Check Out La’Camera House’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to La’Camera House.

Hi La’Camera, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My purpose turned into practice two years ago, when I was ready to step into it with courage. As much as I loved giving from my heart as a family resource center director, I could no longer pour from a cup that was not aligned with the truest sustainer of freedom, good health, and longevity. I could no longer pretend not to know that Mother earth was the only way I knew liberty and it became my mission to share it with the community.

It didn’t take me long to find out my calling didn’t quite fit into the normal frameworks of the traditional career path. Here I was with a good-paying job and willing to risk it all. In search of how to share my gift, I returned to the pulse of nature. I began sitting and listening to the plants and I quickly discovered that they spoke my language.

With so much joy from my rekindled connection with plant spirits, I started implementing nature into all my work. My purpose turned into practice when I refused to compromise who I am to fit into any more paradigms of role play professionally.

I had a vision 7 years ago and I began digging for all that was lost and forgotten. and turned my love of nature into my craft. I began teaching myself herbalism focusing on learning from both a scientific and indigenous approach. I began absorbing as much wisdom as I could of Chinese medicine and indigenous and traditional herbal medicine practices. Over the last four years, I’ve been formulating herbal remedies for myself, my herb family, and friends.

In terms of accessibility of locally sourced herbal medicine it was very few options and so was the education component. There were truly no places to go to get locally sourced plant-based medicine and it was important to me to be a portal to traditional healing and bridge that gap for the Community.

After two years of professionally sharing my herbal apothecary medicine cabinet. I now hold space for herbal consultations and make customized herbal formulations regularly. I have a wonderful Team that helps deliver herbal medicine at five Local farmers’ markets.

Currently, I manage the Online Herbal Apothecary, Mobile Apothecary Shop, The Academy of Black Herbalism, Apprenticeship Program, Community Herbalism Training Program, and a Community Herb Garden at Mill Ridge Farm.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The business part was divinely manifested, before COVID-19, it was a struggle in many ways. I had to use my platform to do more teaching than sharing my craft. I needed one on one interactions that let the community have a sacred space to share their deepest concerns, be heard, felt, and seen with a trusted source.

When Covid came, the Elderberry Herbal Medicine demand increased. Collectively, I noticed we were more open to natural solutions and people sought Teas, Tinctures, Tonics, Syrups, and whatever else would help offer a source of protection and nourishment mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

I was so busy I could hardly keep up with orders. I did no contact local deliveries of mental health and immune system protection herbal medicine, I participated in up pop events, and the online store was steadily growing. In the midst of this growth, I realized the many disparities in herbalism for POC.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I started this practice with the intention to answer the calling of the land spirits, to return to the wild woman in me, and tend to the lands, myself, and the people. I wanted freedom for not only myself but I wanted freedom in connection to earth for all those who to remember the richness of our cultural and spiritual practices with plants and flowers.

What sets me apart in my work as an herbalist is demonstrated through my practice. I am highly intuitive when it comes to my ability to work with plant allies and create plant synergy that yields positive results and facilitates optimal health and wellness. I rely on the wisdom of the earth and integrate various indigenous healing traditions into my craft that addresses the whole person mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

I am most honored in my ability to inspire, educate, empower, and awaken my collective community spirit to earth’s consciousness. It’s my ability to show up fully present with a loving heart for all of the life force and to hold space for other POC to communion with our roots, to heal with the lands, and for being a way-shower for other black/POC herbalists and growers.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I’ve always danced wildly in the elements of nature. When the world failed to show me all of who I am, I turned to look back to the original ways, and there I was standing in the future. I could see myself in the trees, the wildflowers, and the soil. I could feel myself unearthing all that I was destined to be and what I came to offer this world.
I was born a country girl in Gallatin, Tn. Growing up from where I am from, roaming the lands was as normal as walking barefoot was to me. The Freedom to be who I come to early in life. I was raised to be emotionally unrestricted and learned to lean into my intuitive nature for counsel. In my family, my grandmother played a huge role in how we were taken care of.

Before we went to the doctor we called “Nanny” for a remedy first. She grew up on a farm as a daughter of a sharecropper. She was a mother of four, the grandmother of eight. She knew all kinds of plant magic. I remember after giving birth to my daughter how my breast gorged and in desperate need of help and lack of support in the medical system I turned to her and she wrapped my breast with cabbage. The instant relief was forever etched in my mind.

Those impressions of earth’s wonders always resonated deeply with me on a soul level.

While I was in school to be a psychologist, I fell in love with providing remedies for mental and emotional wellness. Then I began studying various modalities of healing but plant medicine was a way to channel my highest love of the earth.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.thehealingoracle.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thehealingoracleapothecary
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thehealingoracleapothecary