MASTER HERBALIST AND HOLISTIC HEALTH PRACTITIONER

SYLVIA PICA MH,HHP

My Journey With Plant Medicine:

Since early childhood, I have felt drawn to the world of nature. I had no idea that plants could heal, but I played with them as if they could. Later on in life, when I learned that plants had been healing for time immemorial, I was not really surprised. Of course they had! They had been telling me that for a long, long time…

I have “played” with the healing qualities of plants for as long as I can remember, just the way my grandmother taught me. I also have read extensively about their healing properties and throughout the years I never lost interest in the possibilities that plant healing created. However, there really wasn’t any formal training available at the time to those interested in studying herbs in order to become herbal practitioners. Even then, I continued to use herbs to aid my children’s health, but I knew that any intensive study must be delayed until my children were older.

I formally began my training as a Master Herbalist after the graduation of my youngest child from high school. I had been anticipating this for so long and was thrilled to embark on my new career. I was blessed to find a school with a wonderful program for my training. I threw myself into the work and after about three years of study and clinical work, I was officially a Master Herbalist and Holistic Health Practitioner. I loved every minute of it and, of course, I know that my studying and learning will never truly end.

Now I find myself working to help others heal themselves by providing individuals with the information and tools necessary to assist them in their own journeys to a healthier, more fulfilling life. Recently, my interests have turned to learning as much as I can about the local healing plants and how to work with them since locally grown plants not only are more accessible to individuals, but also have the potential to be just as powerful as any exotic plant you might find the world over.

Our body was created with an immense potential to heal itself. We need to learn to work with our body and not against it.

In order for the body to be healthy, there should be a balance between the body's healing system and outside environmental stressors. From time to time the body is overwhelmed with this outside stressors. When the body is unable to cope, various mechanisms come into play to inform us that something is wrong. We can either work with the body's healing system by using nutrition, exercise and relaxation or work against it by suppressing the symptoms with pain killers and other medications. Sometimes the body is abused for so long that drastic measures like surgery and medications are necessary.

The human being is made up of BODY, MIND and SPIRIT. Healing takes place when all three categories of the human being are allowed to work together in harmony. In my practice, I use treatment modalities that have an effect on each of the categories of the human being. When used together, these treatments have a synergistic effect on a healing process called SPIRIT-MIND-BODY healing. Nothing works better than allowing Nature to supervise the healing process.

There are many different types of medical practises in the world. To say that one is better than another is a false concept. They all have an important part to play in healing. Modern conventional medicine is superb when it comes to surgery, emergency and trauma. But there is no question that alternative medicine works better for just about everything else, especially for chronic degenerative diseases like cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and for more common ailments such as asthma, gastrointestinal disorders, headaches and sinusitis. A lot of people have realized that pharmaceutical drugs have side effects and their prolonged use can be detrimental to their health. Others want solutions to their ailments which conventional medicine could not help them solve.



Member of the AMERICAN BOTANICAL COUNCIL





VISIT :