The Dancing Willow

Healing is about more than addressing symptoms. It's about tending to the foundations of our vitality, nourishing the relationship between body and spirit, and remembering our innate capacity for healing.

In this episode of The Dancing Willow Podcast, Elliott is joined by Dana Hutchinson, clinical herbalist, Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, and founder of the Wildflower Clinic, for a beautiful conversation exploring the art of healing through the lens of Chinese medicine.

Drawing from her personal journey with lichen sclerosus, a chronic inflammatory skin condition, and her years of clinical practice, Dana shares how Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers a holistic framework for understanding the interconnectedness of our physical health, emotional experiences, and environment. We explore the deeper roots of chronic illness, the influence of our emotional lives on physical health, and how herbs, nourishment, movement, and connection to nature can help us rebuild our foundations.

At the heart of our conversation are the Three Treasures of Chinese Medicine: Jing (essence), Qi (vital energy), and Shen (spirit). We explore how these three aspects of our being nourish one another, and the practical ways we can cultivate greater vitality, resilience, and a deeper sense of well-being.

In this episode, we explore:

• Dana's personal healing journey with lichen sclerosus and her path into Traditional Chinese Medicine.
• The art of TCM diagnosis and what our tongue, pulse, skin, and overall vitality can reveal about our health.
• The relationship between emotional health, the nervous system, and chronic inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.
• The Three Treasures of Chinese Medicine- Jing, Qi, and Shen- and how they influence our vitality and spirit.
• Nourishing Jing through mineral-rich herbs, restorative foods, and foundational lifestyle practices.
• Herbal allies including milky oats, nettle, goji berries, jujube, black sesame, hawthorn, and mimosa.
• The role of Qigong, flower essences, breathwork, and energetic practices in supporting emotional and physical well-being.
• The importance of our dao, connection to nature, community, and ourselves in the healing process.
• Simple, accessible ways to begin cultivating greater vitality in everyday life.

Links & Resources:

• Wildflower Clinic — Work with Dana Hutchinson
• Dana's Personal Healing Story
• Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See
• Dancing Willow Herbs: sign up for our newsletter for the launch of our new products!

Whether you're navigating your own healing journey, curious about Traditional Chinese Medicine, or simply longing to feel more nourished and connected, this conversation is an invitation to look beyond individual symptoms and consider the whole of what makes us well.

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Support the podcast by making a purchase with Dancing Willow Herbs!

Website: www.dancingwillowherbs.com
Instagram: @dancingwillowherbsco

Being sexy is the byproduct of embodiment: slowing down, feeling yourself more deeply. In this episode we explore how movement and herbal medicine can help facilitate this feeling and bring you back into relationship with your body.

Join herbalist Elliott Brinkley and dancer and movement teacher Ana Hyatt in a conversation around sensual movement, somatic awareness, dance, embodiment, vulnerability, and healing through the body. Ana shares how her relationship with dance evolved from performance and technique into a deeply personal practice of slowing down, feeling, and trusting the body.

They also explore the intersection of herbal medicine and embodied movement. Including plant meditation, working experientially with herbs, and why direct relationship with a plant can offer a different kind of knowing than simply learning what an herb is “for.”

In this episode:

• Sensual movement as a practice of embodiment rather than performance
• Moving through self-consciousness, vulnerability, and fear of being seen
• Somatic processing and allowing emotion to move through the body
• Why slowing down and repetitive movement can feel so powerful
• Touch, circles, spirals, and reconnecting with body awareness
• Ana’s philosophy that “sexy is the byproduct”
• Reclaiming sensuality outside of rigid ideas about femininity or sexuality
• Creating safer spaces for embodied and sensual movement
• Plant meditation and experiential herbalism
• Elliott + Ana’s experience combining the plant Linden with movement
• Herbal medicine as relationship rather than simply information
• Autumn herbs, roots, berries, bark, mushrooms, and seasonal slowing down
• Their upcoming Plant Meditation + Sensual Movement series in Durango, Colorado

Links & resources:

Autumnal Plant Meditation & Movement: A Four-Week Autumn Series in Embodied Herbal Wisdom & Sensual Movement
October 21 + 28 and November 4 + 11
5:30–7:30 PM
FLY Space at the Smiley Building | Durango, Colorado
Learn more about this offering here!    //  And sign up directly here!

https://dancingwillowherbs.com/products/autumnal-plant-meditation-movement-series

Ana Hyatt Movement:
https://www.anahyattmovement.com/

Alt Feminine
https://thealtfeminine.com/

Follow Ana
Instagram: @ana_heal.dance.life

Stay Connected
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share with others who would love it.

