Meet your practitioner
CLINICAL WESTERN HERBALIST
Shannon O’Brien
My calling to be a medicine-woman started back when I could count my age on my fingers. Nothing made me happier than an afternoon spent gathering plants, mashing them into potions, and administering them to unwitting “patients” around the neighborhood. Back then, I didn’t know the plants had Latin names or chemical properties, but I knew them as friends.
Eventually, playtime was replaced with the overwhelming pressure to survive in what I perceived as a cruel world. In order to “make something of myself,” I pushed through years of demoralizing jobs that ate away at my body and spirit. I was prescribed medications that left me riddled with side effects, and grew skeptical that I could ever feel better - let alone love myself. My world was shrinking, my life force was depleted, and I was looking for any escape from the cycle.
Plants and fungi were the ones to gently wake me up from the nightmare and guide me home. Under the care of plant and human teachers, I began to take baby steps in the direction of healing. Over time, those baby steps amounted to what I can only describe as a rebirth into a life of health, joy, and love.
My herbal practice was born out of deep gratitude for my own healers, and my sincere desire to help others wake up and free themselves from suffering.
I am thankful to have studied under master herbalists at the Berkeley Herbal Center in California, and at Traditions School of Herbal Studies in Florida, in the lineage of Rosemary Gladstar. I am trained in Traditional Western Herbalism, and incorporate Chinese and Ayurvedic herbs and techniques when appropriate.
The name juniper + jade is an homage to my parents.
‘Juniper’ is the English translation of the German word Wachholder, which is my father’s surname and connection to my ancestors who immigrated to Florida in the 1940’s.
Jade is a stone that holds deep significance for me and my mother, as we spent countless hours collecting them on the beaches near our California home when I was growing up.
Therefore, juniper + jade represents my full-circle journey of settling in Florida after living in California for nearly 30 years.
It signifies the alchemy of combining very different elements to create something new, beautiful, and whole.