Overall wellness is more than the once popular and simplistic diet and exercise. As the health industry has grown, it has become increasingly well known that wellness is a true mind/body connection.

Simply put, wellness can’t be found solely in a bottle, at a gym or in a meditation class. While each may be significant contributors, healing the body, mind, spirit and achieving ultimate wellness must come from the inside out.

Medicine Woman, Angela Burge not only believes this, she learned it firsthand through her own journey with healing her body, clearing her mind and an overall detoxification.

The 209 Medicine Woman shared she’s always enjoyed gardening, cooking and living a healthy lifestyle. Five years ago, however, she began her true transformation when traditional medicine began treating her for a hormone imbalance. Not completely content with how things were going, she described feeling foggy, fatigued, sleep deprived and not like herself.

Seeking the advice of a Functional Medicine Doctor, it was suggested that Burge try bioidenticals, as well as a natural antibiotic. Much to her pleasure both worked.

Over the course of the next five years, she dropped 40 pounds from simply detoxing and using energy medicine.

“I wasn’t trying to lose weight,” she shared, stating she was simply trying to be healthier overall. “It just started coming off naturally. So I know when you give your body the tools it will go where it needs to go.”

Sharing she’s always had an interest in alternative medicine, Burge pointed out that she believes and utilizes western medicine as well.

It would be at an event, however, where she heard the philosophy and teaching of Alberto Villoldo, which led Burge from being one interested in health and natural alternatives to actually seeking a life of serving others as a Medicine Woman.

In September of 2019 Burge took a trip to Chile, South America to attend a training at Alberto Villoldo, Light Body School where she received her Shamanic Medicine Certification. There she joined 32 other women from around the world attending the Women’s Medicine Journey. Over the course of 10 days, she and the others were immersed in the Chilean mountains studying plant medicine, herb medicine and energy medicine.

“Sometimes I listen to myself and think, people must think I’m crazy,” she said, laughing. “But I’ve had some really amazing healing experiences both with myself and also with clients.”

Her studies eventually led to the formation of her business.

“This is my mission, to take what I’ve learned and what’s helped me,” she said of launching the Medicine Woman in May of 2021. “Continue my own education and teach people how to help themselves. We all have an innate healing ability; we just don’t know it.”

Burge specializes in a number of things to help clients, ranging from clean eating recipes, herbal medicines as well as shamanic training for energy work.

“Teas are just one way to get the herbs in. All herbs are loaded with phytonutrients, which are micro nutrients that we’re just learning to identify. They all have different phytonutrients,” Burge explained. “It can be a little tricky with herbs because you have to be willing to try things and you have to be willing to be consistent for a period of time.”

Of the many ways she utilizes herbs, both herbal teas, as well as tinctures are natural aids she uses, as well as teaches clients how to make and apply to their own health needs.

“Tinctures are plant medicine basically,” she said, noting that one takes fresh or dried plant material and infuses it in vodka. “It soaks in for six to eight weeks, you shake the bottle every several days and then you strain it. What you’re left with are the medicinal components of the plant in the tincture.”

To bring her knowledge and passion to a larger community in a more accessible way, Burge began partnering with Modesto entrepreneur Ann Endsley and hosting classes at Endsley’s shop, Gather, on McHenry Avenue in Modesto.

Using the space to host hands-on workshops such as, a 10-day detox group program, building an herbal apothecary and food medicine dinners have been a great way for the Medicine Woman to spread her knowledge and passion in a big way.

“I think the most important thing for people to try and do or get is pick something that resonates with you,” she said of her passion and sharing with others. “Start with a step you can easily fold into your life. Don’t set yourself up for failure.

“I think connecting with your why is really important,” she added, becoming emotional. “I think that sets people up for success and I think that’s what’s different about this work and this program.”

Recognizing the prompt of sudden emotion, the trained medicine woman said it’s the truth it has in her own journey that brings the tears to her eyes.

“And because I feel really sad that people go through life feeling disconnected,” she said. “I think we’re all in such a rat race hurry all the time now and it’s been one of the hardest things for me to deal with in modern life.”

Yet as she grows a passion, a calling, her “mission” into a business which benefits others, the 209 Medicine Woman recognizes her good fortune and from that her excitement to keep sharing and growing.

“Lately my philosophy has been, figure out what you love and do more of that,” she said, “whatever it is. I don’t care if you have to do it at 6 a.m. or on your lunch break, just do it. It may not be your job, but there’s ways to do more of what you love. When you feed your soul, you feel differently, you really do.”

For information on all of the Medicine Woman’s services, events and one on one opportunities, visit www.angelaburge.com or on social media at Angela Burge Medicine Woman.