My Story

Growing up in a chaotic household, I was always rebellious and asking questions. I never quite “fit the mold,” and subsequently struggled to love myself and find purpose and my place in the world. As a result, I experienced years of rage, depression, and anxiety. I tried to escape pain through countless self-destructive behaviors and replayed trauma, abused my body, and created spirals of dysfunctional relationships. I felt desperate and hopeless, in a constant state of hyper-vigilance and had no idea who I was or how to value myself.

After hitting one of my lowest points, something from my subconscious emerged - that it didn’t matter how much external validation I got, it could never fill the void I carried. I realized to find true meaning and belonging, I would have to start healing - and learn how to sustain myself from the inside.

So I started exploring. I religiously watched Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, read and re-read the Alchemist, and devoured self-help books. I saw psychic mediums, tarot card readers, reiki practitioners, and crystal healers. I tried chakra balancing, hypnotherapy, traditional therapy, meditation - the list goes on and on. All of those things helped me in their own little, unique ways, until finally, at one point during this decade-long “buffet of healing” I started exploring herbalism.

I had always found so much healing in nature and having my hands in the soil and when I finally answered the call of the plants, they helped me access levels of healing, authenticity, and self-acceptance nothing else ever had. The plants transformed me and the way I moved through my life. They helped me cultivate deeper self-worth, bring my body into balance, and heal patterns of codependence and self-sabotage. I am forever in awe of their mysterious magic and can’t wait to share that with you, too.

My Background

Shannon received her B.A in Anthropology and Sociology from University at Albany in 2012 (against her Dad’s advice and her better judgment about getting a Liberal Arts degree in the middle of a recession). Unable to find a job in her field, she spent her early twenties slingin’ dishes as a waitress and decided to travel and live abroad, but after returning to New York in 2015, spent most of her career working in youth mental health in both traditional and non-traditional settings. She tried going back to school for her M.B.A but dropped out after having a total existential melt-down about her participation in late-stage capitalism. She has been in training, facilitation, and instructional design roles since 2017, delivering state-wide trauma informed care trainings, and building courses and professional development programs.

She began her studies in herbalism as an apprentice under Marysia Miernowska, director and founder of the School of The Sacred Wild in fall of 2021. She completed her certification in August 2023 and is currently pursuing two more years of advanced herbalism, although she knows that being a student of the plants is a life-long endeavor. She is also pursuing her certification as a holistic wellness coach and is working on a book she hasn’t fully decided a name for yet. She lives in an old farmhouse with her fiancée and used to be a dog person but changed her mind and now has two cats, Grimoire and Clove.