Our Team
David Shaw
Founder of Errant Empire – Medical Herbalist, Holistic Nutritionist
David is the founder of Errant Empire Herbal Medicine Dispensary and is a practicing Medical Herbalist within the greater Victoria area. He began his holistic health journey after graduating from the 2 year Holistic Nutrition program at Bauman College in 2015. After immigrating to Canada, David completed the Diploma of Phytotherapy at Pacific Rim College in the Spring of 2019.
David’s Diploma of Phytotherapy included:
500+ clinical practice hours
750+ hours herbal medicine educational hours &
480 hours of biomedical sciences
Currently David’s practice revolves around working with families including: parents, grandparents and children as well as with people who have chronic health conditions. He has an interest and is a resource in the community for herbal therapeutics and mental health. This includes support for: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, SAD, Autism, etc.
David is a Registered Herbal Therapist (RHT) with the Canadian Herbalist’s Association of British Columbia, the oldest regulating body of Herbal Medicine in North America.
Veronica Kwan
Herbalist & Nutritionist
With a deep-rooted passion for nature and a profound love for animals, Veronica is dedicated to natural healing which blossomed into a lifelong journey of exploration and study.
She pursued rigorous training in phytotherapy and holistic nutrition, earning the dual diploma at Pacific Rim College in 2021. This journey not only enriched her understanding of herbal medicine but also deepened a commitment to promoting natural, sustainable practices in healthcare.
Alongside herbal medicine, Veronica’s heart beats for animal welfare. Whether caring for beloved companion animals at the holistic veterinary clinic or volunteering at the Wild ARC, she advocates for the well-being of animals through education and compassionate care.
Today, Veronica stands at the intersection of herbal medicine and veterinary medicine, weaving together expertise to offer guidance and support to both humans and their furry companions. She strives to empower others to embrace the healing power of herbal medicine while nurturing a profound respect for the natural world.
Yanfei Tan
R. TCMP.
Being interested and deeply influenced by Traditional Chinese Medicine since she was very young, Yanfei completed a 5 year program in Doctor of TCM in Oshio College. Before that, she held a B.Sc from UBC.
She is passionate about helping people keep balanced situations using TCM knowledge and techniques such as acupuncture, tuina, guasha, cupping, moxa, and herbs.
She believes our bodies have an amazing capacity to heal themselves. An appropriate diet and lifestyle can help this capacity.
Amanda Haw
R.Ac.
Amanda Haw is deepening her expertise in Chinese medicine through postgraduate training in Neijing Nature-Based Medicine (NNBM), refining her ability to support patients with greater precision and insight. After earning her acupuncture diploma from Pacific Rim College in 2023, she is excited to expand her clinical effectiveness, helping patients achieve lasting well-being.
Amanda is drawn to Chinese medicine for its holistic, root-cause approach – seeing health as an interconnected relationship between our environment, nourishment, relationships, and the way past traumas are stored in the body, manifesting as dis-ease. She is passionate about uncovering the deeper “why” behind health challenges, empowering her clients to heal at the source.
She primarily practices in a community acupuncture setting, where accessible, regular treatments allow folks to experience greater ease, flow, and relief in their daily lives – whether through pain management, nervous system support, or cultivating overall peace of mind. She loves practicing privately with clients for more in depth treatments.
Beyond the clinic, Amanda lives an active and creative life. She gives her energy to strength training, climbing, running, hiking, and dancing, alongside expressing her artistic side through painting and sewing. She deeply values authentic relationships and community, thriving in spaces where she can be her playful, wholehearted self.
With a deep commitment to honest care, connection, and holistic healing, Amanda looks forward to walking alongside you on your journey to greater peace and awareness.
Booking Coming Soon!!
Maureen Fontaine
Live Blood Analysis, Master Herbalist & Spiritual Intuitive
I bring a background that is a medley of Shamanism, mysticism, science and eclectic exploration. I am an ardent advocate for aligning emotions, spirit and biology. Practical, directive and inspirational, I bring clarity through connection. I wiggle you out of the rabbit holes and tame your monkeys.
“Let’s dance with your shadows as you dance with your light, as they are the gift of your humanity!”
I am passionate about the language of blood and dedicated to understanding the depth of its offerings. My practice includes Live and Dry Blood Analysis, and also encompasses Ontological Coaching and Spiritual Intuitive Readings. When asked how these all work together, my answer is how can they not? Blood is our soul signature. How we work with all these aspects of our intrinsic natured selves is the key and I continue to be in awe.
