Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
A podcast about practices to promote healthy lives featuring experts, businesses, and clients: we gather to share our stories about success, failure, exploration, and so much more. Our subscription episodes feature some personal and vulnerable, real-life stories that are sensitive to some of the general public.
Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
The Modern Herbalist's Guide to Natural Healing with Rachelle Robinett
What if the most powerful medicine cabinet was already in your kitchen? Herbalist Rachelle Robinette reveals how we're all practicing herbalism without even realizing it—through the spices we cook with, the teas we drink, and the plants surrounding our homes.
Rachelle's journey from farm kid to New York fashion professional to renowned herbalist offers a fascinating glimpse into how plant medicine can transform lives. Despite growing up with a functional health practitioner mother and an anesthesiologist father, she never intended to make herbalism her career. Yet her lifelong fascination with healing traditions eventually led her to recognize herbalism as the perfect intersection of nutrition, fitness, medicine, mental health, spirituality, and community work.
During our conversation, Rachelle shares insights from her forthcoming book "Naturally, the Herbalist's Guide to Health and Transformation," explaining her unique categorical approach to organizing herbs by their uses rather than alphabetically—making complex herbal knowledge immediately practical for everyday health concerns. She addresses common misconceptions about herbal safety, advocates for empowering people beyond following recipes, and relates touching client success stories that demonstrate herbalism's potential to transform not just physical health but entire lives.
Perhaps most refreshing is her mission to make herbalism accessible to everyone by stripping away its esoteric reputation and demonstrating its scientific validity and relevance to modern urban life. Whether you're a complete newcomer curious about natural remedies or an experienced herbalist seeking fresh perspectives, Rochelle's balanced approach offers valuable wisdom about working with plants responsibly and effectively.
Ready to explore how herbalism might transform your own health journey? Discover "Naturally, the Herbalist's Guide to Health and Transformation" available July 22nd wherever books are sold, or connect with Rochelle through her website and Instagram for weekly herbalism insights through her free newsletter.
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Hello and welcome back to the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbine, and today we have a very special guest. Her name is Rochelle Robinette and she is an herbalist and the author of the forthcoming book, Naturally, the Herbalist's Guide to Health and Transformation. And, Rochelle, welcome to the show. It's great to have you here.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I'm thrilled to be here.
Speaker 1:Nice. So I have been involved with herbs for about 40 years and you know I love to hear fresh perspectives, and a new book comes out is always exciting. So I'd like to hear a little bit from you. What brings you here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. I mean, first of all, I love to hear that you've been working with the plants for 40 years. That's incredible and you know, it reminds me of the fact that, you know, herbalism is a part of so many of our lives already and so many of us don't realize that. You know, it's in kitchens, it's in the backyard, it's it's at the coffee shop, it's at the grocery store, it's all around us. So you know, I think we're all probably practicing herbalism and in one way or another one way or another, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, and realizing that, you know, and waking up to that, as you well know, is life changing and health changing. You know it's transformational to realize that we're surrounded by opportunities to be well, to be better, to be more vital, and we're surrounded by natural medicine.
Speaker 1:You know so the food aspect of health is one of the most overlooked and important pieces. And you know, you drive down the road and you see fast food place after fast food place and then you find some little corner produce stand and that's where food actually is. And you know, it's kind of crazy. We've, we've, we're kind of backwards with all of that.
Speaker 2:It's true, it's really gotten to that point, it's very true, and you know something that your listeners are probably very well aware of. Um, but I like to remind people who are less familiar with herbalism you know that herbalists will always start with food. You know it is our first medicine and if we can be well with our food, much of which is also, you know, herbal. You think of blueberries or rosemary, or you know any of these culinary spice vegetable or fruit is going to be an herb.
Speaker 1:You know, I always say the definition of an herb is a useful plant I make topical skin products with them and elixirs and things, and I, if I put it in there and it came from a plant, it's an herb.
