Get rich in bodily wisdom

I came from a holistic household, taking lots of vitamins and visiting wellness practitioners on the regular. You could find me outside much of my childhood, scraped, muddied and maybe eating a flower. I would get sick often and end up at my Serbian Baba's house, to be spoonfed soup and given herbal medicine. Later, I found out that herbs were the reason my parents were able to bring me into the world, so it makes sense that my work centers them now!

 

As an athletic yet clumsy teen, I ended up with two concussions and developed post-concussion syndrome. Although I experienced physical and cognitive symptoms for years, I did not rehab my bodymind properly due to internalized ableism. Later on, dietary and movement practices helped me to heal. I thought I was hale and hearty again—until I became chronically sick.

 

Then, it took three tick bites to render me disabled in 2017. After spiraling from specialist to specialist, I reclaimed my sick body by learning to advocate for myself and growing and studying herbal medicine. Thanks to my mentors, Tamara Segal, Rosemary Gladstar and Dr. Edward Bach, I nurtured my newfound calling into a vocation.

 

Herbalism is an eternal learning process. At this stage, I'm a student in Emery Herbals' Advanced Clinical Herbalism Program, having recently earned a Master of Public Health from Brown University.

 

As for my heritage, I'm a second-generation settler on stolen Mississauga lands in so-called Ontario, Canada. My Serbian and Dutch forbearers were healers, educators, refugees, farmers, scientists, midwives, activists and lawyers. Being an herbalist feels like a homecoming: I've slipped my hand into a perfectly sized (gardening) glove to carry on time-honored traditions.