http://www.earthstrongcenter.com/

The Herbal FNP, Cortland, NY (2026)

03/13/2026

Sometimes I remember to take photos of my favorite things 🥰

I’m blessed that I have three apprentices that I work with weekly. Unlike traditional herbal apprenticeship (like what I did with my teacher Lisa ) where the exchange is herbal work for herbal learning, things look a little different for us. Four grown adults with jobs of our own, we are building our own path forward in apprenticeship and what we want and need out of such an experience.

Bonny & Micah are interns at Circles of Sage, and without them there would be no phone and no one’s insurance cards and allergies would ever get updated.

Nicole trades learning for body work/her brilliance on human design and sorry not sorry, because she’s freakin amazing at both.

I’m honestly so thankful and blessed I have something that I can offer these folks for their help. Their presence makes life more manageable, and then once a week we get to sit around and chat about plants. Sort of a rad deal.

Thanks you and ❤️

03/11/2026

Big shout out to our patient advocate/care coordinator Racquel for continuing to lay groundwork for good in the complex disease community and to all my patients who are giving their time, sharing their expertise, and putting themselves out there to keep a strong support network glowing bright.

It’s amazing to what the experience of illness turn into something supportive and safe, from something that was scary and dark ❤️

03/10/2026

Estrogen/progesterone leg pain saga continues with a working diagnosis of lymphatic congestion in my ankles and knees. ITS HURTS SO FREAKING BAD.

So in addition to compression I’m re-blending some of my favorite lymph moving salves into a new salve, simply by adding all three to a small saucepan, melting gently over low heat and then re-cooling/re-jarring.

Simple lymphatic salve recipe:
1 part poke root
1 part calendula
1 part St. John’s wort
1/2 part ginger
1/2 part cayenne

Others to consider: arnica, yarrow, birch.
You can also add tinctures too!
Apply 2-3 times daily to areas of lymphatic congestion ❤️

*SAFETY NOTE: do not ingest poke root! It’s a poison and it will hurt your ability to be alive*

03/09/2026

Catching up on notes between patients and loving that Mondays aren’t so manic anymore 🙏

Can’t wait until we can do visits outside, it’s coming soon!!

03/08/2026

EDS, am I right??

The first half of the “normal” reproductive cycle in the body born female is dominated by estrogen and connective tissues get a bit of a smooth sail. Right around ovulation, estrogen pulls a switcharoo with progesterone and that hormone, a pregnant hormone designed to make everything from the abdomen down stretchy, jsut obliterates whatever bit of stability those tissues had left.

The veins, for me, are the worst. Oh the veins. Days of severe aching in my legs and hips that has, in the past, convinced me I must have lupus.

Nope. Veins.

I was recently started on low dose HRT for perimenopause symptoms unrelated to EDS but it’s made the leg pain worse - with my estrogen being pushed up a little those dips are a little more palpable both around ovulation and me**es.

Thank you to my husband for ace wrapping me when compression stockings just weren’t cutting it 🙏

03/07/2026

When experiencing a chronic condition, grief is inevitably an interval part of that journey. There should be a healthy place for grief in our process, but we live in a society where too often there just isn’t time. Grind culture says “get back on the horse” or lies to us and says “you can push through this”. Even those who mean well in our lives encourage us in ways that discourage grief. “Positive vibes only” will end up biting our asses, in the end.

Not only because most grief associated with chronic illness are related to declines in ability and/or capacity and those messages can actually get us hurt if we listen to them instead of to our bodies, but they can also lead to mental and emotional ignorance of self that pushes us further down the shadow path.

Carl Jung wrote in his work about the psyche that our trauma, pain and “negative vibes” just want to be heard. They just want a home, a safe place to land, not to take over our lives and ruin everything. Quite the opposite, when we are able to love and support our not-so-fun feelings and experiences we really get to process them in a way that honors the holism and authenticity of our experience.

