About Joan
I’m an herbalist and educator in Oklahoma City, and an ambassador for the HeartMath Global Coherence Initiative, that is doing groundbreaking research into the unseen connections between living beings. I have a private practice where I see clients both in person and remotely, and I teach in my community and beyond. I have studied natural healing since the 1970s with formal training in life sciences, trauma technology, austere medicine, and community health.
I completed my clinical training with honors at the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism under faculty mentor Paul Bergner, and I hold a B.Sc. from Oklahoma City University in Technical Education. I am a Heart-Math Facilitator, a member of the American Herbalists Guild, and I find the greatest peace when I am outdoors with the plants.
Plants have always been a part of my journey,
in healing and as companions.
I have walked hundreds of miles of roads and trails in Oregon, and Colorado, and especially in the Green Country of Oklahoma, breathing with the trees, and observing the systems of life that work together. Initially the plants were Teachers of my Spirit, and connected me to a way of being in the world that transcended the coercions and materialist messages of our time. Walking those roads and meadows, I often sensed the lives of all its beings together as a Spirit of the Land, in a richness of joined energies that would take my breath away.
From a young age I knew intuitively that herbs could help us heal deeply and nurture vitality; and over time they became my primary source of care. I mark time with the sun and the moon as the seasons pass over garden, field, and hills, and bring the love of these into my work.
Herbal Medicine . . .
Humans evolved in an environment of wild plants that are a vital form of nourishment, and provide health to us on so many levels. Our cells know what to do with the herbs that we smell, ingest, breathe and soak in. It's a strong and vital partnership. Herbal medicine offers us understanding and tools that modern medicine does not have.
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Herbs work best in the context of excellent nourishment, movement, and plenty of sleep. Rather than merely addressing symptoms (though they can do that quite well), the best use of herbs is to shift the body's ecology. For example: Many times a pain in one place in the body is actually due to an imbalance in a different place, and as that is resolved, the pain often is too.
Skilled herbalists, holistic healers and indigenous medicine practitioners have always looked for the underlying cause of dis-ease in the body. Focusing on underlying causes of disharmony, rather than the symptom, offers insight into which herbs can address the imbalance and support the body's return to harmony.
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. . . and Earth's Healing Rhythms
The Earth’s rhythms are the Rhythms of Life. Her patterns of light and dark, activity and rest, flow and ebb provide a matrix for regenerative living. They form the cycles of the day, the moon and the seasons.
Attuning to these cycles supports healing and deep reconnection with the earth, and our own spirits.
