Four month, three-part process: Rest of Life

For folks who are ready to go on a four month journey to improve their sleep, I created a three-part process of learning, mentorship and connection. It’s especially for folks who know stress and anxiety are impacting sleep. This program is designed to support your sleep and restoration* needs in a fully remote offering so you can participate from your home, while also experiencing community and individualized guidance.

Why do I offer this? Because as an herbalist and therapist I know people need process and time to implement supports for their sleep. It doesn’t happen over night. Yet, your best rest, is literally for the rest of your life. Restoration is the foundation of your energy and sleeping well is an investment in all you want to live for.

You know you need support to improve your sleep when you:

  • struggle to fall asleep
  • wake in the night or
  • just don’t feel rested in the morning.

It’s really hard to have a lack of true restoration because it leads to so much suffering that mounts. It hits physically and emotionally. Fatigue in your body and anxiety is worsened by a lack of sleep. Yet improved sleep gives concentration for the things you most care about. Consistently good sleep affords so much for immunity, emotional equilibrium and comfort in the body.

I created this program because I know that focused support and mentorship can assist getting over a hump of putting other peoples needs in front of yours. And as a person who has studied the nervous system, home-based herbalism and the emotional patterns I’m well equipped to guide you.

Maybe you find yourself with less patience than you know your otherwise capable of having for working through problems with friends, family and colleagues. You snap at someone or stop responding to communications that are actually important. A bill doesn’t get paid or you miss a deadline on something and now have double to work to do to get things into good standing. This can spiral into a place where you then start feeling badly about how you are or aren’t showing up. Maybe you neglect things you know you need to be doing more of, like preparing meals at home, playing with you pet pal, planning your time off to share with close people in your life or get some solitude. Perhaps your healthcare provider, acupuncturist or close friends have suggested you need to bring down your stress.

Come learn, be mentored and immediately apply a series of steps and practices to improve your restoration. This is a process that involves discovering your unique needs to improve rest, learning how to use herbal based formulas that work for your body and lifestyle and being supported by me, a fellow sensitive soul who will guide and mentor you. I am an herbalist and psychotherapist who will use my knowledge base to provide you with understanding of what causes sleep struggles and practical tips to maneuver around the boulders that can disrupt your best rest.

By going through the span of 4 months, we’ll have time to work with your nervous system, which has to be put at ease and this does not happen through rational thinking.

So you will learn other ways of messaging to your nervous system. Home-based herbalism holds the power to equip you with remedies to ease your mind-body-spirit when you need it. I’ll gently support you in discovering when and how you’re getting in your own way so there’s fewer derailments on your journey to find and maintain your best possible sleep.

Witnessing people who show up so generously for others to find the pleasure and peace that better rest gives them, truly brings me joy.

Over the course of four months you’ll move through a three-part-process that assists you with the tools of:

  • learning through engaging video and private podcast content that you can access when works best for you,
  • mentorship & guidance when you most need it; you’ll be encouraged to send me questions and receive either an encouraging voice memo, video response, or an herbal recipe or resource, depending on what you need in the moment. You can send me up to 3 questions a week and will get a response within 2 business days. Some people refer to this as high touch contact, the point being that this isn’t simply an online course, but rather a guided process.
  • connection & inspiration this program will offer a space work on enhancing your restoration and showing up more fully for yourself, with someone on the other end to encourage you!

Content & Process

for Rest of Life

Daytime Calming

This walks you through how to calm your nervous system during the day.

We begin with activities that guide you to do an inventory of where your time and energy goes. Past participants have described this as illuminating.

I’ll walk you through this, using metaphors to enhance your learning. This is designed to help you find pain points in your days and to motivate you to put calming daytime practices in place. That will give you a foundation that that sets you up for better rest at night. You’ll discover patterns that block your rest and consider alternatives to release your potential for deeper restoration in the evening.

You’ll learn how to customize a day-time Stress Relieving herbal formula that you can use throughout your waking hours, at key moments, to help reduce stress hormones in your system that would otherwise inhibit better sleep.

You’ll also learn about aromatherapy support for calming when you most need it.

Working with Transitions

Part of what inhibits quality sleep is when our systems aren’t guided through our waking hours to prep and move into and through the transitions points in the day.

You’ll consider the touch, sight, sound, aroma and tastes that assist you to go from one facet of your day to another. Transition points are times such as: commuting home; arriving home; waking up; getting ready for a meal; dropping a kid off at school; entering into your creative/generative work space; finishing one task and starting another.

