The Miracle of Convalescence

So convalescence isn’t just a time of essential healing and restoration of our immune resources, it gives us permission to pause our lives and if you will allow it, time to experience the ways in which your body heals and where it may struggle to heal. In this way it can be a vacation, an education and a realization. Or it can be an exasperating, frustrating period of time that keeps us from doing what we need to do. This is what often drives people to ignore convalescence. But one thing to consider is that the lack of complete healing can create a chaotic tendency in the immune system that may actually be the most common reason for the rise in autoimmune disorders.

Our Emotional Life, The History of HealingKaren ClicknerJuly 22, 2025

Belief Changes Biology

When a patient sits down with me, they tell me all their physical symptoms, recent illnesses and detail the ways in which they just don't feel "right". But what they seem not to mention are the stressors, the emotions, the sleepless nights, the fear, anxiety, worry and anger that can dominate the mind and overwhelm the body. The truth is that belief really does change our biology.

Editor's Pick, Our Emotional LifeKaren ClicknerJuly 22, 2025

Comfortable Addiction

Why are we seeking comfort more and more? The easy answer is because so many of us do not have comfort. Body pain, chronic uncomfortable symptoms, excess body weight, combative relationships, unfulfilling or stressful work situations, fear in our world, lack of control in our lives ... how can we have comfort?

Living A Balanced Life, Our Emotional LifeKaren ClicknerJuly 20, 2025

Can We Escape From the Womb

When patients sit down to tell me about their history, they never mention their parents, as though their personal experience is all that influences their health. But in fact, our health history begins further back in time then we may even know. Jung had the right idea when he espoused the collective unconscious. We truly are the sum total of our ancestry, not just our life experience.

Are You Depressed? It May Be a Good Thing!

Our society and our medical community suggest anti-depressants for everything from digestive disorders to chronic skin conditions. Because we believe that what is a reaction to either external or internal forces is actually an aberrant unconnected emotion. And if you feel better, then you are better. Next! This is a ludicrous conclusion.

A Cup of Tea Can Save the World

Not only do you feel better drinking tea, you actually FEEL better! Let’s drink to that!

Don't Let a Little Thing Like a Cliff Scare You

How many people does it take to change a light bulb when they have a fear of heights? Always one more than you have on hand, which means you are all standing around the foot of a ladder looking up at the offending light bulb in sheer frustration.

Our Emotional LifeKaren ClicknerJanuary 8, 2025Fear

The Season of Heartbreak

I think everyone has experienced suffering and heartache around the holidays and new year. It is so very difficult to face the daunting prospect of a new year after ending a year of stressful and often tragic events. What is very clear in my practice is that the beginning of the year is a time of heart-related ailments that walk through my door. A-Fib, heart palpitations, paroxysmal tachycardia, congestive heart failure, heart murmurs, heart attack .... all of these seem to appear at the beginning of every new year.

Our Emotional LifeKaren ClicknerDecember 15, 2024

Distraction is the Enemy of Health

It is in moments of solitude and silence that we receive knowledge about our lives, ideas about our future, realizations for our decision making and information about our health. So why do we ignore this most basic need?

Editor's Pick, Living A Balanced Life, Our Emotional LifeKaren ClicknerJuly 2, 2024

The Community at Large

Now more and more it seems that both physical and mental illness reflect our lack of community, our search to replace that sense of belonging. This is a key factor in natural medicine … the idea that all of our body systems, organs and glands make up a community that works together to create life, our life.

When Do You Stop Controlling Yourself?

Because we don’t truly understand our symptoms or what our body is trying to do, we think we need to suppress anything that is uncomfortable because we should not have to experience that. We could not be more wrong!

Remembering...

We often think that memory is simply recalling facts, numbers, where we put the car keys. But memory is actually one of the ways in which our body restores itself and creates a healing response to injury and illness.

Healthy Short Subjects, How the Body Works, Our Emotional LifeKaren ClicknerNovember 30, 2021

The Herbal Advisor Magazine is the research and information by Certified Clinical Herbalist Karen S. Clickner, with 35 years of experience through her clinical history in Massachusetts.