i’m emily: so hum. namaste. OM.

i’m the founder/ director of You Joy Life and Wonder Mountain Open Source Space: queer plant person, herbalist, yoga instructor, artist, and Ayurvedic wellness counselor.

I've cultivated a strong relationship with nature through co-creating with my plant, mineral, and animal spirit guides since childhood on so-called Vashon Island in Washington State's Coast Salish land, specifically the stolen ancestral land of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot People, among others.

I opened my own botanical wellness company, Islandula, in 1999, as a crafter at Seattle's historic Pike Place Market in the crafters’ row. My handmade skincare line was made from homegrown calendula and ethically foraged Pacific Northwest native and naturalized plants.

In 2008, I brought my plant medicines to the Portland, Oregon community, opening a healing apothecary at my brick-and-mortar concept shop, Sword+Fern. Local plant medicine makers and healers were invited to offer their medicines for sale in the shop's curated apothecary, the city's first of its kind.

I created intentional medicinal botanical incense offering healing through quieting the mind and breathwork, birthed while cultivating a deeper plant spirit connection after receiving training in Vipassana meditation at a 10-day silent course in the tradition of my teacher S.N.Goenka

After relocating to Los Angeles in 2014, I received my master fermenter's certification from Stasha Health Catalyst. I learned the art of using fermented food to receive transformative physical healing and boost gut health.

I started documenting my plant explorations in California: wild food foraging, fermentation experiments, and using food as medicine. Land to Mouth  @landtomouth

In 2016, I apprenticed as a Shamanic healer for 12 months with Leia Hart of the Eugene, Oregon Center for Shamanism, an apprentice of Sandra Ingerman's.

In 2017, my shamanic practice led me to begin a plant spirit medicine learning center at my studio in Topanga Canyon, called Plant, Mother, Sister. Offered workshops included native and naturalized plant identification, instruction on foraging wild edibles, making botanical medicine,  and learning healing techniques with local plants, with a focus on sustainable and ethical wildcrafting, using plants and medicine-making materials locally sourced, indigenous, and naturalized to Topanga Canyon.

In 2018, I received my Reiki Practitioner certificate and attunement through IPSB at Life Energy Institute, taught by Lisa Thompson in Santa Monica, California.

In 2019, I received my 200-hour Yoga Teacher certificate, taught by People’s Yoga Studio, in Los Angeles, California. I received my Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor certification through the Southern California University of Health Sciences in the Ayurveda Wellness Educator Program with a First-Year Clinical Internship in 2022. 

I received my Principles of Ayurvedic Medicine certification at California College Of Ayurveda in 2023 under Dr. Marc Halpern in Nevada City, California.