This clinic is a sliding scale offering where you can access in-depth personalised herbal support. Sessions are offered online and medicines are sent in the post. Medicines are grown and made nearly entirely from the land where I live. If I’m unable to grow a particular plant in quantity, I will purchase medicine only from organic and ethical suppliers.
The challenges of sliding scale
Designing a sliding-scale clinic has felt challenging. The balance of surviving capitalism myself, while also wanting to support people on low-incomes experiencing state violence and other forms of oppression is definitely difficult. But it is not insurmountable - I try to cover the costs involved through other fundraising strategies (online courses, merchandise, book sales, grants etc).
Despite all my creative efforts, I still live on a very low-income because of the sheer volume of unpaid grassroots organising and care work that I do including and beyond the Solidarity Apothecary (e.g. prisoner support work). I am a working-class femme with very little in savings, next to no pension and am unlikely to inherit money. Despite this, I know I have huge access to resources including access to land where I live, lots of friendships and comradeship, lots of skills, clinical training and many more things. I share these offerings from a dedication to liberation, not from some kind of martyrdom or self-exploitation.
However, I can also not deny a financial impact of unpaid work on myself and my future self - I really don’t want to grow old in poverty. When you grow up on a low income, it’s very easy to normalise this level of economic hardship and ability to endure ‘going without’. I have stood on picket lines demanding better wages for people in all manner of jobs, and I know that ultimately, I deserve a living wage too. I also recognise that most herbalists are extremely underpaid, as an extension of how capitalism undervalues and exploits feminised caring labour.
Where do you fit on the sliding scale?
Class is complex. It is inseparable from other forms of oppression (racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism, etc). People do not fit into neat categories or into neat sliding scales. Capitalist society generates and perpetuates a feeling of scarcity, for many this is acutely real (e.g. poverty), for others it is an emotional feeling of instability and fear which is also very real. Studies have shown that even millionaires feel that they do not have ‘enough’. Therefore, a sliding scale is a bit more complicated because of our different relationships with money - hence why it is important to integrate an analysis of systemic oppression and class rather than an emotional feeling of what you can afford.
Please see the question ‘Who is this for?’ In each of the packages below to help identify which package may be most appropriate for you. If you’re feeling unclear, I’m really happy to talk things through in a shame-free way.
Thank you for caring about liberation. I'm excited to work with you and connect you with plant medicines that can support you in your journey.
Rose Package
Who is this for?
People on a low-income who are:
- Former prisoners
- Prisoner family members
- Refugees, asylum seekers & people without papers
- Organisers experiencing state repression
What does the package involve?
- 1 x comprehensive consultation
- 2 x follow ups
- 3 months of medicine
How much does it cost and why?
My time and medicine are gifted in solidarity. Why? Because I have lived through these experiences and been affected by the prison system for nearly two decades. I recognise how state violence shapes our bodies, and as herbalist I want to support people to shape it back – to heal our nervous systems, build strength and vitality. I pay for the costs involved through other fundraising strategies (online courses, merchandise, book sales, grants etc).
Yarrow Package
Who is this for?
People on a low-income who are grassroots organisers whose work may bring them into contact with state repression and violence, trauma, and lead them to burnout and other health challenges.
Grassroots organisers can be people working for liberation in different ways. This package is for people who dedicate consistent large amounts of time to unpaid organising.
What does the package involve?
- 1 x comprehensive consultation
- 2 x follow ups
- 3 months of medicine
How much does it cost and why?
It costs £75 which goes towards my time enabling me to also survive capitalism and to some of the non-negotiable costs involved (packaging, posting costs, medicine making materials I am unable to make myself). I pay for the remaining costs involved through other fundraising strategies (online courses, merchandise, book sales, grants etc). Payment plans are available to spread the cost over several months.
Nettle Package
Who is this for?
For people living on a low-income due to structural oppression seeking affordable herbal support. Defining ‘low-income’ is difficult and can sometimes feel dehumanising to detail, so I prefer to focus on what defines someone has having financial resources in a capitalist system (see below). If you do not have the financial resources described in the elderberry package, if you are living month-to-month financially, if you are surviving on less than £12k per year, I would say that the nettle package is for you.
What does the package involve?
- 1 x comprehensive consultation
- 2 x follow ups
- 3 months of medicine
How much does it cost and why?
The package costs £250. Payment plans are available to spread the cost if needed. This rate covers the actual costs involved in offering herbal medicine – the time to grow and make the medicines, consultation time and dispensing, posting and packaging costs. However, I am reducing the rate I pay myself as an act of solidarity, due to my own lived experience of poverty growing up and low-income living as an adult. This is part of my commitment to redistributing resources as an act of class solidarity as an anarchist.
Elderberry Package
Who is this for?
For people who would like to access herbal support to improve their health, who have financial resources and care about liberation.
What makes someone financially resourced?
- Having access to unearned generational wealth e.g. trust funds, family allowances, living off inheritance
- Owning a house or owning more than one property/being a landlord
- Having larger than average savings/pensions/investments beyond your daily cost of living
- Being a middle to high earner in terms of work/waged labour
What does the package involve?
- 1 x comprehensive consultation
- 2 x follow ups
- 3 months of medicine
How much does it cost and why?
The package costs £350. Payment plans are available to spread the cost if needed. This rate covers the actual costs involved in offering herbal medicine – the time to grow and make the medicines, consultation time and dispensing, posting and packaging costs.