Herbs Were the Beginning, Not the Destination

Warning: Mention of trauma may be triggering for readers

I want to tell you the story of how I built a successful business… and why I eventually realized it was only the beginning.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that the biggest thing standing between me and the life I wanted wasn’t a lack of knowledge. It was the wounded inner child quietly running my decisions.

For years, I filled my life with farming, foraging, and herbalism. I went through a 7-month farm apprenticeship in 2014 that taught me just about everything I know about farming. After buying a house with my second husband, I started my mini farm in 2017, and by 2019 I was selling vegetables and eggs from a roadside stand. I was the woman making applesauce from windfall apples, chewing plantain for bee stings, growing herb guilds around fruit trees, and learning every edible weed in my yard.

I took my first herb class in 2018 and have taken dozens since, but after getting my first certification I wanted to help people. My business by then was mostly making handcrafted incense and smudge sticks, while selling homemade salsa, jams, eggs, and any extra tomatoes we got from the garden. I knew that food was the best medicine but I also knew how herbs could help solve health problems as well.

I have grown so much since then!

I remember in 2022, the last year I was farming professionally as a Field Manager at an organic farm in Massachusetts. I was working with a handful of volunteers and showing them how to weed the garden beds. I taught them about the medicinal properties of the weeds that grew there, just a handful, stuff I knew like the back of my hand.

One woman said, “Wow, you’re amazing! You know so much and you’re so good at this!” I responded with a snort. “Yeah, well knowing all this isn’t making me any money, so what good is it?” I stopped myself. I realized then and there that I was the problem. I was preventing myself from turning my knowledge into a profitable business.

Here’s the part I’ve left out so far: in September of 2021 I had what can only be described here as a mental breakdown. I wrote all about what happened inside my book Uncovering Amy. The events of that month were the catalyst to change who and what I am as a human woman.

Every one of us has different parts of our personality. You can prove this to yourself easily: who are you at work? Who are you at home with your family? Who are you when nobody is watching?

Each of us has an internal parent, adult, and child. These parts of your psyche were programmed, just like a computer, when you were young. From birth through about age 4 we receive all of our mental programming. This determines the way you react to the world and how you present yourself to everyone… for the rest of your life.

Did Mom stand at the bathroom mirror bleaching her “moustache” hair or talking about how fat her butt was getting while 2-year-old you stood by? She just taught you that you’re not supposed to be happy with the way your body looks. Did Dad scream at and berate your mom when she accidentally dropped a glass of milk on the floor while you were in your high chair waiting to be fed? He just taught you that that’s the way women should be treated; as servants to be controlled and useless idiots.

This idea affects every single person reading this post. Those examples may not be the same abuse you faced. Perhaps you were left alone in a bedroom to fend for yourself for hours. Perhaps you were given to the care of an uncle who sexually abused you when your parents weren’t looking. Even if you don’t remember any of it happening, every event of your early years shaped everything about who you are today.

But you have the power to change that.

Throughout my healing process, not only did I heal my relationship with my inner child, I became the woman I was always meant to be. Again, this is all covered in more detail inside Uncovering Amy.

That’s why I was able to stop and assess the problem when I made that statement about my skills not making me a living. By the time August of 2022 rolled around, I had already healed the biggest chunks of damage my parents had done to me and found who I wanted to be.

The problem was that I was trying to look into my future with the eyes I used in the past.

I spent the next two years making content on social media, making larger batches of herbal remedies, building online courses I could sell, and then in 2025, even writing books for you to learn from my experience as a mother, forager, and herbalist.

I started out my business with the same mindset many of you have: “What herbs can I take to solve my health problem?” But as I grew, learned, and experienced more, I realized the most important thing that no one wants to hear: Herbs aren’t the only answer.

Of course herbs can help with physical problems! I’m not trying to imply that they don’t. If you break your arm, you go to the doctor to have it set. Then you apply comfrey to it so it heals faster. If you have a cough, you can’t rewire your mind to stop coughing, but herbs can help soothe those symptoms.

I’m not just talking about tricking your brain into wanting to make healthy changes in your daily life, though I do have a method for accomplishing that. I’m telling you that searching “herbs for anxiety” and “herbs for heart palpitations” is only the beginning.

What truly makes lasting change in who you are is when you start healing those parts of you that were programmed negatively in your childhood. This is how you go beyond treating your symptoms with herbs. This is how you become the person you were always meant to be.

This isn’t for everybody. It’s painful facing the trauma of your past. But I think it’s more painful to hide that trauma deep inside, letting it fester at you and force you to live a life you don’t want to live. If you asked me to go back to the person I was in 2021 before my awakening or that I would otherwise die, I’d say goodbye. I would choose death over living a life that wasn’t truly mine.

That’s the woman running my business now. That’s the level of change I can help you make in your life. And that goes so much deeper than just drinking a mug of Tulsi for your stress or taking a yellow dock tincture for your constipation.

If this resonates with you at all, grab a copy of my book Uncovering Amy. If not, I’m happy to make you a cup of tea to help those cramps you’ve been having. The level of help I offer is up to you.

>> Get started either way with a One-on-One Consultation