We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Josh Williams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Josh below.
Josh, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.
Just after finishing my clinical studies, I was so hungry to engage with my community and connect them with herbal medicine. Unfortunately there wasn’t much happening here, so I figured that I would need to nourish the soil and create something for people to align to. This led to several years of working with the Salt Lake City Public Library where I created a program called ‘Tea Tuesday’. We opened the doors to the public and gave a short talk on local plants, botany, plant folklore, and the celebrated medicinal virtues of many plants. Then, attendees got to roll up sleeves and craft their own unique tea blend each month based on our theme. I paid for this program out of pocket and I still consider it to be one of the most magical ways I’ve gotten to connect to our community. From there, I opened an herb shop (2018-2023) and am now in full-time private practice.
My advice to anyone starting out on any path is to find the people who are most excited about what you’re doing and align to them. If they aren’t there (yet!) or you can’t find them, take a risk and start something they can gravitate toward.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a traditionally-trained clinical herbalist with over 12 years of formal education and clinical study. I went into practice here in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2018. In 2021 my first book, Spiritual Herbalism, was published by Aeon in London who is a great publisher of many herbal textbooks for schools. They published my second book, The Green Arte, in 2022.
Now that I’ve gotten away from the retail side of herbs, I get to focus all my time and energy on working with clients one-on-one and on community education. I offer a wide variety of classes, workshops, labs, and walks throughout the year that are open to everyone.
I’m in clinical practice at Flow Acupuncture & Apothecary in the avenues neighborhood of downtown Salt Lake City where I see clients for in-depth consultations which include exploration, assessment, writing custom herbal formulas, and compounding herbal medicines for each unique person I work with.
Have you ever had to pivot?
In 2018 I opened Greenthread Apothecary. It was a longtime dream to have a vibrant herb shop here in Salt Lake City. For the 6 years we were open it was some of the most joyful and most challenging work I’ve ever done. Ultimately, the shop wasn’t where I wanted to be or how I wanted to do my work. The retail side of herbs is incredibly capitalistic and has a tendency to exploit herbs, farmers, land, and many ancestral traditions of herbal medicine. Towards the end of 2022 I knew I wasn’t where I wanted to be and I wasn’t doing what I really longed to do.
So, I pivoted. We closed the shop, I took a six month sabbatical, then moved into a completely community-focused private practice. I am so thrilled to be doing this work in a way that resembles the way my herbwise ancestors would have done it. To give folks time, space, and affirmation in exploring their narratives and patterns is a rarity in healthcare these days, and the way I get to watch people and plants show up for harmony is never anything less than astounding.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A big unlearning lesson for me has been that things don’t have to be done the way we think they do. In every industry there’s a lot of ‘should’. It’s easy for us to think that if we’re not doing what we love in a certain way, it won’t count or be good enough, and that’s just not true. Each of us owns our work and we get to lay down the path that leads to our own success. Even if you’re the first and the only person trying to do the things you do in the way you do them, if there’s joy and an activation of your passions, I think you’re on the right path.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thegreenarte.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thegreenarte
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGreenArte/videos
- Other: My books: Spiritual Herbalism- The Magic and Medicine of the Plants The Green Arte- Craft of the Herbwise