work as a clinician is actually helping my clients navigate the medical system. Also making sure that, there's someone on the outside looking at the bigger picture to advocate for them, in the face of a very rare kind of rapacious, as well as, demeaning, system of medicine.
By the time my clients get to me, they've usually been through the gamut of practitioners. And, medical professionals they're at their wit's end, they feel very ashamed. There's a lot of shaming involved, and a very disempowered by their process would the backdrop, again, being about this kind of cultural perspective about healing, health and disease, where the answers to our problems exist on the outside of us .
We don't have those answers within us. We are not in control and we're kind of indoctrinated, in our medical system to remain the unknowledgeable layman, where we're never, actually handed the driver's seat, say, you know what?
You actually have the tools within you. You can do this. You've got this. and it's not to say that every single medical practitioner within Western medicine is disempowering to their patients. but I do think that is the general culture. It keeps us in a position as medical consumers, the disempowered and, there's a lot to be gained by the industry, by us being disempowered.
this idea of empowering people with plants, is really using herbal medicine, not only as substances that we can take to support our bodies, but a whole philosophy of healing that really takes this kind of modern Western medical model and puts it aside to say we're no longer going to be disempowered.
we are going to have the tools we need. Because we have the ability to understand our own bodies and to experience our own problems. We don't need a medical elite to tell us what's going on. Although it can be very helpful, obviously. So hopefully that, that explains it a little bit.
Lana: It does also tell us what the name of your business is
Erika: Oh, it's Sovereignty Herbs.
Lana: and why did you guys decide to call it that?
Erika: Oh, that's a really good question. I was thinking about this whole idea of empowering and taking control and being in the driver's seat, taking responsibility as well. Right. So one of the things about being well requires that we take responsibility, to our fullest extent, for where we're at and how our health got to where it did and to recognize that we have to make changes, right?
So there's taking some responsibility, internalizing locus of control and so all of these thoughts and philosophies really reminded me of this idea of sovereignty. And when you think of the autonomy versus sovereignty, one of the major differences defining those two words is autonomy is usually when power is granted to you by a higher power.
that to me, didn't sound right. That to me sounded more of the same. I'm going to have power because it's given to me by a higher power, so to speak versus sovereignty is, really creating power for yourself from the ground up. the word really spoke of my whole clinical philosophy as well as my entire approach to the plant kingdom in general. So that's how we came up with the name Sovereignty Herbs.
Lana: All right. So in order to be empowered, you need to learn, you need to know. So knowledge is an important part of that. And so I wanted to shift our discussion a little bit to this. I read one of your quotes about us not listening to the message of plants when we think we know what it does, and it really captured my attention. So during the last AHG symposium I purchased one of your mystery boxes and became fascinated by how you share this knowledge. So I want to ask you to talk a little bit about that.Learning with your senses
Erika: Yeah, sure. so where to begin with that? I'll just start by saying that I believe it was Kierkegaard who said that once we name a thing, we kill that thing and part of the interpretation of that particular quote is referring to, once we label something with our conscious mind, we tend to stop perceiving it . A big part of my training, in the United Kingdom, in herbal medicine is looking at the work of a particular gentleman by the name of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, from Germany, he was kind of late 17 hundreds, early 18 hundreds, German writer, poet philosopher, and wrote several treatises on botany anatomy, color. And, one of the things that I have learned through studying the work of Goethe especially in relationship to plants is the power of our sense perception in providing us with what I consider to be incredibly legitimate sources of information and one of the things that I find kind of interesting about my students, as well as my colleagues, when we're talking about herbs is we'll say, Oh, there's a dandelion, dandelion is good for this. It's that, it's this it's this it's Oh, look, there's dandelion. And so we put this label on it.