Our systems are more ready for rest at the end of the day when they have ways (or rituals) that cue them in that something has ended and another phase is beginning.

So in addition to the transitions within your day, we’ll think about how to cocoon, calm and invite yourself to dreamland. Leveraging ambient comfort and settling your body can support your physiological state of rest.

Nighttime Resources for More Sound Sleep

Here you’ll move into making nighttime more blissful. You’ll customize an evening herbal formula.

You’ll be guided to observe what’s happening at night. And you’ll use what you discovered to customize and use an herbal formula and aromatherapy to meet your nighttime needs.

Body care practices to soothe and please your senses will be covered.

Nighttime Resources for More Sound Sleep

Here you’ll move into making nighttime more blissful. You’ll customize an evening herbal formula.

You’ll be guided to observe what’s happening at night. And you’ll use what you discovered to customize and use an herbal formula and aromatherapy to meet your nighttime needs.

Body care practices to soothe and please your senses will be covered.

Cost

Four monthly payments of $400 or $1600 as 1 payment. This cost covers: 9 live calls, asynchronous support between calls, and the time to create two custom herbalism formulas for you.

Herbalism formulas will be an additional cost, paid directly to the person fulfilling and shipping those formulas to you. Those formulas are approximately $60-$90 for both).

Discount for buddy sign ups! If you and a pal want to do this program together, you’ll receive a $200 discount. This would be four monthly payments of $350 or $1400 as one payment. Please note– you will both need to schedule the 9 calls at the same time.

Words from former Rest of Life Participants and herbalism clients who have worked on sleep improvement with me.

I created this program with specific folks in mind. Some of them have been past herbalism clients of mine who inspired me with how they garnered self-care rituals and had transformations in their restoration. Here’s feedback from four herbalism clients and two participants from the first Rest of Life cohort.

Tracy came to me when she was shouldering a lot personally. She wanted support to help her body relax and bring more lightness in to improve relaxation and tend to her spirit. She is a jewelry maker, and loves baths so I wanted to be creative and bring visuals, aromas and the power of water to her therapeutic needs. We worked with herbal body oil, herbal baths and a sleep support tincture to soothe her heart, settle worries and bring on rest. Tracy said herbal support from me felt like a mix of getting some hand-holding, information, and guidance that was nonjudgmental. She said, “The things you provided were comforting and relaxing (mentally and physically) and supported me in thinking about my routines and being intentional about caring for myself during times of emotional stress and drain.”

“L came to my herbalism practice when she was beginning a new job. She is a passionate, creative person who is an architect focused on protecting the environment and enjoys travel, learning, socializing and meals with friends and community. She was managing worries about her new job and wanted to make sure she put practices into place to take care of stress. She initially described “not being able to let [herself] relax,” jaw clenching and having a hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep. I formulated a remedy to help with both sleep issues. She remarked, “whoa that tincture works! It puts me into a deep sleep.” A month later she described herself as “calmer, more focused and sleeping much better”.

M sought out my herbalism practice after some changes in his personal life. Grief was making it difficult for him to sleep and it had been weeks since he made it through the night without waking. After working with a remedy to assist his sleeping for longer periods of time, he asked about ways to support transitions in his life. “I didn’t want to drink alcohol like I was and you got me thinking…if I could sleep through the night, what else could happen?” We worked together for longer. “Now I look forward to my teas and aromatherapy.” His stress went down and in our last session he said his friends were curious what he had shifted. “Everyone sees me more relaxed.”

Cristina came to my herbalism practice with anxiety in her body and having a hard time relaxing. She is a deeply caring person and finds joy with her small dog, gardening and dancing. She occasionally had difficulty falling asleep and was waking in the night several times. After three consults and putting some new practices in place, Cristina only woke once a night and said, “it’s no longer a whole production to get to sleep,” and that her “mind [was] less inundated”. Her sleep became more sound. Cristina shared, “Our work together really helped me to start to see patterns better and to focus on one pattern that was truly important–getting better sleep.

Sarah K participated in the first Rest of Life cohort.

At the end she said, “I spent many years not sleeping through the night, having to use substances to fall asleep and dealing with the consequences. I was relieved to find a program that not only aided me in creating a new nighttime routine, but also has helped me become more conscious in my daily life. This program is so much more than just sleep- it’s a reworking of how you can thoughtfully live your life to stop sleepwalking through your everyday.”

Mó was a participant in the first Rest of Life cohort and at the end said this:
“This program left me feeling like I have more agency, as opposed to things happening to me [that were negatively affecting my sleep]. I’m not as thrown by someone eles’s whim and [the structure of the program assisted me] to set intentions, learn to choose [things that allow me to access better sleep]. I can now sleep through the night. I have more choicefullness.
 
