ABOUT

 Hi, I’m Tessa Kappe (she/her)

I’m a clinical herbalist and educator based on unceded Ohlone land in San Francisco, California.

I completed a 3 year clinical herbalist certification at Scarlet Sage Herb Co.’s School of Traditional Healing Arts / Land of Verse, where I also worked and taught botany to herbalists. In addition to seeing clients, I maintain an herbal medicine apothecary, lead herb walks and workshops, and help steward the public Medicine Garden at Alemany Farm.

Prior to herbalism, and inspired by my time in urban gardens throughout the U.S. and Europe, I spent 10+ years cultivating social and ecological healing through nature connection, leading food justice and school garden programs with city kids. Those seeds were planted in part while earning a B.A. in Politics with a focus in Feminist Studies from UC Santa Cruz, while immersed in bikes, backyards DIY culture and grassroots social justice organizing.

They were also planted in my childhood, with one foot on L.A.’s sidewalks and the other in the coastal hills of Topanga Canyon, unceded Tongva and Chumash land, road tripping and camping in California and Baja with my family. I can still picture the bright bougainvillea climbing my apartment as a kid and am curious about plants wherever I go, especially the weeds!

When I’m not reading herb books, making medicines, or sitting with clients, you can find me tending plants, making backyard salads, appreciating flowers, fermenting things, at the farmers market or strolling the hills of San Francisco’s Excelsior neighborhood I’ve called home since 2014.

My ongoing learning and more in depth training includes:

  • 2026 - Supplement Deep Dive - Camille Freeman (in progress)

  • 2025 - Immune System Deep Dive - Camille Freeman

  • 2025 - Herbs for Elders - Maria Noel Groves

  • 2024 - Fertility Training for Practitioners - Camille Freeman & Liane Moccia

  • 2024 - Materia Medica - 7Song

  • 2024 - Nervous System Deep Dive - Camille Freeman

  • 2023 - Hormone Deep Dive - Camille Freeman

  • 2023 - Advanced Clinical Skills - Wild Current Herbalism w/ Ember Peters, Stascha Stahl & Vilde Chaya Fenster Erlich

  • 2023 - Advanced Medicine Making - Stascha Stahl

  • 2023 - Herb Drug Interactions - Ember Peters

  • 2023 - California Naturalist Certificate - UC Agriculture & Natural Resources

  • 2023 - Active Constituents of Herbs - Mimi Hernandez

  • 2022 - G.I. Deep Dive - Camille Freeman

  • 2021 - present - Monday Mentoring Herbalist & Nutritionist Community - Camille Freeman

  • 2021 - present - Monthly Herbal Salons - David Winston

  • 2021 - Reading the Body - Margi Flynt

  • 2019 - 2021 - Clinical Herbalist Certificate 3 yr/650 hrs - School of Traditional Healing Arts

  • 2019 - Trauma Informed Nutrition Security - Leah’s Pantry, San Francisco CA

  • 2016 - School Garden Teacher Training - Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, Occidental CA

  • 2012 - Permaculture Design Certificate - Urban Permaculture Institute, San Francisco CA

  • 2012 - CA Native Plants & Landscape Horticulture - Merritt College, Oakland CA

  • 2012 - Nonviolent Communication - BayNVC, Oakland CA

  • 2011 - Garden Internship/Edible Schoolyard Academy - The Edible Schoolyard, Berkeley CA

  • 2011 - Children’s Docent Training - Annette Huddle, San Francisco Botanical Garden CA

  • 2008 - B.A. Politics w/ Honors & focus in Feminist Studies - UC Santa Cruz