Speaker 2:That's so true. It's so true. You know, and and if we can, if we can use food to reach a state of you know, health and wellness and and not need herbs as medicine on top of that, you know any any herbalist will will send you off with that. You know, quote unquote protocol. The goal is not to have, you know, everybody taking a bunch of herbs as medicine if we don't need them.
Speaker 1:So yeah, chinese doctor, and they'll give you a bowl of soup as a prescription, and you got to go to the Chinese pharmacy and they pull out all the parts and pieces and they go, here you go, go make your soup.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I love that, I love that, yeah. So food is, food is critical, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1:And to this. Like you know, I have a story how I found my way to looking at natural medicine. But you know what got you to this. Where did you come from?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I came from a to looking at natural medicine, but you know what? What got you to this? Where did you come from?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I came from a farm in the Pacific Northwest, the, the. The journey wasn't linear exactly. I mean, in some ways it was. You know, I grew up on that farm and I was surrounded by nature. We had an enormous garden. My dad was an anesthesiologist, so I was exposed to Western medicine and surgery and you know bodies and all of the sort of concepts of health from that perspective. And then my mom is a functional health practitioner still. So I had this sort of balance of both. I started taking supplements and drinking teas and using essential oils very, very young, you know, nice.
Speaker 1:Built in a little bit to some degree.
Speaker 2:It's very built in. You know, I never intended to make it my career. I went straight from that farm to New York City to work in fashion.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a juxtaposition there.
Speaker 2:Dichotomy it was intentionally. I wanted nothing to do with dirt for a long time.
Speaker 2:That said, my personal study and my personal practice of all of these things which all of these things is herbalism never stopped from the time I was young.
Speaker 2:I mean I was in junior high or elementary school, maybe I was doing a report on traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, you know, I was. I was studying every healing tradition that I could get my hands on. From the time that I was very young, mostly because I was I was fascinated with the slightly more philosophical perspective of this sort of work, which is, you know, how does what we take in through our senses affect our experience of being alive? Sights, sounds, thoughts, light, of course food, of course herbs, sounds, thoughts, light, of course food, of course herbs. So I was really interested in sort of that root root root cause, if you will, of how our states change, how our health changes, how our mind changes. So I studied everything I could get my hands on and even when I was working in fashion, I was raw vegan. I was using my vacation days to go to Peru to do ayahuasca. So I was always doing it, just not always professionally.
Speaker 1:Sure, absolutely. Well, I suspect you found that the answer was a lot more ways than anybody thinks.
Speaker 2:Exactly exactly, and the answer that I found was it's herbalism, because herbalism is all of this. It is that holistic, it is about nutrition and fitness and medicine and mental health and spirituality and community. As you well know, it is not just plants as medicine, it is the whole human and the whole environment we are.
Speaker 1:Nature is you know it's infinite, you know you'll never be able to learn it all, because it's so regional and you go from one place to the next and their understandings and uses of the same plants, even in some cases, are so different and the differences of the plants grown in one region to another can be so different. And that's when I discovered that I'm like oh cool, I found my life's path, because I'll never get to the end of the road.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yeah, I felt the same way. You know, it's like I can marry this because it will continue to evolve, and evolve and evolve, and, you know, we'll continue to discover more plants and we'll continue to discover more about the plants that we have already discovered and more about our bodies, and our bodies will change. It's. It is fascinating and it is endless for those who want to. You know.
Speaker 1:Today is such an exciting time to be in because when I started this, there wasn't computers, there wasn't internet, and I found information in old books from the used bookstore and that's where I began my journey and there was a handful of new books. But you know, you read, you read. There was no AI, there was no Wikipedia, there was no Google, there wasn't any of that. And you read and you tried, and you met people and talked and that was kind of a I would never want to learn any other way because, I learned in a way that really stuck to me by just, you know, trying and all that.
Speaker 1:But nowadays, if I want to learn something, look up a recipe, I get a head start that takes me probably about five books of not having to read. So we get at least a lot of. It's an exciting time to be learning today.
