Sage L. Maurer
Founder & Director ~
In 2001, Sage founded The Gaia School of Healing in New England and has trained thousands of apprentices over the past 23 years. In Southern Vermont she teaches in partnership with ten acres of land covered in abundant healing plants. Sage practices a blend of traditional folk herbalism and plant spirit medicine, partnering with the plant kingdoms as her main teachers. Currently she offers courses in sacred plant medicine, ethnobotany, ancestral herbalism, deep ecology, and eco-spirituality year round.
Sage began learning directly from plants in childhood, reconnecting with the ancient traditions of plant use in pagan Europe. She was formally trained and certified in traditional herbal medicine at The Blazing Star Herbal School with Tony Lemos and The Boston School of Herbal Energetics with Mary Pat Palmer and Kwah Wa'Adabi. In late 2004 she moved to Oahu, Hawaii to study anthropology, ethnobotany, and tropical plant medicine. At the University of Hawaii she trained for two years with native Hawaiian herbalist Levon Ohai, igniting a passion for tropical plant medicine.
Sage holds a master’s degree in Environmental Education, with a focus on New England plant ecology and ecosystems. She believes strongly in our partnership with nature and fighting the destructive aspects of Western culture. Sage is committed to social and environmental justice, knowing community resiliency increases when we preserve the medicine traditions of our ancestors. She believes health care begins all around the world at a community level, through holistic medicine that often comes from our homes. Sage founded The Gaia School was from the desire to help reawaken our connection to nature, and ancient memories of healing in partnership with plants.
Committed to supporting healing spaces for LGBTQ family and marginalized communities, Sage hopes to help increase access to plant medicine for all communities. When she is not teaching and playing with plants, you'll find her covered in paint, dirt, or piles of books.
To follow Sage’s offerings check out the current Gaia online courses, retreats, and the in person apprenticeships taught in Vermont. Or follow via instagram @thegaiaschoolofhealing
Alessandra De Oliveira
Canada & Vermont Courses
Alessandra teaches sacred plant medicine courses in Canada and New England, offering herbal medicine, holistic body care and yoga.
Alessandra has always had a deep thirst and drive for connecting to a higher source for healing and wellness. She began her journey as a Holistic Wellness Practitioner and her experience at the The Gaia School transformed her world. Alessandra became highly aware of the importance of plant medicine and how therapeutic their medicine is to the body. She became so fascinated with the plants that she was working with, that applying her knowledge of plants and providing natural wellness treatments became standard in all of the services that she offered. In 2010 her exploration led her to complete 500HR YTT and Ayurvedic Healing treatments.
Native to Brazil, Alessandra was introduced to spiritual practices and plant medicine at a very young age. Her exposure to plants as a child stemmed from Native Indigenous and African roots, merging the two to bring in physical and spiritual healing.
Since studying at Gaia, Alessandra has deepened her connection to plants and works with many varieties daily for support and self care. She runs weekly circles and shares the healing potential that plants carry in her wellness business in Toronto, Canada. She has held space for as many as 150 people in her healing circles and continues to bring forward the importance of respecting the healing medicine of plants and the sacredness of their spirits. Alessandra also runs monthly workshops around plant medicine, integrating and pulling from her knowledge of traditional healing treatments and the wise woman philosophies.
Alessandra will be teaching our Year One Sacred Plant Medicine Apprenticeships in Toronto, Canada starting in 2024. To follow Alessandra’s offerings stay posted here or visit her on instagram - @layaspayoga
Constanza Leal-Woods
Colombia & New England Courses
Constanza is a South American herbalist trained through The Gaia School of Healing. She has run Jardín Secreto since May of 2017, offering workshops in South America and New England, as well as herbalism apprenticeships in Colombia. Constanza started her journey with plants in June, 2011 after a hit & run bike accident that changed her life. Her path began with the support of Comfrey, a bone mending plant that continues to be one of her most treasured allies.
Since her childhood in Chile, Constanza has had an affinity for nature, spending hours foraging for mushrooms with her mother and learning the art of preserving seasonal fruits with her grandmother. It wasn't until her adult life that Constanza had the opportunity to deepen her connection with the medicine and Spirit of the Plants. She received her PDCs in the Earth Activist Training with Pandora Thomas & StarHawk, Escuela Na Lu’um, as well as Wise Woman tradition of healing, Plant Spirit Medicine and conscious Herbalism with Sage Maurer, Steph Zabel and Doña Lidia Acevedo, Curandera of Oaxaca, Mexico.
Since 2016 Constanza has been tending the land where she lives with her husband and baby daughter, growing food as medicine, wildcrafting, teaching herbalism and making small batches of medicine for her community in the mountains of Antioquia, Colombia. The region where her educational space is located is in lush green mountains of the Andes in Colombia, almost 9,000 feet above sea level, in a rural area that's about 40 minutes from the magical city of eternal spring, Medellin. These sacred lands she calls home were tended to for thousands of years by the Tahamis and Aburrae tribes. The climate in this mountain allows Constanza to grow and forage food and medicine almost all year long, making possible for her to offer plant walks and forest hikes to her students during the apprenticeships.
One of Constanza's favorite Andean native species in this area is Vira Vira, a powerful ally of the lungs, a calming and soothing spirit that has been traditionally used for respiratory ailments but also to relax the body and mind in times of anxiety. The list of her favorite native species is long and the abundance of medicinal plant species is abundant, inspiring her to always look for ways to weave this loving mountain into her offerings.
To encompass her creative collaborations with the wisdom of the Plants and environmental activism, Constanza founded her project Jardín Secreto. This space offers educational experiences, sacred and ritual gatherings, plant medicine and herbalism with a focus on conscious methods that are in service, above all, to the plants themselves. Her work and way of sharing herbalism honors the teachings of the Medicine Wheel, guiding her process by the moon cycles, the seasons and her endless reverence for Madre Earth.
Constanza teaches herbalism workshops in South America and New England, as well as our Year One Sacred Plant Medicine Apprenticeships in Medellin, Colombia. To follow Constanza’s offerings visit her class listings here. Join Constanza and the plants on instagram! @somosjardinsecreto
