a bit about me–come on into my Earthseed Garden…

I’m Shelby (she/her), an unflinchingly dedicated, radically inclusive and deeply committed birthkeeper, folk herbalist, community health educator, and Womb-Space Ceremonialist. 

I am daughter to Sarah and progeny of Josephine – Josephine (Jo) Middleton Young – my ancestor and maternal grandmother – the first wise woman, healer, midwife, community activist, freedom fighter, scientist and master gardener I ever had access to. 

Within her gardens, seeded by the practices of equity-based social justice, steeped within the soul-stirring ceremony of spirituality, and infused with the synergistic core values of interconnectedness, community and belonging, is where my love of the natural world and science was cultivated, my keen observation skills were honed, and an unshakeable dedication to service was solidified. 

Earthseed Lessons from Garden’s Altar

It was only natural that the skinny, tadpole-catching Bay Area Black girl-child would apply those perceptive life observations to an academic trajectory and professional career dedicated to: being aligned and in service to our highest values, while tackling some of the toughest problems that prevent us from actualizing our fullest potential, hypothesizing and then developing strategies and modalities designed to transform systems of care in order to transmute lives and heal, restoratively, the disconnected-ness of the human condition. 

I am best known for integrating my 50+ years of lived experiences with a work ethic and rigor that blends 30 years of professional practice, academic training, community service/partnerships, as well as direct-care into a framework and practice that is inextricably linked to the belief that we are–all of us–interconnected. 

I have a reputation amongst my clients, peers, and myriad stakeholders for melding my academic and clinical background with traditional wisdom, as well as holistic and allopathic modalities of care, in order to create and offer provocative + persuasive methods for ensuring that every single person in our world has the access and opportunity to lead their healthiest, safest, fullest, most authentic, and wherever possible, most pleasurable life.

I am sincerely intrigued by and dedicated to transformative systems-level change and restorative, direct-care and healing, particularly within and for those communities that have been disproportionally harmed and/or burdened by systemic inequities and injustice.

I’m also Mama to two of the dopest and most beautiful Beings on the planet, Imara Jahann and Nia Kai, and full of humble gratitude to have chosen and been chosen by them.

Today my own life’s gardens, both within the physical landscapes of the earth, as well as the landscape of my Earthseed birth-keeping practice continue to be cultivated. 

I am the Black (womb)an, with a kink to my hair that undeniably links me to Mother Africa…I am Minnie’s “Black Gold of the Sun”🎶.  I am Billie’s poignantly potent blues. I am Angela and Assata…Nzingha, Bell, Maya, Araminta, and Audre when I stand in all of my glorious divinity.

I do more than support births, I support womb awareness and womb (K)nowing that goes beyond understanding and requires one to unfold into a realm of deep innerstanding.

I support re-births, dreams yet to be borne, and deaths of what is no longer needed on the journey.

I am a Keeper of wombs…Keeper of womb spaces.

Ceremonialist to the Spirit of the womb.

I sit in deep presence, simply with what is, bearing witness to, and supporting you through this transformative time of your own expansion into what your life is…right now in this moment.