Dear Friends,
Some of you may have seen that last year Terrie Ann and I put our 500-acre property that houses ESHM, on the market. I’ve got some big and exciting updates to share about all of that.
In 2015, we moved to North Carolina for the purpose of running an in-person, full-time herbal medicine program. It was my dream come true – spending 25 hours a week in a classroom with students who spent every day, all day studying clinical herbalism. It’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. I was able to show that highly motivated people, in a year of intense study and clinical mentorship, can become competent practitioners.
What I also discovered in running a full-time program is that taking a year or more off from your life and moving to the middle of nowhere to study herbal medicine is only an option for a small number of people.
In 2020, I took our full-time program and shifted it online. But like many schools, I realized that 20 or more hours a week of live, in-person time just isn’t sustainable online. So, in 2021, I took time off from teaching to work on my own mental health and to reimagine what herbal education might look like if I started from scratch – taking everything I had learned and recreating a program specifically geared toward online learners.
In the process of working on increasing the accessibility of our curriculum, I realized that maybe the easiest way to do that was to simply turn everything into a series of textbooks. So in 2022, Mel and I started rebuilding the curriculum from the ground up. We’re making real progress on a comprehensive series of clinical herbal medicine textbooks that I’m excited to tell you about – but this email isn’t about new books and increased accessibility to herbal education (more on that soon).
This email is about building safety in trying times.
A New Chapter for Wellspring Mountain
When Terrie Ann and I listed Wellspring Mountain last year, we hoped we would find a like-minded group that would continue the work we’ve spent a decade doing. A lot of folks don’t know we’re the second-largest botanical sanctuary in the US. We’ve put a lot of effort into spreading native medicinals and making this beautiful property available and open to folks who need nature and serenity.
On a couple of occasions, we connected with groups that were like-minded and had amazing ideas but struggled with grants and funding under our new political climate.
Late winter of this year, Bugz, an old friend I did disaster relief work with in Haiti, reached out. They said some folks would love to talk with me about the property and how we might use it as a refuge for those experiencing disasters – and how we might continue the healing work we’ve been doing.
It’s taken quite a while to work everything out, but I am super thrilled today to announce a partnership between the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine and Spring Mountain Wellness – a new nonprofit that will be transforming our campus into a place of refuge for those fleeing disasters – a place where they can come, get their bearings, and figure out the next steps of life. We’re also establishing a peer support respite where folks in mental crisis who are trying to avoid institutionalization can come for free, share meals, have community, and if they wish, receive herbal support.
What This Means for the School
One of the coolest things about our partnership is that the school will staff an herbalist in residence here. We’ll be keeping our compounding apothecary here so that anyone in need who comes for respite and restoration can have free herbal support.
This nonprofit will be transitioning over the next couple of years to become the owners of the property. By taking over property management and partnering with the school to provide herbal care, they’re freeing me up to have more time with family, to focus on writing and curriculum development, and maybe most importantly to me – I get to be one of the herbalists for people in need, for people struggling with their mental health.
I’ve got to tell you – 15 years into running an herb school, 10 years into managing such a large piece of property, many days my deepest wish is just to be a simple clinical herbalist again. Just show up where I’m needed, sit down with sick people and figure out how to help them. I’m at that age in my life where I’m trying to tune in to what I really want and honor that.
And literally can’t express how thrilled I am to be shifting away from property ownership and towards spending more time practicing herbal medicine with the people that need it the most.
Here’s Where You Come In
Here’s the thing about what we’re creating: 500 acres and 20+ buildings, along with our shower house and commercial kitchen, means we can help quite a few people. But our facilities and resources are not unlimited, and so at least in the beginning, we are focusing on helping the most vulnerable in our community.
If you’re reading this, you are my community. If you’re part of the mutual aid movement – you are my community.
Tornadoes, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes – natural and manmade disasters seem to be happening more and more frequently. Overwhelming stress and mental health crises are rampant. The systems that are supposed to help often fail those who need them most. Insurance companies deny claims. FEMA runs out of funds. Psychiatric facilities often traumatize rather than heal. The safety nets we were told would be there are full of holes, and the most vulnerable fall through.
As the social contracts we’ve grown accustomed to crumble, I believe we must build our own safety nets. We must be the refuge for each other.
As we get things going and work on licensure for our peer support respite, I want to be clear: we’re here for you. And we’re prioritizing the most vulnerable among us.
We’ve already begun taking in folks who are temporarily unhoused, with a focus on disabled individuals who need a safe place to land. This fall, we will start the licensure process for our peer support respite.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “I’ve never heard of anything like this before” – that’s because, as far as we know, this particular combination is unique. A holistic wellness-focused space that combines disaster refuge with peer support respite, all grounded in nature and herbal medicine? It’s something the world desperately needs. And it could really use your support.
Why Recurring Donations Matter
When you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, you shouldn’t need to worry about paying for anything. When you’re driving away from a hurricane with whatever you could fit in your car, you shouldn’t need to worry about paying for shelter. You just need help and support. You need a place to land.
The best way people can help Spring Mountain Wellness is to become recurring donors. Recurring donations of $10, $20, or $30 a month provide a baseline that allows the nonprofit to understand how much they can offer and how to structure their budget.
If you or someone you know has ever experienced a mental health crisis and wished there was a place to show up and be fed, listened to, and given space to rest and recover – if you’ve watched disasters unfold and wondered where people go when the Red Cross shelters close – if you’ve seen friends and family fall through the cracks of systems that were supposed to help them – a small recurring donation can make sure there are beds available, meals prepared, and herbalists on hand for folks who need refuge.
I believe we are building something fundamentally different – a model where mental health support doesn’t require insurance, diagnoses, or institutionalization. Where disaster relief includes emotional and spiritual care alongside physical shelter. Where the healing power of plants and nature are central, not peripheral, to recovery.
Thank you for being part of this journey with us. The fact that we can transform this land into a refuge for those who need it most feels like the natural evolution of everything we’ve been building here.
With gratitude and hope,
-Thomas and Terrie Ann
P.S. If you have questions about Spring Mountain Wellness or want to know more about how to access services (for yourself or someone you care about), please reach out directly at 743-241-6310.