katja's bio

Katja Swift is an herbalist and teacher working to help adults, children, and families rebuild their relationships with their bodies and with their own ability to heal. She is the director of the CommonWealth Center for Herbal Medicine, and teaches privately and publicly around the city, as well as for the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Her clinic is located in Brookline Village.

Katja grew up the daughter of a nurse, and started working with the plants as medicine in the 90s. After training with Rosemary Gladstar, and later with Guido Mase and David Dalton, she ran a family practice herbal clinic in central Vermont for six years. During this time, she owned and worked a 150-acre certified organic farm, raising heritage breed livestock and market and herb gardens. She taught monthly at the local coop, and as a guest lecturer at Dartmouth Medical School and the UVM Medical School. She presented annually at the Northeast Organic Farming Association conference.

Katja worked actively to help pass anti-GMO legislation in Vermont: the Right to Know Seed Labeling Bill, which became the first such law in the nation, as well as the Farmer Protection Act. She also worked extensively with the Weston A. Price Foundation, as a chapter leader, educator, and researcher. Her journey with traditional nutrition research has wound from WAPF through to the Primal and palean food movements.
Katja has also published articles in the journal of the Northeast Herbal Association, and in Plant Healer Magazine. She is a member of the American Herbalists Guild, the Northeast Herbal Association, and United Plant Savers.

Katja moved to teach and practice in Boston in 2007.