About

About

Purple Moon Herbs & Studies' Mission

Our mission is to educate veterinarians and allied professionals on the use of Herbal Medicine, Nutrition and Food Therapy, Hospice care, Ayurveda, and more.  Our training teaches professionals how to blend a variety of wholistic modalities into a western veterinary practice. We combine traditional knowledge about herbal usage with current scientific studies to enhance understanding of herbal actions and safety.  We are well-versed in the use of over 400 herbs, administered by tinctures and extracts (concentrated oral formulas), capsules and tablets, teas, lozenges, ointments and salves, and aromatherapy (inhaled essential oils in baths, candles, etc.). Dr. Laurie Dohmen and her associates provide instruction through our own structured classes, private sessions and at conferences. We provide a more wholistic approach to veterinary medicine and nutrition with our homecooking recipes and alternative treatment modalities for pets. We also provide wholistic self-care training for veterinarians themselves.

Herbal Medicine

Herbal Medicine is the use of herbs as drugs. Most drugs are derived originally from plants, but just the desired chemical is extracted for use as medication. Herbal medicine uses the actual plant - for some, the roots, leaves and/or flowers. Often using the whole plant part is more beneficial due to the synergistic activity of multiple chemical constituents as opposed to single isolated chemicals found in pharmaceutical drugs. In several studies, these chemicals have been found to provide additive effects while mitigating harmful side effects.  There are many ways to use herbs: tinctures and extracts (concentrated oral formulas), capsules and tablets, teas, lozenges, ointments and salves, and aromatherapy (inhaled or topical essential oils or hydrosols in baths, candles, etc.).  At Purple Moon, we teach herbs from around the world applied in a methodology based on the western medicine paradigm we learned in veterinary schools in the USA.

Nutrition

Simply, this is adjusting the diet to relieve or prevent a disease process or enhance optimal health. A common example of this is removing a food from the diet that a dog is allergic to in order to relieve skin and ear infections. Underlying nutritional imbalances are subtle changes that veterinarians are trained to notice. Owners usually see dramatic improvement when dietary changes are made.  We always recommend homecooking for pets.

Self-Care

Nurturing personal well-being is especially important to veterinarians and others who provide care to those in need. At Purple Moon Herbs and Studies, self-care is a part of all our course offerings, including our 9-month online home-study course that focuses on self-care through the cycles of nature. Exploring different human and individual needs throughout the seasons and daily rhythms, we endeavor to find a more balanced and fulfilling approach to practicing veterinary medicine and to life.

Bach Flower Remedies

Dr. Bach believed that all physical problems were actually just physical manifestations of emotional problems or personality disorders. He tried to fix the underlying emotional distress with preparations of flower essences. There are 38 flower essences for 38 different "personality disorders." Each individual animal gets their own specifically tailored combination of 6-7 flower essences suited to its personality. There is also one general remedy called "Rescue Remedy" that is good for any stressful situation for an individual. We recommend everyone have a bottle of this on hand at all times.

About Dr. Laurie Dohmen

Growing up, Dr. Dohmen always wanted to be a veterinarian.  She grew up in a time where pharmaceutical medicine was considered the zenith of all medicine.  All her schooling was in pharmaceutical medicine, but she started feeling that there was something more.  In her personal life, she had been a vegetarian for years; she wanted to help animals, not eat them.  She began to use organic food and alternative medicine modalities for herself and her family.  Her family thrived on this more wholistic lifestyle, and she realized that if these things were better for her family, they would be better for her patients also.  So Dr. Dohmen began studying alternative modalities.

Dr. Dohmen graduated from University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 1997.  Since then, Dr. Dohmen has received training in Acupuncture, Food Therapy, Bach Flower Essences, and most extensively Herbal Medicine.   She has studied with Dr. Steve Marsden, Dr.Huisheng Xie, Registered Herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, and many others. She received her Masters of Therapeutic Herbalism from Maryland University of Integrative Health in 2014. She was accepted as a Registered Herbalist through the American Herbalist Guild in 2020.

 In 2013, Dr. Dohmen down-sized her integrative mixed animal practice in southern Delaware.  She is now a full-time continuing educator and lectures regularly on Veterinary Herbal Medicine, and other wholistic topics.  In 2017 together with Dr. Kris August, they started the only hands-on veterinary herbal medicine course for western veterinary practices in the USA. She is published frequently in journals such as the Journal of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association and the Integrative Veterinary Care Journal.

Dr. Dohmen is the Past President of the Veterinary Botanical Medical Association; as well as a member of the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society, American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture, American Holistic VMA and AVMA.  She is on the Editorial Board of the AHVMA Journal.  Dr. Dohmen lives on a 72 acre farm with her husband, 2 sons, and many four-legged animals.  She has her own organic herb and vegetable gardens.  She also owns Lowood Educational Center in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which she uses as the home of Purple Moon Herbs and Studies’ trainings.