Hello, my name is Susan Staley, and I am the founder, tea-maker and clinical herbalist at Standing Land. I live and work remotely with clients outside and around Portland, Maine.
What brought me to herbalism? Those things that unite, heal and enriched humanity through time: food, health, art, beauty, flavor, science, earthly qualities, relationships, play, gardening and good soil, positive impact and a reverence for wisdom. In short, a way of being in relationship to your life that nurtures yourself and others. All of this is a part of herbalism and each individual’s inherent connection to the plants just waiting to be strengthened and inspired.
I am a co-founder and previous owner of Railyard Apothecary, a co-op, in Burlington, VT where I worked as a clinical herbalist and manager from 2016-2023 before moving to Maine.
I continue to learn, grow, and deepen my relationship with the plants, the body and the complexity of the human experience at this time on earth.
As a child I began to notice the vitality giving properties of plants in my own backyard, and later expanded this understanding in my kitchen and art studio while studying Nutrition, Art, and Community Development at University of Vermont.
I began to formally study herbalism in 2009 with Sandra Lory of Mandala Botanicals. Shortly afterwards I enrolled at in a 3-Year Clinical Herbalist Training at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism under the guidance of Betzy Bancroft, Larken Bunce, and Guido Masé. In 2023 I completed the Women’s Functional & Integrative Medicine Professional Training Program with Aviva Romm, MD.
Standing Land is founded in the awareness that we are land standing up on two feet. And that each one of us contains the dignity of the earth within. Standing Land honors the great vitality and power of the earth, and the wisdom keepers throughout time, who reminds us to stand with our earth in authentic and meaningful ways. When an individual is strengthened, their various communities are also supported.