We call it by its name and in doing so stop listening. We stop perceiving. We make the assumption that we know that plant because we have named that plant. And so one of the things that, is really interesting is that if we can turn that off, right? So, let's say that I'm sitting with a patch of stinging nettle . And instead of just walking by and saying, Oh, you're nettle and you're this and you're that. And I know you're good for this and you taste like that. And you're this, and you're this. I'm having a one way conversation. When you think about it with the nettle, instead of sitting down with that plant, that patch of plants and turning off the whole "I know you because I know your name", and really just taking a moment to be present with those plants and to focus on specifically our sense experiences or a sense perceptions, to broaden our knowledge base about that particular plant. So really looking at the plant, really smelling the plant, really tasting the plant, feeling what it's like to be stung by the plant, and really being present with that rather than just going, "Oh, you're nettle and you're this and you're that." And what ends up happening with this kind of approach to studying plants and you could even call it more of a phenomenology based way of studying plants you learn more and more and more and more. These endless universes of information, about what could be considered a very simple thing like nettle or dandelion, these are some of the first herbs we learn as herbalists and they're quote unquote basic. But I have learned huge amounts from stinging nettle not based on knowing its name or how it grows even, what other herbalists have told me, but simply because I've sat with it and I've smelled it and I've tasted it, I've really looked at it. I've really experienced the whole formic acid and the stinging and thinking, okay, how does that feel?
So that's kind of what I mean by listening to plants. I think that we tend to want to put labels on things. And in doing so kind of shut down our ability to perceive new information about them.
Lana: I love that. So a lot of what you're describing is different experimental methods or sensorial perceptions - how you read your own senses, how you use them for learning about herbs. First of all, I want to ask you what Planta Dyadica means. And when did you first recognize the importance of what the system has to offer and how do you use it? Tell us a little bit more about that.
Planta Dyadica
Erika: Okay. Sure. so Planta Dyadica is basically the name of an online interactive course that we offer at Sovereignty Herbs. And the basis of that course is exactly what I was just talking about. Really is learning to cultivate your sense perception, and learning how to, perceive your senses, and the information that is coming from your senses as legitimate. So one of the difficulties I've had with navigating the realm of herbal medicine is that a lot of us are constantly trying to fit into the box of the Western scientific method and needing Western scientific methodologies to validate The herbs for their efficacy as well as the legitimacy really of the practice of herbal medicine in general.
And it's interesting because there's always a lot of dialogues surrounding herbs in Western science and figuring out what herbs do, and what they're good for and all of these things that I have questioned my whole career as far as looking at cultivating knowledge about herbs.
So we have a lot of herbalists who really wanted to go to Western science to explore and learn about plants, which is great because there's no one way here. It's an amalgamation of all kinds of different ways of acquiring knowledge, Western science being just one. But one of the fundamental philosophies of the Western scientific method is based on this concept of rationalism. It's rationalism over empiricism. And what is interesting about rationalism as a general philosophy, that is the underbelly of the Western scientific method, is that our sense experiences are not a legitimate source of information. So we're looking at herbs within this context that so much of herbal medicine comes from our sensory experience. So a perfect example would be the bitter flavor. An herb is medicinal because it has the flavor of bitter. It's our sense experience that is providing the medicinal actions. We taste it. We actually can physically feel. Okay. I've just taken bitters, right? It's the same with aroma. We perceive aroma through our centers in the brain of memory and of motion.
And so, and there's all kinds of physiological underpinnings that go on through our sensory experience. And it's only been the last 300 years or so that Western science has really become the dominant conduit of knowledge. When you think about how as human beings, as animal species, we learned about plants, what plants to eat, what plants for medicine, how to grow plants.
This all happened through our senses, right? So kind of feeding back into what Planta Dyadica means. It's really, this methodology that incorporates, some of the work of Johan van Goethe as well as, some kind of more phenomenology based approaches to cultivating your sense experiences with plants as an adjunct or addendum to other forms of knowledge acquisition.
So there are a lot of herbalists out there that haven't tasted the plants that they use. Maybe they don't know how they grow. They've never really seen them or looked at them. And so our goal with that is to fill a gap in the acquisition of knowledge about plants in the same way as empowering people to recognize their own senses as this powerful source of knowledge. Because that's a very empowering process when you can go out to a patch of nettles, for example, and you can smell them and taste them and experience them and learn something that no one said to you.
You haven't had this higher authority tell you what nettles good for, or what it looks like. You've taken the time and had the ability based on your one on one interaction with that plant. And that's powerful.
It's a powerful way to connect with the plant kingdom. and it's a powerful way to build confidence about using plants. So Planta Dyadica name it's kind of a take on a concept in psychology or sociology about dyadic conversations, where both parties leave a dyadic conversation having gained something from it.
