Rhizome Community Herbal Clinic

Rhizome Community Herbal Clinic A community Herbal Clinic Bristol, set up to provide affordable herbal appointments & courses Herbs are gentle, safe and effective with very few side-effects.

Herbal Medicine uses plants that have medicinal value to help treat a wide range of health problems. Its use has been recorded over thousands of years and still has relevance in today's world. We use whole plants believing that is more beneficial than isolated plant constituents. They can be used to treat specific health conditions, prevent the recurrence of health problems or to promote good health when taken on a regular basis. The approach of a herbalist is always to try and treat the underlying root cause of the illness, alongside the symptoms. Medical herbalists combine traditional knowledge of plants with more recent scientific research to create an individually tailored treatment plan. Nutritional and lifestyle advice is also included if necessary. As herbalists we are trained to give herbs in conjunction with orthodox medicine and be aware of any possible contra-indications. Our role is not in conflict with your GP. Most conditions treated by a GP can also be supported by herbs. Commonly seen conditions in herbal practice:
Skin conditions: eczema, psoriasis, acne, fungal infections
Digestive conditions: IBS, constipation, diarrhoea, indigestion, peptic ulcers, colitis, high cholesterol
Circulatory conditions: High blood pressure, varicose veins and ulcers
Respiratory conditions: colds, asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis, hay fever
Muscolskeltal disorders: arthrtis, bursitis, gout, tendonitis
Endocrine disorders: Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome
Women’s health: period pains, irregular menstruation, PMS, fibroids, fertility, menopausal symptoms
Men's health: BPH, urinary conditions, stress and infertility
Children's health: skin disorders, allergies, tonsillitis
Emotional Health: Anxiety, stress, insomnia and depression
Supportive treatment for chronic illnesses

The above conditions give you an idea of what herbal treatments can support. However, it is also important to emphasise that herbalists, contrary to conventional biomedicine, treat the person and not the disease. We always strive to see the person as a whole and provide healthcare based on a holistic model.

08/10/2025

We have now opened up bookings for our Wild Medicine Course 2026. This will be our tenth time teaching this wonderful course!

This extended course is an amazing opportunity to embark on a journey of personal exploration, whilst deepening your connection to plant medicine, nature and the seasonal changes.

The course will run over 7 full weekends (over 120 hours of teaching) from March to November, including an overnight trip as part of the July weekend away.

Each weekend we will visit particular ecosystems to harvest herbs, seaweeds and fungi, including meadows, river banks, conifer and deciduous woods, moorland and the coast. We will meet seasonal plants and learn how to identify them and use them medicinally.

On this course you will learn how to identify and harvest native herbs in their natural habitats, with an emphasis on developing your knowledge of medicinal uses and medicine making skills. We will spend time tasting fresh herbs, and expand and deepen your understanding of them.

You will gain medicine making skills throughout the year including tinctures, syrups, creams, ointments, aromatic waters and herbal vinegars.

More information, dates or to book a place visit our www.rhizomeclinic.org.uk

Happy Autumn Equinox. Cyhydnos yr Hydref hapus i chi gyd.It’s the season for woodland walks and exciting foraging find...
22/09/2025

Happy Autumn Equinox. Cyhydnos yr Hydref hapus i chi gyd.
It’s the season for woodland walks and exciting foraging finds.
Over the weekend I found a cauliflower fungus bigger than my head…too big for the basket. This was a sharer, for sure. Enough exquisite mushroom nutrition and flavour for several meals for several households! It’s all quite abundant this month.
I also saw some wonderful cramp bark berries with matching flame-red leaves…scroll for the last picture. In the autumn, you can harvest bark from this tree (Viburnum opulus, or Guelder rose) for an antispasmodic, muscle relaxing, pain releasing tincture. The fly agaric mushroom (also pictured) is abundant in the woods too, and makes a good muscle relaxing oil…definitely external use only! Maitake mushrooms, also called hen of the woods is an absolute favourite as a medicine and a food…we dance for joy when finding one. It’s great for preparing you for the winter colds and other viruses. The weird looking earth star was just for admiring, and not for picking, there is so much to see right now!
What’s your best seasonal find?
🌿

Mimosa, otherwise known as Albizia julibrissin or the Happiness bark tree. I feel grateful that my neighbour grows this ...
06/08/2025

Mimosa, otherwise known as Albizia julibrissin or the Happiness bark tree. I feel grateful that my neighbour grows this beautiful medicinal tree. Every year the sweet aroma emanates from it and fragrances our street. I discovered this tree in New Orleans but it grows all over the Mediterranean, although originally from Asia.

The tea is a delight, so calming to the soul, a little like Limeflower. In TCM the bark is also used to nourish the heart and the spirit. This could help with general life, anxiety, insomnia, trauma.

It's hard to write anything on insta at the moment as every time I go on there, there are more heartbreaking stories from inside Gaza and writing anything that's not about that feels trite to me. It's astounding that this genocide is so well documented but still continues.

Please consider donating to groups active on the ground. Reviving Gaza, are a local aid organisation trying to get the dwindling supplies to where they are needed most, and are doing lots of other support work.

Reviving Gaza: www.instagram.com/reviving.gaza/
Donate here: https://chuffed.org/project/123783-gaza-food-water-and-cash-aid
Links in comments too.




