Sofia Başak was born into a family of engineers and academics with roots on both sides of the Aegean Sea. After graduating from Izmir American Collegiate Institute, she began a series of travels to get to know the Anatolian culture. In order to learn how to accurately convey the knowledge and observations she gained on these journeys, she chose to pursue a higher education at Marmara University's Faculty of Communication.

 

From her very first day at the university, she began working in the field and gained experience both behind and in front of the camera. For many years she took many roles in advertisement, television series, and feature film productions. Through !F Istanbul, a festival she greatly enjoyed being a part of for many years, she became acquainted with the international independent film production scene, witnessing firsthand the cultural and artistic approach of the time and making valuable connections.

 

During her travels, she found Kaş, a diving town in the south of Türkiye, where she combined her experience in filmmaking with her title as a divemaster and has become Türkiye's first female diver to provide underwater video services. She also produced documentary projects in this region. These films were screened in various countries, all the way from Greece to Puerto Rico, over the years.

 

By 2009, having been to every region of Türkiye and worked in all areas of the sector, she decided to specialize in documentary filmmaking. With this intention, she completed two separate Master's programs: one at the University of Sussex in England and another at the Media Business School (MEGA) in Spain, funded by the European Union's MEDIA fund. Subsequently, she expanded her network by working in the documentary distribution sector in London. During this time, influenced by her interest in the French ARTE channel, she studied French for a year at Lille III University in France and had the opportunity to work on a project for that channel too.

 

Following this period, she took over the Film Production department of Mars Group in Istanbul. After completing her duty and giving the crew a warm send off to the Cannes Film Festival, she returned to London and founded her own production company. While producing for channels such as the BBC and Channel 4, she had the opportunity to get to know Europe through its local context thanks to the festivals she has attended.

 

It was exactly during this phase of her life, investing so many hours to watch documentary films and finally being deeply influenced by the relationality between humans and nature... so much so that she put this approach in the center of her life not yet aware that she was heading towards to become a "plant lady".

 

In the urban gardens of the city, her interest in tending the soil and transforming through it has thus begun. Once she made her first visit to the famous Kew Gardens in London, she felt she completed her first pilgrimage towards the biodiversity and she then used every opportunity to go visit the UK's renowned national parks. Sofia's journey was simply changing course from that point on...

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In 2017 her work was disrupted when the UK decided to leave the European Union (Brexit), and that's when she finally made a return to Türkiye. While providing audiovisual support to the well-established institutions that have focused on soil regeneration and nature activism, she continued to learn more about healing the soil and to be healed by the soil.

 

During two years of living regularly in a trailer, she adapted the cycles of nature. While deeply enjoying the pleasure of growing her own food on a land in the magical Taurus Mountains, surrounded by cedar forests, she also began to delve into the world of medicinal plants. There she transformed the knowledge she gained at the Ceres Agricultural School under master agriculturalist Mine Pakkaner into practical experience.

 

To learn more about this ancient knowledge and clinical herbalism approach from its masters, she underwent long-term trainings from names such as Rosemary Gladstar, Sajah Popham, and Adriana Ayales. In order to consciously incorporate aromatherapy into her work, she obtained a NAHA-certified Aromatherapist title from Holly Brandenberger. During this process, she moved her home, accompanied by her Anatolian pastor dog, to Portugal.

 

She incorporated somatic practices into her life through sessions focusing on cosmology and mythology with Joshua Michael Schrei, the producer of The Emerald Podcast. Finally, during her time at Dharma Sangha in the Black Forest, Germany, she internalized and solidified Zen practices under the guidance of Tatsudo Nicole Baden.​

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After spending four years at The School of the Sacred Wild with her dear friend and guide Marysia Miernowska, from whom she received mentorship on approaching life holistically and with sacredness, she combined all the information and experience she had gathered to establish an online herbalism school and an herbalism podcast in Turkish. A country with deep oral culture with insufficient written resources is today her principal inspiration to share this precious knowledge that was about to disappear and now in full bloom again...

 

Today, she conducts her work on various platforms that prioritize practices of reconnecting with and becoming one with nature. In Portugal she organizes in person events as a guide introducing the "green allies" and ways to have a nourishing connection to nature for a more rooted life.

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​​​Her intention for the future is to keep producing quality content in tune with the spirit of time and sharing what she has collected in her basket of knowledge.
 

Always savoring the never-ending process of learning from nature, of which humanity is undoubtedly a part, and cherishing the precious breath that has been given to us.

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Always with respect and admiration for this miracle we call life.