Andie Inscoe, Clinical Herbalist and Herbal Formulator for Rebecca Snow Nutrition, was kind enough to chat with MysticMag about her passion and expertise for Herbalism.
Tell us about Rebecca Snow Nutrition and the clinical team?
Rebecca Snow Nutrition is a virtual practice, working with clients from all over, offering one-on-one nutrition consultations, herbal consultations, and health and wellness coaching. The clinical team consists of three members – Rebecca Snow, the owner and founder, who is a Nutritionist and Clinical Herbalist, Kate Costello, a Nutritionist and Health and Wellness Coach, and myself, a Clinical Herbalist and Herbal Formulator.
The team takes a holistic approach, focusing on all aspects of their life to help improve their health. Collaboration and learning are important aspects of our work and we are passionate and dedicated to our clients, meeting our clients wherever they are in their health journey. And we love working together.
How did your journey as a herbalist impact your life and that of those around you?
This is definitely an all-encompassing question. I am an herbalist by trade, and herbalism is also really central to who I am as a person, what I enjoy, and what I really gravitate to in my personal life. Learning about plants has been one of my greatest joys in life, and I absolutely love learning about how they develop in nature and how that correlates directly with how they work in the body.
Being able to understand how herbs support the structure and function of the human body has completely changed my life. Growing up, I felt pretty confused about health and how I could support it. Understanding herbs has really strengthened my connection with myself, and deepened my relationship with nature. It just blew open my tool chest of tangible resources that I have, and can call on, to support my health and my well-being and my connection to the planet. And as a whole, this totally trickles down to my friends and my family, those that are close to me, and my clients included.
What is your favorite herb right now and why?
This is another really big question. There are so many and I feel like they really change with the season of my life or the types of clients that I’m working with at the time. One of my all time favorites is wood betony (Betonica officinalis) and I love it because it is a really grounding plant. It brings on a sense of connection and earthiness, relaxes the body, soothes tension and anxieties while working on the nervous system.
The coolest aspect of wood betony is that it does this especially through its affinity for the gut and the stomach and the nerves in this area (the vagus nerve and the solar plexus). It tonifies that area, improving the sense of being grounded and rooted, and that feeling of connectedness. For folks who tend to be head spacey or who hold tension in the neck, face and the shoulders it can really bring them down to earth. It is great as a tea and has wonderful earthy characteristics. It is a tonic, and is great to savor on a daily basis, and it also pairs well with other teas.
You like to help folks with health anxiety. What do you do to support them?
With health anxiety, I think it is important to remember that everyone’s anxieties, and especially their health anxiety, are uniquely rooted for each person. So the origin is different for everyone. I think herbs really shine in this space because they are also incredibly unique. You really need to focus on working with the person, hearing them out and looking at where their health anxieties are coming from.
I think that herbs are really good for several reasons: Emotional well-being in general, bringing on a sense of calm and relaxation and easing the mind. There is also a routine to making the tea or taking tinctures that can be really grounding for folks. On the other side of that they are supportive to the healthy structure and function of our physical tissues and the organ systems as a whole. So, you can incorporate herbs that are specifically soothing and tonifying to the nervous tissue, the nerves themselves to increase someone’s resilience to stress and to lower anxiety overtime. In addition, you can also look at the source of someone’s health anxiety. If their health anxiety is around, say, their digestion, you can tailor herbs to support the healthy function of that specific area. By bringing a health positive action and routine into the picture for this area bringing on anxiety, you can help ease health anxieties at their root.
Why do clients come to you primarily and how do you approach each issue?
Herbs touch on so many different aspects of our lives so I really see people for all sorts of reasons. It could be that they are needing support with a particular area of their health and what they have been trying hasn’t been working or isn’t in alignment with them. It could be that they are interested in learning more about herbs and how to incorporate them into their health routine. Or perhaps people are just wanting more nature-based health positive routines and are looking for things that they can incorporate to support themselves.
My approach is very individualized and I like to get to know my clients and tease out what is going on with them. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach and there can often be many different herbs for one particular area of someone’s health. This is why it is so important to understand those nuances and match folks with the herbs and custom formulas that are really going to work best for them. Herbs are incredibly unique, and so are people.
Tell us about the Rebecca Snow Herbal Dispensary and how you custom formulate herbal remedies?
From the start, when Rebecca and I first connected and started working together we really hit it off because we are both herbalists and both share the same passion. She had her Nutrition practice and expressed interest in wanting to open or reopen her own apothecary and when she approached me I was like – yes, of course. Let’s do it.
We started planning and developing the organizational systems, ordering and creating our herbal inventory. We opened the Rebecca Snow Herbal Dispensary in the spring of 2021 so we are going on two years now. It has been such a fun experience.
We have over 210 cut and sifted herbal teas, powders, and tinctures (which are alcohol extracts of herbs). Having our own dispensary in-house has really allowed us to tailor our formulas to our clients and make them really customized, unique and specific to them. We have control over the inventory and are able to bring in different plants as we need them. After consultation we will formulate and ship our custom formulas directly to our clients with instructions on how to prepare them, the dosage and how to take them.
If you would like to find out more about Rebecca Snow Nutrition, visit https://rebeccasnow.com/ or follow on https://www.facebook.com/rebeccasnownutrition