Speaker 2:It is exciting and you know, I had the Internet, you, I had the internet when I was studying these things, but the wellness industry didn't exist in the way that it exists now. When I started I was connecting a lot of dots from the herbalism world and then the biohacking bodybuilding world, herbalism world and then the biohacking sort of bodybuilding world. You know they were very, very early to a lot of the supplements and things that are, you know, popular now. Creatine is a perfect example. You know I was in those like chat rooms and things, and it's like they're talking about similar things that the herbalists are talking about and like starting to become popular.
Speaker 2:And one of the other things that I tried to do early on and that I definitely still do intentionally, um is to present herbalism in a way that is as accessible as possible to as wide an audience as possible, because I think if you love herbalism or you're an herbalist, like you get it. You know the vibe, you know the look and feel, or you're an herbalist, like you get it. You know the vibe, you know the look and feel, you know it can be. It has a distinct kind of brand, if you will, and I wanted to, I wanted to appeal to and excite, you know again, as many people as possible and kind of wake up the realization that this is not fringe, it is not esoteric, it is not unscientific, it is so relevant and so important for modern life, even modern urban life. You know it's, it can be sexy, it's, you know it is, is fair, whatever you want it to be baby.
Speaker 1:Exactly so, baby, exactly so, yeah, yeah, so that's awesome and you know, I think that if you put information out there in a way, that sort of filters itself, the people who really need to find you will and the people that are just glossing over. They'll do that and probably not waste your time, so it's a good way to go about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it feels like, yeah, naturally I love this labor of love. I mean naturally really is the sort of capstone project, the culmination of over a decade, you know, working in herbalism, or a lifetime, you know. If we want to look at it that way, my lifetime, sure, and Naturally is for anyone who is looking for better health. Naturally it is about herbalism and anyone who's interested in herbalism will learn plenty. If you're a beginner, if you're a professional, it's all in there. And if you've never even heard of herbalism before, it's also the book for you. It's really about, you know. It includes case studies from my work with clients. It includes history, it includes new science, it includes recipes. It's really meant to and it's a and it's a.
Speaker 2:you know, I really strive to make it a literary experience, so you sit down and you can read this book for pleasure and learn a lot along the way. I was really determined to not have it feel like a textbook.
Speaker 1:Technical books are hard to read and for us that research. You just power through it and read it. But and then readable books generally don't have a lot of good content that you can use for research. So you're marrying the two together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really, really was determined to do that, and I think it speaks to that previous point that I mentioned about making this accessible. You know, I wanted it to be an enjoyable experience. I wanted people to be moved, to be inspired and also to be, you know, highly educated by the end of the book about what herbalism can do and understand. You know, if I just want to take one step, great. If I want to change my whole life, great. So I think the other thing that's important to note about the book is that most of the chapters focus on a specific category of herbs, because I find categories of herbs to be a very easy way to understand how to navigate the thousands.
Speaker 1:I can appreciate that a lot. I've read a lot of herbal books and a lot of them are just alphabetical. And then you go to the table of contents and you try to find references, and the categories are what you're generally looking for. I'm looking for things that do this, and A's, b's and C's, so I think that's a great move you did there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I think it's. It was the way that I best learned herbs and it's the way that I've taught them and I think it makes a lot of sense for people when they hear you know, I've got stress. What are the herbs for stress? You know? That's kind of the way that we speak about them. Anyway, I need help sleeping.
Speaker 1:You for stress, you know that's kind of a way that we speak about them. Anyway, I need help sleeping. You know there's a category for that. You know there's a category for need states. So so you start out and you've got these categories of herbs. You talk about the plants, you talk about what they do. Do you talk about how to use them?
Speaker 2:I do, definitely, yeah. So within each chapter there's a case study, so I take through a client that I had and the exact protocols that I used with that client, and that includes herbs within that category, but it also includes dietary recommendations, lifestyle changes, and then there are specifics in terms of, if I'm talking about lavender, for example, what's the best form to take it in, what's a recommended dosage and what's even more helpful I think for people is at the end of the book.
