Briar & Bramble

A Commonground Apothecary

What we are and what we are not..

Let’s start with what I am not. I am not a doctor, and I am not anti-allopathic medicine. I believe in integrative and functional medicine – where food, herbs, and allopathic medicine work together for health and wellness.

What I am is a hedgewitch — a folk healer, a cunning person — and Briar & Bramble is the apothecary I built to do this work in the open. I am that healer on the edge of town where you get the rub for arthritis and a charm to keep flies away from your cows. I’m here for when someone needs comfort, support, and just a little bit of hope.

My path here ran through two traditions. On one side, the folk healing I inherited from my Scottish and Appalachian heritages: remedies passed hand to hand, kitchen to kitchen, the kind that never made it into a textbook. On the other, the study of clinical herbalism — the botany, the body, the reasons a remedy works (the science of it all), and the times it shouldn’t be used. I’ve never believed these two belong apart. The best care I know sits right where they meet: old wisdom, held to a clear-eyed standards of today.

Everything I make — teas, tinctures, salves, unguents, bath soaks, and a little craft besides — comes from that meeting place. Briar & Bramble is a commonground apothecary: every person is met with the same care, whatever their background, body, color, gender, or ability. I built it especially for the folks healthcare too often rushes past or plain dismisses, and for anyone in a hard season – whether that be cancer treatment, chronic or mental illness – alongside those who simply want a good cup of tea (or, you know, that arthritis rub).

What I offer, above all, is attention. I listen first. I don’t promise miracles, and I’ll always tell you honestly what herbs can and can’t do alongside your medical care. Healing, integrity, community, honest ethics — those aren’t words on a wall here. They’re how I work.

If you’ve been looking for someone who’ll take your whole self seriously, you’re welcome at the hedge. Come in.