And so, we've called it Planta after plants and dyadica after dyadic, this idea of having a mutual conversation with a plant based on our sense experiences where we're not having a one way conversation that we're learning to listen through our senses. And both parties, the plant and the person, walk away having gained something.
Lana: I absolutely love it. So, earlier with your example of nettles you were talking about growing plants . But I know that you also apply the same concept to the already prepared medicines tinctures or hydrosols or incense . Your students are not necessarily looking at the plants when they grow in the garden, but you are actually trying to educate their senses with some of the medicine as it is already prepared. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
Erika: Sure. Yeah. So there are mystery boxes. That was a clever thing that my co-creator, Brooke Sackenheim came up with as a way to gently ease people into this idea of Planta dyadica, and using our sense perceptions and really exploring plant medicine by turning off our "Oh, we know what this is, because it says this on the label and it's going to do this for me." and really trying to get people to shift their perspectives and learn in a different way. So what was fun about the mystery boxes is that we took all of these already pre made preparations, and put them together with different themes in mind that also taps into more creative side of the human mind.
It's really celebrating the art of herbal preparations and the creativity that can come. Some might even say they're more like the ceremonial or even spiritual aspects of the practice of herbal medicine can really be explored, also as sources of information.
So the mystery box is really kind of tap into this, using your senses and, journaling and ceremony and making things sacred, as well. So the mystery boxes are really, really cool. And with the Planta dyadica course, this is a course that you buy that's three months long, you actually get what we call a discovery box. In that discovery box we don't actually name the plant until the end of the month. So we spend one month, in its entirety, studying just one plant and we don't use the plant's name the whole month.
And that's kind of a requirement. So you can't be like, "Oh, I know what this is." Cause actually you may not exactly know it. So in their discovery box, they get either the live plant or a packet of seeds to work with growing the plant in their gardens or in pots or whatever they need to do as well as several different preparations of that particular plant.
And we titled these different preparations, not as, "okay this is a tincture, here's the hydrosol." but we're looking at each of these different aspects as a different almost alchemical form of the plant itself. So, you get basically five different preparations of the same plant. and we have, a journal of exercises that you go through with each one of these preparations.
And there's no right or wrong answers. And at the end of the month, we do a, what we call a reveal webinar or reveal presentation, where we kind of talk about the name of the plant. We talk about scientific research. We talk about how to grow it. We talk about all these other different sources of knowledge about that plant.
So then you have that basis of your own sense experiences to add to a larger body of knowledge which is really, really exciting. And then at the end of the three months, everybody gets what we call a community Zine and so a lot of the Planta Dyadica is journaling, drawing, taking photos.
I'm really using kind of our creative side to explore the different preparations. And so we have students submit, some of their work. Then we put it together in this Zine that everybody gets a copy of, which is kind of fun.
ko-fi.com/plantloveradio giveaway
Lana: This is a quick pause. At the start of the episode I mentioned that Erika is kindly supporting this interview with they giveaway raffle of her new book, "the family guide for aromatherapy". To be entered into the raffle please leave a comment on the giveaway post about your thoughts on this episode. To do this, please head over to ko-fi.com/plantloveradio or find the link in the show notes at https://plantloveradio.com/62. I will choose the winner right before the next episode goes live. The software also allows you to support my work, but you do not have to be a supporter to participate in the giveaway.
Before we return to the interview, the winner of our last giveaway from Plant Spirit Fibers is Nathalie. Nathalie, please reach out with a quick hello to lana@lanacamiel.com so we can ship you the prize.
Now let's get back to our conversation.
Creativity in plant learning
This is very interesting . So why do you think this creativity and plant rituals are so important for learning?
Erika: Yeah. human beings, we are naturally creative, I also believe that tapping into our creativity allows us to explore and express parts of our psyche, that are otherwise repressed, in kind of day to day functioning.
And when we tap into, these parts of our psyche, we call it the creative aspects or the spiritual aspects, we are providing ourselves with quite a medicinal experience. We can get very heady and rigorous and even frustrated with studying plants, especially studying plant medicine.
But to be able to kind of step away from that a little bit and give ourselves some space to move, and really tap into the creative and the spiritual aspects of our psyche. We're not only learning differently, we're also providing a medicinal experience for ourselves. so hopefully that answers your question.
