Western Herbal Medicine Therapist in Bellingen
Based in Bellingen on the Mid North Coast of NSW, Rachel has over 10 years of experience in Clinical & Folk Herbalism, ZenThai Shiatsu bodywork, & ceremony, with selected offerings available online.
EntheoBotanica offers personalised clinical herbal consultations in Bellingen on the Mid North Coast of NSW.
Clinical Herbalist • Natural Therapies • Ceremony • Holistic Coaching • ZenThai Shiatsu Body Work
About
I live with my little family, growing plants, making herbal extracts, and reimagining culture. My work is rooted in reciprocity - I believe that to receive value in this world, we must give value. I bring my full presence, heart, and capacity to the work that I offer. I am a Western Herbal Medicine therapist, bodyworker, rites of passage facilitator, forager, medicine maker, and musician. I support people in healing and transformation, using nature, relationship, and ritual as tools for reconnection.
Everything I create is grown from the ground up - medicine, music, ceremony, and education, all interwoven through my own healing journey with plants and the Earth.
I have a very personal relationship with many of the world’s most mystical plant teachers. Having grown and prepared many of them from seed to medicine over the last 14 years, I have been learning not just from books, but from direct relationship: sitting with medicinal plants alone, in silence and listening. I am ready to share the body of work that has been cultivating over this time.
I’ve been initiated into the Bwiti sect Mabanji, a living feminine lineage from Gabon that works with the plant teacher Iboga as a sacrament of transition and embodiment. This plant informs a lot of my work as a strong ally. My path in ethnobotany has taken me to Indigenous communities around the world learning how they use plant spirits, music & trance states as guides for healing.
In the jungles of Gabon I rooted in deeply with the guidance of a Pygmean lineage of Iboga. In the Andean highlands I met San Pedro and Peru’s jungle medicines Mama Ayahuasca and Kambocito. In the Himalayas I encountered the wild spirit of Cannabis. In the Sierra Mazatec I learned from the El Niño mushrooms, The Diviner's Sage, Peyotl, and the spirit of Mezcal. In the Swiss Alps I met with Artemisia of Absinthium. And in the vast Australian bush I’ve journeyed with the wisdom of the Acacias.
These are not simply plants — they are intelligent, relational beings. Much of what they offer can’t be written, and the deepest teachings are often meant to be kept quietly within. But from this depth my work is informed— to help rehabilitate our culture’s relationship with medicine, with the land, and with ourselves. To remember the sacred kinship between the human and the more-than-human world.
I live and work on Gumbaynggirr Country (Bellingen, Mid North Coast NSW) and online. My offerings are anchored in my formal training in Western Herbal Medicine and ZenThai Shiatsu, supported by a dispensary of rare and sacred plants.
|ɛnθiːəʊbətɑnɪkə|
entheobotanica
Our name is derived from Latin, meaning to ‘discover the sacred within plants’
This is part of the ethos of our herbal dispensary. All of the extracts are prepared very intentionally, and we focus on world plants that have a rich history of use within culture for expression of our Spirit, and communion with the Great Spirit.
en- |ɛn| from Greek
prefix
1. within; inside
theo- |ˈθiːəʊ | from Greek theos ‘god’ combining form
1. relating to God or deities
botánica |bəˈtɑnɪkə| from Spanish botánico ‘botanical.’ noun
1. a small shop specialising in herbs and traditional remedies
2. relating to botany
the root
earth, connection, essence of who you are
The root represents connection to the inner world. It is first principle medicine of 'I am'. Do you even know what you are? The roots do. They are positioned deep in the Earth, bringing stability and balance. Roots are thoroughly involved in their placement, their connection, and alliances with community.
the leaf
wood, power, strength
The leaf represents power. Growing up and reaching out into the world. There is great power here in the land of leaf and Wood. The leadership of a leaf takes risks as it moves into uncharted space, seeking that which it desires to serve the self at large. Remember that growth for the sake of growth, is the mentality of a cancer cell. So align the yearning of the Wood’s expansion to the earth beat.
the bark
metal, protection, poison
The bark of a plant is responsible for keeping a separation between the inner and outer worlds. In the body of a human this correlates to the skin, microbiome layer of the lungs & gut (inner skin) and immune system. Whilst the bark’s edges are sharp and defined, its function reaches out into the space around itself transceiving information so it is highly attunes and sensitive to anything toxic, threatening or poisonous.
the flower
flower, heart, enchantment
A flower is a self contained collection of reproductive material able to seed the future. It’s role is to attract. Its function combines with the function of a seed, together attracting and creating. It does this from an ancient primal place where the origins of beauty live. The dance of creation is an expression of Fire, where life is sparked from within, and birth created out of an incantation.
the sap
water, wisdom, intuition
The sap or resin of a plant are the water ways and canals that run through the entire organism. Water is a force deep within the body that permeates all things. We are at least 90% water, and so are plants. These solid feeling structures that make up our bodies are animated by the power of water, as if inflated by it. Without it, we become small, dry, and lifeless.