Support the podcast by making a purchase with Dancing Willow Herbs!

Website: www.dancingwillowherbs.com
Instagram: @dancingwillowherbsco

Sophia Rose used to spend her days doing what she called "the traveling medicine show", where she was wildcrafting, teaching and selling herbs as she road tripped around the country. Now her life looks really different as she landed on her 2.5 acre homestead in Truchas, a rural town in northern New Mexico- it looks slower, more intimate, and rooted in her local community of plants & people. 

In this episode, Elliott & Sophia weave through what it looks like to create a life that is more aligned with your nervous system and the simple practices that help us come home to ourselves. From homesteading, foraging for vintage, cultivating community, finding faith, and working with plant medicine- Sophia's story reminds us that life is an ever-unfolding path of growth and the more that we make space for our nervous system's capacity, the more beauty, connection and authenticity we can experience. 

In this episode we explore: 

• How Sophia’s relationship with herbalism has changed after nearly two decades with the plants
• Why knowing a few plants deeply can be more meaningful than knowing many superficially 
• What place-based herbalism looks like when you are truly rooted to one landscape 
• Why nervous system regulation changes the way we experience our lives 
• The role of co-regulation, community, and not trying to do everything alone 
• How technology can pull us away from our interior lives and what “technological hygiene” can look like 
• How tending our own nervous system can change our family relationships 
• Sophia’s experience with Sabbath and learning to rest without needing to be productive 
• How faith became an unexpected part of Sophia’s life 
• The connection between natural fibers, vintage clothing, and sensory wellbeing 
• What homesteading has taught Sophia about humility, limits, and interdependence

Links & Resources: 

• Sophia's instagram: @sophiarose.world
• Sophia's apothecary, House of Flowers: hofnm.co
• Sophia's farm shop in Truchas, New Mexico brings together her apothecary, farm goods, and curated vintage collection. Visits are available by appointment, and upcoming gatherings are shared through her website and Instagram.
• Acequia: A Living Legacy
• The Way of the Rose, Clark Strand and Perdita Finn

Stay Connected
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share with others who would love it.

Support the podcast by making a purchase with Dancing Willow Herbs!

Website: www.dancingwillowherbs.com
Instagram: @dancingwillowherbsco

Herbalism becomes far more sustainable when it is woven into the meals, rhythms, and rituals that already shape our days.

In this episode, Elliott is joined by Sarah Kate Benjamin, herbalist, private chef, author, and creator of The Kosmic Kitchen. 

Sarah Kate shares how chronic fatigue and depletion first led her to bring herbalism out of the tincture bottle and into her everyday food. What began with adaptogens, nourishing meals, fresh herbs from the garden, and a jar of tea waiting in the refrigerator eventually grew into The Kosmic Kitchen- a beautiful and practical approach to making food and herbal medicine part of the same conversation.

In this episode, we explore:

• Sarah Kate’s experience with chronic fatigue and how food and herbs became part of her healing
• Using herbal oils, vinegars, pestos, dips, dressings, teas, and other kitchen staples as everyday medicine
• An approachable introduction to Ayurveda, the five elements, and the vata, pitta, and kapha doshas
• Foods, herbs, spices, and lifestyle practices that can support each dosha
• The best herbs for cooling summer infusions, including tulsi, lemon balm, nettle, chamomile, marshmallow root, and cinnamon
• Seasonal self-care practices such as herbal body oiling, foot baths, salt scrubs, and movement
• How motherhood has simplified Sarah Kate’s herbal practice while making it even more essential
• Preparing deeply nourishing foods for pregnancy and postpartum recovery
• The importance of mothering and feeding the mother while she cares for a new baby
• Building confidence and creativity in the kitchen through flexible foundational recipes

Connect with Sarah Kate Benjamin:

