DR. JILLIAN STANSBURY (center) is pictured here with colleagues who will be joining her at her practice in September, Mary Nicosia (licensed acupuncturist) and Alexandra Cope (naturopathic physician and yoga instructor).
AS PART OF HER research, Dr. Jillian Stansbury has lived and studied with the Bora, Yagua, Matsigenka and Wachiperi communities, learning anything and everything about their plants and cultures.
SHE CONDUCTS ethnobotany research (the study of how people use and relate to the plants in their world – from plants used for lumber, dyes and diaper material, to medicinal plants of all sorts, to plants used for spiritual purposes), primarily in the Amazon.
THE BATTLE GROUND Healing Arts facility is built on a long-standing medical tradition, and was first erected in the 1930s by Dr. Henry Skinner.
DR. JILLIAN STANSBURY’S Healing Arts Apothecary fills patient prescriptions and is also open to the public Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
As Dr. Jillian Stansbury recalls first starting to study plants at the young age of 10, she remembers that she was “rather studious as a child.”
“I had read every herb, garden, plant and field guide in the local library by the time I was 13,” Stansbury said. “I became bored quickly playing Monopoly and neighborhood games, and preferred to study something sciencey.”
As a young child, Stansbury began experimenting with saving seeds from fruits and vegetables, sprouting them in coffee cans, and investigating the effects of various colors of light, music and touch on her seedlings.
Stansbury’s early experiments began to pay off, as she went on to take all of the advanced biology classes her high school had to offer, received an award for her SAT scores and worked as a medical assistant at Stanford University.
Her success continued as she went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in scientific illustration, combining her artistic talents with her love of science. She graduated with honors in all programs and proceeded directly to medical school, earning her doctorate by the time she was 28.
“I guess you could say that I have been a student of nature my entire life,” Stansbury said. “I developed a deep appreciation of the universe as a living organism at a very young age. My studies in botany, quantum physics, chemistry and environmental sciences only deepened my belief that we are intricately connected to the world around us. We are like cells in a great organism; our blood can only be as healthy as the health of the rivers around us, the strength of our bones a reflection of the soil upon which we stand, and the breath in our lungs can only be as pure as the air around us.”
Now 55, Stansbury has practiced natural medicine in Battle Ground for almost 30 years, and she said that over that time she has emerged as one of the country’s leading authorities on herbal medicine. She not only practices natural medicine at her Battle Ground Healing Arts facility in Old Town Battle Ground, she also mentors students in the art and science of healing.
While gaining experience in her private practice, Stansbury chaired the Botanical Medicine Department at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland for 25 years. She remains on the faculty, teaching natural products chemistry and cell biology courses. She has received two awards from the university over the years for her teaching and work in the field of botanical research.
Stansbury’s specialty is blending molecular research on plants with traditional wisdom. At her Battle Ground Healing Arts clinical practice, she focuses on women’s health, thyroid, adrenal and mixed endocrine disorders mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, and chronic disease such as diabetes, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.
In addition to serving patients at her practice, Stansbury also serves as a board member for the American Association of Restorative Medicine (AARM), a medical organization open to all physicians who share the goal of advancing therapies that heal; not just medicate. She writes for the AARM journal and lectures frequently at their medical conferences. Last year alone, Stansbury said she authored and presented more than 20 original research papers, and traveled to teach in Toronto, Arizona, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Colorado, Vancouver, B.C., Costa Rica and Peru.
Stansbury will give the keynote address this September to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, who are aware of her work with indigenous communities around the world.
Although her practice, apothecary, research, writing and lecturing keep her quite busy and challenged, Stansbury said her main passion for the past decade has been her work with the indigenous communities of the world. She conducts ethnobotany research (the study of how people use and relate to the plants in their world – from plants used for lumber, dyes and diaper material, to medicinal plants of all sorts, to plants used for spiritual purposes), primarily in the Amazon.
