Meet Carly,
nutritionist and herbalist based in Western Massachusetts on unceded Pocumtuc territory.
My Practice Anchors:
These are my guideposts, touchstones, starting assumptions, and beacons I aspire towards.
Functional & Holistic
- We’re not machines afterall, but wildly complex ecosystems!
- This approach honors the interconnectivity of your body systems, treating you as a whole, rather than one or two broken parts.
- The aim is to go deep, find the root(s) of what’s ailing you.
- The solution isn’t usually a silver bullet but steady and sustained behavioral change from a number of angles.
- Food, stress, sleep, environmental factors, and movement are just a few of factors we’ll consider in understanding your concerns and addressing them.
Integrated & Intuitive
- The earth is alive and we’re all dancing in an ongoing exchange between the outside and inside of our bodies—wow, how magical!
- Herbs, trees, fungi, vegetables, and animal foods can all help us connect to this living web of relationship and vitality—wow, how convenient (and also magical)!
- Spirit, meaning, purpose, are all part of your story and the healing work ahead.
- How and to what extent intuition and spirit guide our work together is up to you—just know there’s always space for it!
Food First + practical supplementation
- I will support you in leaning on food as much as feasible to support your health goals.
- Not all of us can wildcraft, fish, hunt, cook all day, and spend hours outside meditating with trees and metabolizing natural sunlight.
- Soil depletion, industrialized food systems, higher toxin burden from modern life, and nutrient zapping stress all conspire to increase the complexity of accessing optimal nutrition from foods alone.
- For many people, a certain amount of supplementation is necessary to be well nourished, consistently.
- With ample training in the supplement realms, I can help you navigate this tricky territory.
Healing is Creative
- This work is creative, evolving, and what works for you may not work for anyone else!
- We’ll explore, experiment, and make mistakes, which is all a welcome part of growth.
- You will work hard! Healing is effortful, exciting, and often non-linear!
Body Positive + Weight Inclusive
- All bodies are welcome and respected.
- I don’t focus on weight loss with my clients but work on other health promoting behaviors so that you can move towards more optimal health—whatever that looks like for you.
- We go where you want to go, with consent as queen, we co-create space and solutions that both create safety, calm, and growth.
Culturally Aware + Anti Colonial
- What your family eats, what your grandmother eats, what your ancestors ate (if you know them), all matters!
- Nutrition is not another opportunity to create more monoculture; your unique cultural needs are taken into account and directly inform the shape of your protocol.
- Dietary diversity and food systems diversity are keys to both personal and community health, my practice firmly honors that.
Trauma Informed
- Food, bodies, and our relationship with all of the above can be messy, sensitive, and areas where trauma can show up.
- Understanding your history, particularly around recent major life events and trauma helps me deliver deeper, whole person care.
- I aim to create a safe container for my clients and students, endeavoring to be communicative and responsive to particular needs that may arise in our class or session together.
Evidence-Based + Clinically Informed
- I regularly consult peer reviewed studies for the latest research and clinical approaches
- I’m networked with other highly experienced herbalists and nutrition colleagues who may consult on (anonymized) cases with consent.
- Continuing education is my hobby—I regularly attend conferences, webinars, seminars, and intensives on my specialty. I can’t get enough of this stuff!
- I became a health coach so I could better understand an evidence based approach to behavior change. We’ll use proven practices meant to make those changes stick.
Grounded in Practical & Personal Solutions
- You’re ready to change but it’s got to fit into your life.
- We’ll sort out where to start and how to meet your needs and goals without any drastic overhauls.
- Building on small changes, you’ll watch your confidence and efficacy grow as you reclaim your health, inch by inch.
Perfectionism
- Just kidding. We don’t do that here. It’s a continual unlearning that takes practice.
- See: Healing is Creative
LGBTQIA2+ friendly & Gender Affirming
- All genders and sexual orientations are welcome in my practice.
- I strive for inclusive language on intake forms and resources. My goal is for you to feel safe and respected.
“Carly Leusner was a great help to me after losing my husband during the pandemic in 2021. Our weekly sessions on the phone got me through a lonely time in the hilltowns where I knew very few people and was feeling very isolated. I’ve known Carly since she launched Acorn Kitchen and led tours through some verdant venues in the Pioneer Valley. Although she is decades younger than I am and miles ahead of me when it comes to her knowledge of botany and cooking with local flora and fauna, I continue to be inspired and healed by her influence. “
—M.N., Plainfield, MA
Anti-Racist Small Business Pledge
I’m committed to ongoing measures to ensure the healing communities I am a part of are welcoming and safe for communities of color. I’ve joined with other small businesses and taken the following pledge outlined by organizers at “hello seven.”
