Our Story
Those of us who make up the Yarrow Collective have experienced psychiatric diagnosis, suicidality, trauma, extreme emotional distress, addiction, recovery, discrimination, and more.
We are people who have found beauty in our sadness,
who have found trap doors at “rock bottom,”
who have broken our hearts on the wind and found our names within,
who have nightmares about mental hospitals,
who kinda-sorta-sometimes liked therapy and medication,
who found community in rites of passage,
who needed to define our stories in our own terms,
who realized we were the experts of our own experience
who trouble linear timelines of healing,
who sometimes are still really struggling, and
who dream of alternatives.
Some of us reject labels like “mental illness,” “diagnosis,” and “recovery,” while others of us identify with those words as useful and meaningful to our stories.
The Yarrow Collective is borne out of a need for alternatives, a need for community, and a need to reclaim our stories in ways that are meaningful to us.
All that to say, here at the Yarrow Collective, we’ve “been there,” and we’re here to envision & cultivate what healing, support, and empowerment can look like through alternative options to the current conventional system.
About our name...
Achillea millefolium, Dog Daisy, Green Arrow, Knight’s Milfoil, Milenrama, Bloodwort, Devil’s Nettle, Poor Man’s Pepper, Soldier’s Woundwort, Staunchweed, Sanguinary… Yarrow is known by many names, loved across many lands, and held sacred by our most ancient ancestors. Over 60,000 years ago in what is now Iran, a Neandertal was laid to rest on a bed of many medicinal plants- including the tiny white flowers of yarrow (Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask, Mary Siisip Geniusz). Sprouting from both rich and dry soil, this herb is resilient. It reaches its roots through whatever terrain it finds itself in, anchoring the leaves and flowers it sends upward to the light. It thrives in home garden pots and in the cracks of rocky cliff sides — yarrow grows nearly everywhere in the world.
The botanical name “Achillea” refers to Achilles, the renowned Greek Warrior, who used a poultice of yarrow leaves and stems to heal his soldiers’ wounds. Legends say that Achilles learned the healing properties of Yarrow from his mentor Chiron- The Wounded Healer. These ancient connections center one of yarrow’s most powerful properties- its capacity to stop the bleeding, allowing you to heal. Yarrow heals the physical body- it fights infection, it slows bleeding, it tightens and regenerates tissue. It can also heal our emotional and spiritual bodies. It lends us a hand while we tend to the wounds deep within ourselves with gentleness and curiosity. Yarrow’s medicine speaks to many lineages in our blood, holding our complexities with its lacey leaves. The wisdom of this herb can be a shield over the heart, allowing what’s out of your control to stay outside while love passes through its lacey leaves freely.
In honor of this sacred plant and its healing capabilities, we use the name “Yarrow Collective” to remind us to embody its medicine through our work- tending to the emotional wounds of our communities, and healing through the power of collective care.