About
A teacher once told me,
"We were born for these times."
And we most certainly were.
Hi, I'm Abby ...
I experience it a true honor to be considered as someone you would trust to support you in your precious life.
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I am a queer herbalist, coach, LMT, and a virtual creator. I have had the great privilege of learning from incredible teachers and coaches over my lifetime, and have always made my own inner work and spiritual connection my first priority.
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In my life, I am passionate about 3 things: plants, connection, and healing. These passions have taken many forms, and have danced together in many ways throughout my life, but remain unwavering at my core.
I began my personal spiritual and healing journey in 2011. After a trip to Africa in my early 20's, I came home with unexplainable, crippling anxiety. The anxiety got so severe that I could not eat or leave the house. Something had taken hold of me, and I thought that anything could kill me at any moment. When I returned to college the following year, I was in such an anxious state, that functioning on a daily basis felt impossible. An incredible professor that I had at the time, sent me to a local healer and counselor, and this was the true beginning of my journey.
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I was insatiable after those sessions and dedicated my life to learning the tools and practices to help with the anxiety. It took time, but I was eventually able to quell most of my anxiousness, and began living my life again. This work had been so different from traditional therapy, for me, and gave me a light at the end of the tunnel.
Following these experiences, my whole life become a quest for knowledge, connection, inner healing, spiritual work, and contribution to others.
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After receiving my Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, with a minor in Native American Studies, from Ithaca College in 2013, I went on to study herbalism (Heartstone Center for Earth Essentials), massage therapy (Finger Lakes School of Massage), and receive my Reiki certification in Ithaca, New York.
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I also sought out deeper spiritual and developmental education through Byron Katie's School for the Work, workshops with educators like Caroline Myss and Deepak Chopra, and coaching certifications through HeartPath Healing, Yoga Farm Ithaca, and Access to Awareness.
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In 2015, I moved to Hawai'i and started my herbal products and bodywork company, MotherTree Medicinals. While living on Hawai'i Island in 2020, I received my Master's Degree in Heritage Management, focusing my thesis work on the respectful practices of white allies within Indigenous movements for rights, land, and justice.
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Healing, for me, incorporates not only our individual work, but also the healing of our social systems, histories, and our ecosystems, as everything is an interconnected web. My deep love of humanity and culture led me to my anthropological studies, and has been a cornerstone in my study of life and healing.
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Over the past 3 years, I have had the privilege of learning the art of the disentanglement of the ego through a close mentorship with Sophie McLean. I became the Director of Operations of her company, and grew my skills for virtual product creation, curriculum development, website design, and more.
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I now live in Seattle with my dog and 2 cats and spend my time working with clients, hiking, foraging, going to ecstatic dance, and building meaningful connections.
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Why MotherTree?
The Story of the Mother Trees
Nourishment, Support, Interconnectedness of Life
In 2012, when I was in Massage School in Ithaca, New York, we were in a business class when the question was posed, "What would the name of your massage practice be?"
In that moment, the word MotherTree arose in me. It was not a thought. It literally just arrived. At the time, I did not have any context for the meaning of this word. However, as a person who adores plants and the forest, and having always described my massage methods as "caring for someone on the table as if they were my own child," I loved the resonance of this word: MotherTree.
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I held MotherTree in my heart for a long time and, years later, when I began making and selling organic herbal products, the name of my business was not even a question: MotherTree Medicinals was born.
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As I was starting my business, I typed 'Mother Tree' into Google, curious what would show up.
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I was shocked when I discovered that not only did Mother Trees exist, but that their meaning and role on the Earth, was so magnificent and so aligned with my heart and values.
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A Mother Tree is a tree, or central hub of trees, in a biodiverse forest, that share their nutrients and carbon with the rest of the forest and seedlings, and even communicate with others via the underground mycelial network. Some say that the elder trees also share vibrations, memory, and divine communication with the other beings of the forest.
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"These connections have been known for a long time by Aboriginal peoples and the research of Dr. Simard and others has demonstrated scientifically that forests are deeply connected and collaborative places.
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Trees are part of a large, interconnected community interacting with their own and other species, including forming kin relationships with their genetic relatives.
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In mapping the fungal network, our research has shown that the biggest and oldest trees are the most connected nodes in the forest. These highly-connected hub trees, also known as Mother Trees, share their excess carbon and nitrogen through the mycorrhizal network with the understory seedlings, which can increase seedling survival. These Mother Trees in this way act as central hubs, communicating with the young seedlings around them. In a single forest, a Mother Tree can be connected to hundreds of other trees." (The Mother Tree Project, 2023)
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As you can see, these trees symbolize cohesion, sharing, diversity, connection, support, community nourishment, and healing.
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The Spirit of MotherTree embodies all that I do, and it is an honor to have this umbrella to hold the intention of my services in the world.
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