What if the key to healing isn’t in the next supplement or super herb, but removing what’s quietly draining your vitality?
In this powerful episode of The Dancing Willow, herbalist and teacher Paul Bergner joins Elliott Brinkley to explore the deep foundations of true healing through vitalist therapeutics a system of medicine rooted in supporting the body’s natural intelligence through sleep, nourishment, and simplicity.
Paul’s work spans over 50 years as a clinician, teacher, and writer. As the founder of the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism, he has guided generations of herbalists and continues to offer insight into what it truly means to practice medicine in harmony with nature.
What unfolds in this conversation is a reminder that healing is not about chasing complex protocols, but returning to the vital rhythms, sleep, digestion, connection, and emotion, that make us whole.
Listen to the podcast here: The Dancing Willow Podcast
The Foundation of Vitalism
Paul describes vitalism not as a theory, but as a lived observation: the body is constantly moving toward balance and vitality when given the right conditions.
He began his path in the early 1970s, studying yoga, meditation, and dietary therapy while recovering from addiction. This experience shaped his lifelong approach to healing, one that prioritizes vital function over symptomatic treatment.
“Herbs don’t do the healing,” Paul says. “They support the body as it heals itself.”
In his decades of clinical supervision, Paul has seen countless examples of this principle: when sleep is restored, digestion is repaired, and nourishment is aligned with one’s constitution, the body often no longer needs medicine, it simply returns to its natural rhythm.
Sleep Debt: The Modern Epidemic No One Talks About
One of the most compelling parts of this episode is Paul’s discussion of sleep debt, a state of chronic exhaustion that has quietly become one of the greatest threats to modern health.
He explains how insufficient sleep alters our entire hormonal and endocrine system. When we sleep less than we need, cortisol cycles become dysregulated, leading to anxiety, irritability, and eventually adrenal exhaustion. Immune function weakens. Insulin resistance rises. Even our ability to digest food and regulate inflammation begins to erode.
“In 1963, the average person slept more than eight hours a night,” Paul notes. “By 2003, that number had dropped below six.”
This chronic deprivation has driven us toward stimulants like caffeine and sugar to compensate, creating a loop of false energy and deeper exhaustion.
For herbalists, Paul explains, the solution isn’t simply to add herbs that “fix” insomnia, it’s to rebuild the conditions that allow the body to rest. Herbs like skullcap, hops, valerian, and calming demulcents can help, but the true medicine lies in restoring circadian rhythm: turning out the lights earlier, eating a nourishing breakfast, and reestablishing connection with natural cycles of light and dark.
The Gut as the Center of Healing
After decades of supervising herbal clinics, Paul has seen one truth repeat itself again and again: digestion is the foundation of health.
When the gut is inflamed, overburdened, or irritated by foods we don’t tolerate, it sets off a cascade of immune and inflammatory responses that affect the entire body, manifesting as everything from eczema to joint pain to autoimmune disease.
Paul learned this lesson firsthand from one of his mentors, Dr. Harold Dick, who taught that if a practitioner wasn’t willing to identify and remove a patient’s food intolerances, they “might as well find another profession.”
For many people, he says, the most common culprits are dairy and wheat. Even small amounts, like a splash of cream in coffee or a trace of casein in a “non-dairy” creamer, can keep the immune system in a constant state of low-grade inflammation.
Healing begins when the offending foods are fully removed, and the digestive tract is given time and herbal support to regenerate.
Paul’s go-to herbs for this process are marshmallow, plantain, calendula, chamomile, peppermint, and fennel a soothing combination that rebuilds the gut lining, eases inflammation, and restores digestive tone. You can find these herbs in our Tummy Tea as well as our Digestive Repair Powder- both supportive formulas to adjunct and speed up gut lining healing.
As Elliott adds, “The real work isn’t just removing the food, it’s healing the gut so the body can stop reacting to everything else.”
The Emotional and Spiritual Side of Healing
Healing, as Paul reminds us, is rarely just physical. When the body begins to detoxify and rebalance, emotions and memories that have been suppressed often rise to the surface.
He recalls guiding patients through dietary withdrawal and witnessing waves of grief, anger, or sadness emerge. These emotions, he says, are not side effects, they’re part of the body’s process of release.
To support this, Paul often integrates flower essences and spiritual heart herbs, plants that work on the emotional and energetic layers of healing. “You can’t just treat the gut or the nerves,” he explains. “You must also tend the heart.”
Elliott echoes this in her own practice, sharing how herbs like hawthorn, rose, and motherwort serve as bridges between the physiological and spiritual, helping people open to healing in a deeper way.
The Golden Currant and the Legacy of Teaching
Toward the end of the episode, Paul shares a story that beautifully captures his philosophy.
Years ago, while practicing daily nature observation in Boulder, Colorado, he came upon a lone golden currant bush growing far from where it should have been. Over time, he discovered that birds had carried its seeds into new ground, creating a thriving grove of currents hidden just beyond sight.
In that moment, Paul received what he calls a message from spirit:
“You think your school is small and insignificant, but your students’ students will change the face of healing.”
That vision has since become reality. Decades later, Paul’s students, and their students, are teaching, running clinics, and carrying forward the tradition of vitalist herbalism across the world.
Returning to Simplicity
At its heart, this episode is a call to return to simplicity.
True medicine isn’t found in endless supplementation or complex diagnoses it’s in restoring the body’s natural rhythm, removing what harms, and reconnecting with the intelligence that animates all life.
Paul’s reminder to herbalists and healers is both humbling and hopeful:
“Holistic medicine doesn’t mean you took vitamin C instead of antibiotics. It means you got the whole story.”
Explore Paul’s Work
You can learn more from Paul and access his full curriculum of herbal audio courses, lectures, and resources at https://www.naimh.com/
There, you’ll find in-depth teachings on formulation, women’s health, materia medica, and vitalist practice, each built from decades of clinical observation and tradition.
Listen to the full episode of The Dancing Willow to experience the conversation in Paul’s own words and reconnect with the living roots of herbal medicine.