- Name white supremacy and the impact of racism on both our personal and professional lives. I will continue to weave in discussion on white supremacy as it relates to food justice, health justice, and land based relationship in my work as an educator. I dedicate time to ensure this is an explicit piece of workshop curricula, blog posts, and social media posts.
- Engage in anti-racist education on a quarterly basis. I commit to engage regularly anti-racist training, knowing this is a life long process of unlearning biases.
- Commit to open-conflict and allow discomfort. I will stay open to feedback and welcome suggestions on how I can do better for communities of color.
I invest a portion of my monthly budget back into BIPOC communities. I will work to collaborate with and patronize black and indigenous owned businesses whenever possible. I donate a portion of my monthly income to Standing up For Racial Justice’s Indigenous Reparations Campaign, and to Rootwork Herbals Reclamation Fund, which funds scholarships for BIPOC students to attend the People’s Medicine School and/or the Jane Minor Community Garden.
“I came to Carly struggling with chronic depression and fatigue. She listened to me with sensitivity and compassion, and was thoughtful, thorough and intuitive in her assessments. I continue to feel deeply supported and healed by the regimen of supplements she put me on, and trying out her suggested changes to my diet has had a wildly positive impact on both my mental and physical health. Working with Carly was both a healing experience and an education; She’ll never do anything without telling you the reasoning behind it in clear, digestible language.”
—CL, Greenfield, MA
My Story
For much of my childhood, food was blissful and comforting. I somehow seemed to thrive on junk food.
As a child, I used to fall asleep with gummy bears in my mouth, and would follow ice hockey practices with a king sized butterfinger and mountain dew. I eventually became a vegan and lived off tater tots and cliff bars in my early twenties, and continued the weekend binge drinking pattern of my high school years.
For a long time, I got along like this, driving a carb-crazed get away car, always chasing the next sugar high. It was wonderful until it wasn’t. Years of relying on food and beverage as a coping mechanism, a tool to soothe my sensitive body, began to take an inevitable toll on my health.
Nature connection, wildcrafting, and my journey with plant medicine helped me find respite, healing, and answered my inner ache for deep nourishment.
I found herbs to support me with stress and quickly address stubborn health issues. More importantly, I got to know plants as friends – buddies that had my back. I felt more connection with the “more than human” and discovered a wellspring of joy, indulging each thread of curiosity and awe.
While some of the above vulnerabilities are written into my genetic code, I understand my recovery to be a daily effort, tending gently to the many habits and choices that keep my mind healthy.
- daily meditation
- outdoor exercise
- plenty of sleep
- gut health support
- Supplements
- Blood sugar stabilizing diet
These are the major ways I stay well. I hold healing as a process path— ongoing, imperfect, and winding—each of us an expert of our own experience.
My story is a part of a greater pattern and reality for so many—-being well fed and yet so hungry.
I’m passionate about helping others find their unique constellation of support in healing from chronic mental health and digestive issues. Together we can explore, identify, and help feed those deeper needs for nutrients, connection, or balance—areas that may be holding you back from a clearer, calmer mind, and happy belly.
If you want to greet each day with more mental agility and courage, we can do meaningful work together.
Fun Facts about me
- I wrote a guide to sports nutrition as a 5th grader to share with my hockey team. I advised copious consumption of pasta the evening before games. (Spoiler alert: I am no longer an advocate of that practice.)
- I’ve lived in seven states, most of them ocean adjacent, except for a time in the lakes of Minnesota.
- I know how to crab and fish, thanks to my father and his father—and perhaps those before them.
- Slaughtering, skinning and butchering animals is now a part of my repertoire, a full circle journey to veganism and back.
- I love french fries and still eat them on occasion.
Experience
Herbal Certificates & Continuing Education:
- Nutritional & Integrative Medicine for Mental Health Certificate
- Dr. Leslie Korn’s Institute for Integrative Medicine, October 2022
- Clearpath School of Herbal Medicine
- 3 year herbal medicine program, 2013 & 2015
- Gaia School of Healing & Earth Education
- 10 month Plant Spirit Medicine Apprenticeship, 2010
Credentials:
- Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS)
- Licensed Dietary Nutritionist (LDN)
- National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC)
Education:
- Masters of Science in Human Nutrition at University of Bridgeport 2022
Summa Cum Laude - Bachelor of Arts in Health Studies & Anthropology Hampshire College 2008
Latest From My Blog
Stay up to date on the latest emerging science on holistic approaches to wellness, culinary medicine, and foraging culture.