Botanarchy’s mission statement is
‘Botanical Medicine For Body Autonomy’
Ancient Chinese Poetics +Holistic Primary Care
Embracing The Cycles Of Nature To Work In Sync With The Universal Flow
Carolyn Barron, Chinese Medical Physician + L.Ac
Says it all. And really not it all. Carolyn is a messenger, I truly believe. Ushering in what you have been asking for, without knowing it. My in depth session with Carolyn started with a deeply thorough intake (based on the online paperwork I had pre-prepared) about everything. My health, body, hormones, meds, energy, etc….Then she got to work with an incredible acupuncture session (sound bath on repeat as I relaxed into bliss) then a fantastic cupping session. Her space is divine and magical (and I walked there!! Hello WeHo!) and filled with all sorts of goodies and offerings like teas, medicinal mushroom elixirs, oils, rubs, books – oh dear good lord it’s little treasure trove. But it’s Carolyn’s energy, tuning in, wisdom, nurture and deep knowledge and expertise that makes the whole experience dreamy. I cannot wait to go back. She will for sure be go-to for all things acupuncture and so much more. She also gives workshops around town and is a specialist in so many areas I don’t know where to begin. Or stop. I think I’ll just keep going!
From her website below:
Botanarchy Herbs & Acupuncture is committed to providing accessible, radical healthcare while giving a voice to alternative viewpoints from marginalized areas of medicine. We believe that botanical medicine enhances the body’s innate capability to heal itself, empowering the patient as the healer.
It is not about ‘popping a pill’ for passive symptom relief. It is about taking an active role in your wellness to treat the root of what ails you, and igniting your inner healer. This path engenders a true state of body autonomy, freeing the patient from a reliance upon privatized healthcare and allopathic methods that often harm the body and undermine its innate, elegant intelligence.
8217 Beverly Blvd, Suite 7, Los Angeles, CA 90048
CAROLYN BARRON, L.AC
The defining question of my life has always been how do we – individually and as a culture by and large – decondition the noxious knots that industrialization, capitalism, and culture have wound deep within the body and spirit? Before I encountered the Tao and traditional Chinese medicine, I examined this as a writer deeply entrenched in the Riot Grrrl movement and third-wave feminism. The crucial praxis of my work en masse has been a systemic inquiry of how to reject authority, trust your own senses, and recover the capacity to taste and feel and sense for yourself. My goal in both my personal development and my interpersonal work with patients is empowering the individual with the tools to recover authority over their own processes and regain autonomy over their own body.
I am a licensed and California board certified acupuncturist, herbalist, and nutritionist based out of my hometown of Los Angeles. I went down this path because for-profit industrialized medicine made me feel hopeless and disenfranchised, and I longed for the tools to take care of myself and my community when the system failed to protect and sustain us. I have always been fervently motivated to shift the paradigms & politics of women’s bodies, and bridge the chasm between body and spirit by re-acquainting women with the magic of their biology. I believe that medicine is a dynamic force that is ever-evolving, and I am comfortable fusing my western clinical experience with diverse fields of natural medicine to provide holistic primary care to my community.
I named my acupuncture practice Botanarchy, which to me hearkens to the idea that medicine can be both a form of resistance and a reclamation of original, authentic nature. I’ve often thought that the practice of traditional Chinese medicine in its purest form awakens the creative, gestative spirit of the body, helping patients discover their own Tao and supporting them in living it.
I treat patients of all genders, but I consider my approach to medicine radical feminist health care, in that it is rooted in natural models that do not suppress the true nature of the body, and enhance connection to both the microcosm of the body and the macrocosm of the earth. I’m passionate about embodying a model of medicine that is not fear-based, shaming of choice, disease-driven, and authoritarian, one that does not like to tell their patients what to do or how to think, but instead asks their patients ‘what does that feel like’ and ‘what is your experience of this?’
As an acupuncturist at the Venice Family Clinic Integrative Medicine Chronic Pain Program, a clinical intern at Emperor’s College of Traditional Oriental Medicine, and as the manager of a functional medicine practice specializing in chronic disease, I have spent the last 12 years in a clinical setting, supporting patients and their families through nutrition, needles, and natural medicines. Enshrined in my temple of saps, twigs, roots and resins, the gristle of my life has been teaching myself and others how to master the arcane as a vehicle for self-healing and self-reliance. Committed to destroying the institutionalized lies our culture propagates about food, wellness, consciousness and the body, I teach my patients self-governance through ritual and DIY medicine, as tools of healing, self-care, body mastery, and eradication of externally-imposed dogma.
To schedule an appointment:
carolyn@botanarchy.com | (213) 265-4853.
