Meet Kathryn Sisler-Waple

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kathryn Sisler-Waple a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kathryn, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?

Overcoming or avoiding burnout is a tricky road to walk! From the pressure to have a small business that is always expanding, to the lack of sustainable growth mindset models and the idea that my success is dependent on someone else’s failure (or that for someone else to succeed means that I must be a failure) burnout feels like it is always just around the corner. I have worked through burnout more than the idea that I have avoided or overcome it. The most important idea that has helped me work through burnout is that when working with a community and abundance-based mindset no one person has to do or be anything. I can refer clients to other herbalists in the area when I am overwhelmed, I can collaborate with other teachers to offer content that I think is important, but that I am not ready to teach about myself and can actively work to build the community of plant lovers that I would like to support and be supported by. I don’t have to (and don’t want to) do it all myself. There is an ebb and flow of energy and projects, support and abundance!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

When I left Wilmington, NC in 2008 to apprentice under Corinna Wood, I did so because there was no one in the area who was teaching in-person herbal classes and I wanted a hands-on experience. Upon my return later that year I started teaching. There was amazing and almost overwhelming support from the community to learn how to work with plants in a holistic and hands-on way. As I grew along my path I explored selling wholesale products that I made, tried out heling people through clinical herbalism and continued to grow my teaching practice. I took a job as a children’s outdoor educator with Nature Connect NC (now the Three Pines Project) to continue to hone my skills as a nature-based educator and have made a full spiral back into teaching herbalism as my main passion for working with plants and people.

I recently rebranded the education side of my practice as the Seagate School of Holistic Herbalism. Part of the rebranding reflects that the school has grown to be bigger than myself and to represent the collaboration with other herbalists in the area. One of the teachers for the workshops series I will be facilitating this winter is Taylor Lawrence (Root and Rise Wilmington) who started out as my students in 2014!

This year is also exciting because I am Directing an amazing team of volunteers to host the first Annual SouthEast North Carolina Herbal Conference in Burgaw, NC on November 16th, 2024 at Old River Farms. This is a one day conference with a focus on herbal education. We have 17 amazing herbalists coming from as far away as Georgia and New York as well as talented local teachers. There has not been an event like this hosted in our area and we are actively building the community we would like to live in. “Herbalism is activism by way of life!”

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Flexibility, resilience and being able to ask for help would be the three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey. I have pursued many different ways of being an herbalist over the last 16 years and through the support of my husband, family and friends, the ability to look critically at what is or is not working and to have the ability to shift and change my practice as I have grown and changed has been a huge gift. I am not the herbalist I was when I started and I am so comfortable in how my relationship has changed and grown over the years. If I had just tried to stick with what I thought I wanted to do when I started out, I would be miserable or would have given up. There are still many aspects of my practice that are the same, but I have allowed myself to be flexible and change as long as I stay true to my core values of working with plants.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

My parents have always supported what I have been passionate about, even if they didn’t quite understand the what or the why. The biggest gift is that it was not “blind” support! When I wanted to become an herbalist they asked critical thinking questions about my plan, what I wanted to do and why and how it was going to support me, in all senses. They weren’t coming from a place of being naysayers, but to help me take a dream and turn it into a reality. My dad (very) recently passed away from a stroke and so I have been reflecting on the gifts he gave me as I learn how to move through the world without his physical presence.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.seagateschool.com; www.sencherbalconference.com
• Instagram: @seagateschool @sencherbalconference
• Facebook: @seagateschool

Image Credits

Image Credits: Kathryn Sisler Waple;
Headshot Photo Credit: Jennifer Vanderfleet