We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Clarice Criss. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Clarice below.
Clarice , appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
I was raised by an artist and a computer analyst. They saw the world differently and allowed each of their kids to create their own world as well. My parents encouraged my curiosities! At 5 when I said I wanted to garden my father built me one in the backyard and let me grow anything and everything I wanted. When I showed interests in science my mom made sure I was exposed to everything from science camps, museums and science projects at home. The biggest thing they have done right is offer me their unwavering support, even when they do not fully understand what lies ahead for me.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
7 years ago I did a complete life reset. I quit my job, started gardening and focused on learning about natural and herbal ways to bring balance to my life physically and emotionally. I was diagnosed with endometriosis for 15+ years and no medical intervention from pills to surgery helped. I started different herbal regimens and found a way to reverse the endometriosis, balance my moon cycle and eliminate my Fibroids. I also saw the direction we were headed in as a society when it came to accessing medicine and information. So I began to study comprehensively and travel to learn about what herbs could address everyday ailments that impact the Black community disproportionally like high blood pressure, anxiety and diabetes. Eventually I started recommending herbs to different friends and family members to help with womb challenges like PCOS, Fibroids or delayed menstrual cycles. Then I started growing more herbs in my garden at home to make herbal blends and salves to treat respiratory issues to eczema. Soon word got out and more people reached out seeking a custom herbal blend and advice.
After years of research, studying and traveling to Africa and Mexico to learn indigenous herbal treatments I launched Herbun Healing LLC in 2021. Now I offer consultations and work to create custom wellness treatment plans to address specific and chronic health conditions. The plans range from using Sobada, an ancient Mayan Massage technique designed to reposition organs that are out of alignment, herbal tea blends to improve organ balance, lifestyle changes and affirmations to support my clients on their health journey. For those people who are not local and still want to experience the Rich Auntie Wellness experience I offer virtual wellness consults, teas, travel sized skincare and salves on our website.
Helping people reclaim their peace of mind and experience the richness of a healthy and whole life is the goal. Social media helps and I enjoy sharing knowledge with as many people as possible showing them how to grow herbs, food and plant medicine crops the Rich Auntie way. Or answering my tiktok nieces or nephews questions about what herbs to use to help treat different disorders and imbalances in the body as their favorite Herbalist Auntie. I am exceedingly grateful and proud of the clients who have seen a complete transformation in their lives as a result of their work with Herbun Healing. Getting the news that they no longer need their inhaler or that the menstrual cycle they had not seen for months has started again and is regulated is joy that is hard to describe. So many people suffer for years with issues that pharmaceutical medical intervention has not been able to address and showing someone that the answer they need can be found in a plant that they create immediate access to is powerful!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Trust! Helping someone with a medical issue requires them to trust you with their intimate thoughts, diagnosis and overall health and well being. Every person I work with knows that I am invested and committed to seeing them be better than they were before they tried my products or utilized my services. It’s more than a bottom line to me it’s been about empowering people to seek the knowledge and herbal alternatives for themselves in the future. It also helps when the products you make work and people see immediate results. Those people have become the biggest advocates of my business.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Prior to becoming the globe trotting gardening herbalist I am today I worked in case management. I worked with every marginalized population imaginable. The last position I held was as a parole officer for the state of Texas. I was miserable, angry and bitter in that job. It was getting harder and harder to go to work every day and lock people up or execute orders that I knew would impact their lives negatively. My great grandmother passed away in January of 2016. While talking to my aunt after the funeral I was sharing with her that I really wanted to start a community garden. She looked at me and told me you’ve been saying that for the past 4 years either do it or stop talking about it. That was the match that lit my fire, from there I started taking steps to walk away from my job as a case manager and into the space of holistic health and wellness through gardening and farming. That step has lead to me working as a national organizer on some large political campaigns and those jobs taught me skills about sharing a message and provided me with the capitol to launch Herbun Healing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.herbunhealing.com
- Instagram: herbunhealing
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/herbunhealing
- TikTok: Herbun Healing