About Tessa

I am a clinical herbalist, Certified Professional Midwife, care worker, poet and writer. From decades of training in reproductive health, herbalism, somatics and writing, I have a developed a holistic practice of community herbalism, embodied health education and full spectrum reproductive care, including at home insemination (IUI).

I specialize in generative and reproductive health as an herbalist and Certified Professional Midwife (CPM, LM, NHCM). I work as a midwife at the Concord Birth Center and with Threshold Community Midwives. Currently, I live and work on the unceded Abenaki lands of central Vermont.

I was born and raised on the Lenni-Lenape land of so-called Philadelphia. A city kid, I picked at the weeds that came up through the sidewalk cracks and tended to bruised knees of neighbors and neighbor dogs. Coming to herbalism through community care work, reproductive justice organizing and full spectrum pregnancy work, I’m committed to building and sustaining resiliency for individuals and ecosystems.

In my herbal practice (and life practice), I am committed to meeting everyone where they are at, but not leaving them there. I work with clients to address their physical and emotional imbalances toward sustainable wellness, with an emphasis on joy and connection. I use a somatic and trauma-centered approach, and am in the constant process of making my practice accessible to those most impacted by oppression and trauma. As a queer person, I am committed to supporting all bodies, genders, sexualities and experiences, and I use a sex and body positive framework.

As a poet and writer, language and meaning making are central to my care philosophy. I weave language, metaphor and embodiment into herbal protocols and healing practices. I also teach embodied poetry workshops; more information about my writing life can be found at tessamicaela.com.

Lineages, Education & Training

I come to care work through the labor, mentorship of many individuals, communities and institutions. These lineages are fraught and complicated, many with long histories of appropriation and capitalist, white supremacist violence, as well as the histories of resistance to those violences and erasures. While it is impossible to account for all the people who have taught and influenced any of us, here are a few of the communities, mentors and teachers who helped train and situated me in my particular intersection of care work.

Training, Education & Community Webs

Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism / 3-year Clinical Herbalist Program / Larken Bunce, Betzy Bancroft, Guido Mase, Kristin Henningsen, Ember Peters

Birthwise Midwifery School / Certified Professional Midwifery training

Ancestral Apothecary / Mi Cuerpo Sagrado / community herbalism program / Atava Garcia Swiecicki

The Herbiary / community herbal training / Maia Toll

Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine / Practitioner Skills / Karyn Sanders + Sarah Holmes

Herbs for Midwives / Mischa Schuler

Heart & Hands Midwifery Intensive / Elizabeth Davis

The Conscious Newborn: Pre + Perinatal Psychology / Michele Borok + Sarah Theismann

Somatic Experiencing / ongoing 3 year trauma training

Traumatic Stress and the Breath / Jane Clapp

Mills College / MFA in Poetry / Juliana Spahr, Stephanie Young, Truong Tran, Rebekah Edwards

I have learned and practiced somatics and trauma work with Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, David Trelleven, Vanissar Tarakali, Marikah Heinrichs. I’ve trained as a full-spectrum midwife and pregnancy support with Molly Dutton-Kenney, Kate Hartwell, Cindy Owens, Byrn Munroe, Sherry Stevens, Michelle Borok, Jen Pia-Needleman, Sienna Flanders, Samantha Zipporah, the Bay Area Doula project, the Birth Justice Project, Birth Arts International and more. I have taken herbal workshops and trainings with Jim McDonald, Juliette Abigail Carr, Camille Freeman, Sara Flores, and more.

I work at the intersections of social justice and community care. My work exists in the webs and lineages of reproductive and healing justice, queer and trans liberation movements, and transformative justice. I’ve organized and worked with the Birth Justice Project, The Women’s Community Clinic, the Bay Area Doula Project, the SFGH Jail Doula Program, the Occupy Oakland Medic tent, was a founding member of the Philly Collaborative for Reproductive Justice and Support the Snails Pace Collective, and the Trillium Collective among other projects.

I am a founder and member of the Rose Core Collective: An Herbal Kinship, making and growing medicine for collective liberation on the unceded Abenaki land of so-called Vermont. To access herbal formulas made by the Rose Core Collective, email rosecorecollective@gmail.com. All proceeds are sent to BIPOC-lead liberation movements.

See the resources page for a wider web of practitioners and healers.