For 10 years, Stansbury has lived and studied with the Bora, Yagua, Matsigenka and Wachiperi communities, learning anything and everything about their plants and cultures. She said she had to learn Spanish to conduct this research, as well as “smatterings” of many tribal languages. The studies have led to her publishing several books, receiving research grants to defray the costs of investigations and she now leads ethnobotany field courses each summer.
Stansbury said she firmly believes that one of the basic tenets of natural medicine is the notion that there is innate healing wisdom in the body, and that one of the most important therapies a physician can offer is to help patients align with the healing power of nature, and remove any obstacles that are a burden to the basic vital, recuperative forces.
These obstacles can include stress, poor sleep, poor quality food, poor digestion, alcohol, pollution, environmental toxins or toxic relationships. Stansbury said all of these waste precious vital energy, and burden the organs and nervous system. She said true healers attempt to work with these recuperative powers, rather than just medicate the symptoms.
“If your symptoms return as soon as a medication is stopped, you are not being healed, you are being medicated,” Stansbury said, admitting that sometimes Band-Aid approaches are necessary, but feels that the high road is always to restore organ function, digestive health, mental health and build vitality whenever possible, not just treat the symptoms for decades on end.
“This is where my love of exercise, fresh air, clean water, organic food and herbal medicine come in,” She said. “Many pharmaceutical drugs harm the intestinal lining, liver, or kidneys and suppress vital processes, while many nutrients and herbs help restore vitality, and in fact, are imbued with a life force of their own.”
Stansbury refers to plants as “The Standing Green Nation,” a term she said comes from Native American cultures that acknowledges that plants are every bit as alive as animals.
“The fact is that plants preceded us on the planet for millennia, and we have co-evolved to recognize and easily utilize compounds in plants,” Stansbury said. “Most drugs are synthetic and their molecular shapes foreign to our biochemistry.”
Scholarly papers by Stansbury are available on her website, www.BattleGroundHealingArts.com. In addition to presenting her research in person, Stansbury conducts numerous webinars and has produced a 12-part Women’s Wisdom Course available online (www.Floracopiea.com), aimed at empowering women to be more proactive in their own healthcare, and giving them many practical tools and herbal formulas to work with. Stansbury has also published four books on alternative medicine and is presently working with a publisher on the fifth, an Herbal Formulary for medical professionals. She also writes widely for both lay and professional journals. Copies of the latest issue of Herbal Remedies has several articles by Stansbury and is available in her Apothecary
Battle Ground Healing Arts is located at 408 E. Main St., Battle Ground. Contact Stansbury at (360) 687-4492.
BG Healing Arts facility has long-standing history
The Battle Ground Healing Arts facility is built on a long-standing medical tradition. It was erected in the 1930s by Dr. Henry Skinner, one of north Clark County’s few physicians at the time.
“Doc Skinner told me that he purchased the property from a farmer whose agricultural land abutted onto Main Street,” Stansbury said. “I started renting the clinic from him in the late 1980s, so I am only the second owner in what is approaching a century.”
Stansbury had a wonderful friendship with the retired Dr. Skinner, who often brought her bags of kiwis. She once healed his wife’s chronic sinus troubles.
Stansbury purchased the property in 1996, and Dr. Skinner died shortly thereafter. The kiwi trees stopped producing that year, Stansbury said.
Skinner and Stansbury shared a love of gardening. She has tripled the size of the garden, and of course, added a large herb garden. Outdoor classes on canning and garden processing, making herbal medicines and yoga are held in the summer, and advanced clinical herbalism classes are held indoors in front of the fireplace in the winter. Visit the Healing Arts Apothecary for more information about health, cooking and herb classes.
The Apothecary fills patient prescriptions and is also open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Stansbury stocks more than 200 herbal teas and tinctures, including many of her own formulas, teas and in-house supplements. Bio-identical hormones are available by prescription, and the apothecary is run by physicians highly trained in drug-herb interactions to answer questions and help guide product choices.
The Apothecary also offers essential oils, homeopathic medicines, body products, local honey, organic foods, probiotics, organic eggs, super foods, culinary spices, do-it-yourself products and much more.
More information about the physician-run Healing Arts Apothecary can be found at www.BGHAApothcary.com.
