Myrobalan Clinic

Myrobalan Clinic Myrobalan Clinic is my herbal medicine practice combining Tibetan Medicine with Western herbal medic Thank you so much for visiting my page.
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Here at Myrobalan Clinic I can offer you a unique way of working with your health since I combine over 20 years of Tibetan Medicinal training and practice with a Western herbal medicinal treatment approach. I'm absolutely passionate about identifying and treating the root cause of illness which is different in every case, even if the 'named disease state' is the same as in other patients. If the root cause of illness is addressed then true sustainable healing is possible (as opposed to temporary relief). My aim is always to help patients take charge of their own health and to not 'need me'. I spend time investigating the detailed case and then formulate a prescription especially for each patient, taking into account Tibetan diagnostic techniques as well as traditional Western herbal medicine. This prescription is likely to involve dietary and lifestyle advice, herbal medicines and sometimes mindfulness, meditation or visualisation techniques. There's no 'one size fits all' prescription strategy, everyone is different and I aim to tailor my approach to fit in with what people are comfortable with as well as what is needed to effect a positive change to a patient's health. I will always be honest about how I can help and give the best estimate possible of how long it is likely to take before you see results. My priority is to help people be as healthy as possible and to get the most out of this precious human life that we share. I'm not in the business of simply 'selling herbs. I view my dispensary as precious medicine to be used and taken with respect. I grow and gather most of my herbs ensuring that they are processed at the peak of their potency to produce the best possible quality medicines.. It's hard work to work in this way but it's worth it because I know I'm prescribing fabulously vibrant medicines. I truly value the medicines that I make so that is why I don't prescribe herbs unless I know they are totally necessary and appropriate. You'll get an understanding of my approach by having a look at my Notes here on my page. Behind the scenes activity is documented on my blog at http://myrobalanclinic.wordpress.com/ and more official stuff is on my website www.myrobalanclinic.com

Please note that I am only available for drop ins on Tuesday and Saturday mornings 9.30 - 1.00pm. Very occasionally I'm not there on Saturday mornings so if you are travelling a significant distance to come to a Saturday drop in please feel free to email or telephone ahead of your planned trip to ensure that I will be there to answer your query. The rest of the week when I mark myself as open I'm actually in consultation with patients who have pre-booked. If you're unable to attend at a drop in session but really want to talk to me in person please do telephone me and we can try and arrange an alternative time for a 10 minute chat.

September may be the start of the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ but for herbal practitioners it’s also the s...
06/09/2025

September may be the start of the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ but for herbal practitioners it’s also the season of a sudden rush of repeat prescription requests!

I totally get why! Once the kids are back at school it’s often the first chance we have to draw breath and think about our own health needs.

Whatever the reason for the September’rush’, it’s always an absolute joy to be able to dispense herbs from my own dispensary to create my patient prescriptions.

It’s also pretty satisfying ticking them all off my ‘do list’ and taking them to my lovely local Post Office.

It’s a bumper crop for the hedgerow berries this year. When I was little, both of my grandmothers told me that when ther...
05/09/2025

It’s a bumper crop for the hedgerow berries this year. When I was little, both of my grandmothers told me that when there’s an abundance of fruit in the hedgerow it means that there’ll be an extra harsh winter ahead.

Unfortunately, any association between abundance and future scarcity is not reflected in actual weather records. My grandmothers’ words were in fact ‘just an old wives’ tale’.

But hang on a minute, let’s just look beyond the surface. There may be no scientific correlation between mast years and an upcoming harsh winter but the association (whether imagined, folk lore or occasionally true) could still be serving a valuable purpose.

When wild resources are especially abundant (mast years), we are encouraged to gather more and fill our stores without depleting the food and seed store for wild creatures or for the future regeneration of the shrubs and trees involved.

When we link present abundance with the possibility of future scarcity, we’re reminding ourselves not to take our harvests (whether wild or cultivated) for granted. It helps us to gather wild food wisely and it helps us to give thanks and truly appreciate the abundance that we have today.