Hydrosols and distillation
Lana: Yeah, I think so. Some of the medicines that you make, or at least some of the ones that I've seen were hydrosols. Can you talk a little bit more about those?
Erika: Oh, yes, definitely. Yeah. As a clinician, as a clinical herbalist, I do, make most of my own, tinctures in my dispensary. so I'm dispensing for clients based on plants that I've grown myself or wild crafted myself, in addition to working with some pretty awesome farms, for fresh plant material. so I've always had my hands on the plant medicine, from start to finish as much as possible because I believe that, the intentionality that I put into that work very much shines through and the quality of the products. But so the hydrosols, this is interesting.
I was introduced to aromatic distillation, several years ago and, basically fell down the rabbit hole. For me working with the copper almebic still and working with the plant material, this amazing process of transformation that takes place in the still, it's incredibly alchemical. and it's captured my psyche it's captured my heart. I have found that, working with aroma, specifically aroma that I have produced in a ceremonial fashion from plants that I have basically grown myself or that were grown or stewarded in Appalachia, you end up with this incredibly beautiful end product, these hydrosols. The way that I distill, I bring in different elements like taro cards and different Earth elements like stones and rocks and bones and feathers that I found in the woods.
By the end of the distillation, there's a whole story has unfolded, through the course of the distillation, which has a lot of meaning behind it. And there's a lot of, medicine that can be found in stories and metaphors and these symbols that are brought in. By the end of the distillation, I've collected, a series of what I call key words about that particular distillation that then get, attached to each hydrosol.
And so each hydrosol, the aroma is very potent and strong, but it also comes with these keywords. Aroma is really powerful in the sense that it is processed predominantly by our centers of memory and emotion. And what aroma does is it imprint stories into the psyche, right?
And so, we can take a hydrosol that was produced in ceremony with all these different, wonderful elements that tell this wonderful story. And then when we use that aroma, we can then change our own narratives. So, we have these beautiful products that are very much about working with the psyche through aroma specifically . It's just for me as an herbalist and as a plant person, a distillation captured my heart entirely. So I'm very passionate about it. I could probably talk about it for hours.
Lana: really fascinating. I usually am used to hydrosols that it's a byproduct of creating essential oils. So the steam goes through the plant, picks up all the molecules of essential oils, and then they separate and you actually have the water, which becomes hydrosol versus the oil, but this is a little different from what you guys do. Right?
Erika: it is. Yeah. Our process is the same as far as actually procuring the hydrosol. So we use copper alembic stills and steam distillation, sometimes also hydro distillation, which is slightly different versus having the plant material soaking in water versus having the steam pass through it in a column.
But what we have chosen to do with the hydrosols is instead of separating out the essential oil that comes across, we actually keep it both together as what we consider to be a whole plant preparation. so hydrosols, aren't a byproducts of the essential oil distillation.
The hydrosols are the product, in regards to, you know, keeping both elements together. it can be complicated because you know, the essential oil floats on the surface of the water. And so making sure that every single bottle has a little bit of the essential oil and requires a lot of oscillation and shaking and, dispensing and bottling our hydrosols is not an easy process.
and so there's a few benefits to keeping the essential oil as part of the water element. one of the benefits is that the aroma is much more potent. our hydrosols are intended to be used externally only that hit of aroma is what it's all about.
And it's fascinating when you look at the physiology of our sense of smell, we stopped smelling something after only a few seconds of exposure to that thing. And so when we're using aroma to, create new narratives in our psyche, all we need is just a few seconds of that scent, for it to really get in there.
And so that's, what's beautiful about the hydrosol is that with the essential oil in it, you get this hit for a couple of seconds of the aroma and you've imprinted a new story or a new memory with it. Especially if you do it over and over and over.
So the second benefit to keeping the essential oil in the hydrosol itself is for preservation. Hydrosols tend to have a really, a short shelf life. and simply because it's water just sitting there. and so you can very gently extend the shelf life of an aromatic hydrosol by maintaining some essential oil in the preparation.
And then the third reason, which is probably one of the most important is the sustainability side of it. I just wrote a book, "The family guide to Aromatherapy" which is available on my website. and one of the things I talk about is how essential oils are overused. They're overused when we think about the sheer quantity of plant material that is required to make a very small amount of essential oil.
