Sharon Blackie in If Women Rose Rooted quotes a woman herbalist, Nikki Darrell, at length in the chapter “The Fertile Fields” and says that,
“It is clear from everything she says that Nikki strongly believes that community empowerment is the critical ingredient that’s lacking in traditional herbal training. That, in refusing to acknowledge the long traditions and great strengths of folk medicine and community herbalism, it runs the risk of becoming — like conventional medicinal training — both exclusive and excluding.”
I wholeheartedly agree with Nikki Darrell (from what I read in Blackie’s book); she seems to have similar, valid concerns as I do that the natural healing modalities are removed from lay people by initiating a fear in them that these methods have to be practiced by so-called professionals with licenses and degrees and college medical training. Practical, base-level healing can be easily learned by the average person with an interest in personal empowerment, with minimal risk. Entry-level training is quite effective for the majority of acute ailments and would result in reduced visits to emergency clinics where an over-prescription of drugs is the common outcome.
This is one of the reasons that I do not support or seek mandated state or federal licensing of Herbalism, Homeopathy, or Ayurveda. I abhor the thought of Ayurveda going the way of Traditional Chinese Medicine where it is tied up in red tape and restrictions and too expensive for most people to benefit from. The medical establishment has been disempowering people and segregating them from their own health management for several hundred years now and it needs to stop. Books and/or classes (or now the easy availability of online seminars) provide all we usually need for starting our learning journey.
