Working with Earth and Heart at Asha Centre

“Here, among these gardens, trees, and flowing waters, we remember the language of nature connection, and it begins with love.”

We are the Seed Sistas, Kaz and Fi, neurodivergent herbalists, mothers, business partners of over 20 years, and co-founders of a social enterprise that has grown alongside our children, our community, and a wild belief that plants can change lives and lead us into a healthier society.

Where It All Began

We met at university on a full-time, four-year degree pathway in Herbal Medicine. It was a rigorous and highly scientific training, designed to bring herbalists in line with GPs, so we could communicate within a system rooted in allopathic medicine.

We studied pathology, diagnostics, anatomy and physiology, pharmacy, and clinical practice. We worked in clinic rooms at the Whittington Hospital, seeing patients, and in laboratories, extracting individual compounds from plants.

It was both an incredible opportunity and highly intense.

Linear. Structured. Demanding on the mind.

And, at times, taxing on the heart and soul.

In four years, we were taken on just one herb walk.

The rest of the time, we sat in classrooms, looking at overhead projections of herbs rather than meeting them in the wild, learning about plants without truly being in relationship with them.

When we qualified, we stepped out into the world and realised something shocking: most people had absolutely no idea what herbal medicine actually was.

People recognised the term homeopathy, with remedies like arnica and belladonna lining the shelves of high street chemists, and there was even a Royal Homeopathic Hospital. But herbalism? It felt almost invisible.

To us, this was a travesty.

The birth right of knowing how to care for ourselves and our families using the plants growing all around us, knowledge that had been second nature to humans for millennia, had been all but lost.

We decided to do something about it.

Reimagining How Herbalism Is Taught

Out of that experience, something else became clear.

We didn’t just want to share herbal knowledge, we wanted to transform the way it was taught.

Because while our training gave us a depth of understanding, clinical skills, and scientific grounding, it lacked something essential: connection, creativity, and lived relationship with the plants.

So we created the training we had longed for.

Our Sensory Herbalism Apprenticeship is rooted in everything we felt was missing and everything we knew was needed.

We weave in ritual and magic. Art and colour. Sensory exercises that awaken intuition and deepen awareness.

We spend time outdoors, with the plants themselves not just learning their names, but meeting them, sitting with them, listening.

We make remedies with our hands: tinctures, vinegars, balms, oils, teas, learning through doing, through touch, through smell, through taste.

It is experiential. Embodied. Alive.

A reclamation of herbalism as something felt, not just studied.

Reclaiming a Living Tradition

We founded our social enterprise, Sensory Solutions Herbal Evolutions CIC, with a clear aim: to reconnect people with their local plant medicines.

Another thing that troubled us about our training was the emphasis on herbs from across the globe; Chinese, Indian, and American plants like ginseng, ashwagandha, and echinacea.

Valuable, yes, but where were the teachings on the plants growing right beneath our feet?

Daisy. Heather. Self-heal - commonly growing UK plants.

These were overlooked.

We believe that when people learn about their local plants, something powerful happens. It builds resilience. It creates empowerment. It fosters care for the environment.

The limits of our language shape the limits of our world, and when we learn the names of plants and trees, our world expands. Our relationship with nature deepens.

Now, more than ever, we see how vital this is. As society faces a growing mental health crisis, nature connection is not a luxury, it is essential. For over two decades, we have been teaching sensory herbalism, sharing this reconnection in ways that are embodied, accessible, and rooted in lived experience. Along the way, we’ve written two books and created a deck of herbal oracle cards, all part of our mission to bring plant wisdom back into everyday life.

Arriving in a Hidden Valley

There’s a particular kind of magic that unfolds when we arrive at the Asha Centre, a shift that isn’t easily put into words, but one that we feel deep in our bones.

As you journey into the hidden valley that cradles the Centre, time seems to still, breath deepens, and something inside you softens.

Here, the land loves us back.

The gardens are abundant and lovingly tended, with roses flourishing in great number, a presence that feels intentional and deeply symbolic.

We have made Asha the home of our apprenticeship and other retreats through the year. It feels like a homecoming for our courses, somewhere that we align with in every sense.

Rhythm, Ritual, and Reverence

Our trainings at Asha are rooted in hands-on, sensory learning, but here at Ashs, the environment itself becomes a teacher. We gather in circle surrounded by medicinal plants: rose, nettle, plantain, cleavers, calendula, hypericum, elder, and hawthorn, all humming in harmony with the seasons.

We sing. We walk the labyrinth. We wash our feet in spring water. We listen.

And in all of this, the land mirrors us back to ourselves.

The Medicine of Rose

Rose holds a special place in our work and at Asha, she is everywhere.

We invite Rose to hold us as we open our hearts. When we speak from the heart, we call on her softening, opening medicine. Her petals, shaped like the heart itself, remind us of tenderness, beauty, and vulnerability.

And her thorns remind us of something equally important: protection.

Rose teaches us how to keep our boundaries strong and protected while our hearts remain open, how to soften without losing ourselves.

She brings peace. Harmony. Balance.

A Vision Beyond the Garden

Our work here reflects a deeper vision: a society rooted in love, respect, and reciprocity with the natural world. It is a consciousness that ripples outward, from people to land to community, weaving connections between plant and human, wisdom and wonder, intention and action.

Coming to Asha is entering into relationship: with the land, with the plants, with yourself, and with others walking a similar path. We come with openness and a willingness to be transformed by the earth. Asha and the Seed Sistas share a belief: that plants can teach us how to live, connect, and care more deeply. Love, respect, and intention can create a more conscious, connected world.