Insight Herbalism

We value skillful compassionate listening and awareness, creating the space for you to understand your own process of healing and your own relationship with your body. We appreciate that being really present for you is a major part of any healing process.

It is a fundamental value that we aspire to hear and accept you as you are, in a compassionate and non-judgemental way.

We all have gentle skills in touch, helping you listen to your body and creating a safe space for you to heal, integrate and recieve the teachings from the plants. We believe that touch is a critical human need, aiding healthy co-regulation and helping us develop a strong sense of safety. We are also aware how recieving touch can be difficult and even traumatic for some and are able to navigate this with you at your own speed.

Many members have additional trainings (e.g. shiatsu, massage, reflexology) which they may weave together with any herb work.

Each of us has unique professional skills to share – individual to each practitioner, generally in the form of a related profession that weaves beautifully in with herbalism. Insight Herbalism is a unique practice in that it is only intended to be one strand of the two or three of professional practice we each have. This means each of our practitioners is unique in their offering.

Core values of equity and accessibility, with an keenness to make the potential of plant medicine available to all. We are keen to let those who feel marginalised know that they are welcome. You are welcome.

Everyone involved in the Foundation has an open ended enquiry into understanding the reality of marginalisation (be that marginalised by colour, gender identity, neurodiversity, class, financial etc) and the reality of living in a post-colonial nation. We are open to learn, where the privilege of not being marginalised in this way may make us blind, to your struggles and needs. No one person can fully appreciate all experiences of marginalisation, but we can be and are open to learn and have humility as we learn to widen our compassion.

Trauma aware practice – exploration of embodied and developmental trauma is embedded from day one of the training. We find that plants can be incredible allies in the gradual processes of healing and integration following trauma.We happily work alongside other therapists, recognising that sometimes the path of healing needs a wide and integrated support network.

 Professionality – All members have completed a minimnum of 1000 hours and 3 years structured study of relational and insight herbalism before joining as a full member. We work within our skills and recognise when to refer and seek additional support.

We have protocols to check that this work is suitable for you and if not will help you find support and discuss ways of starting this style of work slowly and carefully.

The Foundation has a written disciplinary procedure for systematically exploring any issues or complaints that may arise for a member.

We share a willingness to work in a truly integrated and holistic way alongside other practioners and support systems. So far, we are yet to find any health disciplines that we can not work alongside!

Safe practice – we are all trained to assess potential risks, side effects and interactions of herbs, source high quality herbal material (often harvested by ourselves) and ensure dosage is appropriate for you. We are also trauma-aware and to varying degrees (depending on the individual skills of the member) can support you in the process of navigating and integrating trauma, sometimes working alongside other practitioners with this.

Practical herbal pharmacy skills – we are skilled in making tinctures, hydrosols and oils alongside sustainable harvesting and drying of plants. For those interested we will often be open to teaching some of these skills as part of the process of building relationships with the plants.

Many of our members put a high priority on local, organic or biodynamic sourcing for herbs.

We all commit to Continued Professional Development to continue to deepen our practice.

We are guided and accountable to our Code of Ethics to help ensure you feel safe and in good hands.

A deep love of nature that is expressed in everything we do. To this end we support and encourage local sustainable harvesting, the highest ecological practices in herb sourcing (often organic / biodynamic) and are in a continual process of learning how we can better honour and respect nature.