erika galentin, mnimh, rh (ahg)
clinical herbalist & LEAD creatrIX
Erika is the Lead Creatrix, Clinical Herbalist, Grower, Distiller, Educator, Clinical Mentor, and Product Maker at Sovereignty Herbs. She is the host of the Herbal Practice Connexion (HPX) and the Herbal Sensorium podcast. Her home base and medicine gardens are located just outside of Athens, OH but she serves a national and international community with her renowned herbs & wellness coaching, online and in-person classes and workshops, and clinical mentorship programs. She is also guest faculty with the Herbal Academy for their Advanced Course and with The Northwest School of Aromatic Medicine for their Aromatic Medicine Garden membership and community.
Erika holds a degree in Herbal Medicine from the University of Wales, Cardiff, UK and Scottish School of Herbal Medicine, Glasgow, UK. She is a professional member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (UK) and the American Herbalists Guild (USA). She is also a proud member of Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society in Horticulture (USA).
Over 20 years of clinical practice has provided a platform for witnessing the efficacy of medicinal plants and aromatics within a clinical environment. It is through this clinical practice that Erika seeks to encourage positive, learned relationships between plants and people and people and their bodies. She is a firm believer in celebrating the role that emotions and the psyche play in the ecology of our physical terrain. Erika is also deeply passionate about the history of botanical medicine in the United States as depicted by the American Botanical Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and has built her clinical philosophy around the principles and practice of Physiomedical and Eclectic traditions.
In addition to clinical practice, Erika is both a student and teacher of horticulture, native medicinal plant conservation and ecology, and the phenomenological and Goethean study of plants and their medicinal virtues. With her dedication to medicinal plants native to Ohio and the Greater Appalachian region, Erika teaches, lectures, and writes on native medicinal plant conservation and applied ecology, propagation, herbalism, and clinical efficacy. She also participates as a member of the Education Advisory Council of the American Herbalists Guild as well as the Stewardship Committee of Appalachia Ohio Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of land and water in Southeast Ohio.
She is the author of The Family Guide to Aromatherapy: A Safe Approach to Essential Oils for a Holistic Home