Born in Maryland, with members of her family hailing from a part of Appalachia, Kimberly Geisler grew up with a lot of folk traditions from that part of the world. Spiritual and herbal medicinal practices were just part of her everyday life. Fast forward to today, and the Becket resident is now a clinical folk herbalist with a line of handcrafted herbal remedies. Her business, Transcending Roots. offers a space to honor and celebrate herbalism, magic, and healing.

I spent a lot of my earlier life in a self-study of natural and alternative medicine practices. It wasn’t until I was trying to become pregnant and couldn’t that I started studying herbalism more professionally. Transcending Roots began as a small project in 2018. I was a stay-at-home mom in Philadelphia, where there was a close-knit herbal community. I had a couple of informal mentorships, working at a home birthing place and with other herbalists. We began holding talks about herbalism at a community center. It was geared towards children and parents, to help kids get connected to the land. It grew and grew as we saw the community’s desire for this kind of information. In 2019 we opened a storefront intended to be a center for education to teach people about medicinal plants and how to incorporate them into their lives.

But then Covid happened, and we were only open for four months being forced to close. There was so much uncertainty at that time; a lot of people were seeking out herbal medicine. I was driving around, dropping off Covid care packages. Transcending Roots came out of that. I have over 150 different tinctures of single herbs to make custom formulations for my clients. I can blend them as a specific remedy for their needs. There are blends for memory and cognition, seasonal allergy, cold and flu relief, nervous system  and postpartum support, and many more. I also create skincare and aromatherapy products, and teas to help stomach, sleep and other issues.

Everything I make tells a story. The healing salve that I’ve been making for over 15 years was created for tattoo after care, but it turned into being incredible for everything from cuts and scrapes to diaper rash. That’s why it’s called Heal All Salve.

My heart is in teaching and clinical practices — teaching is where I want to put my focus on going forward. I’m relaunching an herbal education program in the spring. It’s an in-depth education program covering all aspects of plant medicine and practice, understanding body systems, and a path to healing and spiritual growth.

While my husband brought me to Philadelphia, our connection to the Berkshires was that we started coming up here when we were dating and always loved it. In 2014 we bought land, planning to build a DIY cabin. Our in-laws moved up from Florida and built their house on our land. After the pandemic, it was hard to raise children in Philadelphia. We decided to relocate full time and took over the property. We have ten acres in the middle of the forest. The first thing we built was a medicine wheel, a space on the ground that honors the people of the land and the traditions I’ve been taught to practice throughout my life.

Photos courtesy of Kim Geisler

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The Rural We