Who we are

PLANT SPIRIT TALK 

We are a community of plant loving, life learners, liberation workers, Pachamama worshippers, truth seekers, dedicated healers, therapists and artists, who practice deep listening and apprenticing with plants and Nature. We walk our life journey, cultivating harmony, healing, growth and liberation for our lives and our communities, by following the guidance we receive from Pachamama, the spirit world and our own intuitive impulses, which we trust are connected to the earth, as she manifests through us; always striving to thrive and find homeostasis.

Honoring the teachings and time-tried wisdom carried and generously shared by our Indigenous teachers from the Amazon and the Andes, we practice integration of ancestral and folk ways to cleanse, process and heal from collective and individual trauma.

By dedicating time and focused intention to learn and remember from the plants, the elements, the land and her beings, we’re able to recalibrate our lives to align ourselves with our sacred purpose as earth stewards and carriers of the wisdom she provides.

Mission

Our mission is to support individual and collective liberation, the awakening of our innate healing potential, and the remembrance of our sacred purpose as earth’s guardians and stewards of creation. 

We do this by listening to the guidance and teachings of Indigenous elders & wisdom carriers and nature, while reclaiming and reconnecting with our own intuition. 

About Our Name

PLANT SPIRIT TALK is a transmission.

A call through our flora kin to connect and remember who we truly are.

Our Staff

  • Terry Hwang

    PROGRAMING DIRECTOR

  • Asha Kohli

    DIGITAL STORYTELLER

  • Margaret Zhou

    ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Francisca Santibanez

FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

AT PLANT SPIRIT TALK

I am a mama, plant lover & devotee. An animist, herbalist, ritualist, wellness guide, counselor, medicine maker, educator, artist and founder of Plant Spirit Talk. 

I’m passionate about healing, growth and liberation and repeatedly in awe of the magic, empowerment and activation of deep wisdom that happens, when we return to the earth for healing and remembrance.

I was raised in Brazil, Chile and California, and as an adult found my way to the lush jungles and maintains of Peru to study with Indigenous teachers of Mestizo, Quechua, Shipibo and Q’eros lineages. This is where I met my current teachers, Amelia Panduro De Sinuiri of the Shipibo tribe, and the Q’eros family of wisdom carriers and healers of the Quispe Apaza and Chura Flores Lineages. 

My interest in intimate connection with plants, the earth and the spirit world began before I could speak as an infant. This love and passion for the mystery and aliveness in nature is my primary compass in life, along with my devotion to Pachamama. 

As a queer BIPOC, ADHDer and sexual trauma survivor without structured support, my health and my life fell apart over a decade ago. Embracing herbal medicine and going through initiations with plants saved me. They helped me heal myself physically, emotionally and mostly spiritually. They’ve helped me remember my self, my purpose, my value and my gifts. They’ve ushered me through a path of accelerated growth and have reunited me with the Earth and my place of deep belonging as a part of Her. 

In 2013 I formalized my studies Herbal Medicine through the Western Clinical Herbalism program at the Berkeley Herbal Center, where I also taught for many years after completing the program. In 2014 I took my first ancestral reclamation and remembrance journey to South America where I was able to meet and learn from many indigenous teachers through the Raizes del Sur gatherings of Tribes in Chile and later in Peru. Throughout my healing journey, I have been blessed with an abundance of teachers, Western and Indigenous, in human, plant, ancestral and spirit form. Their presence and teachings have guided me to my own Medicine’s awakening and initiations. Granting me a path of purpose, sovereignty and deep commitment to guide, support and pass on the wisdom I’ve gathered, to help and uplift others as they awaken to their own Medicine.