We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carolyn Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carolyn below.

Hi Carolyn, thanks for joining us today. Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?

I have experienced many heartwarming moments over the course of the years in my role as both a holistic health practitioner and a bereavement chaplain.
There is one recent encounter that really stands out for me.
I am a volunteer for OnPoint, a New York City nonprofit safe injection site, that houses a spa-like sanctuary for the community to receive free acupuncture treatment. It was there that I first encountered Jonathan Torres.
We met again at a free community clinic being held at the iconic People’s Church in East Harlem where reiki, massage, sound therapy, aromatherapy, and auricular acupuncture were being offered.
I first heard about the People’s Church from Walter Bosque, a former member of the Young Lords who was actively involved in bringing acupuncture to the Bronx and Harlem in the 1960’s.
When I stepped inside, I felt the power of the history and mission of the foundation on which this architecturally unique church stands. Immense, yet cozy, the worship space is punctuated by a huge cross overlooking the altar and ornate stained-glass windows.
I had prepared cardamom, cinnamon, and honey tea. So, I set up my tea service in a side room with the intention of opening hearts and inspiring joy in my visitors.
It was there that I actually got to know Jonathan. He shared the story of his personal struggles and how holistic health practices help him manage his stress. After a friendly shared session with other attendees, we exchanged phone numbers, and promised to connect at the next event.
Two weeks passed, and we met again. While I was preparing my space, Jonathan came in and said in his calm, quiet way, “I have something to tell you.”
I smiled and stopped what I was doing.
“What is it?”
“I met my mother for the first time yesterday.”
I was ecstatic! We sat down together and he told me his story, setting the stage for how I would show up as a practitioner that day.
We sipped on a lemon, ginger, and honey drink I had prepared. I taught about flower essences and gave everyone a treatment. I knew that he was bursting with the joy of what he was experiencing and wanted to share it with the world. So, I invited him to do just that.
He was overjoyed.
Jonathan was born in Los Angeles, California and due to an unstable family environment, ended up in the foster care system at the age of 14. At the age of 20, he found himself struggling to find stability and secure a desirable future. At the age of 25, he became a father and moved into a shelter with his partner and their baby. Unfortunately, the family was separated when his partner and child were moved into an apartment. Left stranded, he turned to Help USA shelters for a safe place to regain his independence.
However, the story does not end there. In 2023, he joined Street Soccer USA, a national non-profit organization formed in 2009 by two brothers out of a homeless soup kitchen in Charlotte, North Carolina. They took notice of his resilience and determination, and as a result, Jonathan has been selected to play for Team USA in the 2024 Homeless World Cup in South Korea!
This opportunity has ignited his vision for the future and will open many doors for him to be reunited with his mother and other members of his family.
Being entrusted with life stories like these make all of the difference and support my mission and love for community.

For folks who may not have read about you before, can you please tell our readers about yourself, how you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc, what type of products/services/creative works you provide, what problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others. What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.
Please provide as much detail as you feel relevant as this is one of the core questions where the reader will get to know about you and your brand/organization/etc.

My desire to pursue a natural path of healing and self-care led me to explore the various ways that could be accomplished. As I gained confidence in the use of medicinal herbs, I also involved myself with Kundalini yoga, pranayama techniques, and positive thinking philosophies, I began to notice slight shifts in my behavior and in the way I responded to stressful situations. The anxiousness was slowly replaced by an inner peace, and my hunger for wholeness became a lifestyle practice.

In 2009, I began formal training in the healing arts at the Institute of Holistic Theology. Thankfully, I was able to choose my areas of interest and found great pleasure studying about herbs, flower essences, touch therapy, aromatherapy and more. Today, I am a licensed bereavement chaplain and an herbalist whose certifications include: acupuncture detoxification therapy, aromatherapy, reflexology, and flower essence therapy.

My life has unfolded in a very magical way, with my first opportunity as a holistic health consultant with Department of Aging senior citizen centers. Every week, I created a self-care presentation that would support elders as they sought to manage physical pain and emotional stressors.

Although I am a practitioner, I especially enjoy my role as an educator. with a platform to teach others about the natural healing therapies that are available to help them self-regulate.

I am most proud of being able to share information that people need and want.
The Healing Project is an educational platform that allows me to collaborate with other practitioners, organizations, institutions; and, public access stations. Independent podcasters who are committed to communicating the message of natural healing also play a very important role in helping me disseminate information in a creative and easy-to- understand format.

The HWB Healing Project Mobile Clinic is made possible by Herbalists Without Borders, an international organization that provides HWB Coordinators with responsibly harvested herbs, supplements, lotions, oils, tinctures, and toiletries to give to the community.

