Do you live near the Driftless in northeastern Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, or Decorah, and wish to consult an herbalist? Looking for an online consultation?

Iowa herbalist Adrian White is happy to provide educational herbal consultations both in-person and online. If you’ve been looking for an alternative natural approach to improving basic wellness and self-care in your personal life – no matter where you live! – get expert and professional advice either through an in-person consultation on Adrian’s farm (to be scheduled far in advance) or through convenient online correspondence (email, direct message through social media, whichever you prefer).

Learn how plant therapy and nutrition can both enhance and support your lifestyle and overall wellness situation.

Adrian White is a certified herbalist through two programs since 2012, and has studied and practiced herbalism since 2009, both independently and with stellar herbalist teachers. She first learned herbal healing from locals near Vilcabamba, Ecuador in South America, where she spent four months on a farm during an internship through her University. Those who have professionally trained her include herbalist and ethnobotanist Stephany Hoffelt of Naturally Simple Living, who trained her rigorously on all proper professional approaches to herbal protocols, herbal production creation and sales, and client consultations; as well as curandero Charles Garcia, director of the California School of Traditional Hispanic Herbalism on herbal and spiritual healing, product development, and more.

For more than a decade, Adrian White has worked with over 100 health, wellness, nutrition, and herbalism-related clients completing deep-diving herbalism research projects and producing written content, copy, training material, and educational blog and article content on a near-daily basis. Her work can be found all over the web on nutrition, health, wellness, herbalism, and gardening sites; as well as in product content, professional content, promotional content, and web copy for numerous supplement, health food, or natural living companies (including Primal Herb, Crystal Star Supplements, Dr. Tobias, Natureland, Earth Conscious Life, and many others).

Adrian has professionally consulted as an expert herbalist on the development of natural health, whole food, and herbal products for supplement and superfood companies. Her expertise and knowledge can be found in professional training material for health and lifestyle coaches online, and her product development has even been mentioned and utilized by famous public figures!

Her unique creation of black strap nettle syrup has been emulated and remixed online by many other herbalists and companies, and you can find her recipe for it (among many others) in renowned herbalist Tina Sam’s intro book to herbalism, The Healing Power of Herbs. She has also contributed her writing on health and wellness subjects to Rodale’s Organic Life, Healthline, and Tina Sam’s The Essential Herbal, as well as many other publications on other subjects including The Guardian, Civil Eats, and Good Housekeeping.

Issues and categories Adrian is happy to consult and talk through with you:

• Anxiety and Depression Support
• Stress and Tension
• Female Health
• Menstrual support
• Fertility support
• Immune System Support
• Allergy Issues (Sinusitis, Allergic Rhinitis, etc.)
• Digestive Issues/Gut Health
• Thyroid Support
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Herbal First Aid Training
• Liver Health and Detox Support (Lymphatic system, etc.)
• Basic good nutrition practices (plant-based, animal-based, etc.)
• …and more

The consultation stems from an herbalist-based practice, but it does not end there. Adrian may recommend an herb, blend of herbs, or even a variety of plant-based (vegetables, fruits, etc.) foods, sometimes animal-based foods, nutrients, or wild foods. Consultations may also involve lifestyle change recommendations and nutrition suggestions in order to enhance the effects of herbal or nutrition recommendations.

Consultations typically last 1-2 hours after client fills and returns their intake form, at $120 per consult, and can be made up of any combination of the above approaches that are appropriate for the client or that the client requests. Consultation fees do not include the costs of materials, herbs, or other products recommended or given during the consult.

Adrian is open also to trade or bartering, and a sliding scale may be applied. No one will be turned away. Clients of any race, origin, religion, gender, or sexual orientation are welcome.

Perhaps a certain vegetable or herb could be an integral part of improving wellness in your life.  Adrian can then show a client how to grow certain vegetables or herbs, whether in their own backyards or their homes, to have access to them themselves and feel empowered in their own health – that, or learn how to access them in the wild, source or purchase them, and/or prepare them on their own.

INITIAL CONSULTATION FEE: $120 per visit(products, recommendations, and other services may be extra).  Pay cash or online by clicking the link to the right.

Please contact me by emailing deernationherbs@gmail.com to schedule a consult. Advice, help, suggestions, or ideas on how to improve your health are welcome.

WHAT CAN HERBS DO?

To me, herbs are the pumped-up version of “eat your vegetables.”  Herbs are foods that we should consider implementing into our diets more and more in order to help our bodies reach the equilibrium that they have lost – even if we can only incorporate them in small increments.

Perhaps they don’t taste like french fries or ribeye.  But some herbalists could argue that our intolerance of the “less easy” tastes of bitter herbs and vegetables is what has caused our falling from grace from good health in the first place, especially in the Western World.

Herbs are not medicines.  They might be called medicines, though they more so support the body’s natural healing processes, not that much differently from nutrients – while some may have more dramatic effects than others.

My primary wish in becoming an herbalist comes from wanting to help people; but as herbalists, we cannot say or act in the place of doctors.  We cannot diagnose, prescribe, or cure.  But we can certainly help and work with people to better improve wellness, self-care, and lifestyle so that it better supports overall health in a holistic way.

According to legalities and ways we view modern mainstream medicine, herbs simply cannot and do not fit with convention.  Herbs need their own category- not quite a medicine, not quite a supplement, and not quite a food.

In my practice, however, herbs are herbs.  The closest to anything else in how they act on our bodies is like a supplemented food, in a way. They are a wholesome, healthful, natural food that speeds up the body’s natural processes and urges it to be well and heal itself.  I know herbs well, and research voraciously wherever there are holes in my understanding as a huge part of my freelance writing work.

I hope that one day herbs can be regulated completely different from food, supplements, AND medicine all together, but that is a story for another time.

Coupled with good, healthy choices, persistence, nutrition, lifestyle practices, and optimism, adding herbs into your life can slowly but surely change around some of the most stubborn, deeply-ingrained health imbalances.

Even better, it can prevent the very worst that could happen – even if it is already set in motion – from happening.

Fascinatingly enough, many of our mainstay culinary herbs were once used as healing additions to our meals.  Rosemary, thyme, and ginger, for example, were not just added to foods for taste.  They had noticeable effects on the body too in positive ways, through actions and chemical constituents that are observed even today by both folk tradition and modern science.

As an herbalist (and an organic farmer), one of my greatest passions and goals is to bring together the infinite possibilities and myriad choices you can have when you combine herbs with healing foods.  It’s easy…and you can find or integrate that kind of healing in practically every recipe.

With a client, I will sit down and listen to the issues on hand and try to find an herb, food, formula, plan, or other that will help enhance health in their situation.  Before the initial consult, I may ask you to fill out some information on your health history, especially if your health history is complicated. This is to avoid making wrong herb choices for you.

It can be a bit like detective work, at first, until you find that perfect herb or herbal combination that fits. Who knows – it may turn out that you don’t really need an herb at all, but something completely different. The choices and wealth of food and herbal knowledge out there is extensive and overwhelming. That’s what herbalists are for.

Starting off with one consultation, a little session with me could get the ball rolling on some both tasty and healthy ideas to boost your health – and the rest of the work and magic is completely up to you.

If you are seeking this kind of service in the Driftless or Eastern Iowa, please feel free to contact me.

Contact me also just for custom tincture/extract formulas, suited to your individual needs, if desired.

Email: Adrian White, deernationherbs@gmail.com