So are our hydrosols being what they are and having a little bit of essential oil in them really gives people the opportunity to work with these aromatic preparations, where it's like almost like the entire bottle of essential oil is not necessary. Especially if you're using it for emotional support and for a more kind of psyche work, you don't need a whole bottle of that essential oil, which took hundreds of pounds of plant material to create. You can use the hydrosol and still get that strong aroma. I still have that few seconds of important aromatic, stimulation in the olfactory bulb, and boom. It's way more sustainable. So yeah, that's our hydrosols.
Lana: I was really fascinated by the hydrosols themselves because aromas were very surprising and different for me, even for the plants that I thought I would recognize just smelled very differently. Why is that?
Erika: That's a really, really good question. So when we go and we like touch and smell a plant, that's growing in the garden, let's say Clary Sage, for example, it happens to be one of my new favorites. you go and you smell Clary Sage, especially the blooms where you've got nice, sticky, resony smell, it's going to have a particular aromatic pallet. We're going to perceive that particular smell because different molecules are being excreted based on that being pinched and smelled and touched and whatever versus our hydrosols. We're bringing out both water soluble as well as the essential oil.
And so you're getting aromatics that are not just about the pinch and smell of the plant in the garden. As an extract, you're getting a whole different palette of molecules there. Then you go even further to isolate just the essential oil itself, which is going to smell similar, but also with a trained nose incredibly different from the plant growing in your garden, it's intensified .
Essential oils are highly concentrated so in those molecules, in that highly concentrated form are going create a whole different firing in our olfactory epithelium than the hydrosol then the plant you've touched and pitched in the garden. Plants are really cool that way.
Lana: Very much so! A couple of minutes ago, you mentioned that you wrote a book "Family guide to Aromatherapy." And since we're talking about hydrosols and the aromatherapy I wanted to ask you to talk a little bit more about resources, whether it is about Planta dyadica and how to experience plants. If you're familiar with other herbalists or writers teaching similar method, or maybe about the aromatherapy and hydrosols and things of that type. Resources
Erika: Okay. As far as Planta Dyadica goes, I do believe it is pretty unique, in regards to herbal education in the United States anyway. I would highly encourage anyone interested in Johan van Goethe and this phenomenology approach to studying plants, look into the work of the Nature Institute in upstate New York.
They have a wonderful classes. In fact, Brooke and I are headed up there for a week long intensive, and plant study up there. And then of course, I have a bunch of colleagues over in the United Kingdom who are really great teachers. I don't think they're doing much online, but, I definitely encourage you to look into the work of Keith Robertson at the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine on Drimlabarra farm on the Isle Arran out in Scotland. He teaches quite a few different workshops and this definitely brought the philosophy into his work, as well as his ex partner, Maureen Robertson. She's now based out of Portugal. Her and her partner do, I think it's called the herbal path. They do a lot of work with plant study as well. and herbal medicine and combining the two. so those are some really great resources there. and of course Planta dyadica which is awesome.
So the aroma therapy side of things, it was kind of complicated. There's so much information available about the use of essential oils, and the use of hydrosols. One of my most cherish resources about learning, how to distill and actually doing distillation on your own is a book called Harvest Hydrosol by Ann Harman. She's a wonderful teacher, wrote this wonderful book, step-by-step, how to actually create your own hydrosols. I think the older version of that book is out of print, but rumor has it, she's got a new version coming out soon.
And then also I really encourage people to look into the work of my dear friends and colleagues, Cathy Skipper and Florian Birkmayer of AromaGnosis. Their use of aromatherapy and essential oils is very much focused around the work of Carl Jung and using aroma to help navigate the incredible universe that is the human psyche. They've done a lot of work with trauma and addiction. On their website, they have a course on hydrosols you can learn about distilling your own hydrosols . She they're just a wonderful duo.
And then of course, there's lots and lots of books about essential oils and aromatherapy out there. I think one of the things that I appreciated about my own book, if I can say so, is really the safety aspect. There are a horror story of plenty out there about people misusing essential oils and not only are there huge sustainability concerns, but they're also, health and safety concerns because these are very concentrated. I've even had clients that would come in and say, "Oh, I've been using peppermint oil in my water." And it's like, Oh my gosh, your poor guts. These are caustic chemical substances that are really capable of damaging our surface structures, and also causing other kinds of problems. That's not to say that I don't use essential oils internally, occasionally I do as a clinician who trained to do so. There are a lot of people passionate about aromatherapy. They're very passionate about essential oils. Some are passionate about using them internally. Some are very passionate about not using them internally.
