Student Spotlight: Johana Castillo

Today, we are honored to introduce Johana, a community herbalist and recipient of FMCA’s Community Impact Scholarship whose passion for health coaching is deeply rooted in community, culture, and connection. For the past seven years, Johana has dedicated herself to community care and wellness, exploring how people understand and approach their health through the lens of their lived experiences and cultural traditions. Her journey became especially personal when she became a mother and recognized how profoundly a mother’s well-being can influence the health of her children and family. Through herbalism and medicinal plants, Johana discovered meaningful ways to care for herself while reconnecting with traditions that have long supported health and healing within communities.

“A lot of people feel lost in their own medical care because they don’t understand what’s really happening and what the doctors are telling them. Having a person who can help them and have a cultural understanding of where they’re coming from, and meeting them where they are. That’s the people that I want to keep serving.”

Johana Castillo, September 2026 FMCA Student

Living in South Florida and speaking both English and Spanish, Johana hopes to use her FMCA training to better serve immigrant families, mothers, Spanish-speaking individuals, LGBTQ+ communities, and others who may feel overwhelmed or disconnected from the healthcare system. She believes meaningful health coaching begins by meeting people where they are and honoring the knowledge, foods, traditions, and healing practices they already carry with them. By combining cultural understanding with functional and whole-person approaches to health, Johana hopes to help people feel more informed, supported, and empowered in their care while strengthening the sense of connection and community that she believes is essential to lasting well-being.

Watch the Interview

Watch Johana’s Student Spotlight interview with Dr. Sandi here.

Transcript

Dr. Sandi: Welcome, Johana. It is such a pleasure. I want to be one of the first to officially welcome you to FMCA as one of the recipients of scholarship. And let’s just start out. I would love to find out what is your interest, what led you to want to become a health coach?

Johana: Yes. Hi, Sandi. So nice to finally say hi. I’ve been an avid podcaster listener. I love all that your school do. And that’s one of the main reasons I was so happy to find out that this opportunity was offered for people like me.

So, like I mentioned, I am a community herbalist. I’ve been doing a lot of community care and wellness for the past seven years. And that takes me to a lot of rabbit holes about how people see their own health, how they relate to their own culture. And frankly, I wanted to have better tools to serve the communities that I serve at this moment. So, when I find out about the academy, I thought, oh, wow, this is so fantastic. And I think the academy is pretty aligned to what I value as well, which is having a very informed and well-educated way to see the overall holistic health that everybody deserves.

Dr. Sandi: Well, I just love your mission. I love that you found FMCA. And so many people come to us with a calling, with a mission to serve. So, can you describe who you want to serve? You’ve already been serving your community. And I would love to hear who you plan to serve after you graduate. How do you want to use your training?

Johana: Yes, Sandi. So, I’m already in South Florida. So, as you may see, this is a hub of many cultures, many languages, and many people, and a lot of people that I am already serving. So, let’s talk about people who speak Spanish. I’m totally bilingual. So, that is a pro when…you know, I’m talking about serving clients and people to discover ways to take care of themselves.

I came to this path when I became a mother. And when I realized that mother’s health was so crucial for children’s health, I realized, a lot of mothers, especially immigrant mothers, were not really taking good care of themselves. And I think, you know, even for myself, learning about plant healing and medicinal plant healing has been really, really important, even for my self-care. And I realized that can be a connection with a lot of mothers in my community and people in my community, because a lot of them love taking care of plants, or they come with their own knowledge about, in their own cultures, how they use plants and medicinal plants.

So, I think there’s so much to say about how we can meet people where they are. And that’s exactly the communities that I want to keep working with, mainly immigrant families, LGBTQ+ communities here are a lot. And then mainly, calling for people that perhaps don’t know how to start. They feel lost in their own medical care, because they don’t understand what’s really happening and what the doctors are telling them. And I think that’s why having a person who can help them is so important and can relate to them as well. So, in their language, having a cultural understanding where they’re coming from, and meeting them where they are. So, that’s the people that I want to keep serving.

Dr. Sandi: I love that. And when you describe this and really stood out to us that you…just your mission is so important. And yes, there’s language barriers. And also, people are feeling lost in this medical system, which is increasingly impersonal. It’s hard to find a doctor, it’s hard to get the right care. And you can be that bridge, you can help them to access acute care medicine. But also, as you said so eloquently, going back to the basics, which could include plant medicine, which could include foods that are important in their culture, and helping them to see the importance of things like getting sun, having relationships that are meaningful, importance of sleep, but providing that education, that support, letting them know that they’re not alone.

So, I’m just so excited to have…to welcome you when you are part of our next class in September, and do everything that I can to support you. Because I just feel so confident and so strongly that you are going to make a true impact. And that is why our scholarship is called the Community Impact Scholarship so that you can go out and really, really make a difference, have huge impact. Millions of lives will be changed for the better, because it has a ripple effect where one person is working with you or hears your message, and then their families, that will spread, they will get healthier, and then those people will spread the health to others, and it will grow from there.

Johana: Yes. And I think it’s so important to understand that, you know, overall health as traditional herbalism or plant medicine relates to community.

Dr. Sandi: Yes.

Johana: What you’re saying is so true. We need to go back to community models. I feel so strongly about this. That’s why I have my own garden, and I like to spread seeds and plants and with people in my neighborhood. Because I realize that’s exactly what we need at this moment in history. We need relational practices. It’s nothing strange. I think we have lost that aspect of our care. And there’s so many ways where functional coaches can step in in that. But I also think it’s so important for functional coaches to understand that we also are very important in understanding culture aspects on how to care for each other, because not everybody is the same.

Dr. Sandi: That’s right.

Johana: You cannot go and impose whatever we think it is. I think that’s kind of the biggest issues with traditional medicine ways where, you know, they’re trying to make people feel wrong all the time. Like you don’t know what you’re doing or you don’t understand this is modern medicine. When in reality, instead of doing that and devaluing what people already have in their own cultures and their own understanding, have them reach and really make them see how they can connect with traditional care.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely.

Johana: And that will be a better way to approach it, I think. That way it’s not so disconnected. I see so much disconnection right now with the model of medicine right now.

Dr. Sandi: So true. And this is all about bringing that connection back. Medicine happens in communities. This is the best medicine. And so, I’m just thrilled, again, that you are going to be studying with us at FMCA, becoming a part of our community. So, thank you so much for coming today, for talking with me, and I just can’t wait to support you.