Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Ciboski

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?

I crash landed on earth in the autumn of 1992, disgruntled, hungry, and coming out the wrong way. I, of course, chose to be the eldest daughter of two oldest children which means that I committed to a life of being perpetually stressed out on others’ behalf.
Fortunately, my parents enrolled me in school where I harnessed my eldest daughter superpowers of determination, bossiness/leadership capabilities (ahem), and extreme detail orientation to earn straight A’s, barring my unfortunate B in gym. I got involved in Girl Scouts (which I looked forward to every week) and took piano lessons from a mean Ukrainian lady named Tatiana (I did not look forward to them). I voraciously inhaled a book or more a week- usually Harry Potter or historical fiction- made mud potions with sticks and leaves in my backyard apothecary, served as the lead architect of numerous Barbie house buildouts, and religiously recorded my observations about the world in my teddy bear journal.
When not engaged in my deep intellectual pursuits, I spent time swimming in the lake with my friends or boating with family (nearly everyone had a boat in my town, rich or poor). Eventually, my mom enrolled my sister and me in martial arts so we could learn how to defend ourselves after she saw a news story on TV about an unfortunate girl who got kidnapped out of her bedroom window in the neighboring town.
Then my parents got divorced and my mom packed us up to move to Chicago, which turned my entire world upside down. I didn’t entirely find my footing until I attended college years later at a Catholic liberal arts university where I ended up ditching my pre-med aspirations to study English, criminal justice, and Middle Eastern studies. Despite my initial disappointment that I didn’t move away to go to a Big Ten school, I ended up grateful that I instead went to a college pioneered by woke Irish nuns in the middle of the biggest and arguably most interesting city in the Midwest. Despite being so involved in activities most of my life, I never really had many true friends until that point when I finally felt that I had found my place with people who had weird ideas and nerdy interests just like me, most of whom I still hang out with regularly or follow on Instagram and Facebook.
Because of my love of academia, it made sense that my first real job ended up being at the University of Chicago where I worked in two drastically different departments- one in the underfunded Humanities division and another that churned out thinktank interns and economic policy researchers. Not long after I got laid off when my professor boss took another job out of state, I got hired at a nutraceutical startup and then the pandemic happened, which drove me to start my own apothecary business.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

I don’t believe there is such a thing as a smooth road, to be honest. And even if a smooth road did exist, I now realize that there isn’t much to be learned from that.
I say this while nearing 32 extremely burnt out and freshly laid off in a corporate restructuring days after I hit my 5th work anniversary. This coupled with the perpetual state of whiplash I feel like I am in post-pandemic is dizzying at times. In my mind, I am still only 27 and somehow stepped through a wormhole into 2024.
Despite this, I have reflected on the overarching theme of my struggles over the last few years. I have realized that the challenge has been learning to make space for grief. My whole life I have compartmentalized difficult feelings or experiences. I feel like I instead devoted all my energy to basic survival. Anger and resentment got shoved down- grief into a box for another day. There were at times barely enough boxes to contain the multitude of unactualized pain. I found myself exhausted often even without confronting anything head on.
Only during the last few years have I turned inward enough to process losses that I have sprinted by on the proverbial road. To date, I have lost multiple pets, friends have passed much too young or moved away, and relationships I thought were built on strong foundations became shaky at best. As much as I wished many times in life that I was wired differently, I have come to accept that I am a deeply feeling person, and yet it was shocking how much more acutely I felt the blows of those losses when I finally permitted myself to do so. Alchemizing that pain into something I still cannot yet name in its entirety has led to the sloughing away of parts of myself- ones that were often critical to my survival- to make way for new iterations of me that I could have never imagined.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?

Sibylla’s Apothecary is my one-woman herbalism business. I specialize in water-based healing modalities like custom tea blends and herbal bath salts, but I also make smoke cleansing wands, seasonal spice blends, beeswax candles, and herbal tinctures. Research and development, making the product, packaging, cleaning bottles, billing, and shipping are all done by me and the occasional helpful family member when I am drowning. I source all my ingredients from the best possible suppliers when I cannot grow or forage them.
I am also working on building out the consultation aspect of my business, which I think should be as important as the actual product side. My goal is to work more closely with clients on a one-to-one basis to help them achieve their personal goals through herbal and spiritual means.
What sets me apart is how I run my business with extreme attention to detail and integrity (which is also what I am most proud of). I try to build trust with potential clients by understanding what they deeply need and what motivates them. This requires true, active listening and empathy. I care more about providing value to people by being honest and realistic about how I can help them than by trying to sell something that won’t benefit them in the end so that I can make a buck. My business is not just a means for me to sell things. It is a sacred expression of my ancestral lineages and I align my code of ethics in business accordingly.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?

My best advice is always to keep on learning, reading, and listening. You are never done. There is no finish line in this type of work- it is a journey and a calling. There is always something out there waiting for you to read about it at the right moment or a chance encounter or a plant growing where it didn’t ever grow before in your yard. There is always going to be someone out there that knows more than you and that’s perfectly okay. The second most important piece of advice I would give is to always trust your intuition. Working with plants and other earth medicines the way I do is not for everyone. Plants will let you know whether their energy is in alignment with yours and your gut will say no if it won’t work. Always listen to that.

I wish I knew how to trust my inner voice more. There were times that I didn’t feel ready to work with a plant or person and it just kept presenting itself to me until I paid attention. The healing relationship between you and your plant ancestors is a two-way street just like any other relationship.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sibyllas-apothecary.square.site/
• Instagram: sibyllasapothecary