Clémence's Story

My name is Clémence Cocquet. I'm French. I live in the Scottish Highlands. I've been making herbal medicine almost my entire life.

Both my grandmothers knew plants the way most people know their kin: intimately. My mother is a weaver and plant dyer. I grew up drinking herbal infusions daily, like other children drink Ribena. I made my first “potions” as a teenager in France - experimented with Chamomile, Vervain and even salt - then drifted away from it until my early twenties, when a beekeeper called Mr Loiseau changed everything. He had a medicinal field for his bees and pressed a book on herbal medicine into my hands. I still use that book today.

A few years later, in Scotland this time, at 25 and pregnant with my first child, I was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Something shifted in me then that never shifted back. I became someone with very little tolerance for self-neglect and a fierce belief that women deserve more autonomy over their own health. I worked as a physio in the NHS, first in medicine for the elderly, then in spinal injuries. I saw what happens when people lose that autonomy. I also saw what happens when health practitioners don’t have enough autonomy to help people. I couldn't stay. So I created a wellness festival in Scotland called Scapa Fest. Then the pandemic came and took it after 3 successful events.

I moved to a croft on the Isle of Mull, on the West Coast of Scotland, grew medicinal plants on a windswept patch of land, and started making medicine again. I supported women through freebirth all over the country. I developed herbal preparations for women and their families who wanted more say over their own bodies and health.

Over the last 15 years, I've studied with the best in herbal medicine and Anthroposophic medicine. Now I'm in Highland Perthshire, closer to the land than ever, still making medicine, still believing that plants can do extraordinary things for the people who use them. That's why the Wise Women Village exists.

If you've been curious but haven't tried anything yet, I'd love to welcome you in.