And so what my book basically does is it scraps all of that and says if you're starting from zero, if you're starting from the basics, here is a really good safety primer on how much to use, how much is safe. Certain essential oils are not considered safe for certain populations. The very, very young versus the very, very old. not all essential oils are of equal merit in regards to safety. and so I basically went and scoured the research available with different safety publications out there on essential oils. And I put all of the information into one place as best as I could, in terms that people could understand. and then there's like tons of really fun easy recipes that you can make as well in that book too. So you can always find that on my website, if you're interested.
Lana: Fabulous. Thank you. I will include all the resources you have mentioned in the show notes so listeners can explore . So thank you for that! You mentioned a couple of different courses you teach through your school, and I know you're teaching clinical training week intensives. Could you talk a little bit about that? Sovereign Herbs offerings
Erika: Yeah, sure. so I am a professional member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists from the UK, as well as a registered herbalist member of the American Herbalist Guild. When I was coming back from the United Kingdom learning how to take the practice of herbal medicine, which over in the United Kingdom, I had the right to primary diagnosis, I could diagnose, I could treat, I could prescribe, I could do all the things that I'm not allowed to do here in the United States. And so I had to figure out how to set up my clinical practice safely, legally, ethically, and it took about 10 years, believe it or not. I've taught at a variety of different clinical programs around the country. And I've taught with a number of herbalists who have regular students, student classes, et cetera. One of the gaps that I discovered was going from student to practitioner, and really going through all of the steps about what does a functioning herbal clinic look like? Everything from how do you set up your dispensary, how do you deal with quality control, how do you track all your batches, to all the way to legal forms and record keeping, and then even diving into things like screening your clients. In our clinical intensive program, Brooke also talks about, accounting issues and some of the other more kind of business oriented things that you may not think about coming out of an herb school .
And it can be overwhelming and huge, and so our clinical intensive week, you basically get 40 hours, which is a lot of time. And we take you through every aspect of our business, and teach you what we've learned about setting up a functioning herbal clinic in a very restrictive state of Ohio. And some of the things that we've had to navigate. it's a really great program for anyone who's transitioning into clinical practice, and need some help.
In addition we've also just launched our mentorship program. As a member of the professional member of the AHG registered herbalist, privy to how difficult it can be to get all of the clinical hours you need to get into, how helpful it can be to have a mentor and a mentorship, registered herbalist members provide mentorship services. So, we've launched our mentorship program, geared towards people looking to apply for the RH status with AHG.
Lana: Thank you, Erica. We are coming to an end of our conversation, I want to ask you two more questions. One of them is going to be ways for our audience to connect with you, learn more from you, learn more about you. And then the next one is perhaps some words of wisdom or closing thoughts, either on Planta Dyadica, on aromatherapy, essential oils or anything that you want to leave us with.Contact information
Erika: Okay. First of all, you can find out anything about Sovereignty Herbs, the clinical practice, seeing me as a client, being a student, you can also peruse our awesome shop at sovereigntyherbs.com, you can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook, @sovereigntyherbs. Parting thoughts
And then final words of wisdom, one of my teachers, Keith Robertson from the UK, from Scotland, one thing that he said to my class on our very first day at the Scottish School Herbal Medicine, this was a four year degree program, very first day. He said something along the lines of 'don't believe for a second, that it's you who have chosen the plants for it is the plants that have chosen you.' And I think for anyone out there who's listening, who is dedicating their lives to learning about plants to remember that you've been chosen.
Lana: Thank you so much. This was wonderful. Thank you.
Erika: Thank you so much.
Lana: My gratitude to you for joining me for this conversation with Erika Galentin. For all the bonuses, giveaways, and resources please head over to the show notes at plantloveradio.com/ 62.
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The music you hear in the introduction was written by a neighbor of mine, David Scholl, and is called "Something about Cat". My deepest gratitude to Bill Gilligan for this opportunity to play it.
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