Herbalism isn’t just about memorizing plant properties. It’s about lineage, cultural connection, and building genuine relationships with the plants that call you.

In this conversation, clinical herbalist and PhD candidate Jo Sesay shares how her grandmother, mother, and Aunt Jo created an intuitive healing network long before herbalism became an Instagram-worthy practice. They didn’t have certifications or fancy titles. They had community, curiosity, and a deep commitment to helping their neighbors heal.

When Food Becomes Medicine

Jo’s mother worked as a dietitian and nutritionist, but her approach went far beyond standard meal plans. She understood something many practitioners miss. Healing happens when we reconnect with our cultural foods.

Jo shares a powerful story about a Bengali patient who wasn’t improving after time in two different facilities. Instead of adjusting medications again, her mother asked one simple question:
“When’s the last time you had your food?”

By reaching out to the family, learning about traditional Bengali meals, and getting clearance for the patient’s daughter to bring authentic cultural food into the facility, her mother watched this person heal naturally. They gained weight. Became more cognitively present. Came back to themselves.

This experience shaped Jo’s understanding that healing is broader than we often acknowledge. Cultural connection influences food, mental health processing, and how we experience our own bodies.

The Weight of Ancestral Wisdom

As a Black American woman whose grandfather’s grandmother was enslaved, Jo carries an embodied awareness that trauma lives in DNA. The stressors her ancestors endured were passed down through generations.

But she also carries the gifts. Resistance. Garden knowledge. Remedies. Care.

“Doing the work will save generations after me,” Jo explains.

That perspective transforms healing from an individual act into an ancestral offering.

Why Herbalism Needs to Slow Down

In a microwave society, we want instant results. Six-month certifications. Quick fixes. The perfect framework to follow.

But herbs are slow. Healing is slow.

Jo’s most important advice for budding herbalists is to start with one herb at a time. Sit with it like a friend. Learn the difference between spearmint and peppermint. Notice how lemon balm relates to the mint family. Build discernment through relationship, not through someone else’s blueprint.

“If you don’t slow down and someone asks you what spearmint tastes like versus peppermint, you have no clue,” Jo says.
“That’s why certain sensitivities are happening. You didn’t slow down.”

Reclaiming the Sacred from Social Media Performance

After her youngest daughter was born, Jo took a full year off. She stepped away from content creation, from the pressure to share every preparation, and from the expectation to answer strangers’ questions for free.

When she returned, her relationship with herbalism had shifted. She now allows herself to make herbal preparations that remain completely private. No photos. No explanations. Just quiet, untouched connection with the plants.

“Everything’s always being demanded for us to share it,” Jo reflects.
“It loses the potency of what we’re doing when we’re under that constant pressure.”

This isn’t about gatekeeping. It’s about remembering that herbalism is sacred work, and some things deserve to remain yours alone.

Building Herbal Rituals with Children

Jo creates simple, consistent rituals with her three children using hibiscus, chamomile, and lemon balm.

Hibiscus tastes like home for her West African husband and connects to Black American celebrations before we replaced it with Kool-Aid. Chamomile and lemon balm become special evening treats that calm nervous systems without her children realizing they’re receiving medicine.

The goal isn’t to turn kids into herbalists. It’s to foster trust and relationship with plants so that, as adults, comfort feels familiar.

When life feels hard, they’ll remember: it’s tea time.

Oat Straw as Ally

For Jo personally, Oat Straw became a grounding ally during an intense season of transition. New motherhood. A new stay-at-home rhythm. The discovery of fibroids and precancerous cells on her first Mother’s Day. Her nervous system needed deep support.

Every morning at 7 a.m., before her family woke, Jo made a cup of Oat Straw tea and sat quietly in her sunroom. She let the plant meet her where she was. Help her find ground when everything felt unsteady.

That’s what allyship with herbs looks like. Not a transaction. Not a quick fix.
A relationship built through consistency and care.

The Revival Happening Right Now

Jo speaks about something powerful unfolding across the Black community. A return to gardening, beekeeping, farming, and herbalism.

Given the history of land loss and forced disconnection, this movement feels like reclaiming something that was taken. Like restoring a severed root.

“There’s a whole generation of us craving that connection,” Jo says.
“My mama didn’t have it. My grandparents had to leave it. But I’m restoring that part, because that’s where a lot of us thrive.”

Herbalism doesn’t need another influencer copying someone else’s protocol.

It needs you. Your lineage. Your intuition.
Your willingness to sit with one plant at a time and listen.

What path are you walking?
What wisdom are you leaving for the generations behind you?

The plants have been calling all along. And they’ll always be here when you’re ready.

Connect with Jo Sesay

You can find Jo across platforms as Real Rooted Jo, where she shares thoughtful, science-informed reflections on herbalism, mental health, and ancestral healing.

Website: rootedjo.com

Substack: Real Rooted Jo (deep dives, constitutional work, herbal studies)

Ready to Learn Herbalism That Honors Your Path?

Inside the Community Herbalist Certification & Mentorship, we focus on developing discernment, cultural awareness, and real-world herbal skill. You’ll learn alongside practitioners like Jo Sesay and build a practice rooted in integrity, relationship, and depth.

If this conversation resonated, you can learn more at here, or reach out if you want help discerning whether this is your next step.

ot;>What wisdom are you leaving for the generations behind you?

The plants have been calling all along. And they’ll always be here when you’re ready.

Connect with Jo Sesay

You can find Jo across platforms as Real Rooted Jo, where she shares thoughtful, science-informed reflections on herbalism, mental health, and ancestral healing.

Website: rootedjo.com

Substack: Real Rooted Jo (deep dives, constitutional work, herbal studies)

Ready to Learn Herbalism That Honors Your Path?

Inside the Community Herbalist Certification & Mentorship, we focus on developing discernment, cultural awareness, and real-world herbal skill. You’ll learn alongside practitioners like Jo Sesay and build a practice rooted in integrity, relationship, and depth.

If this conversation resonated, you can learn more at here, or reach out if you want help discerning whether this is your next step.

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