Tax-deductible donations to support this health justice initiative should be forwarded to www.behealed.info.

As Coordinator of the HWB Healing Project Mobile Clinic, I have enjoyed collaborations with the American Herbalist Guild, Gaia NoMaya Salt Cave & Spa for Wellness Wednesdays, the Bronx Psychiatric Center, and the Bedford-Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School. I also presented a four-part community wellness series at the Cortelyou Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library for four-part community wellness series, which is being followed up by two media projects headed by award-winning videographers, Will Vaultz and Morgan Goldin, to be aired on BRIC TV and eventually syndicated to other networks. We are currently in post-production.

These are a few of the podcasters who support my mission to offer healing alternatives to the community: OneMicNite with Marcos Luis, Heart of the Soul with AmanaBeLove, Body Liberation for All with Delia Kinsey, and Becoming an Herbalist with Tara Baklund.

I am very fortunate to have a number of supportive, caring mentors in the world of plant medicine. One in particular is Matthew Wood, master herbalist, author, and founder of the Matthew Wood Institute of Herbalism where I am extremely proud to be included on his roster of instructors.

My courses are:
Herbs for Death, Dying, and Grief
Black Folk Herbalism
Culinary Remedies: Exploring Health in African American Kitchens

I remain open to sharing my message on any platform that promotes natural self-care and stress management as an option for quality living.

My mantra is: “Love Life. Live. Live Life. Love.”

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was overcaring.
I grew up in a home where the words “sacrifice” and “forgiveness” were emphasized and presented as “how to be a good person.”
I sincerely wanted to be that person. So, I took the literal definition of those words to heart. Little did I know that I was setting myself up for personal disaster. Lesson learned.
The antidote for this combination of misguided behaviors turned out to be self-compassion and self-love.
My first real love experience can only be described as torturous. Yet, it taught me some very profound lessons that have quite unexpectedly bolstered my life in a very significant way.
I’ll take this opportunity to revisit the ones that I believe to be the most poignant.
Lesson #1.
I learned to trust my own decisions without fact-checking with others. People with the best intentions will offer the worst advice for a situation they are not experiencing in real time. As I achieved a healthier emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual state of being, I discovered that the attributes of joy and peace were the by-products of a cultivated intuitive consciousness.
Lesson #2.
Sacrifice is often unappreciated. Over time, I learned how important it is to fully examine a situation to determine whether it is worth the investment of my energy, time, and resources. For me, this applies to strangers, friends, and family, alike. I often say, “Family are people too.”
Discernment is a necessary ingredient.
Family secrets almost destroyed me. The trauma inflicted by close family members and the whispering that followed kept me paralyzed with guilt and shame for years. Thankfully, the pain did not destroy me.
The tables turned in 2012, when I co-wrote Anthology of Souls with a group of my students at the Harlem campus of the College of New Rochelle. In this book, we shared our personal stories of incest, domestic violence, HIV AIDS, breast cancer, and broken trust.
Gathering the courage to tell our stories together set us all free…together.
Lesson #3.
Forgiveness is not a frivolous act and cannot be taken lightly. Deciding to let go of anger, resentment, or vengeance heals the soul. However, it is a long, arduous, never-ending exercise. Unfortunately, it is mistakenly viewed as a sign of weakness and opens the door for multiple, repetitive infractions. I had to learn how to deploy the art of self-protection and self-acknowledgement in order to rid myself of the guilt that comes with over-caring. As I began to more fully engage with this point of view, it turns out that the person I needed to forgive, first and foremost, was ME.
There are so many more lessons that come to mind; however, those are my three greatest hits.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My dance with abuse began in my childhood and lasted for many years thereafter.
Little did I know that I would become a poster child for resilience and getting unstuck when all was said and done.
An unstable home created by abusive, toxic adults disrupted what would have been an artistically creative thought process. My young mind was littered with guilt, shame, and confusion. Many years passed before I was able to see myself as a warrior – a goddess — who could win in spite of the odds stacked against me.
I moved silently through the muck and mire of a world that threatened to destroy me out loud, summoning the courage to stand firm for what I knew to be my truth with a passion that sometimes required very radical responses.
I refused to be commandeered into submissiveness.
It was a thorny path that made me less trusting, more discerning, and closed to experiences that did not align with my purpose.
Deep down inside, I knew that I could “write” the wrongs. Instead, I chose to “right” them.
This point of view is rooted in my courage to change and holds me together with the mortar of self-acknowledgement, self-love, and self-forgiveness.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.behealed.info
• Instagram: thp_the_healing_project
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolyn-jones-thp/

Image Credits

Will Vaultz Photography