Speaker 2:There's a quite a large table and it's a table of all of the categories of herbs very easily referenced, you know, quickly. You can just go look at lavender and say, okay, it's best as a you know tea, for example. Or if I'm going to take a capsule, it's this capsule at this dosage and here are any safety concerns or notes. You just reference it quickly. So I think that tool you know, I haven't seen one of those in the industry and it felt really important for me to include something like that for people who just want a quick you know, quick check.
Speaker 1:I like that. I like it when an herbal has sort of two ways to look things up. One would be the uses of this plant and the other one would be, you know, teas or tinctures or infusions and plants to use in them, and that gives you two different ways to go about it. So I think that's a great way to go forward. Um, I noticed you did mention that things to be aware of as far as, like contraindications. I think that's an important piece, because people think that, oh, it's an herb, so it's safe and I can just eat some of it, it's great, take more, it's better. And so it's safe and I can just eat some of it, it's great, take more, it's better. And then people don't realize that that is absolutely not the case and some herbs can make you really sick and even worse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a great quote. I don't recall it was another herbalist who wrote this somewhere. She said just because it's natural doesn't mean you can be as stupid with it as you want to be.
Speaker 1:Right, that's a great. That's a great saying Cause I know people who've damaged their organs by just going too crazy with herbs. It's like they tell you to take 25 milligrams, so they take 2,500, and it's just like no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, I mean, a really easy way to not do that is to take as directed you know right, start a little less than they tell you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, up a little bit and see how you feel. You know, take time with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I really, I really work hard to ease the fears around the safety with herbs, because I think there are so many barriers to entry already that concern of theirs, you know, about their safety is it's overblown, of course. Of course safety concerns exist, especially if we're taking, you know, 100 times what the recommend.
Speaker 1:That's generally where the problems come from. Yeah, or a cup of tea, unless you're when the problems come from.
Speaker 2:Yeah or poor quality.
Speaker 1:Nobody's going to get sick from a cup of tea, unless you're, you know, highly allergic to something, exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly so you know, I think there are.
Speaker 2:you know, generally, again, for the general population, you know what's available on the market from reputable providers that is high quality, that has a specific, you know, dosage recommendation on the product is not something that we need to be afraid of. If anybody is taking medication, of course, you know you need to check with a healthcare provider and there are certain herbs that you know we need to be especially careful with. But, like herb, you know contraindications within the herbal world. So, like herb-herb interactions that are, you know, dangerous, are so uncommon and taking reasonable doses, you're probably not going to have any, yeah yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:So it's you know, it's something that I like to to speak about, of course, but really to try to to downplay responsibly, because I think that's actually the truth.
Speaker 1:That's the key really is that the client has to be their own doctor and the client has to be mindful of what they're doing, and they're the only ones that know themselves and how they feel and what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's true, it's true, and you know that that reminds me of a related point in terms of, you know, our taking our health and our health into our own hands. You know there are some recipes in the book as well, but I'm pretty anti-recipe and the reason for that is that I really, you know, I've always tried to teach people how to be empowered to think for themselves, to go beyond being told what to do and to learn how to do it on their own, because we can follow recipes, you know, until the end of time, but if we don't have the right recipe for that thing, that happens later on. You know, what are we going to do? Have we learned how to you know? Have we learned these plans? Have we learned our bodies in such a way that we can create our own recipe? So I provide recipes, but I provide them as templates. You know that can be customized and personalized, because also there's a compliance issue. If you're like, well, this is the recipe, but I don't like the way this herb tastes.
Speaker 1:Right, then what do you do? You know Something else? Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's fantastic. I think that, ultimately, the people that go into this, we all start out with somebody else's recipes and then we start tweaking on them and the next thing you know, you're like oh, I see how this works as a formulator. That's how I learned. I didn't go to school for it, I just did it, and when I saw that things worked, I kept doing them, and if they didn't work, I did something else.