Last year was a terrible year for Hawthorn berries but I had sufficient in store from the year before. This year, since they’re so abundant and my dispensary stocks were very low, I’ve gathered plenty. I won’t need to gather any next year if I haven’t got through them all but I know that I’ve gathered in tune with availability and I’ve gathered with respect and conscious intention as to what I’ll do with these ruby red treasures.

Let’s not dismiss the ‘old wives tales’ just because they are not scientifically evidenced. Let’s be open to their intention and positive guidance about our relationship with the wider world.

In late summer/autumn I gather Hawthorn berries. I dry them and then make them into batches of tincture as needed throug...
03/09/2025

In late summer/autumn I gather Hawthorn berries. I dry them and then make them into batches of tincture as needed throughout the year. In the spring, I gather the blossom and young leaves which I also dry but they’re destined for capsules.

Sometimes, I might prescribe a patient both the tincture and capsules, in which case they get both Hawthorn influences, but often, when taking into account the energetic teachings of Tibetan medicine, it’s helpful to have access to Hawthorn’s virtues wrapped in a sweet and sour (more grounding) fruit.

In other cases, I feel it’s more helpful to choose the lighter, more airy and, overall more astringent, blossom and leaves. It all depends on the individual patient.

Hawthorn is incredibly supportive of our physical cardio vascular health as well as our energetic and emotional heart centre. You can experience its strongly heart opening action just by being around it, I certainly do when gathering it or laying it out on trays.

It strengthens the integrity of our blood vessels and, in doing so, it helps us to reflect more firm and confident boundaries in our outer lives. Tibetan medicine teaches us that the state of our body influences our experience of the outer environment. If our inner boundaries are toned and firm, we’ll find it easier to set healthy boundaries in our interactions with others.

There’s so much more I could say but it’s not possible here. If you want to know more, you’ll find my thoughts on Hawthorn and 107 other herbs in ‘A Working Herbal Dispensary’ published by Aeon Books. There’s a link here:

https://health.aeonbooks.co.uk/product/working-herbal-dispensary/95192

I usually bring a packed lunch to work. In the summer it’s something like a salad with carrot sticks and hummus with toa...
01/09/2025

I usually bring a packed lunch to work. In the summer it’s something like a salad with carrot sticks and hummus with toasted pine nuts or a GF keto bread sandwich with celery, apple and walnut salad on the side. In the winter I opt for a food flask of miso soup with tofu and buckwheat noodles or some veggie curry.

Despite my best intentions, there are always those days when, for whatever reason, I haven’t had time to prepare a lunch before leaving the house….

Well, now I’m totally spoilt by being right next door to the fabulous Emma’s Old School Cafe! Emma not only has a good range of GF, veggie options on her great menu, but she also happens to deliver down the corridor right to my clinic room! How fabulous is that!

What are your packed lunch ‘go-to’s?

Photo:
Enjoying my delivered spicy jackfruit salad. Yum!

Old School Queen Camel

It was such a joy to spend a couple of days at the herb field chilling out with Bex and Kobi. It feels as though we caug...
31/08/2025

It was such a joy to spend a couple of days at the herb field chilling out with Bex and Kobi. It feels as though we caught the last of the summer sunshine.

I did do a little weeding but mostly we just hung out and enjoyed being there together catching up. It’s such a privilege being a mum!

Photos:
1. Camp fire and Marshmallow roasting.
2. The three of us.
3. Kobi, assistant excavator
4. Living his best ‘country dog’ life

My big blue book is an essential part of my day to day clinic management. It allows me to keep tabs on patient repeat pr...
30/08/2025

My big blue book is an essential part of my day to day clinic management. It allows me to keep tabs on patient repeat prescription requests, dispensary medicine making and sundries stock reordering lists.

When we first become professional herbal practitioners, we’re armed with a thorough knowledge of herbs and dosage, alongside anatomy, physiology, pathology, physical examination, differential diagnosis, herb drug interactions and more …. but unfortunately, the nuts and bolts of running your own ‘one man band’ business tends to be considered a lower priority, something we can pick up as we go along.

