Dr. Jill Stansbury

As the title suggests, Herbal Formularies for Health Professsionals focuses on combinations of herbs and other synergistic materials to support whole-body wellness. One of a series of five, this book focuses on circulation and respiration.

There's no fluff in this book, zero woo-woo, as well as precise, specific and educational. As I worked through the first section, which focuses on how to diagnose medical conditions including specific questions to ask, I wanted to rediscover my herbalism background. I spent a summer at an ashram working with an herbalist to learn the specifics of certain herbs, their cultural roots, and how they've supported shamans and healers in the past up to today. This book would've been a useful reference for me then, and I suspect it will move into textbook territory - or, it should.

One thing to note that I loved: the formulas contained in Herbal Forumlaries for Health Professionals are meant as recipes. Meaning, a good cook will likely alter a recipe based on their technical knowledge and how they feel that day - and an herbalist should do the same using this book as its guide.

My only complaint in the book is that the review copy I received (thank you NetGalley and publisher) had extremely small writing. I had to increase the text size by more than 50% to read it comfortably on my computer.

I will likely buy this book, and the other four, as reference sources. I would recommend the Herbal Formulaties for Health Professionals series to any healthcare professional that uses or wants to use herbs in their practice.… (meer)