Hi, I'm Karen Burr, Your Wildcrafting Herbalist
I Believe Healing Should Never Be Out of Reach
Clinical Herbalist. Wild Food Educator. Community Connector.
Welcome. I am so glad you found your way here.
I believe that healing does not have to be complicated, expensive, or out of reach. The plants have always known what we need. My job is simply to help you find your way back to them.
My Story
I spent 17 years as a licensed esthetician watching people struggle with skin conditions that no product could fix. Week after week I saw the same story: treat the surface, ignore the root. I knew there had to be a better way.
That search led me to holistic health coaching, where I started teaching food as medicine and working with our local farming community. It was closer, but I still felt like something was missing. Then I found the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine in the Appalachian Mountains, and everything clicked. That was about nine years ago and I have not stopped learning since.
What started as a search for answers for my clients became a complete reimagining of how I understand health, healing, and our relationship with the land. I have now trained at five clinical herbal programs, studying wild food nutrition, folk medicine, medical botany, and advanced formulations for everything from skin conditions to autoimmune support. But honestly? The most important thing I have ever learned is that the answers are usually closer than we think. Sometimes they are growing right in your own yard.
I opened Materia Medica Restorative Herbalism Center because I believe that creating health should be sustainable and never unattainable. No endless supplements. No expensive lab work. Just real food, real plants, and a real conversation about what your body is actually asking for.
That is what we do here. And I cannot wait to do it with you
What I believe
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I believe the grocery store should be your supplement, not your main source of food. I believe a dandelion growing in your yard has more nutrition than most things on a grocery store shelf. I believe that when we stop asking why we are sick and just reach for something to dull the symptoms, we lose the thread back to our own healing.
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I also believe that nature is not a trend. It is not an MLM. It is not a $90 supplement bottle with a pretty label. It is the most ancient, intelligent, and accessible pharmacy that has ever existed, and most of us are walking past it every single day.
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My approach is rooted in restorative herbalism, which means we are not just managing symptoms. We are rebuilding. We are reconnecting. We are learning to read what the body is asking for and answering it with something real.
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Health is not supposed to be this hard or this expensive. When we work with nature instead of around it, everything gets a little simpler.
The Training Behind the Work
I am a lifelong student. Here is where I have studied so far:
Institute of Integrative Nutrition
Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine
School of Evolutionary Herbalism, Vital and Clinical Skills
North American School of Medical Herbalism, with a specialization in acute viral, fungal, and bacterial skin conditions
North American School of Medical Herbalism, advanced training in medical botany for hormonal aging skin
Herbal Medics Academy, advanced formulations for internal and topical herbal supports for viral and bacterial infections
Advanced training in folk medicine, wild food education, herbal remedies for autoimmune disorders and environmental toxins
Member, Bio Nutrient Food Association, studying soil biology for regenerative food practices
Over 20 years of experience in holistic health, with the last nine dedicated to clinical herbalism.
In the Wild
A few places you can find me out in the world
Herbs with Rosalee This one is close to my heart. I shared the story of rabbit tobacco, a native North American plant that most people walk right past, and how it became one of my most trusted allies after a serious respiratory health crisis. We also talked about restorative herbalism, wild foods, rewilding, and the connections between healthy ecosystems and healthy bodies.
The Herb Rally Podcast with Mason Hutchison We talked about how I got into herbalism, what a wild foraging esthetician actually is, fermented foods, skin health, and homesteading. It is a wide ranging conversation and a good place to start if you are new here.
Awaken Indy Podcast A local Indiana conversation covering herbalism, why diets and protocols do not work, toxic cosmetics to avoid, deep nutrition, and what it really looks like to build a clinical herbal practice from the ground up.
Indy Maven: Holistic Health Feature A local feature on Materia Medica and the philosophy behind it. Karen shares why she walked away from conventional spa culture and what it really means to treat a skin condition from the inside out.
Homesteading Herbalist Collective on YouTube This is my ongoing project, a channel built around helping people live closer to nature, learn from each other, and cultivate their own food and medicine. Come hang out.
Come Find Me
If something on this page resonated with you, I would love to hear from you. Whether you are brand new to herbalism and not sure where to start, or you have been on this path for years and are looking for something more specific, there is a place for you here.
Come visit us in Greenwood. Explore the shop. Book a consultation. Or just say hello.
The plants brought me here and I have a feeling they brought you here too.