Meet the herbalists

  • Woman with dark hair and tattoos on her arm wearing a black floral dress, standing among dark green foliage and yellow flowers

    LeAnn Averell

    LeAnn weaves a love for deep ecology, medicinal plants, and vitalism into her work as a clinical herbalist. With nearly 20 years in practice, her work as an herbalist and educator revolves around self and community empowerment, resilience, promoting local plant-based healthcare, and the sharing and spreading of herbal knowledge. She focuses on educating her clients so that they may be inspired to continue on a path to learn more about herbal medicine. Using an integrative approach, she uses her knowledge of the many traditions she is versed in to treat every client she works with. 

    LeAnn views herbal medicine as a way to reconnect with ourselves and the world around us. She sees herbalism as an empowering path for addressing inequities in healthcare and the broader injustices of the world, and this is what first inspired her to study herbal medicine.

    LeAnn has studied with many teachers and taken many programs over the years. Nature itself is first and foremost her greatest teacher. She counts 7song and Rosemary Gladstar as early mentors, but is also profoundly impacted by the teachings and work of Janet Kent, Michael Moore, David Winston, and Thomas Easley to name a few. 

    Her work as a clinical herbalist is shaped by a diverse background in complementary modalities - over a decade as a massage therapist and her experience as a birth and death doula, where she has held space for others through life’s many transitions. 

    A lifelong student of Vipassana meditation, Tibetan Buddhism, and astrology, she draws on these traditions as guiding frameworks in both her personal healing and professional practice.

    She spends most of her time working at A Thousand Leaves, walking in the woods, and creating art that highlights our interdependent relationship with nature.

  • A woman with wavy brown hair wearing a large black hat and black clothing stands outdoors against a blurred background of leafless trees and buildings during daytime.

    Bethany Anne Valentine Moran

    Bethany keeps vitalism at the core of her practice. Whether she is practicing botanical medicine, doing energy work or looking at an astrological chart she is always considering how to keep the body/mind full of vibrancy so it is resilient against stress and illness. Her goal is to set her clients on a path of healing by creating a wellness plan that is exciting and relevant to their lives! We are all unique, our wellness plans should be too. 

    Bethany started her herbal studies at The Northeast School of Botanical Medicine in Ithaca NY. She continued studying at The Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism in Lafayette, CO and graduated with a Certificate in Advanced Herbalism in 2020. She was attuned in upstate New York by Reiki Master & Teacher Jessica Betts in 2018. In 2023 she completed the Alchemical Herbalism course at the School of Evolutionary Herbalism which covers astrological herbalism, alchemical medicine making and philosophy.

    **Bethany is currently on maternity leave!  if you want to connect with her, you can book a consultation with her here.

  • A woman with short light brown hair and a necklace with a crescent moon pendant, smiling in front of shelves filled with glass jars of herbs and spices labeled with their names.

    Caitlyn Walker

    Caitlyn found her way to herbalism through Traditional Chinese Medicine. She studied formally here in Gainesville and has her Master's in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. She found that she wasn't as interested in treating patients with needles as she was working with them herbally. She loved the intricacies of the medicine and how formulating was so specifically tailored to a patient's unique constitution.

    She weaves her knowledge of TCM into her herbalism practice and is currently taking the Beginner's Herbal Program to further her studies. She loves working with people one on one at the shop to find support for their needs in the moment. If she's not working at the shop, you can catch her rock climbing or hanging outside with her cats. 

  • A smiling woman with short hair wearing glasses, a wide-brimmed straw hat, a green shirt, and a turquoise beaded necklace, outdoors with green and pink blurred foliage in the background.

    Susan Marynowski, M.S.

    Susan has an avid mind and is always interested in learning something new and teaching others. She was first trained as a generalist, then as an artist, and then as an ecological scientist. Her interests come together in herbal medicine, where she brings an artist’s eye and a scientist’s sensibilities to understanding the patterns of medicinal plants and the functions of natural and human ecosystems.

    Susan has studied and practiced herbal medicine since the early 1990s. She holds a certificate from Dr. Tieraona LowDog’s “Foundations in Herbal Medicine” program, and has advanced training in cancer therapeutics, metabolic syndrome, herbal botany, herbal first aid, and functional blood chemistry analysis. She counts herbalists Patricia Kyritsi Howell and Thomas Easley as her mentors.

    Susan regularly leads “wild weed walks” to examine edible and medicinal weeds, as well as teaching in more formal settings at the UF Integrative Medicine Program, the Florida School of Traditional Midwifery, the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture, the Florida Herbal Conference, and other venues. She also advocates healthy eating, leads vegetable fermentation workshops, and sponsors events with visiting herbalists. Susan was the Editor for the Journal of the American Herbalists Guild from 2015-2019. Her formal education includes a Bachelor of Fine Arts and an M.S. degree in Ecology and Public Education. She has authored or edited a number of books, articles, reports, and scientific papers. Susan wildcrafts and grows herbs and food plants with her husband on a farm near Gainesville, Florida.