My values

I believe the most peaceful and fulfilling life comes from learning from our lived experiences and being mindful of the lived experiences that are different from ours. I value joy, laughter, pleasure, honesty, and humbleness. Doing as little harm as possible and finding gentleness to address my missteps is something I try to share with others when I hold space for them.

Since I work with herbalism, I am mindful of how I source herbs, essential oils, and herbal remedies.  Not only do I want good quality, but I also want to be responsible by working with ethically harvested plants. This entails both the human labor involved as well as the sustainability of the plants. As much as possible, I want to support small businesses, herbalists of color, queer herbal remedy makers, and women driven entities.

 My Intentions Are

• To provide information, education, and support as a guide and mentor on ways of getting the best possible restoration, while also learning with my participants along the way. To be on a journey together.
• To approach this work with an intersectional awareness. This means that although I am producing content for specific people, who tend to be curious and sensitive souls, I am also developing content that aims to not alienate based on identity and experience such as gender, culture, ability, body differences, and spirituality. And where it’s possible, I’ll try to name ways of making resources as affordable as possible. That last one is tricky in terms of honoring the labor behind herbal items and ensuring folks who are producing content are compensated for their work. Much of that work is more involved than is often understood.
• To grow this business into something that can support other small businesses, as well as herbalists of color, queer herbal remedy makers, and women driven entities.

My sources of learning

Since I believe someone’s training isn’t the entirety of what influences their work, I wanted my bio section to help people know where I’m coming from to hopefully give a better sense of what it might be like to work with me.

Before my formal, school, and program based education, I was a student of observation. My learning goes back to when I was a wee one. I was the kid who quietly watched what happened around me and somehow I learned that when people slow down, like waaay  s l o w   d o w n  things always get clearer. I learned that clarity, as opposed to confusion and stress meant better sleep.

–  It was that influence that drives me to address emotional well-being with physical comfort. They go hand in hand. –

I have gravitated toward experiential learning, self study, peer support and receiving mentorship. Formal and more structured programs enhance my ongoing learning, but my most profound learning has come from relationships with peers, mentors, and those for whom I hold space. They all teach me. I received my master’s degree in social work from Hunter College, and have completed post-graduate training in working with the body and nervous system for emotional difficulties like anxiety, stress, and trauma. Some of that training has been in Internal Family Systems (IFS), Sensorimotor training, and psychedelic assisted psychotherapy. These are experiential trainings that taught me that staying in a moment to moment basis offers the deepest healing. I have over 600 hours of herbalism and aromatherapy training. I completed a year at ArborVitae School of Traditional Herbalism, which provided valuable knowledge for me to learn how to learn about working with herbs. Prior to that, I did a nine month course called Interprofessional Program in Integrative Healthcare through Mount Sinai. This helped me understand how health care providers see modalities, such as herbalism and to discover where a gap is between home, self care and medical services. I also trained in the NADA protocol. The NADA protocol is a non-verbal adjunctive therapy for emotional trauma, mental health, and addiction that calms the nervous system. That protocol uses the placement of acupuncture needles (or ear seeds that are held with adhesive to points) on the ears. Working with NADA, herbs, somatics and aromatherapy has taught me about how healing happens beyond narratives.

Additionally, I regularly attend herbalism workshops and participate in herbal mentorship.