I’m Dr. Rachel, the being behind Sacred Grove.

I am a disruptor at heart.

In my younger years, this was something more like rebellion without a cause. Thankfully, I found an outlet in university as a Philosophy major, where I was encouraged to get curious about human nature, justice, existence, race, religion, class and more. Here I learned how to grapple with ideas through disruptive, sometimes uncomfortable, dialogue.

After graduating with my BA in 2009, I worked for some years as canoe guide with marginalized communities on the Madaoueska Sipi/River. I was privileged to listen to the experiences of people living with profound physical and mental health disorders. In our short time together, I witnessed the power of community and communion with the Land to support states of well-being.

I began to wonder if healthcare could be done differently.

In 2014, I enrolled in the 4-year Naturopathic Doctor program at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine with the confidence of a 20-something-year-old white girl looking to “change the system.” I graduated in 2018 with more grey hairs and questions like “who gets to be well, and why?”

I have been profoundly impacted by these experiences and my work is guided by the following principles:

naturopathic medicine is a tool

Naturopathic medicine is also a tool to explore joy, pleasure, justice, attachment theory, relationality, animism, death, land stewardship and culture in contemporary collapse.

healthcare is political

As Rupa Marya said in her book, Inflamed, “the body is itself a kind of place—not a solid object but a terrain through which things pass, and in which they sometimes settle and sediment… To wonder why some things settle in some bodies and not in others is to begin to ask questions about power, injustice, and inequity, questions that are bound in modern medicine with questions of colonialism.”

Not everyone is impacted equally by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, and not everyone carries the same responsibility to dismantle it.

healing is relational

Simply put, being well includes healthy relationships with others. We were never meant to figure it out on our own. My hope is that my work helps patients be in better relationships to themselves, other humans and their multi-species ecosystem which includes other-than-human kin.

science rocks

Working with an ND isn’t a choice between naturopathic medicine or conventional medicine, it is a collaboration between them. Large-scale data informs my practice and helps me to come to the right diagnosis, follow best practice guidelines (safest, most effective, least costly), as well as to create the best treatment plan for you. Sometimes, the best treatment approach may include drug therapy, and that’s ok.

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My Teachers

I am grateful to have a web of relations that includes teachers, mentors and sponsors. It would be impossible to thank and acknowledge all who have impacted me, but some include Robin Wall Kimmerer, bell hooks, adrienne maree brown, Emily Nagoski, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Dr. Aditi Holden, ND, Dr. Kristin Schnurr, ND, Dr. Jordan Robertson, ND, Carmen Spagnola, Chani Nicholas, Taraneh Erfan, Pınar and So Sinopoulos-Lloyd, Lori Eve Dechar, Benjamin Fox, Lonny Jarrett, Laozi and The Cailleach.