This week, Mystic Mag had the opportunity to interview Tamara, Herbalist and talk about her career developed, advantages of the Herbal Health Program over conventional medicine, and what she loves most about her profession.
When did you first know that being a herbalist was your calling and how did it come about?
I grew up in my grandma’s garden full of herbs, flowers, and fruit trees in Germany. In my early twenties, I felt the calling to become a midwife. During my training, I realized that hospital birth brings along a risk of too many interventions and that a good part of what the women who were giving birth were exposed to wasn’t actually helpful.
Right away, I was more interested in more alternative ways to help moms feel more empowered during childbirth. I also worked as a home birth midwife for some years, up until I started traveling more.
At one point, I faced my own health problems. After the birth of my second child, I was suddenly feeling very tired and fatigued. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s, so I dove very deeply into natural healing and studying Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, and Western Herbalism with amazing teachers who had many decades of experience in helping others. I learned from some of the best teachers in natural medicine. I was able to resolve my own health issues in a fairly short amount of time, which surprised me. This made me feel empowered to share this knowledge with others and to start helping others resolve their health issues.
What services do you offer?
I teach and I do workshops, including local ones, as well as online classes for my students. I do online health consultations, so people can contact me for that. I also started creating videos for my YouTube channel, primarily for my own clients, to show them certain techniques and how to take the herbs, but I make those publicly available, too.
Additionally, there’s my podcast that I really enjoy recording. There I can share some deep dives and interesting information about plants and how to effectively use them to improve our health and well-being.
What are some of the advantages of the Herbal Health Program compared to conventional medicine solutions?
There’s a difference between how I and other natural practitioners work in comparison to the conventional medical system. The most important point is to look at the whole person. A consultation with me starts with an intake form so that we can look at all the conditions that a person has had or has at the moment. It’s important how you sleep, how your energy levels are during the day, how your digestion is, etc.
So, even if a person comes with a seemingly unrelated health complaint, like headaches or allergies, we look at all these areas of their life and their lifestyle – the quality of their life, circumstances, how much they work, how much stress they have, etc. This is all very important to really get to the root cause and build a base of healing and maintaining health. Basically, what I try to do is to first ease the symptoms my clients are suffering from, so I find it really important to give them quick relief. Many people just suffer and we have many effective and safe herbal remedies that can help if someone suffers from migraine, low energy, food intolerance, digestive problems, hormonal problems, menopause, PMS, etc.
The list is very, very long. The root cause of many of these conditions is that our digestion doesn’t work optimally to absorb the nutrients, or that our nervous system is very sensitive because of stress and our lifestyle, so we can do many things to build up the resilience of our body and to actually build a foundation for our health, while at the same time just giving the person a good relief of their most painful symptoms right away.
Basically, my approach is to combine relieving the person as quickly as possible, and then working more long-term on the underlying issue and recreating the basis of good health. Our mental health, emotional health, and spiritual health are all linked to things happening in our body, so our body needs good food, needs to be able to absorb nutrients, deal with stress, and have good sleep. These elements represent the very foundation of health.
What can a person expect from your Herbal Health Program?
The first step after someone contacts me is usually that I offer a free 20-minute call, just to meet and greet and to give people the chance to ask their questions, to find out if we’re a good match for whatever their health challenge or situation is. We can also find the best length of the program. I usually offer two consultations as a minimum, because it’s important to have at least one follow-up to see if things are working and to be able to adjust the dosages or the herbs to work in the best way possible because every person is different.
We would try to find out if we would meet for 2, or 3 consultations, or for the 6-month program, which gives us time to really get to the root cause of chronic health conditions that have been present for a while. Then I send my clients the intake form that they need to fill out, with very detailed questions about health, habits, symptoms, etc.
After that, we would meet online for our first consultation. I live in Europe, but I have clients all over the world, so I have optimal time slots available for all time zones. After the Zoom call in which we discuss their situation, I send them a detailed email with all the recommendations and herbs, and maybe supplements, that they can take. I try to find ways to make it convenient and easy for people to take the recommended herbs, which can be in powder form, tee form, encapsulated, etc.
There are many different ways to consume the herbs, so we have to make it as easy as possible for the client to stay on the protocol for long enough to see the benefits. As mentioned, I try to make sure that the client feels relief as quickly as possible, as seeing that the herbs actually work can create motivation on their side to stay on track. While I don’t ship any products, I help people to find good local online sources where they can order the herbs.
We usually meet after a month for a follow-up to see what the results are, where we can still make improvements, and we take all changes into account.
What is the most important detail in maintaining a relationship of mutual trust with clients?
It helps that people get to know me through the podcast and the YouTube channel, where they can get a sense of my personality and my knowledge, so it usually clicks between us already during the first 20-minute call. I seem to attract the right people, people who are on the same wavelength as I am. I sometimes surprised myself how fluid our relationship is.
From the feedback I get, even though it’s not something I do consciously, it appears that I create a judgment-free space in which clients can express themselves and tell me about their lives so that I can really grasp what’s going on in their lives and what would be the best way to help them.
What do you love most about your profession?
Working with plants is very satisfying on so many levels. It’s a part of my whole day. I make tea for myself and I make tea blends and herbal preparations for me and my family. My kids join me and help, we go outside and try to identify plants that we didn’t know yet. In each season, we see different wild plants growing.
There’s the Calendula, the Chamomile, the Nettles, the Mint, and everything else growing outside. It just reminds me of how abundant nature is and how it’s a way of living. It’s not just a method or just clinical knowledge and experience of being an herbal practitioner, but it’s a way of living that connects me with the season, to being outside, to the plants, to nature, etc.
It gives me something for my personal life on a much deeper level than just being a job. Of course, it’s also very satisfying to see that people actually get better from it and that I’m able to make recommendations that are actually resolving someone’s issues.
People call me and say that they have energy again, or that they don’t have any more mood swings, so it’s very satisfying to receive the feedback and gratitude that I get from my clients, which I can then pass on and give it back to nature because that’s where it actually comes from.
To get in touch with Tamara’s work::
Instagram: @herbal.help https://www.instagram.com/herbal.help
Website: http://herbalhelp.net
https://linktr.ee/HerbalHelp
Podcast: Down to Earth Herbalism with Tamara
On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/down-to-earth-herbalism-with-tamara/id1567302109
On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2WW8FR5XWuNI37PFelBQnw
YouTube Channel: Herbal Help by Tamara