We do pick it up as we go along, it’s true, but there’s so much to it. We need to have great time management, healthy boundaries, stock control systems, confident marketing, good record keeping, accounts and consistent credit control, to name just some of what we have to integrate into the herbal dream that we’ve been carrying while studying.

Luckily for me, I worked as a farm business consultant for many years before becoming a herbalist. It helped me to adjust to the ‘behind the scenes’ parts of the business, the bits that don’t involve wandering through flowery meadows with a brimming baskets of herbs.

Let’s face it - walking through flowery meadows and herb gardens with brimming baskets is one of the the best bits (that and seeing patients becoming well again), but without the other stuff and, in my case, my big blue book, I wouldn’t be able to do any of it.

If you’re struggling with the ‘behind the scenes stuff’ do get in touch with me to ask about tailored coaching sessions. I may be able to offer help to a couple of folk.

In March 2024 I dug up the smallest of the Slippery Elms that were growing on my allotment. I had originally grown them ...
26/08/2025

In March 2024 I dug up the smallest of the Slippery Elms that were growing on my allotment. I had originally grown them from seed that I imported from the USA over 10 years ago.

I planted it out at the herb field with plenty of hope, good intentions and a sprinkling of lovely mycorrhizal fungi. It was a gamble because I couldn’t take its full root ball, but I dug out as much as I could from the heavy clay soil and wrapped it up for transportation.

Slippery Elm doesn’t grow naturally in the UK and is rare as an ornamental now. When I first planted those seeds, I hoped that by the time they needed planting out I would have access to suitable land on which to grow them. Unfortunately this was not the case and I had to plant them out at my allotment, planning to coppice or pollard them to keep the height down to the required level.

I’ve taken some harvests of bark and it’s totally wonderful to have a sustainable source of this wonderful medicine. So far at the herb field there are two whips grown from cuttings, this larger transplanted one and a new young tree that I grew from seed a couple of years ago.

I’m happy to see this tree thriving, albeit with a lighter crown after such a dry summer.

Photos:
1. With my transplanted Slippery Elm tree this August.
2. Photo taken in May this year.
3. With the tree ready to be transplanted.
4. The tree immediately after transplanting on 16.03.24

Some of my capsule storage jars. All of the capsules that I prescribe are made here in my clinic. They contain no additi...
24/08/2025

Some of my capsule storage jars.

All of the capsules that I prescribe are made here in my clinic. They contain no additives, no fillers, just powdered herbs and a lot of love.

I know they look and sound lovely but this is just to show you part of what I get up to in my clinic. I’m not posting this image to sell them. All of my medicines are for patient prescriptions only so that I can be sure they’re appropriate for those who take them.

By the way, I make them using a Profiller 1000 from which is certainly a massive step up from my days of making them all by hand. It was originally bought for me as a gift from a grateful patient. I’m still one very grateful herbalist!

I often get positive feedback from patients but I don’t tend to share it on social media. I think one of the main reason...
23/08/2025

I often get positive feedback from patients but I don’t tend to share it on social media. I think one of the main reasons for this is that it feels so personal and it’s hard to convey the feeling behind it without full context (and of course context isn’t possible whilst properly protecting patient confidentiality).

Anyway, here’s some of the lovely spontaneous feedback I’ve received from patients just in the last fortnight. It’s an honour and privilege to help people move towards better health. I love my job!

“Thank you so much for showing your empathy and true kindness. That made so much difference to my day.”

“It’s such a relief to feel your support and thorough knowledge of the herbs. I really needed this guidance and I truly hope we can walk this path to recovery together. I like your warmth, honesty, passion for what you do and a genuine curiosity to really know and understand your patients (which is becoming very rare these days).”

“I’m just moved to write because I’m feeling so, so grateful to you. I realised yesterday that I’ve had a bowel movement every day for the last 5 days - that is so unprecedented! And I feel great. Hooray for your expertise and kindness!”