Where does this fit into grief? First, try letting it in a little. Feel the feelings. It’s hard when we’re taught to bury our pain, but it helps. Once it gets a little time in the sun, that shadow doesn’t hurt as much anymore - and, in the case of chronic illness, it helps protect us.

Here’s my personal example today. I found out I have a labral tear in my right hip, thanks EDS. Usually I join the fabulous at Pilates-style movement on Saturday mornings, but I made a last minute pivot and went for lap swim. A year ago I would have gone anyway and hurt myself more, which would have stopped any exercise progress at all. But today, it’s ok. Today I let me body lead me instead of gaslighting it.

Grief is the thing that made that possible. So today I thank my shadow, my pain and my body, for carrying me into a better life with chronic illness ❤️

03/06/2026

My economics teacher in high school taught me one of the most important lessons of my life: don’t trust anyone who’s trying to sell you something, even if that something is their time, if you’re willing to cough up a butt load of cash.

These are all scenarios that have actually happened in my practice. Holistic and herbalist don’t mean pseudoscientist, and I spend a great deal of my clinical time healing damage done by snake oil salesmen & tik-tok doctors.

Real healing, no matter what the modality, is simple, boring and honest, even when dealing with complex conditions and symptoms. Fancier and more expensive does not equal better, and just because a diagnosis is popular right now doesn’t mean it’s automatically the right one - I touched on a bunch of the ones that have made their way into the spotlight in the past 30 years but we could also add the dreaded adrenal fatigue to this list also.

Don’t get me wrong, things like chronic Lyme, MCAS and MTHFR mutations are very real things that need good clinicians willing to work through them, the problem is that they aren’t always what’s going on with a patient. I have seen functional docs misdiagnose and cause related suffering just as often as regular docs. If not more.

Just - practice honest medicine. Seek honest medicine. Be wary of providers who sell you things, rely on testing that hasn’t been validated by peer review or push diagnoses that don’t fit. And jsut because someone claims to be integrative or functional or whatever, doesn’t automatically make them better at their jobs.

Think critically. Practice honesty. Expect better.

And seriously, f wellness influencers.

03/06/2026

I came across this notebook today as I was looking for my planner. It’s been reallll interesting past couple weeks and sometimes I have to take a step back and remember how far I’ve come, what I’ve achieved and where I’m still heading. And that life gets lifey and the most any of us can do is ride the wave and see what new adventures it brings us to.

Thinking about my book this morning also reminded me that I have some announcements to make about it! The official release date is 1/12/27 by and even though it feels like forever away, I know it will here in a flash.

Second, I am proud, humbled and THRILLED to announce that my friend, colleague and fellow clinical herbalist Thomas Easley has come on board to write a foreword for this volume of my work ❤️

Of all the brains out there in the world of plants, I have found over the years that Thomas’ works the most like mine. His work is pivotal, and his approach to teaching and practicing is both brilliant and no-nonsense while also being incredibly hilarious and validating. I am so honored that we have gotten to know each other over the past couple years and have been able to engage with each others’ projects.

Thomas runs the well-known and well-respected Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine in NC, and is the author of The Modern Herbal Dispensatory ❤️

Find his book here:
https://www.porchlightbooks.com/products/modern-herbal-dispensatory-thomas-easley-9781623170790

03/01/2026

On today’s episode of “I don’t trust radiologists”….

Unexplained seizures, headaches, nausea, dysautonomia and significant neuro changes in a patient with hEDS.

If you’re going to do this work, you need to learn how to read scans. It’s just the truth of it. If you’re being told your scans are normal based on a radiology report, get your discs, and have a set of trusted eyes look them over.

02/25/2026

I’m mean today. It’s been a day. Sorry not sorry.

02/24/2026

Blown away by the honor and excited that is looking for other women of the 125th district to meet us in sisterhood this March! Nominate a woman who deserves this honor today!

02/24/2026

Also, don’t tell my PT I sit like this 😂

The Herbal FNP

03/13/2026

03/11/2026

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03/07/2026

03/06/2026

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