08/31/2026
A Little Clarification About Herbal Advice, “Gatekeeping,” and Why This Medicine Woman Has Boundaries...
Every once in a while, someone online gets upset with me because I won't simply tell a stranger on the internet, “Take this herb for that problem.”
Recently, I was actually called a gatekeeper for exactly that. LOL So I thought this might be a good time to explain something about the way I practice...
First of all, I take this VERY SERIOUSLY. I don't mess around with patchwork and chasing symptoms. AND I don't mess around with taking chances harming someone due to lack of knowledge.
I am not interested in gatekeeping herbal knowledge in any way....give me a break. That's impossible anyways. AND there are TONS of people on the internet that want you to think they have THE answer for your condition. There are also lot's of great teachers out there.....the cat is out of the bag and has been for a long time. lol Herbal knowledge was known by literally everyone at one time...
I LOVE teaching about plants and have for almost 2 decades, FOR FREE! I like to share their history, potential uses, folklore, chemistry, research, growing information, food uses, and the things I have learned along the way all the time.
What I will NOT do is look at a random name on a screen, hear one symptom or diagnosis, and start handing out personalized herbal treatment advice as though every human body is an interchangeable one size fits all robot.
That isn't gatekeeping to me. That is responsibility. Herbs are powerful and "natural” does not automatically mean harmless, appropriate for everyone, or in every situation.
Before suggesting something medicinally, I get with the person and find out MUCH more about them to help us make the right decision for THEM and their unique circumstances........ not just w***y nilly suggest something to a stranger that could literally kill them!
Yeah, that CAN happen if you don't know the person and their meds, alergies and basic info! Strangers on the internet calling me names do not get a free pass or get to degrade my boundaries.
BEFORE I ever suggest "what I would do," I get to know the person and ask questions like:
- What else is happening in the body?
- What medications or supplements are involved?
- What have you already tried?
- What allergies or sensitivities exist?
- What is the person's age and general condition?
- Is pregnancy a possibility?
- What other symptoms have been overlooked?
And perhaps most importantly…....
- WHAT IS ACTUALLY AT THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM???
I don't particularly enjoy playing whack a mole with symptoms. I've been doing this far too long. My work has always been about looking deeper. If somebody tells me their head hurts, my first thought isn't simply, “What herb makes headaches go away?” I want to know why the head hurts.
Could it be due to dehydration, tension, stress, infection, blood sugar, eyestrain, injury, hormones, medication, lack of sleep or even something entirely different??? By the way, I did a whole 2 hour show JUST on headaches for that very reason.....explaining all the different types of headaches.......
Those are NOT the same situation just because the symptom, "headache," has the same name.
And that lesson was something I learned over time. Years ago, I was much more willing to toss suggestions into internet conversations because someone asked. Inhale peppermint oil! Take this, take that!!! lol I was eager to "help" any stranger asking how to suppress symptoms of an unknown cause they refuse to share through the proper channels.
Experience taught me to stop doing that. Knowing more made me MORE cautious with information, not less.
There are plenty of places online...facebook groups, especially, where someone will enthusiastically tell you what herb to take after reading 2 sentences about your life. I see it all the time in the groups. Literally hundreds of comments with hundreds of different approaches....all thinking they have the "right answer!"
I am simply not going to be one of them. If someone comes to me DIRECTLY and wants me to really look at their situation, that is different. Then we can have a conversation. We can ask questions. We can look for patterns, hostory, traumas... We can talk about possibilities and risks and decide what deserves further investigation.
But bullying, insults, guilt, or accusations of “gatekeeping” are never going to convince me to abandon a boundary I developed because I take medicine and life itself, seriously.
And there is another important piece of this............there is almost never only ONE herb, ONE protocol, or ONE answer. Healing isn't a recipe card where every person with the same label gets the same ingredients. You've watched that happen in main stream medicine for almost a century and how's that working out??? :D
Humans and Plants are both complex. Bodies are unique and complicated. There is much more involved than just how you feel that particular moment. Homans have emotions, mental states, spiritual situations.....NOT just physical! And I think they deserve more respect than a drive by prescription in a Facebook comment section.
So yes.........I will continue sharing plant knowledge freely when apprpriate. I will continue teaching when I can. I will continue talking about research, traditional knowledge, food, gardens, medicine, and the incredible relationships humans have had with plants for thousands of years. But personalized herbal advice requires more than a stranger's screen name and a symptom if you want it to work. So if that makes me a gatekeeper in someone's eyes, I can live with that. No problem.
I call it having a gate for a reason. Some gates aren't built to keep knowledge out. They're there to make sure we enter carefully.
I am Blessed to do what I do and I take it VERY seriously and will not diminish MY approach to suit an online stranger. Ever. :)
Thank you for hearing me. If you do want my help, I DO offer sessions where we go over ALL of these things, and more....but if you want to send me a message saying, "What do I take for this, and if you don't tell me, you're a jerk," you will be met with deaf ears.
Also, just because something has helped YOU, does not mean it's a universal "cure" for everyone else. Ask me how I know? Heck, even after I died, SOME things I used to do that worked, no longer did. Why? Life, chemistry, circumstance........................things change. And so do I when I discover the carelessness of what I did previously sharing with everyone before I knew the important specifics. I'm actually writing a book about my journey discovering this.
I get it. You want to help. So do I. But watching a couple videos online does NOT make you a responsible herbalist, a medicine woman or a shaman. I value myself and what I do AND the people I work with and will NEVER dilute it to make a stranger "like" me.
Hate me all you want.....that's on you....I will sleep sound knowing I didn't let my ego get in the way pretneding I have the universal answer for everyone!