RE-WEAVING COMMUNITY INTO MENTAL HEALTH
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Our healthcare systems have been sterile,
disembodied and unintegrated for far too long.
At Sweetgrass Therapeutics, we have
envisioned more for our community &
the greater culture of mental health.
Our founder, wanted to design a place that felt
soft, inviting and grounded in both our
human & more-than-human connections.
She envisioned a space where mind + body + spirit + soul are truly tended to, where practitioners of various modalities could share their gifts,
and where community could gather.
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Our Story
Sweetgrass:
The Sacred Hair of Mother Earth
Hierochloe odorata
Wiingashk
Buffalo Grass
“In some Native languages the term for plants translates to “those who take care of us.”
Prior to her career shift as a therapist, our founder, Jessica Chacón, worked in the professional sports & entertainment industry. During graduate school she served as the Fitness & Wellness Coordinator for Adams State University and became a Wilderness Therapist shortly after receiving her Masters. After moving back to the SLV, she became the Community Corrections Liaison for a Community Mental Health Center and realized that the word community was actually missing from the work…then COVID came.
Working in the Industrial Mental Health complex became very taxing, causing Jessica to take medical leave- where she contemplated leaving the field all together. But she didn’t…
She just recognized that it was time to spread her wings.
After nearly a year in a virtual private practice, Jessica was in a severe mountain biking accident causing her to step away from work again for a couple months. During this time, she tended to what doctors called a “butterfly break” in her clavicle and she again became aware of how much community really does matter in our healing & recovery.
Fueled & inspired by food, rest, meditation and the book Braiding Sweetgrass, Jessica decided it was time to open a brick & mortar. After some resistance, she committed and the rest fell into place quickly.
Sweetgrass Therapeutics was the name birthed during what felt like an initiatory time. A braid to represent the weaving of Mind + Body + Spirit & the energy of reciprocity between Self + Community + the Natural World.