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, healing, play, the garden, positive impact and a reverence for wisdom and the Earth. In short, a way of being in relationship to life that nurtures yourself and others.
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.
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, Studio Art and Community Development at University of Vermont.
I began the formal study of 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.
