Herbal Womb Wisdom

What does it mean to connect with your inner wild woman (or wild womb)?  And how can you more fully embody this innate creative, sensual, generative, wisdom-keeping part of yourself in ways that feel inspiring and unique to you? It can be easy to look online at social media accounts painting with menstrual blood or embodying some fierce quality of themselves with animal hides and think... "th...

Navigating the whirls and twirls of perimenopause can feel like a wild ride.  But amidst all of this transitional terrain, what if there was also a potential for immense power? There is! And this is a lot of what we explore in this week's episode. Business mentor and life coach Olivia Bowen shares about everything from how her births supported her spiritual growth to how her surprising entry...

So many of us are walking around with the beliefs we created in childhood running the show. And almost always, we are unconscious of it. Largely because we have other parts of ourselves protecting us from feeling or becoming aware of the hurt parts of ourselves. These "parts" protect us, or try to, and in a way cause us to act and react to everything from social interactions to work to r...

Let's be honest that most of us are poorly informed about all the non-hormonal birth control options we have.  Our providers basically tell us we should either choose something they have on offer (whether that's IUD's or hormonal contraception of one kind or another), and dismiss the efficacy of the myriad non-hormonal birth control options we have access to outside of the medical s...

Nearly all of us have experienced some kind of menstrual, sexual, pregnancy loss or release, birth, postpartum, womb or other pelvic trauma. And most of us just sort of... live with it. Or we find pathways to healing.  Today's guest, Catherine Simone Gray, speaks to her personal journey of reclaiming her pleasure, growing into her power, and healing through her painful (and transformational)...

Wait, what? Astrology can give you insights into your reproductive, sexual or menstrual health?  I know it might sound a bit wild, but astrology has actually been revered for not only divination but also for understanding tendencies towards physical, mental, emotional and spiritual weaknesses and strengths for hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of years! And our charts can actually give us useful infor...

The transition into autumn is always a bit of a shock to the body.  Shifting from expansive heat to cool and dry weather, the leaves falling, the plants going dormant, shifting their vital force down into their roots, the turning inwards. So how can you tend your body, mind and whole being in this time?  And especially with all the instability -- of Vata season and our collective global experience...

What if pleasure was not just something that feels good, relaxes us, helps us feel connected to something greater but ALSO had potential to be therapeutic - like physiologically? Wait, whatttt?  So much of our clinical training - whether in the medical or alternative health fields  - tells us to stay away from pleasure when working with people.  And in a way that makes sense. We need to create som...

Have you ever woken up from a dream and wondered, "what was THAT about?" Maybe this happens to you all the time, or maybe you barely remember your dreams. Either way, we all dream. And learning to work with our dreams from a more intentional or even therapeutic lens can be incredibly supportive in navigating complex mental or emotional states or even past or recurrent trauma in our lives...

What does it mean to be "erotically alive"?  And how can connecting with the earth and your senses enhance that experience? Today's episode is a beautiful conversation with sex and relationship coach Usha Rose all about how to incorporate your relationship to plants, elements, seasons, the earth and more into your sensuality and sexuality practice. We talk what ecosensuality is, how...

What herbs can help bring your bleed on? This is a question I've been asked in so many ways over the years. Honestly probably one of the most common. And we ALL deserve access to this information. Especially in these... turbulent times. I'm not talking abortifacients, I'm talking when you are still in your luteal phase and would be expecting your menstruation in days or weeks. THIS...

How does Ayurveda view the perimenopausal transition?  And what are some of the tools and strategies that might be helpful to incorporate in this time to both reduce and prevent the common symptoms that show up in this time? According to today's guest, Ayurvedic Health Counselor Kristen Timchak, the perimenopausal transition is often characterized by qualities of Vata dosha. Irregular cycles,...