• The Kosmic Kitchen
• Join the Kosmic Cooking Club on Substack
• Explore Sarah Kate’s herbal recipes
• Follow The Kosmic Kitchen on Instagram
• The Kosmic Kitchen Cookbook: Everyday Herbalism and Recipes for Radical Wellness

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• The dhyana Center of Health Sciences — founded by Sarah Kate’s Ayurvedic teacher, DeAnna Batdorff
• Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary
• Florida School of Holistic Living
• The Yoga of Herbs by Dr. David Frawley and Dr. Vasant Lad

Dancing Willow Herbs products for an herbal kitchen:

• Fire Cider- use in salad dressings, sauces, hot toddies
• Adaptogenic Honey Paste- add to recipes, toast, or tea
• Damiana Love Cordials- pour over ice cream, add to mocktails
• Delicious cold infusion teas: Flowers She Spoke, Tension Tonic 

Stay Connected
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share with others who would love it.

Support the podcast by making a purchase with Dancing Willow Herbs!

Website: www.dancingwillowherbs.com
Instagram: @dancingwillowherbsco

Herbalist and phytochemist Lisa Ganora returns to the podcast for a lively exploration of herbal constituents and the ways plants communicate with the body.

We talk about the tingling alkylamides found in echinacea and spilanthes, immunomodulating polysaccharides, carotenoids, mucilage, and how different medicine-making methods extract different aspects of a plant. Lisa also shares stories about brittlebush, nettles, calendula, dandelions, and the importance of combining scientific research with traditional knowledge and direct sensory experience.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why herbal constituents are more than isolated chemicals
• What echinacea’s tingling sensation can teach us
• Alcohol versus water extraction for extracting alkamines and immunomodulating polysaccharides 
• How immunomodulating polysaccharides work in plants like echinacea or brittlebrush as well as medicinal mushrooms
• The relationship between the immune and lymphatic systems
• Carotenoids in calendula, dandelions, leafy greens and fall colors
• Learning about plants through taste, texture, color, and sensation
• Why phytochemistry can deepen our respect and relationship with plants

Links, resources & herbal products: 

• Listen to our first conversation with Lisa Ganora: The Magic of Herbal Constituents: Plant Chemistry with Lisa Ganora
• Lisa's website: herbalconstituents.com
• Explore Lisa’s two-semester Herbal Constituents Course, which connects phytochemistry with clinical herbalism, energetics, and medicine making
• Dancing Willow Herbs products mentioned in the episode: 
  • Ultra Echinacea (double extracted Echinacea)
  • Immense Defense 
  • Lymph Tonic
  • Red Root Tincture
  • Tummy Tea
  • Reishi Tincture (double extracted)
  • Mindful Mushroom Mix (double extracted)

Stay Connected
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share with others who would love it.

Support the podcast by making a purchase with Dancing Willow Herbs!

Website: www.dancingwillowherbs.com
Instagram: @dancingwillowherbsco

Most of us know lei as something beautiful- flowers placed around the neck in welcome or celebration- but in this conversation, herbalist Keya Guimaraes invites us into lei as formula, prayer, ritual, and medicine.

Together, Elliott & Keya explore Hawaiian herbalism, lei making as medicine, and what it means to become naturalized to the land beneath your feet. This conversation moves through beauty, ancestry, reverence, daily practice, bees, plant communication, and the ways we can return to the earth through devotion and presence. Keya speaks to the sacredness of weaving plants, the importance of place-based relationship, and how even simple daily rituals can become an umbilical cord back to the living world.

In this episode:

• How to become naturalized to the land you live on
• What lei making teaches us about plants, prayer, and impermanence
• The difference between beauty as surface and beauty as a feeling
• How plant rituals support rites of passage, grief, birth, death, and transformation
• Why daily practice matters in rebuilding relationship with the earth
• The meaning of reverence and why it goes deeper than gratitude
• How bees, flowers, and animals can help us remember how to belong
• Keya’s work with Hawaiian plants, hydrosols, lei, herbal consultations, and place-based healing

Links & Resources:

• Ecotone Kauaʻi: ecotonekauai.com
• Ecotone Essex: ecotoneessex.com
• Keya's Instagram: @ecotonekauai and @keyaflowerandfern

Stay Connected
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share with others who would love it.

