All about me
Juliette Abigail Carr, APRN, RH (AHG)
Juliette Abigail Carr, APRN, RH (AHG), is a Registered Herbalist and Family Nurse Practitioner in Vermont, providing integrative medicine and holistic primary care for people of all ages.
She is the director of Old Ways Herbal School of Plant Medicine and Botanical Sanctuary where she teaches scientific, intuitive, ecologically place-based herbalism, helping students self-empower to maximize the wellness of local and global communities.
Over the last 20 years, Juliette has educated thousands of students at institutions including Yale University, University of Wisconsin, and Birthwise Midwifery School, as well as herb schools and conferences across the US.
Her writings have appeared in Mother Earth Living, Heirloom Gardener, Plant Healer Magazine, Vermont’s Local Banquet, Green Living Magazine, Herbstalk, Herbarium, and others. She was an advisory board member of Mother Earth Living Magazine.
She performs extensive community service and social justice work through numerous local and professional organizations.
Education
After voracious self-study inspired by her curiosity in healing plants as a young adult, Juliette enrolled in the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine in North Carolina. To foster an in-depth understanding of many schools of thought in traditional healing, her education continued with Lisa Ganora, 7Song, Jim McDonald, and Juliet Blankespoor, as well as through numerous conferences and workshops. Complimenting her herbalism practice, Juliette became an RN, leading her to Georgetown University where she earned her master’s degree as a Nurse Practitioner, focusing on integrative medicine.
Juliette’s Origin Story
(in her own words)
I grew up in Brooklyn fascinated by nature and art, spending my free time in parks admiring the natural world, and drawing pictures of plants and birds. When I was 15 or 16, I was hypnotized by a 5-foot-tall alien-looking plant along a back road in Western Massachusetts. I visited it over and over to see what it would do. I watched it grow, bud, and bloom tiny, bright yellow flowers. Eventually, my mom brought me a plant identification book from the library. I found that the plant was mullein, and learned it was medicine for asthma.
At the time, due to ongoing toxin exposure at my high school after 9/11, I had cough-variant asthma that wasn’t responding well to medications, and I was uncomfortable most of the time. I used dial-up internet to learn how to make tea from mullein leaves. After drinking the tea for a week or two, there was a noticeable improvement in my breathing. By the end of the summer, I was able to decrease my prescriptions and breathe better.
Early that fall, I noticed another giant yellow plant near my mullein friend that seemed to pop up out of nowhere. The book identified the plant as elecampane, another lung herb good for coughs. I added the root to my tea (along with plenty of honey) and again noticed a difference. My mom then brought me a Rosemary Gladstar book on medicinal herbs from the library, and I was off and running.
About Old Ways Herbal
Old Ways Herbal got its name when it was an herbal remedy company and plant nursery on Yesteryear Farm, my husband’s family farm. At that time, we brought my products to farmers markets with his family’s produce. I no longer run the remedy company, as my heart is really in teaching and clinical practice, but the name Old Ways Herbal stuck. This is traditional medicine, plants grown and prepared and used to heal in old ways practiced and developed over thousands of years through experience and coevolution. This practice is now informed with a deeper understanding gained by science and modern medicine.
Today, Old Ways Herbal School of Plant Medicine is located on land we have protected as a Botanical Sanctuary on our family farm in Southern Vermont. We invite you to join us to learn in the open-air forest classroom, among venerable trees with the song of the river in the background, and in the surrounding meadows and marshes.