What if it's not your hormones? What if your hormones are actually alerting you to something deeper going on? Because, they essentially always are.  Today's guest, Rapid Transformational Therapy practitioner Natalie Ryan Hebert, speaks to the drop in estrogen in the luteal phase as a time when deeper truths (including core stories, trauma wounds, childhood imprints) may show up more prom...

Wait? So contraception can fail? I'm sure we've all heard the stories of folks using some form of contraception and still ending up pregnant, or maybe this has been you! It was a little uncanny to hear that my last two guests on the podcast BOTH had the experience of becoming pregnant while using contraception in their early years of sexual activity. So I thought it would be a great topi...

So many of us are taught to feel shame around our sexuality, orgasms, pleasure. What happens when we shake a little of that shame and modesty off and start to explore what's really possible? The truth is, there is SO MUCH MORE than most of us have any idea about. Today's guest, intimacy expert Susan Bratton, is a 64 year old woman who says she's juicier than she's ever been, an...

It's a bit of a trendy topic these days, especially in healing-centered communities, to speak about generational or even ancestral lineage healing.  But what does that even mean? And how can you begin to engage with it? And how does this relate to what you may be holding in your wombspace - physically, energetically or otherwise. While some people may have a very healthy relationship with our...

Recently, I've been noticing this concept of "emergent process" coming up.  Between all of us navigating the collective unknowns, relationship shifts and changes, personal upheavals, and whatever else is happening - there is also somehow a theme I've been hearing of needing to let go and trust. And it's in this vein that the "emergent process" shows up.  It'...

So many focus on preparing for birth during pregnancy, as if the birth itself is the biggest event. And as someone who studied midwifery and attended births for 5 years, I can say confidently that it IS important to prepare for the birth.  But it is arguably even MORE important to prepare for the initial weeks and months postpartum. And not just with meal trains and herbal remedies, but also - fro...

We spend so many of our cycling years trying NOT to get pregnant - whether that's on hormonal contraception, non-hormonal IUD's, using barrier methods or with Fertility Awareness Method. So, when we finally decide that we want to try to conceive, we just assume it will be easy -- particularly if we're younger, healthy and have no obvious conditions that would get in the way of pregn...

It's so easy to overlook the power of pleasure, especially in challenging times.  But it is SUCH an essential part of how we can bring our best selves to the world. When we feel better, we are better able to weather the ever-changing terrain of our lives, and we have more capacity to share our gifts, too. In today's medley episode, I combine three episode snippets to support your pathway...

We're all navigating so much right now. Collectively, relationally, personally. This week's episode explores three different frames for understanding and tending your nervous system when it's stretched, strained, burnt out or plain dysregulated. In addition to the collective unrest so many of us are feeling, this week I learned about the loss of John Gallagher (founder of Learning H...

It's summer solstice time!  And for some reason, when I think of the buoyancy and fullness of the sun -- the expansive expressiveness, the creative life force energy -- I also think of our breasts / chest. This voluptuous tissue we often either fear, sexualize, or think of as nourishment for our babies. But this part of our bodies is a center of compassion and heart connection, and something...

Got cramps? The truth is there is not just one answer to how to relieve menstrual cramps, and my guess is that if you've got cramps you've realized this yourself. It took me years to understand that there are many different KINDS of menstrual cramps, and they all come from different imbalances in the body and the pelvis. Today I explore a question I received from a listener about how to...

I get asked a lot about herbal approaches to fibroid care, and there is actually a lot that's possible!  But I also haven't personally been through the journey myself, so I'm excited to bring Kate Douglas, founder and curator of Earth Body, onto the podcast to share about her own embodied experience over the past couple years. She shares about how she even knew she had fibroids in t...

As herbalists or herb-curious folks, we're taught to avoid poisonous plants -- and with good reason! They aren't plants to mess with. They can literally kill you.  But... what if there were ways to work with these plants safely? There are! And today's guest, Megan Desrosiers, speaks all about it.  As you might imagine, this is NOT physical plant medicine. This is more energetic, spi...