Shantree Kacera, R.H., D.N., Ph.D. is an international author and teacher. He is the founder and co-director of The Living Centre and Living Arts Institute Eco-Spiritual Education Sanctuary, established in 1983. He runs the Centre and Institute with his beloved spiritual partner Lorenna. The centre is located outside London, ON., in the heart of Carolinian, Canada.
Shantree received his doctorate in Nutritional Medicine and Herbalism in the 70s. Since then, he has been exploring foods and herbs’ effects in an integrative lifestyle approach to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. His passion and study for over four decades have led him to explore the benefits of a high-energy Ayurvedic plant-based approach to nutrition and the ecological benefits of integrating bioregional local, native and wild edible plants into one’s daily life.
He is one of the world’s leading authorities on an integrative approach to Ayurvedic Medicine, Living Nutrition, Therapeutic, Ecological, Energetic Herbalism, and Constitutional Medicine. He has been a pioneer and researcher in Nutritional Medicine of living plants and energetics for optimal health, with 50 years of experience in Organic Natural Healing Arts. Shantree has become known for his cutting-edge research in plant energetics and a plant-based approach to nutritional science. These studies’ results are integrated into this healthy paradigm, taught through his courses and mentorship programs.
He is one of a few Canadian Herbalists – The Canadian Council of Herbalist Associations has given the ‘Honouring our Elders’ award for offering outstanding contributions to herbalism.
A past vice president of the Ontario Herbalists’ Association (OHA) served on the OHA board for ten years. A Professional Member of the Ontario Herbalist Association for 45 years. Shantree is dedicated to providing an integrated preventative approach to well-being, applying the East and West’s healing wisdom. He formulates and dispenses his herbal preparations, “HerbSpirit Botanicals.”
In his private practice, he has counselled over 40,000 clients worldwide to improve their health and well-being. He has had the honour to teach, counsel and empower thousands of individuals on their educational journey. To read more about his private practice – Click Here>
Shantree is the author of ‘Ayurvedic Tongue Diagnosis,’ the first book published in North America and India. He has researched and compiled certification courses on Shamanic Energetic Herbalism, Nutritional Herbalism, Ayurvedic Living Nutrition, a Four-Season Permaculture Course and Sevenfold Path of Peace. He has created a Herbal Educator Diploma Course – Visionary Herbalism,’ which integrates a wholistic approach to empowering students to become herbal activists in their community. He has also written numerous other books and manuals such as Conscious Living, The Healing Tastes, Forest Gardening: A Call to Action, Pollen Power, Squirrel Medicine: Prepare Your Winter Yummies and hundreds of herbal, nutritional and ecological articles which have been published in Canada, the USA, and Europe.
Shantree is a passionate curator, facilitator and mentor dedicated to a deep spiritual connection to the Earth. This has drawn him into the teachings of shamanic and Earth wisdom practices and Carolinian Canada native plant preservation and studies. He has been working his craft as an herbalist on the medicinal and nutritional properties of herbs and trees of this bioregion. These days, his primary focus is on research, demonstration, and education of many rare and endangered native plant species. He works closely with the Carolinian Canada Coalition to understand and help protect these precious plants. He has a unique integrated whole systems design approach through the lens of Herbalism and Permaculture.
Since the late 1970s, Shantree has been applying organic veganic forest gardening practices, creating his unique approach to how permaculture works in Canada’s temperate climate. He is a passionate edible and medicinal forest gardener, designer and permaculture teacher. The centre is well known for its unique circular medicinal-wheel forest garden (one of the oldest herb gardens in Canada), which Shantree designed back in the early 1980s. The land has over 1,000 species of edible medicinal plants and trees throughout the 50-acre botanical sanctuary. Shantree is creating a native plant medicine trail through various fields, meadows and old-growth forest habitats.
He has travelled and lived for 25 years in the rainforest of Costa Rica and southern Mexico, studying and researching medicinal, nutritional and ecological gifts of the rainforest plants and environmental preservation. His teaching experience has been taken to numerous countries around the world.
He has taught at the University of Western Ontario and taught 2nd and 4th-year medical students. He has also taught for 12 years at Fanshawe College in London and Mohawk College in Hamilton. He has trained students and apprentices from 24 countries.
Shantree combines his passion for herbalism, plant medicine, wild edible nutrition and forest gardening with newly emerging scientific information from many fields – Ecological Medicine, Resilience Science, Deep Ecology, Regenerative Design, Living Nutrition, Deep Organic Medicine, Bioregionalism, Natural Health Science and the visionary solutions from the Bioneers.
Shantree is an avid naturalist, endangered plant advocate, permaculturist and environmentalist with a deep understanding of sustainable living complexities, transitional ethics and positive movement towards a more regenerative and evolved future. Visioning to reveal a regenerative path toward better stewardship of the natural world – a spiritual activist at heart.
