Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Noel Groves.
Maria Noel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve had a passion for plant medicine since I was a kid leafing through my mom’s Reader’s Digest Magic and Medicine of Plants and making forts among the birch trees and wintergreen in the backyard. While getting my degree in journalism in college, herbs, a traumatic experience left me with insomnia and anxiety attacks. I visited an herb shop and took herbs – kava and valerian – for the first time for a health concern, and they really helped! From then on, herbs hijacked my life (in a good way)! All my writing focused on herbs and health. I moved to Boston and became an editor for Natural Health magazine covering the herb beat, and then left that to study herbs formally at the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine and Rosemary Gladstar’s Sage Mountain.
In 2007, I opened my private practice full-time at Wintergreen Botanicals in Allenstown, NH. My business is three-fold and entirely devoted to empowerment through herbal education. I see clients, teach classes, and write extensively about herbs. My first book, Body into Balance: A Holistic Guide to Natural Self Care, is now a bestseller, award-winner, and used as a textbook in herb schools across the country. It’s beautifully laid out and dense with information and recipes yet very easy to read even for a beginner herbal enthusiast. My second book, Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies, comes out in Feb/March 2019. I continue to freelance for various publications and am a guest speaker nationally at conferences and herb schools including the Herbal Academy, American Herbalists Guild, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Maryland University of Integrative Health, Mother Earth News, and more. You can learn more about me and my services (I offer classes and consult both on-site and distance) and about herbs in general on my website wintergreenbotanicals.com. It’s been an absolute joy to live my dream and help connect people with the plant world while taking better care of their health. Whether it’s taking herbal remedies, eating clean food or spending time outside among the plants, good health grows in nature!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Herbalism is a joy, but it’s not an easy career, nor a big money maker. Like any small business owner, I’ve had to put a lot of time, effort, and passion into my practice to help it grow. Not only is it important for me to do something I love and to improve the lives of others, but I also need to pay my bills! In holistic healing fields, women often have a hard time asking for money and charging appropriately. But it’s important for both you and your clients to value what you do. While I have volunteered extensively in the community, I’ve had to learn how to run my business in a way that it can thrive, do well, and also have balance for other areas of my life – such as time spent with family, traveling, hiking, and kayaking. Not only is it hard for women demand adequate pay, but it’s also too easy for us to forget to take the time and take good care of ourselves. I easily worked 60-80 hours a week my first year, and if I don’t make a concerted effort to block off nights, weekends, and vacations for personal time, my hours would quickly ratchet back up.
Please tell us about Wintergreen Botanicals.
As a clinical herbalist, I help people improve their health and wellbeing using plant medicine primarily. Some of my specialties include digestive health, women’s hormone balance, stress, anxiety, sleep, and thyroid health. I’m not a doctor, so I can’t diagnose or prescribe. And I believe in integrative medicine, so often I’m working as a team alongside my clients’ other practitioners to help them achieve optimal health. And as much as I enjoy seeing clients, my greatest joy comes from teaching everyday people through classes and my writing how to develop a relationship with the healing plants around them and take a more active role in their health. I should clarify that I don’t sell products to the general public, nor do I have a shop, although I do sell signed copies of my book online. Selling things really isn’t what I love. It’s teaching and empowering people, watching them get excited and feel better, that makes my day. I have a way of organizing information in a way to make it both content-dense and accessible, bridging both the science and traditional use of herbs.
There’s a wealth of academic research that suggests that lack of mentors and networking opportunities for women has materially affected the number of women in leadership roles. Smart organizations and industry leaders are working to change this, but in the meantime, do you have any advice for finding a mentor and building a network?
You’re surrounded by more herbalists than you realize! The American Herbalists Guild offers connections to mentors across the country, but I also encourage you to find your community. Here in New Hampshire, I founded and am the past president of the NH Herbal Network, which has blossomed into a group of 200+ herbalists and herbal enthusiasts across the state who meet regularly to network, learn, share, and create community. We also have an annual Herb and Garden Day in June that features classes, a fantastic plant sale, and local herbal artisans. Here closer to Boston, you have another great event HerbStalk and a slew of awesome Massachusetts herbalists. Definitely check out these two events/groups to get connected, but also look to local natural food stores, herb shops, and herb schools. Plant medicine is all around us, even if you’re in the city.
Pricing:
- Body into Balance: An Herbal Guide to Holistic Self Care, softcover $24.95
- Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies: How to Create a Customized Herb Gardens to Support Your Health & Wellbeing (2019), softcover $24.95
- Home Herbalist Series online study program $250
Contact Info:
- Website: wintergreenbotanicals.com
- Phone: 603-340-5161
- Email: office@wintergreenbotanicals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marianoelgroves/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WintergreenBotanicals/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/herbalistmaria
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