Biological medicine considers that the internal balance is essential to optimal health. Each and every nuance of our biology is an expression of an emotion. Once we translate the messages, healing is possible.
Bobbi Kurtz
Ayurvedic Head Massage and Grounding
My authentic, gentle nature, intuitive sense, and natural abilities are the backbone of my success in all I do and I hope to share that with you.
I have evolved my intuitive skills through vocational work including:
20 years as an inspirational children’s performer,
care provider for people transitioning to the next realm,
social services work assisting individuals to identify their skills and build self-confidence,
producer of live arts and culture for children and youth
creator of the Ripple Effect Dance Project that celebrates diversity, inclusion, and acceptance of ourselves and others
My journey to this stage in life has led me to start “Get out of your Head, Get Grounded” focusing on the benefits of breath, touch, sound, smell, and allowing your inner child to play. Earthing and grounding are imperative for my well-being and I am passionate about spreading word of its simplicity and accessibility and incorporating it into my head massage practice.
After being gifted the book “Ancient Secrets of a Master Healer” and the recipient of an Indian Head massage, my interest in Ayurvedic teaching began and I knew it was my next calling.
Indian head massage is a healing art rooted in Ayurveda medicine that has been practiced in India for over 4000 years based on the belief that health and wellness depend on achieving a balance between mind, body, and spirit. It is viewed as a perfect way to re-balance the body through gentle stimulation of the Marma (energy) points found in the back, neck, ears, face and head.
My passion is to help individuals relax and receive a break from everyday stress. Indian massage is an opportunity to “Get of out of your Head and Get Grounded”.
It would be my pleasure and honour, to have you as a client.
Namaste Bobbi
Jon Sun Tan
Sound Healer and Bio-field Tuning Practitioner
My name is Jon Sun Tan and I am a sound/energy healer. Although, I do wish to qualify this title by stating that “healer” is quite misleading, for it is the intelligence of the recipient’s own body that does the actual healing. As a “healer” I act merely as a conduit for Spirit (æther). A facilitator of shadow-work as it were.
A little bit about my journey — after a brief, yet intensely toxic stint in technology, I moved to Vancouver Island. Soon, I left the city life behind to grow medicinal herbs. These herbs would then be transformed into extracts and essences. My interest in such alchemical things stemmed from a lifetime of various forms of chronic dis•ease, to which the allopathic model was ill-equipped to address and may have indeed contributed to.
During this period, my life guided me to what I have termed The Ætheric Lifestyle, as well as the practice of Ætheric Sound Healing. Healing sound/energy can be viewed as an integral part of The Ætheric Lifestyle, where these sounds may simply come via direct communion with our Earthly Mother.
Through The Ætheric Lifestyle and endogenous DMT (E-DMT), I have cultivated my ability to feel and interpret subtle energy, along with other innate spiritual abilities such as clairsentience. I am also certified as a Usui Reiki Master and well versed in The Essene Way (of energy healing), Kundalini Awakening and The Great Regeneration.
Madeleine Dupuis
Inner Light Spa Detox Technologies
Combining an entire lifetime career in customer service, management and managing 100s of commercial businesses in the financial sector, I wanted to pursue an avenue where my skills and passion of the human body/consciousness/ nature came together.
After an intense spiritual awakening of sorts, I took a leap of faith and followed the nudge of curiosity inside of me to leave my Commercial Banking career, to stop living for someday and live a life of no regrets. Since then I’ve unlocked many new levels of inner understanding in how I see the world and who I am is in a constant state of evolution. One thing I can say for sure is that as I move forward, responsibility increases in direct proportion to the amount of love I show myself and my world. That to me is integrity and that to me is how I can play my part in changing the world.
We don’t need anyone to heal us – in fact run the other way, if someone says they can! We are our own greatest healer with everything we will ever need inside of us already. When we give authority over to someone else to heal us – it may be a tempting respite, BUT we will eventually be handed “whatever they healed” back to us, on a golden platter no less (meaning a bigger lesson that we can’t outrun), for us to heal and do the work ourselves. I can speak clearly about this now, having learned it the hard way. All this to say, it’s simple, our greatest gift is the magic inside of us. And sometimes we just need an example of what that means, alongside the proper tools that can support us in that journey. This is why I am extremely passionate about creating a space for our community with the tools, technologies and resources that over the years have helped me personally on my journey.
My understanding of “Life is ALWAYS happening FOR you, not TO you”, keeps my heart open to receive true TRUTH.
Returning back to and remembering your natural state. That is my wish for you.
Come explore and feel like yourself again!