I also enjoyed learning about plants and appreciated that Quai understood the realities of my life as a busy teacher.”
– Mó Garcia de Mesquita

By the end of this process, you’ll:

what you need to improve your rest with as-needed support from an herbalist and deep listener. As you apply what you learn, you’ll begin experiencing what deeper restoration has to offer you. This is individualized, and previous participants described some qualities such as greater focus, lowered anxiety, more sustained energy, and reassurance that comes from improved self-care.

Benefits & Take-aways:

  • Learn how to work with several forms of herbal medicine: tinctures/glycerites, aromatherapy and teas, and body-based applications.
  • Two customized herbalism formulas to assist you with stress, sleep and body relaxation, which can enhance any body-based therapies you use.
  • Experience with what it’s like to receive individual support as struggles come up from someone who will listen closely and guide you to implement the consistent practices that are necessary for maintaining regular quality sleep
  • Herbal and essential oil knowledge that assists with relaxation

What are the program dates?

Enrollment now open for one-on-ones! 9 Live Zoom calls (45-minutes) are scheduled in advance. Time slots that are offered on Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays between 9:am and 4:pm EST / 6:am and 1:pm PST or Tuesdays at 7:pm EST / 4:pm PST. We will schedule times after you complete your application form and make a payment here.

The next group cohort will begin in later 2024 or 2025! If you’re interested in a future cohort, please add yourself to the wait list here.

What if I have questions first?

Please contact Quai.

How do I get started and what’s the structure and process for the 4 months?

One-on-one is currently enrolling, for a limited time. Fill out the application form here. (The next group program will start later in 2024 or 2025, and putting yourself on the wait list is the first step so that you will be notified when the interest form becomes available.) To ask any questions, please contact Quai. 
Once enrolled with the above form, we will set your live Zoom call dates and you’ll receive a syllabus for our time together. The syllabus outlines assignments and a timeline for your customized herbalism formulas.

Video calls

The program has 9 45-minute Zoom support calls to be scheduled at the start of the program. The structure of these calls varies depending on the topic. In the mix is:

  • Check in, warm up questions
  • Space to share about a sleep insight, struggle or curiosity
  • Teachings on a sleep topics, herbal remedies and/or aromatherapy
  • Processing to support your implementation of sleep support practices

One-on-One & Community Support

I am available and encourage you to regularly seek support and ask questions. You can contact me between video calls.

Sometimes these questions generate wonderful resources for other people and I generate teaching content from them.

Herb & Essential Oil Teachings

During and between our calls, you’ll receive teachings of specific herbs and essential oils to support anxiety, calm stress and improve rest. This will supply you with a library of content infused with herbalism  knowledge. You’ll use that knowledge for customized herbal formulas.

Who isn’t this process for?

This may not be the best match for you if:

  • Process and self exploration doesn’t appeal to you. This is intentionally a guided journey for you to learn about your sleep needs.
  • You really just want an herbal remedy for sleep. Visit your local herb shop or herbalist for this!
  • You’re not yet ready to invest energy or don’t have the bandwidth right now for the effort it will take to put practices in place to improve your sleep. You may have other things that need your attention. It’s OK. When you’re ready, circle back!
  • It’s not the right time to invest money into a four month process. I totally get it. For now, hopefully you can make use of some of the other resources I’ve put together (Check out the blog. Newsletter and podcast forthcoming).
  • If considering the group format, and you aren’t interested in considering community guidelines and accountability to make this as nurturing and safe-as-possible of a space for everyone, you may want to enroll when I’m offering this individually (currently open for one-on-one work in 2024)
  • You will be traveling extensively or are in the middle of something that doesn’t represent your normal day-to-day life. The program is designed to work with what’s representative of regular days and evenings. Come back for a future iteration when you’re in a regular flow with things.
  • There’s many people you’re currently taking care of and you don’t have time for you. If your time *or* bandwidth is compressed by many details that fall outside of tending to yourself, you just won’t get that much out of this program.
  • You are looking for medical services for sleep apnea or other medically diagnosed issues or are hoping to learn about diagnoses. This isn’t a medical program. No medical advice nor diagnoses will be provided. Yet, you are welcome and encouraged to enroll if you have health issues, as sleep is even more crucial! No one has perfect health. Just know the curricula doesn’t cover sleep or “pathology”. I’m not into diagnosis. Rather, I focus on wellness. This process is centered around practices that many people can benefit from and is geared towards sensitive, curious folks.
  • You are currently in or previously have done therapy with me. To honor the therapy work and relationship, this would not be the best fit, but I’m so glad you’re interested in supporting your sleep! Please browse the free offerings and blog posts. I’m happy to answer any questions!