I’ve never had an elderberry harvest in the first week of August before. Does anyone else remember when September was el...
06/08/2025

I’ve never had an elderberry harvest in the first week of August before. Does anyone else remember when September was elderberry season?
Elderberries are such amazing antioxidant and flavanoid powerhouses, and antiviral against cold and flu viruses. This lot are going in the freezer until we get time to make syrup to get us through the winter.
Amazing blackberry harvest this year too. These are also packed with excellent fruity flavanoids and antioxidants, and also traditionally called gout berry, which tells you about its potential benefits…it’s certainly my fruit of choice at the moment.

…and just like that the last two classes flew by, and our summer school finished. We’ve now done all of our teaching for...
24/07/2025

…and just like that the last two classes flew by, and our summer school finished. We’ve now done all of our teaching for the summer. It was such a fun course to teach. It was a privilege to spend five evenings in the company of such a nice group and such lovely community garden spaces around our city. We had some really nice feedback too. Watch this space for our autumn activities.

“Thank you Annwen, Beccs and everyone. I learnt a lot, and really value the knowledge you shared with us to connect better with our plant allies. 🙏🏾🌿✨”

“Thank you everyone. Was magical ✨Can’t believe how much I have learnt in such a short time! Was lovely to meet such nice people and to experience Anwen and Bec’s teaching
✨🌿💚🌿✨”

“Dear Becs and Annwen, thank you so much for all you bring. Your empowering ethos is a gift to the world.
I feel sure to see you again along the way.
And thank you to all it has been a lovely group. 💚💚”

We’re just over half way through our Herbal Summer School. We’ve been to some glorious gardens and taught about botany, ...
08/07/2025

We’re just over half way through our Herbal Summer School. We’ve been to some glorious gardens and taught about botany, plant families, herbal uses of plants, history, I.d. Features, folklore and made medicines together.
We love teaching this course in the long summer evenings every year.
We’ve so far been to the .bristol medicine garden in St Werburghs, in Speedwell and the Haven at Royate Hill https://www.havenlandcommunity.org.uk/

This week I have been thinking of how to support gout and was reminded of the old name for cherries is gout berry. Gout...
24/06/2025

This week I have been thinking of how to support gout and was reminded of the old name for cherries is gout berry. Gout is a build up of uric acid in the joint causing them to swell and become very painful. Cherries and blackberries are particularly effective at lowering uric acid levels in the body.

This is my son up the tree last week collecting the huge harvest of cherries we have had this summer. We have eaten and shared many and frozen some!


We are organising the kids herbal space this year at National Institute of Medical Herbalists Power of Plants Gathering ...
17/06/2025

We are organising the kids herbal space this year at National Institute of Medical Herbalists Power of Plants Gathering in Kidderminster from the 10th-13th July. We will hopefully have a full kids herbal programme. It would be good to be able to cater to different age groups too.
If you have the skills to do any type of herbal workshop, something crafty with plants, anything foraging related especially making stuff then please get in touch in the comments below.
We can offer you a ticket & camping. It's a great space to learn about herbal medicine and meet some amazing folk. 💚💚

We have a couple of spaces left on our Summer Herb School starting on the 19th June for the next 5 Thursday evenings fro...
16/06/2025

We have a couple of spaces left on our Summer Herb School starting on the 19th June for the next 5 Thursday evenings from 6.30-9 pm. We visit five different community gardens in Bristol identifying, harvesting herbs and making herbal medicines. It's one of our favourite courses which we have been teaching for over a decade. It's a lovely way to spend your summer evenings. 💚💚

For more details and to book a place visit our website: https://www.rhizomeclinic.org.uk/herbal-summer-school.html



Collecting the last of the Elderflower to dry for fever tea. It's a beautiful herb to ferment to make elderflower champa...
11/06/2025

Collecting the last of the Elderflower to dry for fever tea. It's a beautiful herb to ferment to make elderflower champagne, or concentrate to make a syrup but it's also a brilliant fever and allergy herb. As herbalists we support a fever, and not try to suppress it. A fever is the body's natural response to an infection to try and make the body less hospitable to the microbe.

Drinking herbs that have a diaphoretic action, which increases the circulation to increase sweating so helps the fever move through the body more quickly. Favourite diaphoretic herbs are Elderflower, Mint, Thyme, Yarrow and Lime flower, taken as hot teas.



Over half term I visited the National wool museum of Wales in Dre-Fach Felindre, in Ceredigion. Really fascinating to se...
05/06/2025

Over half term I visited the National wool museum of Wales in Dre-Fach Felindre, in Ceredigion. Really fascinating to see a machine stocked with teasel heads for finishing the cloth. Teasels are named this because they help ‘tease’ the wool or cloth as a part of the process.
The Welsh word for teasel is Llysiau’r Cribwr, or the carder’s plant, also used to hand card the wool before spinning.

Fascinating stuff, as we use the root of the teasel in our clinic as a medicine that can help with Lyme disease (along with other plants) and it is a very good lymphatic cleansing herb mentioned in many old herbal texts.
Next month you may see the beautiful flower heads in the hedgerow, feeding the bees, although they’re most striking in the autumn as they stand tall and dark brown for months after they’ve dropped their seeds. Goldfinches love to eat the seeds, so leave as many standing as you can.

medicine

We had such a wonderful residential weekend in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) with our Wild Medicine group. We ...
21/05/2025

We had such a wonderful residential weekend in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) with our Wild Medicine group. We love teaching this immersive course, and taking people to some gorgeous places.
Delicious food, great company, and a huge dose of nature and plant medicine.
Lying amongst the heather listening to skylarks, seeing a peregrine fly into its nest to feed a chick, meditating alongside and then dipping in the glorious river Usk. We couldn’t have asked for better weather.

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