Speaker 2:Formulating is fascinating and so much fun. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's my favorite part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mine too, I love to. I just you know people are like, oh this, and that I'm a tinkerer, I just like to tinker with things until I find something that's nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and yeah. And you know I can understand. You know, if people are starting out like that's not necessarily how they want to start out. I think I did. I think, like you, I like to learn about it and then try it. You know, I did everything sort of on myself first.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I'm the first test subject. If I have an issue with it, then we put off.
Speaker 2:If I don't, then I got a few close friends that are secondary test subjects and we go from there. Yeah, I mean, it's a great way to live, you know it's. It's that direct experience and like we have to, you know we need to see the plant, taste it, touch it, feel it. You can read about it in a book, you can read about life in a book, but you know when you try it for yourself, then then you know in a different way. So I love it Exactly.
Speaker 1:Now, with herbs it's. It's kind of when you're looking at herbs in science, it's kind of a complicated route because you have most herbs contain multiple compounds and you have this entourage effect of multiple compounds. Then you deal with supplements and you're dealing with generally single molecule, and so you have two different elements, and you were talking about both supplements and herbs. How do you integrate these two?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely use both. I'm a big fan of both, um, yeah, but it's a. It's a great point, an important point, and actually it reminds me of, you know, the hypothetical person who's taking 100 times the recommended dose. That's what happens with supplements we isolate a compound, concentrate it, take it that way, um, and that's you know.
Speaker 1:And ironically, you know, there's so much less fear in the market of these supplements than there are herbs right, Exactly so over the counter status, and all of a sudden it's just nothing could go wrong. Fda said it's okay, Right on, yeah so so, yeah, I like to work with both.
Speaker 2:I mean, there are some companies that do some really brilliant formulations that include the nutraceuticals, you know, as well as the herbs. I love that. I like to see, I really like to see that. Actually, I think that excites me and it always has. Yeah, you know, and when I'm creating protocols for people, if I want like, for example, I love amino acids, I find them very, you know, easy to work with wide therapeutic range.
Speaker 2:So I might, you know, add and I take those on my own routine as well as a bunch of herbs, so it's really about the best ingredient for the job. But you know it's typically a plant-based or you know an herbal blend. But if there's, you know we want to put some extra in there, or you know something, then by all means means let's do that agreed, agreed.
Speaker 1:And I think when you know, even if it is uh extracted or isolated from an animal product, by the time it's a single molecule.
Speaker 2:I don't think it matters yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean that that could be a like an ethical thing, depending on the person. But uh, yeah, I don't disclose it, but I would.
Speaker 1:I would. It seems to me that you know if you got the compound. It doesn't. It is the compound wherever from. Yeah, so tell me about your practice. I know that you know you're talking about clients and whatnot. How do people interact with you personally?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I have actually retired from private practice after many years and many, many clients and many classes and speaking engagements. So I, at this point, I do education to wider audiences, so we produce a lot of content, I write a lot, I teach a lot online or, you know, speaking engagements, that sort of thing. But I moved away from the private practice around the time that I started writing the book, maybe a little bit before that, just because I wanted to scale a bit.
Speaker 2:You know, so much that you learn when you're working one on one with people. But it got to a point where, just personally and professionally, I was wanting to branch out and also, you know, to write a book like this requires an incredible amount of time.
Speaker 1:People have no idea what it takes to write a book, you got to write a book. You got to write a book. I'm like, yeah, I have to stop everything else for a long period of time and I've got things I'm doing. So, yeah's, it's not everybody can just write a book, that's for sure a good one traumatic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's for sure yeah, all the time and all the people that you've worked with always like to catch some kind of a profound anecdote that no doubt they had some interactions with people that were just amazing. You know where somebody had a transformation or an epiphany or just some major positive change. What kind of tell me one of the stories that came along your path?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there were so many of those. I mean, I can't count the number of times that I, you know, finished with a client and just cried because it was amazing to see their lives, how their lives had changed. And usually you know always actually that that comes because they eventually took this practice into their own hands and began to their life. You know more and more broadly, I think the one story that I referenced most often, you know, when I'm thinking about these transformations is one that I included in, naturally and it's a client when it was one of my very first clients and we saw each other for years and she came in with digestive issues, you know, maybe a little bit of weight loss, that she was looking to achieve some fairly minor things, and we ended up working together for years as her health evolved, as she got pregnant, as she, you know, had her children. I ended up seeing her husband as well.
