About Lea Clayton, LMBT, BCPP

I came to therapeutic bodywork and herbalism from a background in journalism (BA, University of South Carolina, 1994) and organic farming (Central Carolina Community College Sustainable Farming program, 1998, Permaculture Design certification, 1999.)

My family and I actively support the health of the Haw River watershed within which we are blessed to live.

As a small business owner, teacher, and a health care practitioner, I offer sliding scale and scholarships to help make herbalism and therapeutic bodywork more accessible in my community.

THoughts about Fairness and health care . . .

Knowing how to grow, prepare and use each plant comes from millennia of human life experience and wisdom handed down through the generations. In many cases, much of this knowledge, the plants themselves and the land they are native to have been taken without proper reimbursement and acknowledgement, causing harm and great hardship that is still happening today. There is an urgent need to address the history of white European colonialism/supremacy in our culture and how it still operates today to end this ongoing harm. This is beginning to receive more attention within the wider fields of herbalism and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), but much more must be done to ensure that everyone has an equal voice, opportunity, and access and gets financial remuneration for their wisdom, gifts and contributions.

I want these awesome fields of herbalism and (CAM) to fully evolve into all they can be. Before this can happen, everyone must have access to land, real food and quality health care, both conventional and alternative. It is important for me to be part of a community that is coming up with solutions that work for everyone.

I support these local organizations working to end harm caused by environmental injustice, unjust food systems and lack of access to land.

RAFI-USA Rural Advancement Foundation International - rafiusa.org

These local organizations offer trainings in racial equity. They have helped me better understand racism in its institutional and structural forms.