FAQ’s

How much time a week will this process entail?

This will likely vary from week to week and depends on: how much content you consume, how deep you go with various activities, and how engaged you are on the community platform. I’d say I expect roughly 2-3 hours a week.

But what may be more important than the exact amount of time is that you’ll need to make sure you’ve got bandwidth. Ideally you’ll go through this program by not just putting time in for tasks and meetings, but that you’ve got space to reflect and observe. You’ll want to take advantage of accessing additional support from me, when you need it. I find that people are more likely to do that when they have the bandwidth to ask specific questions and share things that are inspiring and motivating them. And when they do that, they get so much more from the process! 

Imagine what could happen if you put not just time but intention and dedication into your wellbeing over the next three months. With that in place, I don’t believe it’s possible for anyone to not improve their sleep. And when your sleep is improved, your stress and anxiety levels can come down.

I have kids/an intense job/am a community organizer who’s always on the run. What if I don’t have 1-3 hours a week to dedicate?

I don’t want someone to be excluded because of other obligations they have. This is why I’ve structured some flexibility in and the live calls aren’t every week. Yet, you’ll need to dedicate time to receive the value of this experience! Getting a rhythm going that offers life-giving sleep requires a degree of bandwidth. So if this isn’t the right time for you, perhaps another time will be.

What if I can’t make all the Zoom calls?

I do strongly encouraged you to join the calls and if it’s more than one you’d miss, I’d suggest waiting for a future cohort. The Zoom calls will be a live opportunity to bolster your focus and motivation and a lot of teaching happens in that time. Improving sleep usually means making small changes in day-to-day living and it’s easier to do with community support. The calls will be a mix of teachings and personal sharing. If you’re shy, don’t worry. There’s never pressure to share and there will be ice breakers. Since the calls involve personal shares, I will not record while fellow participants are sharing, but I may record the brief sleep related talks that you can view later if you miss one.

Do you offer a sliding scale?

Unfortunately I’m not able to offer that for this process. Since it entails high contact support that’s sustained through several months, I need to ensure the fees allow me to sustain my own needs. For folks who cannot afford it, I hope my other, free, content is a support. Additionally, many herbalism schools offer low cost consults and this may be a place to look for more individualized support with sleep struggles.

Are there refunds?

No. Please be sure that you enroll when it’s a good time for you to work on your sleep for four months. If something unexpected comes up, like you’re in the hospital or you experience a personal loss we can touch base about that, but the process is already designed to be adaptive to your needs as they evolve.

I already know all about sleep hygiene. Is that what your process teaches?

Ugh, if there’s something I’m not into, it’s a one-size-fits-all set of advice about sleep (or any wellness related topic). So while there may be certain pieces of content that cover things you already know, it’s my goal to ensure that you learn things you didn’t already know, get fresh perspective and find your own, unique way to enhance your sleep. Additionally, my program is unique in that it takes a harm reduction approach (because we all do things at times that are sleep-defeating) and will cover extensive ways to work with herbalism and aromatherapy to support sleep.

Does the program provide me with herbs and essential oils?

No. You will be provided resources on where you can source these precious resources. I want you to work with high quality botanicals and will try to link you with small businesses and companies that work sustainably. This will cost you approximately $60 for your initial supply of the two herbal remedies. Outside of that you may decide to purchase herbs for tea and essential oils for aromatherapy. Depending on how far you want to go, the cost could be anywhere between $90 and $200. This range varies based on what you decide to explore and how much you want to source at once.

*Quai’s transparency statement & a disclosure:

In full disclosure, this is a sales page. As someone who holds space for healing, I plum hate selling. And yet I want my work to reach more people because over the years I’ve been amazed at transformations that can happen with some guidance to increase folx’s capacity to improve their self care. So I created a process that allows me to reach more people than my one-on-one, regular appointments and brings in the additional resources I need to plan for my future. This isn’t an apology, because yo’—we all live in capitalism! It’s an invitation to seek what you need. It’s my hope that as I attempt to sell my program, I get to educate some folks for free and encourage anyone who is reading this to think about ways you need to sustain yourself.

It’s with my intention for reciprocity and mutuality that I put this out into the world.

And I must also inform you that information on this website has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Rather all information provided here is to educate consumers and for the purposes of selling a program.