Introduction video: Community Holistic Remedy Bank Introduction
Gaia’s Medicinal Garden Pt 1
Four Medicinal Herbs of Northern California In this time of great change Mother Earth is calling to us top return to her bounty, communing with nature in partnership. One avenue of receiving her bounty is through gardening and wild crafting of foods and herbs. Growing and wild crafting our foods and healing tools are two …
Respiratory System Herbal Support Tonic
Growing up with asthma and other respiratory challenges provided me a venue for learning many methods of providing myself with relief and healing of this vital body system. Here is a recipe for a wonderful tonic I learned during my herbal training and have put to good use over the years for myself and human …
Keeping Your Liver Clean and Balanced
Our liver is the main purification station for our bodies. Be we human or animal, the health of our liver is of utmost importance in keeping us well. Both the toxic state of our environment and diets (dependent upon what you eat), can lead to liver congestion and a much greater tendency to illness overall. …
Holistic Care for Horses
Holistic Emergency Care for Horses (article for Holistic Horse Magazine) What is Holistic Emergency Care? What does holistic emergency care mean? How is it different from the traditional way that first aid is taught? Even in emergencies, holistic healing deals with the whole being, not just the part that hurts. It recognizes that all your horse …
Medicinal Herb Basics Series – Siskiyou County, CA
Well here we are in fall again! A wonderful time of the year to learn new skills for creating and staying healthy through the cold months that lie ahead. Understanding the basic properties and uses of medicinal herbs and how to create tinctures, salves and other supplies can be wonderful for everyone in …
Apr 17
Gaia’s Medicinal Garden Pt 1
Four Medicinal Herbs of Northern California
In this time of great change Mother Earth is calling to us top return to her bounty, communing with nature in partnership. One avenue of receiving her bounty is through gardening and wild crafting of foods and herbs. Growing and wild crafting our foods and healing tools are two substantial components of this partnership. This article will be addressing four of the nutritive and medicinal herbs, which grow wild in the Tri- County area, and are easily grown in your own garden using permaculture techniques: Dandelion, Plantain, Red Clover and Yarrow.
A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.
—— Doug Larson
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), an amazing nutritive and medicinal herb, brightens any garden with its cheery yellow flowers and seed tuffs that bring delight to the hearts of any who enjoy making magical wishes.
Surprisingly like most herbs, Dandelion has long been tagged as a weed and removed from gardens and pitched in the trash, rather than harvested with gratitude and eaten in salads, soups and as a side vegetable (like spinach). Now with the returning of our awareness to the gifts of the Earth, Dandelion and other herbs have found their way back into the produce section of health food and grocery stores everywhere.
Apr 17
Respiratory System Herbal Support Tonic
Growing up with asthma and other respiratory challenges provided me a venue for learning many methods of providing myself with relief and healing of this vital body system. Here is a recipe for a wonderful tonic I learned during my herbal training and have put to good use over the years for myself and human clients. I say human, as I have not used this specific recipe with animals, however I utilized the various components when the necessity has arisen.
Apr 17
Keeping Your Liver Clean and Balanced
Our liver is the main purification station for our bodies. Be we human or animal, the health of our liver is of utmost importance in keeping us well. Both the toxic state of our environment and diets (dependent upon what you eat), can lead to liver congestion and a much greater tendency to illness overall.
Along with the toxins that humanity has created in Earth’s environment; local and global, there are many foods that in excess can bog down your liver’s function. Diary. excess sugar, peanuts, and overly spicy foods are examples. Eating certified organic foods is a big help, but still some foods are more difficult to digest than others.
One indication of the health of your liver, is the clarity of your eyes. Red or otherwise agitated eyes are very often linked to a congested liver.
Here are some basics for keeping your liver healthy and operating happily:
1. Begin your day with a glass of warm water & organic lemon juice. For an added plus, add a tablespoon of aloe vera juice.
2. Drink plenty of purified water throughout the day to keep your body hydrated. The liver cannot do its job flushing out toxins and such, if you are dehydrated.
3. An herbal infusion that is great for cleansing your liver in a mild, friendly way is: milk thistle, eye bright, chamomile, and dandelion. Note that with the exception of milk thistle, all of these herbs have yellow flowers. Yellow is an indication color for the liver, both healers and agitators. (It is also the color of jaundice, an ailment of the liver.)
4. For releasing metal & radioactive toxicity here are some possiblities: Kelp, Cilantro, Flower Essence Yarrow Special Formula made by Flower Essence Society: www.flowersociety.org.
Apr 17
Holistic Care for Horses
Holistic Emergency Care for Horses
(article for Holistic Horse Magazine)
What is Holistic Emergency Care?
What does holistic emergency care mean? How is it different from the traditional way that first aid is taught? Even in emergencies, holistic healing deals with the whole being, not just the part that hurts. It recognizes that all your horse has four energy bodies, spiritual, emotional, mental and physical and the knowingness that to successfully treat or facilitate healing of any illness, injury or trauma, all four bodies must be brought back into balance.
