Hannah Rae Behrens

Hannah grew up south of Marquette on a small farm in the woods with a deep appreciation for her interdependence with the natural world. Her mother has always told her she is a plant nerd, and she has come to wear that badge with pride! Hannah first came to herbalism in seeking to better understand and manage her own chronic illness. Following her undergraduate work in conservation biology, she quickly realized that clinical herbalism and ecology have a lot in common! And, in an effort to utilize her degree in a way that felt applicable to the world outside of academia, she decided to study clinical herbalism professionally, and focus her career on bringing clinical herbal knowledge into wider use. Hannah has a Certificate of Clinical Herbalism from the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism (VCIH). VCIH provides one of the most comprehensive clinical herbal programs in the US. Her training includes a holistic and comprehensive view of both the modern scientific and traditional energetic sides of herbalism.

Her 3 years of classroom learning at VCIH included classes in human physiology, nutrition, herbal chemistry and pharmacology, and herb-drug interactions, as well as traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, and Western energetics. My final year was spent working as an intern in the VCIH clinic under the mentorship of Betzy Bancroft, Larken Bunce, Guido Mase, Ember Peters, Lisa Olsen, and Iris Gage. Hannah feels deeply indebted to these wonderful herbalists and mentors, as well as to my equally wonderful other teachers, Laura Litchfield, Kristin Henningsen, and the plants themselves.