“I just wanted to say thank you so much for your time on the phone yesterday. I really do appreciate it and you seemed to instinctively understand what had happened and why. I am very grateful for your help. And I am feeling a lot better. Thank you so much.”

Photos:
1. A different view of my new space. New under sink cupboards complete with ‘gothic’ style door handles that are more in keeping with the existing main door furniture.
2. Door hinges on one of my doors

Look at how much our trees have grown!This is a Silver Birch (Betula pendula) which was gifted to us by our local tree n...
21/08/2025

Look at how much our trees have grown!

This is a Silver Birch (Betula pendula) which was gifted to us by our local tree nursery two and a half years ago. At that time they were around 3-4ft high. This one is now towering over me and I’m 5ft 10”.

All nine Remedy Oak oaklings that we planted in December 2024 are thriving. Some of them are already topping out of their tree shelters. (I wrote about planting this circle on 16th December 2024).

The Junipers that I grew from seed are also looking great and bearing ‘berries’ themselves now.

Other trees species in the medicinal woodland include Small Leaved Lime, Slippery Elm, Fringe Tree, Sechuan Pepper, Elder, Cramp Bark, Scots Pine, Sweet Chestnut, Oregon Grape, Magnolia, Apple, Pear, Crab Apple, Quassia, Himalayan Ironwood and Witch Hazel.

Planting trees and seeing them grow is such a wonderful thing. Even though I’ve spent many years involved in woodland management and assessment (I studied Forestry at University and worked in that sector to start with), I’ve never lost that sense of wonder at how they grow and turn open land into a woodland before you know it.

Photos:
1. With one of our Silver Birches
2. The potted Silver Birches being planted out in July 2023
3. With the Remedy oaklings ready to be planted December 2024.
4. The Remedy Oak circle planted
5. One of the Remedy oaklings topping out of its shelter
6. Me with the Junipers I grew from seed.

I’m calling this photo ‘Fennel at Sunrise’.The second photo was taken in the opposite direction as the sun was setting t...
20/08/2025

I’m calling this photo ‘Fennel at Sunrise’.

The second photo was taken in the opposite direction as the sun was setting the day before.

I love seeing the passage of the sun, moon and the stars in the open clear skies over the herb field. After a couple of years of being here regularly, I already know where the sun rises and sets at the two solstices in relation to landmarks and vegetation around the field. I can really relate to the ancients noticing and recording these things with reverence.

My knowledge of the stars is still rudimentary but I’m working on it. To see the endless dome of bright stars above on a cloudless night is a totally breathtaking experience!

This plant, Saussurea lappa, may be officially extinct in the wild but it’s thriving at the mandala herb garden!Its syno...
19/08/2025

This plant, Saussurea lappa, may be officially extinct in the wild but it’s thriving at the mandala herb garden!

Its synonym is Saussurea costus and it’s known as རུ་རྟ། (Ruta) in Tibetan. You’ll also see it called Himalayan Burdock, ‘Kuth’ and ‘Costus’.

Bending over a flower whilst weeding around my plants, I noticed that, very close up, the flowers have a fragrance quite reminiscent of Jatamansi. I can’t believe that in all of the 15 years of my growing it I’ve never noticed this. You have to get very close to the flowers to catch the fragrance, unlike those of Jatamansi which broadcast their fragrance far and wide.

It makes me wonder if Himalayan bees are especially keen on this fragrance type. But then our native bees absolutely love this plant too, each one spending ages methodically visiting every tiny floret in the spikey flowerheads. You can see a bee in the third photo

I posted about Ruta’s virtues and also its conservation status on the 14th July this year. If you missed that and are curious, do take a look back to read the caption on that post.

Address

Myrobalan Clinic, Fore Street
Castle Cary
BA77BG

Opening Hours

Tuesday 9:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 9:30am - 1pm

Website

http://myrobalanclinic.wordpress.com/

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