A weathered sign reads 'Dorset Chalbury-Hell Corner' with a blurred background of trees and greenery.

About The Herbal Medic

The Herbal Medic was born from a desire to reconnect with the body’s natural ability to heal, and to explore how modern clinical training and traditional herbal knowledge can work side by side.

I’m Natalie, a second-year student at Betonica School of Herbal Medicine, sharing my learning journey here as the site grows with me. Whether you’re a fellow student, practitioner, or curious explorer, this is a space for practical tools, grounded insight, and evolving thought.

My path to herbal medicine began in high-pressure clinical environments. I trained and served as an Army medic before working on the frontline in the ambulance service. Those years taught me how to stay calm under pressure, respond quickly, and care deeply. But they also showed me the limits of conventional care, particularly when it came to chronic illness.

I began to see the same patients again and again, often reliant on long-term medications that never addressed the root cause. That realisation changed everything. I started asking different questions about healing, prevention, and how we support the body to truly recover.

From Frontline Medicine to Holistic Healing

Black and white illustration of a snake wrapped around a staff, with flowers and leaves, enclosed in a shield shape.

Eventually, I stepped away from emergency care to support my young family and retrained as an engineer. It was a practical move, but the pull back to medicine never went away. Over time, I realised it wasn’t that I didn’t want to return to acute or crisis care, it was that I wanted to return differently. My focus had shifted. I wanted to approach it more holistically, integrating the precision of clinical training with the adaptability of remote medicine and the depth of plant-based care.

That’s what The Herbal Medic represents: a path toward merging urgent care with sustainable, nature-rooted healing.

A Change of Direction, Not of Calling

My aim is to qualify as a clinical medical herbalist at the end of my fourth year of study, blending hands-on herbal knowledge with the clinical discipline I developed in emergency care. Alongside this, I plan to retrain in acute and emergency medicine with a focus on wilderness and remote environments, settings where resilience, adaptability, and plant-based care truly come into their own. My long-term goal is to integrate these worlds and offer something practical, responsive, and deeply human medicine that meets people where they are, whether that’s in a clinic, a crisis, or far from conventional support.

Where I’m Headed

Fox red Labrador dog called Stella in a shallow river in the woods.

A black arrow with the words Stella the Labrador written under the arrow, for pointing at an image for a dog

This isn’t a polished final product; it’s a living, growing record of a journey.
I’m still studying, still exploring, and still building this website alongside my herbal training. As my knowledge deepens, so will these pages.

Many of the ideas here are shaped on long foraging walks in Dorset with my dog Stella, where I get to slow down, notice the plants, and think about how they work in the world and in the body. This space is part study journal, part resource hub, and entirely a work in progress, on purpose.

Thanks for being here.