Support the podcast by making a purchase with Dancing Willow Herbs!

Website: www.dancingwillowherbs.com
Instagram: @dancingwillowherbsco

What if the summer solstice is not just about celebrating the light, but learning how to truly receive it?

This solo episode, Elliott Brinkley explores herbs for the summer solstice, including St. John’s Wort, Mugwort, Lavender, Rose, Elderflower, and the sun-faced plants of the Asteraceae family.

Through seasonal herbalism, plant folklore, and practical medicine, this episode looks at how midsummer herbs help us connect with solar energy, protection, pleasure, boundaries, intuition, and the slow return toward darkness.

This is an invitation to gather the medicine of the season and ask: what light do you want to carry forward?

In this episode:

• The meaning of the summer solstice as a celebration of light and a turning point in the year 
• Why St. John’s Wort is one of the great herbs of midsummer
• How St. John’s Wort teaches us about hope, protection, sunlight, mood, and letting the light in
• The folklore and meaning behind Hypericum perforatum
• Why St. John’s wort is best used fresh, and what to know about medication interactions
• How sunflowers, calendula, chamomile, yarrow, dandelion, and other Asteraceae plants reflect community, radiance, and shared abundance
• Lavender, Rose and Elderflower and their connection to summer solstice
• Mugwort as an herb for balancing summer solstice by honoring the darkness within the light
• Simple ways to work with summer solstice herbs through oils, teas, flower essences, sun teas, rose water, smoke bundles, and seasonal ritual
• A reflection on what light you are ready to gather, embody, and carry into the darker half of the year

Links & Resources: 

• Herbal Allies for Summer Wellness (free e-book) when you sign up for our newsletter here: https://dancingwillowherbs.com/
• Summertime Herbal Collection of Dancing Willow Herbs products
• Herbal Allies for Summer Wellness Podcast Episode from last year!
• Fresh Plant St. John's Wort Tincture
• St. John's Wort Plus Tincture
• Fresh Plant St. John's Wort Oil
• Fresh Plant St. John's Wort Liniment
• Rooted Heart Elixir
• Mesa Verde Lavender 
• Our episode with Katie of Mesa Verde Lavender

Stay Connected
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share with others who would love it.

Support the podcast by making a purchase with Dancing Willow Herbs!

Website: www.dancingwillowherbs.com
Instagram: @dancingwillowherbsco

Honey is more than a sweetener- it is a spiritual substance born from land, flower, bee, and devotion.

This conversation with Courtney Cosgriff of Honeybee Herbals is a journey into the mystery, medicine, and ancient wisdom of bees. More than a discussion about honey or pollination, this episode invites us into the hive as a living temple- a place of devotion, protection, nourishment, transformation, sweetness, and sting. Courtney’s perspective moves us beyond extraction and into reverence, reminding us that bees are not simply here to serve us, but to teach us about right relationship with the land, the flowers, the medicines of the hive, and the wider web of life.

This episode is a beautiful listen for herbalists, plant lovers, tenders of the earth, and anyone longing to remember a more reciprocal way of being with nature and the sacred buzz of a bee.

In this episode, we explore:

• How Courtney’s path with the bees began through near-death experiences, dreams, and synchronicity
• The ancient connection between bees, priestesses, temples, and the feminine mysteries
• The Melissae, or “bee women,” and the lineage of women who served the Mother Goddess through the wisdom of the hive
• Why the hive can be understood as a womb, a temple, and a mirror of the earth herself
• The deeper medicine of beeswax, venom, propolis, pollen, royal jelly, and honey
• How venom teaches boundaries, protection, humility, and the sacredness of sting
• Why honey is not just a sweetener, but a reflection of land, flower, bee, devotion, and immense labor
• The ethics of harvesting hive medicines and the importance of moving from extraction into relationship
• Why “saving the bees” begins with growing flowers, restoring habitat, and supporting all pollinators
• How to begin connecting with bees even if you are not called to become a beekeeper

Links & Resources: 

• Courtney’s website: honeybeeherbals.co
• Instagram: @honeybeeherbal

Stay Connected
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share with others who would love it.

Support the podcast by making a purchase with Dancing Willow Herbs!