Speaker 2:But there was this point where you know she'd changed her diet, she'd changed her lifestyle, she changed her relationship to fitness. You know all these things and she comes to me and she says so. This might sound strange, but like do you think that herbalism could help me start playing the piano again. I used to play the piano and I loved it. It brought me so much joy. But I've lost it now that I have, you know, two kids and I'm really, really busy, and you know, long story short, yes, she ended up playing the piano again, but the fact that she was thinking that way was that was it. It was, you know. Can you know this, this lifestyle, this lifestyle, this holistic way of thinking and living? Where can it apply? The answer is it can apply to anything, everywhere, exactly.
Speaker 1:I agree A hundred percent. It's a tool to be used in any way that you need it, and there's something for everybody if you look in the right places, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I love that story.
Speaker 1:She was very special has there been anybody that you really weren't able to help and it was probably because of their own, not willingness, but just curious. I mean, there's always that stubborn client that you're just like, I don't know, it doesn't work, it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
Speaker 2:That's great. You know this sounds a little bit unlikely, but it is true. There was one person. In all of the people that I saw, there was one person who was really struggling to change. It wasn't that they weren't seeing results, but they were. There was a lot of resistance. You know, struggle, struggle. And then, finally, she came back to me and she said you know what I realized? I don't want to change, even though that's what it always boils down to.
Speaker 1:That's always. Yeah, I like the chaos, I like the problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I know that these things are not healthy for me. I've realized that they give me a certain kind of pleasure because I don't have that in this other part of my life, and so I'm going to choose to continue to live the way that I've lived. But you know, she was helped because she realized that. You know. So so much of this work also resembles therapy, I mean absolutely.
Speaker 1:You know, it's always when somebody wants to get better that you. You end up being a therapist, no matter what, and you have whatever tools you use. Well, I've got a final question. You had mentioned that you'd gone to Peru, done ayahuasca. I've worked with and studied what we call ethnobotanicals for 40 years and I'm just curious Today there's this resurgence in what they call plant medicine. You know there's a lot of people experimenting and using and working with some powerful plant medicines. What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:plants, those botanicals are certainly powerful and have the potential to be transformational in the right, you know context, and I think there's an opportunity for them to revolutionize, you know, mental health, the mental health spaces as well. Whether or not that's going to happen is definitely to be seen, and I think also there are a lot of issues at this point with the tourism related to, you know, these, these retreats and the you know quote unquote plant medicines. I think you know they're medicines and they're, they're effective. They're not for everyone, they're not for all the time, and so I think it's really a matter of treating them with great care, respect and, you know, maybe not jumping on the bandwagon of it being trendy right now.
Speaker 2:So a lot more to be said about it.
Speaker 1:But good advice, absolutely. Well, this is the spot where I give you your plug and, and you know, get to share with us anything that you want to, as far as how people can reach you. Obviously, the book. I'm looking forward to seeing this when it comes out. Looks like July 22.
Speaker 2:The launch date that is correct, july 22. Everywhere Books Are Sold, naturally, the Herbalist's Guide to Health and Transformation Really a book for anyone who is interested in better health, naturally, whether that is herbal or not. If you're interested in herbalism, this is the one for you. If you like to read entertaining books where you also learn something, this one is also for you. Meantime, I can be found at Rochelle Robinettecom and on Instagram, rochelle Robinette. We have a free newsletter that we send out herbalism information every week. That can be signed up for in either of those places and that's a great way to kind of get into the scene that I've created over the last decade plus.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Well, this has been a fascinating conversation and I'm grateful that you came to join us today and hopefully we'll come back and talk more.
Speaker 2:Wonderful Thanks, Joe.
Speaker 1:You bet this has been a Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, joe Grumbine, and we'll see you next time.
