Trauma and Healing

Together, we will gently consider the plants which facilitate and further the process of integrating, releasing, and transmuting trauma.
In this often harrowing work, the plants mend us by bringing us back into our bodies and reviving our broken spirits.
In soothing and mending these deep wounds, plants such as wise tulip poplar, shy violet, and unassuming cleavers represent the gentle giants with the wisdom to heal unspeakable hurts.
Together, through gentle story and case study, we will survey the herbal allies which open tightly-closed eyes, soothe battered hearts, mend jagged edges, and accompany us into the darkness to retrieve the light.

Amanda Nicole is a daughter of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She listens to the trees, sits with the land, and gathers medicine messages to share. As an author, poet, teacher, herbalist, mother of six, and Divine Daughter, it is her delight to hold space for others as their eyes and ears open to the Beauty and Medicine that is All Around Us. In 2010, Amanda purposefully began her journey with the plants. She studied herbalism at Green Comfort School of Herbal Medicine with Teresa Boardwine in Rappahannock County, Virginia, was blessed to continue her studies by sitting at the feet of Matthew Wood, and completed an herbal apprenticeship with Ashley Litecky Elenbaas of Sky House Herbs. Deeply grateful for her teachers, Amanda is blessed and held by the spirits of her Choctaw (Chahta) ancestors as she offers the sacred medicine of Spirit and Earth through classes, consultations, ceremony, the written word, and song. Her book, Flowers for a Girl: Plant Medicine & Sexual Trauma, is a poetic telling of her healing journey with the plants as teachers and companions. You can hear the plants speak through Amanda by listening to her podcast, Whispers: Plant Spirit Medicine. Loving books, chocolate, soft beds, warm baths, and the Tulip Poplar tree, Amanda is happiest sitting under a tree, surrounded by wildflowers, dusted with dirt, or immersed in wild water. She invites you to visit her website: www.alchemillas.com