A Very Traditional African-Caribbean Herbalist.

Herbal medicine has always been part of my life.

I was born two months premature in 1965. I weighed only four pounds and could not breathe. The doctors told my mom that I only had a 10% chance of surviving and to not get attached to me. Determined not to repeat the horror of having lost a child at birth the year before, my twenty-year-old mom willed me to live, and despite a month of clinging to life in an incubator and then oxygen tent, I survived.

We had left Trinidad and immigrated to Canada in 1969 and I was definitely not thriving; I was a very sensitive, undersized and sickly child- until I spent two years back in Trinidad with my grandmother, who was a shaman and herbalist and Shango priest. She immediately saw how frail I was and started bathing me in herbs, making me drink medicinal teas and she even made me put garlic powder in my socks-which made me quite unpopular in the neighbourhood, but it worked. I transformed into a healthy child.

I went from being the smallest kid in my class to a 6’3” rugby and football player.

I have never forgotten the lessons i learned from my grandmother and the miracles I saw her perform on myself and many others. These experiences formed the core of my beliefs and practices.

I began practicing massage at eighteen and treated friends, family or strangers who wanted healing, using herbal medicine, massage and other forms of traditional healing.

Fortunately, because of natural remedies, I have rarely ever needed medical attention of any kind. I respect the knowledge and technology the medical industry has developed in the past 75 years. I acknowledge the importance and effectiveness that some drugs and surgery have brought to the world of healing. I am also aware of over-prescribing of some drugs, the dangerous side effects of many drugs and the invasive nature of many of the current practices.

I combine my family’s multi-generational expertise in herbal medicine with diet, exercise, and other more recent modalities in my holistic healing practice. Our bodies themselves are great healers. Nature is the great medicine cabinet. The challenge is for us to honour our bodies and nature the best ways we can.

To arrange a consultation with me or to ask questions about my holistic treatments

Ricardo Scipio RH AHG, Member of the American Botanical Council