Website: www.dancingwillowherbs.com
Instagram: @dancingwillowherbsco

Are you dreaming of building an herbal garden, or just curious what it actually looks like to begin?

In this cozy solo episode, clinical herbalist, Elliott Brinkley shares the story of building a brand-new herbal garden on raw land- starting with compact clay soil, active deer, harsh sun, and a big dream. After years of focusing on building their home, Elliott and Aaron are finally in the process of creating a garden ecosystem filled with medicinal plants, food crops, flowers, and a future gathering space.

This episode is part practical garden journal, part love letter to the plants. Elliott walks through the full process: observing the land, choosing the garden site, building raised beds, improving soil drainage, starting seeds indoors, setting up drip irrigation, planting food and medicinal herbs, and learning through plenty of trial and error along the way.

In this episode:

• Building raised beds and garden infrastructure from scratch on raw land
• Working with compact clay soil, drainage issues, deer pressure, and dry climate gardening
• Starting seeds indoors with wooden seed boxes, sheep’s wool, grow lights, and lots of patience spritzing
• Growing both food and medicine, including squash, potatoes, greens, culinary herbs, calendula, nettle, valerian, elder, comfrey, violet, elecampane, echinacea, and milky oats
• Why fresh milky oats are such powerful nervous system medicine, and why dried milky oats are not the same
• The beauty of creating a garden as a place for nourishment, plant relationship, community gatherings, and future classes

Links & Resources:

• Medicinal Plant Sale at Dancing Willow Herbs
  June 5th, 6th, and 7th from 11am–4pm with Crystal from Growing Creations Herb Farm. Come early Friday for the best selection of medicinal plant starts.
• Spring Garden Party Recipe Ebook
  A seasonal recipe collection inspired by the Dancing Willow Herbs team garden dinner, with recipes like beet-pickled deviled eggs, spring salad, lemon balm cucumber lemonade, marinated olives, and lemon posset.
• Milky Oats Tincture
  One of our favorite fresh plant nervines for replenishing the nervous system, especially during seasons of depletion, stress, and feeling stretched thin.
• Summer Seasonal Herbal Collection
  A collection of herbal allies for summer travels, outdoor adventures, sun-soaked days, bug bites, gardening, and seasonal wellness.
• Crystal’s Previous Podcast Episode
  Listen to Elliott’s conversation with Crystal of Growing Creations Herb Farm for more inspiration on growing medicinal plants and tending relationship with the herbs.

Listen in for an honest, earthy, and inspiring look at what it really takes to build an herbal garden from the ground up- and why the process is just as nourishing as the harvest.

Stay Connected
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share with others who would love it.

Support the podcast by making a purchase with Dancing Willow Herbs!

Website: www.dancingwillowherbs.com
Instagram: @dancingwillowherbsco

How do we find our way back into the body after trauma, pain, and the complete unraveling of the life we thought we were living?

In this powerful episode of The Dancing Willow, Elliott Brinkley sits down with herbalist Emma Prescher to explore a healing journey that defies convention. After a near-fatal cycling accident left her with devastating injuries and an uncertain future, Emma turned not to rigid protocols but to intuition, plant medicine, and deep presence.

Drawing from her background as a critical care nurse, Emma bridges the worlds of Western medicine, herbalism, and astrology. She shares how plants like nettle, kava, and calendula supported her recovery, how a near-death experience reshaped her understanding of life and death, and why curiosity may be one of the most powerful tools we have for healing.

This conversation is a reminder that healing isn’t linear and that the body, the plants, and the cosmos are always in conversation.

In This Episode:

• Emma’s transition from ICU nurse to herbalist
• Surviving and healing after a life-altering accident
• A profound near-death experience and its message
• Plant allies that supported her recovery
• Intuitive and embodied approaches to healing
• The connection between herbalism and astrology
• Astrological connections to plants like Lemon Balm, Tulsi and Yarrow

Links & Resources: 

• Emma’s website, The Golden Fermata- https://www.thegoldenfermata.com/

Stay Connected
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share with others who would love it.

Support the podcast by making a purchase with Dancing Willow Herbs!

Website: www.dancingwillowherbs.com
Instagram: @dancingwillowherbsco