Many health problems, be they illness, injury or other trauma, begin with an emotional upset or imbalance of some type. If this is not corrected it can move into the mental body, and then eventually into the physical, where it manifests as an illness or bodily injury. This is as true of our horse companions as it is of us. It has been well documented that animal companions, horses, dogs, cats, etc., will often take on the diseases or traumas of their humans in order to both assist them as well as mirror to them, to help in the learning of soul lessons.
Oct 27
Medicinal Herb Basics Series – Siskiyou County, CA
Basket with fresh cut herbs
Well here we are in fall again! A wonderful time of the year to learn new skills for creating and staying healthy through the cold months that lie ahead. Understanding the basic properties and uses of medicinal herbs and how to create tinctures, salves and other supplies can be wonderful for everyone in your family – animals and people alike.
Soon we will be offering online classes for easy access to all. But in the meantime, I am offering a four week series on Medicinal Herbs Basics at the BioRegional Ecology Center in Mt Shasta, CA.
Here is the flyer for an easy overview, printing and sharing: Medicinal Herb Basics flyer
Apr 15
Homeopathic Basics
What is Homeopathy?
Homeopathy is considered by some to be the most effective form of natural medicine developed in the past 200 years. Discovered in the late 1700’s by German physician, chemist and medical translator, Samuel Hahnemann, homeopathy has since been embraced as a valuable healing modality throughout the world. It uses tiny doses of natural substances from plant, mineral and animal kingdoms to stimulate the user’s inherent ability to heal him/herself.
Homeopathy comes from the Greed words “homeo”, meaning similar, and “pathy”, meaning suffering. Treatments are based on the “Law of Similars” or “like cures like.” (similia similibus curantur). This law states that the same substance that produces disease symptoms in a healthy person, when given in concentrated doses, can also cure a sick person with similar symptoms when given in very diluted form.
Homeopathy is considered a vitalistic healing art; the theory is that homeopathic remedies are able to stimulate the body’s own healing abilities, thus allowing the body to heal itself. Conventional Western, or allopathic medicine (“opposite suffering”), in contrast is founded on a mechanistic viewpoint — that an unhealthy body can be fixed with drugs. A drug is given that produces the opposite of the symptom. (ex. decongestant to DRY UP a RUNNY nose).
According to homeopathic philosophy, the body works to maintain a balance, homeostasis, in order to promote health, in response to internal and external forces that cause the body stress. The maintaining of balance often takes the form of defense mechanisms. The body produces antibodies to combat the effects of foreign bacteria, for instance, and shivers to assist you in keeping warm.
Most people raised with the ideas of conventional medicine confuse symptoms of illness — such as pain, rashes and discharges — with the illness itself. Allopathic physicians give drugs to relieve the symptoms and when the symptoms are gone, presume the disease to be cured. In contrast, the homeopath believes (as do most natural healers) that symptoms are merely signs that the body’s natural defense mechanism is attempting to restore balance internally. For example, hives might indicate a particular kind of imbalance in the body.
The homeopath would treat the imbalance, not the hives. Symptoms are utilized to understand what the body is attempting to accomplish. Conventional or allopathic medicine treats the symptoms and not the underlying cause of the disease. The symptoms may disappear but the health of the person is usually not enhanced. In fact oftentimes it is actually weakened. Homeopathy corrects the underlying imbalance that caused the disease symptoms and allows the body to heal itself.
From the homeopathic viewpoint, the chronic use of most drugs, including cortisone and antibiotics, has a suppressive rather that a curative action. In other words, it temporarily fixes the condition without bringing the person to a balanced state of health.
( more coming) 
Apr 13
Holistic Emergency Care for Horses
(article for Holistic Horse Magazine)
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Kathryn assisting JR (horse) to release body imbalances from leg injury
What is Holistic Emergency Care?
What does holistic emergency care mean? How is it different from the traditional way that first aid is taught? Even in emergencies, holistic healing deals with the whole being, not just the part that hurts. It recognizes that all your horse has four energy bodies, spiritual, emotional, mental and physical and the knowingness that to successfully treat or facilitate healing of any illness, injury or trauma, all four bodies must be brought back into balance.
Many health problems, be they illness, injury or other trauma, begin with an emotional upset or imbalance of some type. If this is not corrected it can move into the mental body, and then eventually into the physical, where it manifests as an illness or bodily injury. This is as true of our horse companions as it is of us. It has been well documented that animal companions, horses, dogs, cats, etc., will often take on the diseases or traumas of their humans in order to both assist them as well as mirror to them, to help in the learning of soul lessons.
Apr 13
HEC Mission and Purpose
Our Mission
To create a greater awareness within human kind of the multi-body structure of our body “garments” and those of the animals kingdom, and how to provide holistic care in emergencies or trauma, with heavy emphasis on prevention.
Purpose
We approach Holistic Emergency Care (HEC) with healing modalities of the Earth both ancient and new, in partnership with the Divine – ie divine assistance and intervention. It is our purpose to assist in the awakening and education of these lost connections in humans; to open the door of consciousness to the many ways that healing can be assisted beyond the normal comprehension of the day.
