Spotlight on Robin Robinette: Founder of Pharmakon Supernatural® and Clinical Herbalist

Meet Rachelle Robinett! 🌿 Natural health advocate, clinical herbalist, and founder of Pharmakon Supernatural®. Rachelle educates both beginners and advanced users who turn to herbs to keep their health in check. Get to also know more about her here!

How did you begin as a clinical herbalist, and what brought you to start your practice and HRBLS?

There’s no true “before” or “after” to my becoming an herbalist. At one point, after starting my company, launching products, and building a private practice — all the while continuing to study, apprentice, and continue my education and immersion in natural health — I realized that “herbalism” best described my work, and that only was I practicing as an herbalist; I’d always been one. The more I learned about the field, the more I saw how holistic it was, which has always been my approach. The moment was like realizing you’re an extrovert or highly sensitive or shy; suddenly, so much of how I thought and who I was had a name.

Pharmakon Supernatural was born first and has been the ecosystem that’s produced everything we do — online education, ecommerce, our cafe & apothecary, editorial, video, a private practice, events, and our line of products. Those are HRBLS, herb-infused gummies formulated by an actual herbalist (hi) using botanicals and whole-food ingredients for function on-the-go.

Being in the herbal space, what have been some of the biggest challenges for educating those who question the herbal industry?

One challenge has been correcting misinformation that’s both rampant online, and contributed to daily by companies with sometimes impressively incorrect claims. (For example, I fact-checked a recent Dove campaign, which will reach millions of people, but with information about herbs that’s simply wrong.) There is also a lot of fear of herbs in modern western society. Though they used to be an integral part of all humans’ lives, we’ve been removed from them for long enough that they now feel new and frightening and dubious to many. 

What do you see is crucial in food therapy for our common diets and lifestyle?

Eating more plants, less processed food, less flour of all kinds, and more fiber.

How do you meld and find balance in your daily personal life, running your practice, and the many projects you bring about?

Health is my main priority, and so I’ve built a life around it. Doing so requires making specific decisions on even an hourly basis, day after day, year after year, decade after decade. It requires work, and it allows for so much play. I would say that I don't find balance, I make it.

Outside of your practice, what do you do to balance your wellbeing?

Beyond operating Pharmakon Supernatural, I exercise (running, cycling, yoga, weight training, anything I can get myself into physically), write (I’m a writer first and foremost), and travel. Being offline, in solitude, in nature is a reliable source of peak experience for me. 

Also…what’s your favorite NOOCI Product?

Noo Air! I actually use it in an off-label way, in the evenings for the calming effect of the Reishi, and the digestive benefits of mint.

Want to reach Rachelle Robinett? You can catch her at Pharmakon Supernatural and learn more about natural herbs by taking her online classes, or visit the Supernatural Café in New York. Join her over on Instagram with a range of tea recipes and daily health tips to bump up your health.