Laura Elvira Clemmons
I am a Strega, Shama, and a healing friend with a mission to help women come into their own power to heal.
As with most healers, my journey was born through struggle. I was very sick as a child. I couldn’t hold food down, I often became so dehydrated that my mom had to take me to the hospital. We visited countless doctors who became critical of my story and accused me of being bulimic. This was frustrating and hurtful – I desperately wanted to eat, but it was just too painful.
Eventually, it felt like we were out of options, but my mom was determined to find an answer. This feeling of motherly desperation awakened something inside of her. She began to recall home remedies that she learned from her mother. She poured me a cup of basil tea and my stomach pain was relieved.
In 1995, my mother sought advice from my cousin – a Buddhist monk familiar with Chinese medicine. He took me to Philadelphia to visit a Chinese healer who prescribed an earthy tea and macrobiotic diet, which healed my gut. Years later, while attending Herb School, I learned that I can heal myself.
This experience with Chinese medicine-inspired me to enroll in classes at the Shen Nong Center, where I studied under Dr. Gu Ding. My passion for healing then morphed into a desire to study western herbalism, so I moved to Colorado and earned two certifications in Herbalism under the clinical director Paul Bergner at the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies owned by Feather Jones. I traveled to Belize to learn Mayan Traditional Healing Practices and Abdominal Massage from Ms. Beatrice Waight, and further honed these skills with Ann Drucker in Boulder, Colorado. I held apprenticeships with Linda White Dove (herbal medicine), Claudia Rosewolf (traditional North American indigenous healing practices), Chris Davidson (Journeying), and Pei Fen Yan (Chinese Medicine), and acquired Shamanic skills at the Ancient ways Shamanic Training Center in Nederland, Colorado. Each of these experiences and mentors gifted me with unique skills that I incorporate into my healing practice today.
I was always meant to follow the path of the Strega. My mom Lucia is from Naples, Italy. She taught me as much as she could remember passed on by her mother, Elvira, about plants and energy medicine. Elvira's mother, my great grandmother Nona read tea leaves. Also, the Strega lineage is passed from my father's mother Mary who practiced herbalism and spiritual healing. Looking back to my childhood, I have fond memories of gathering around the kitchen table to practice psychic abilities with my sisters. I crushed roses and smeared them on my lips to stain them red. I slept with flowers under my pillow to induce dreams. I took baths with my mother’s tea bags. I grew carrot plants from their tops in egg cartons and spoke to the spirits that visited me in the night. As I grew, my gifts did as well. I was channeling for my family and friends by the time I was 17 years old.
My heart’s true path is to walk the beauty way with integrity, finding the medicine within myself and helping others do the same. I have made a commitment to myself and my ancestors to learn the ancient ways of healing. I feel that it is important to honor the way the first people learned about healing, which can be a powerful complement to modern medicine. I listen to the healing ways of the ones that came before me. I am taught by the earth, the moon, and the plants to live in this world as a healing friend and helping woman. I celebrate the stories of medicine women and channel the songs of the plants. I use these tools to read the ones standing before me who are in need of help and support. Together, we dance and sing back into balance.
I now live in Erie, Colorado where I homeschool my children, practice herbal medicine, teach workshops and classes, and honor the wisdom of the Strega.
I am a Strega, Shama, and a healing friend with a mission to help women come into their own power to heal.
As with most healers, my journey was born through struggle. I was very sick as a child. I couldn’t hold food down, I often became so dehydrated that my mom had to take me to the hospital. We visited countless doctors who became critical of my story and accused me of being bulimic. This was frustrating and hurtful – I desperately wanted to eat, but it was just too painful.
Eventually, it felt like we were out of options, but my mom was determined to find an answer. This feeling of motherly desperation awakened something inside of her. She began to recall home remedies that she learned from her mother. She poured me a cup of basil tea and my stomach pain was relieved.
In 1995, my mother sought advice from my cousin – a Buddhist monk familiar with Chinese medicine. He took me to Philadelphia to visit a Chinese healer who prescribed an earthy tea and macrobiotic diet, which healed my gut. Years later, while attending Herb School, I learned that I can heal myself.
This experience with Chinese medicine-inspired me to enroll in classes at the Shen Nong Center, where I studied under Dr. Gu Ding. My passion for healing then morphed into a desire to study western herbalism, so I moved to Colorado and earned two certifications in Herbalism under the clinical director Paul Bergner at the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies owned by Feather Jones. I traveled to Belize to learn Mayan Traditional Healing Practices and Abdominal Massage from Ms. Beatrice Waight, and further honed these skills with Ann Drucker in Boulder, Colorado. I held apprenticeships with Linda White Dove (herbal medicine), Claudia Rosewolf (traditional North American indigenous healing practices), Chris Davidson (Journeying), and Pei Fen Yan (Chinese Medicine), and acquired Shamanic skills at the Ancient ways Shamanic Training Center in Nederland, Colorado. Each of these experiences and mentors gifted me with unique skills that I incorporate into my healing practice today.
I was always meant to follow the path of the Strega. My mom Lucia is from Naples, Italy. She taught me as much as she could remember passed on by her mother, Elvira, about plants and energy medicine. Elvira's mother, my great grandmother Nona read tea leaves. Also, the Strega lineage is passed from my father's mother Mary who practiced herbalism and spiritual healing. Looking back to my childhood, I have fond memories of gathering around the kitchen table to practice psychic abilities with my sisters. I crushed roses and smeared them on my lips to stain them red. I slept with flowers under my pillow to induce dreams. I took baths with my mother’s tea bags. I grew carrot plants from their tops in egg cartons and spoke to the spirits that visited me in the night. As I grew, my gifts did as well. I was channeling for my family and friends by the time I was 17 years old.
My heart’s true path is to walk the beauty way with integrity, finding the medicine within myself and helping others do the same. I have made a commitment to myself and my ancestors to learn the ancient ways of healing. I feel that it is important to honor the way the first people learned about healing, which can be a powerful complement to modern medicine. I listen to the healing ways of the ones that came before me. I am taught by the earth, the moon, and the plants to live in this world as a healing friend and helping woman. I celebrate the stories of medicine women and channel the songs of the plants. I use these tools to read the ones standing before me who are in need of help and support. Together, we dance and sing back into balance.
I now live in Erie, Colorado where I homeschool my children, practice herbal medicine, teach workshops and classes, and honor the wisdom of the Strega.
