Show Notes
Dr. Jill Stansbury is a naturopath and ethnobotanist, living in Battle Ground, WA. In this episode, she discusses her career as a naturopath, and her private clinic and apothecary. Jill talks about public speaking, traveling to South America on research field trips, and building her business through community engagement.
Interview Highlights
[4:02] Jill discusses how she got started on her path. She was interested in the natural world as a child, and studied wild edible plants. As a girl scout, she learned survival skills, navigation, and backpacking. From there she moved to gardening, botany, wild first aid, and emergency preparedness.
[5:40] Jill grew up on a farm in Iowa, where she had access to lots of wild places. She spent the weekends at her grandparents’ farm. Her parents took her camping, and as a parent she took her own kids RV camping.
[7:10] Jill talks about her naturopath degree, a four-year long postgrad degree. Her undergrad degree was in medical illustration. Besides healing, she has a passion for art.
[8:23] Here Jill discusses her 30-year-long career as a naturopath, in her community in Battle Ground, WA. Her clinical practice, Battle Ground Healing Arts, specializes in chronic disease, women’s health, cancer, diabetes, and immune disorders.
[9:22] Jill talks about the other professionals who have worked in her clinic: acupuncturists, personal trainers, massage therapists, audiologists, chiropractors, and midwifes.
[10:45] Jill is the medical director and owner of Battle Ground Healing Arts, which has an herbal apothecary (converted from a one-car garage). Jill has worked and taught at the Naturopathic Medical University in Portland, OR.
[12:08] Jill talks about her research trips to the Amazon, where she takes students. She travels once a month to teach to other physicians. She also writes books, columns, and technical research.
[13:45] Jill explains how her schedule plays out. She sees patients two days a week, runs the apothecary a few days, and writes papers on the side. She puts in 12-hour days, but really enjoys her work.
[15:34] Jill says diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices are the foundations of health. Her main areas of medical expertise are endocrinology, mental health, and women’s medicine. Hormonal compounds in plants are a big part of her work, and these can be influenced through diet.
[17:20] Mental health complaints make up a big part of Jill’s practice. Often, mental health concerns are paired with gastrointestinal problems, insomnia, and muscle tension.
[18:44] Jill talks about some of the herbs she uses to treat stress – Kava, valerian, B vitamins, nervines, adaptagins (like ginseng), and licorice are a few of her staples.
[22:40] Jill says herbal treatments work very well, and can stimulate people to change bad habits. People are often much more comfortable in a few months, at which point she’ll take the sedative herbs out of their treatments.
[26:05] Jill discusses how she started her practice right out of school. She taught several classes in the local community, and also began speaking in public. She taught at herbal classes and cooking for health at the town high school. Eventually, people in the community came in to her practice.
[30:27] Word of mouth also helped build Jill’s business. She attended other classes in the community, and got to know folks—social interaction brought connections.
[32:20] Jill talks about how she rents space to other professionals, but has never brought in an associate. Currently, Jill is on the national and international public speaking circuit, to supplement her income. She maintains several different websites related to her practice and research.
[35:26] Jill talks about her upcoming book, an herbal formulary.
[36:25] In the future, Jill would like to have more free time for art and writing. She’d like to keep lecturing in public and mentoring students for the next five years.
[38:53] Jill’s business advice for newbies: be excellent in what you do, do your research, do a few miracle cures, word of mouth pays off in time, support others in the community.
Bio – Dr. Jillian Stansbury – Battle Ground, Washington
Dr Jillian Stansbury is a naturopathic physician who has practiced in SW Washington for over 25 years specializing in women’s health, mental health, and chronic disease. She holds undergraduate degrees in Medical Illustration and Medical Assisting and graduated with honors in both programs. Dr Stansbury was also a long time Chair of the Botanical Medicine Program at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine and remains on the faculty teaching Botanical Medicine and Natural Products Chemistry.
In addition to her medical practice and teaching position, Dr Stansbury also writes and serves as a consultant and medical editor for numerous professional journals and organizations, plus teaches natural products chemistry and herbal medicine around the country and abroad.
Dr Stansbury is an ethnobotanist and outdoor enthusiast and leads Ethnobotany field courses in the Andes and Manu region of the Peruvian Amazon each July. She has built a humble home in Cuzco and hosts studies in cultural anthropology, oral history collection, ethnobotany, and the mystical and healing traditions with four different tribal communities. She is presently documenting and organizing traditional ethnobotanical wisdom in order to give it back to the various tribes when the time is right. You can find out more about her at her website: http://www.jillstansbury.net/
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