Kym Murden Ba Hons, ITEC, Dip Phyt

Herbalist and Storyteller

I work primarily from my garden and clinic space right on the edges of Lewes where the garden leads straight out onto the South Downs.  Private consultations are held in view of the rolling hills, and this space is also used for small herbal workshops and community storytelling.  Larger workshops and storytelling events take place in various locations around the Sussex countryside.  My passion in all of this, is to, inspire connection within ourselves whether individually or collectively to the land, to the herbs, to the stories.

Since qualifying in 1998 as a Western Medical Herbalist my working life has mainly been spent in and around the Lewes area, including the Cottage Clinic which I established jointly with my husband Dr. Kevin Baker. My practice was extended to the lands of New Zealand where my family lived for five years.  I am now returned to the permanence of the beautiful chalk downs, where I work and weave together all I have learnt and continue to learn from the plants and the people in the northern and the southern hemispheres and at all stages of life.

Integral to a person’s well-being is my ethos that a person needs to be heard, supported and empowered to make their informed choices around medicines, food and lifestyle.

I grow, collect and harvest as many herbs to make my remedies as is humanly viable for my clinic.  As a local herbalist, this hands on heart engaged practice is central to my serving and working with the local community and the land around us.  My many years of experience as a herbalist have shown me that this approach produces sustainable and efficacious medicine that is respectful of the rules and rhythms of the natural world of which we have to remember we are wholly a part of.  Where it is not possible to source locally I collaborate with a peer group of fellow herbalists or use ethical/organic trade suppliers.

What we do to ourselves, we do also to the Earth.  What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. No exceptions.

Professional Background

I bring many years of professional practice into the consultation space, and have important and valuable tools to facilitate your well-being, encompassing medical knowledge, diet, nutrition and lifestyle choices. I undertook the four year training with what was the School of Herbal Medicine (Phytotherapy) in East Sussex, this being an in-depth training of medicine, clinical and differential diagnosis all on the foundation of anatomy and physiology underpinned by the Herbal Materia Medica, nutrition and more.  I undertook my 500 plus hours on clinical practice in both Leeds and London, and very importantly had access to a working medicinal herb garden!  Needless to say the understanding of what the herbs have to offer all of us is a lifelong journey.

I have been a clinic supervisor at training clinics in London.  I also continue to mentor and supervise herbal students and colleagues.  I was one of the founder members of a collaborative group of herbalist who established The Herbarium – a blog for Traditional Herbalist in Times of Transition.   Whilst this blog is currently on ‘ice’ it is still a repository of much vital information and my post Herbal Health for Chickens curiously, and encouragingly, remains one of the most read posts!

Before becoming a full time herbalist I worked in special educational needs and charity sectors.