Advanced Clinical Skills

and Clinical Mentorship

Register

Our world is changing rapidly. As health care systems deteriorate and the widespread impacts of capitalism, discrimination and systemic violence are expanding, more and more people fall through the cracks. Now more than ever we need to dream and build together better health care and a better world.

We dream of herbal medicine being accessible to everyone, where empowering, holistic, integrative community healthcare is the norm, and where part of being a health care provider means being committed to actually addressing the root causes of illness and disease. We see herbal medicine as being a crucial part of resilient communities, of mutual aid and webs of care.

How do we show up as herbalists in ways that build resilience and capacity in our communities through these times?

How can we adapt our practice to meet the moment, meet our own needs & meet our desires for societal transformation?

If you are looking for a supportive learning community that is here for the big questions, you are in the right place.

Build your herbal practitioner confidence & clinical skills through a supportive, collaborative community of peers and mentors!

October 2026-March 2027, Live Online

Application deadline: August 20th

We are four professional clinical herbalists with a combined 60+ years of clinical experience. Returning by popular demand, the Advanced Clinical Skills & Clinical Mentorship online programs have been attended by over 75 students who have gone on to serve their communities as herbalists with honed clinical skills, confidence and a community of support behind them!

We want to share a learning space with you that promotes client-centered care, trauma-informed care, gender affirming/trans health care, harm reduction, anti-racism, critical thinking, humility, inclusivity, accessibility and respect. We think this approach is crucial to serve our communities in a responsible, safe and ethical way.

Wherever you live, come join us for this online advanced clinical skills program! Our goal is to grow a base of confident, skilled and ethical community & clinical herbalists who can support the growing needs of their communities.

We invite you to dream of what could be possible for you, and your community, if you join us.

What is it?

The Advanced Clinical Herbal Skills and the Clinical Mentorship are separate programs that can be taken either concurrently or one at a time. They both will happen online on Tuesdays with an hour break in between.

This is NOT a comprehensive advanced clinical herbal program. It is designed as a supplement for people who receive(d) the majority of their herbal education from other sources and are looking to fill some of the gaps in their knowledge and experience.

Advanced Clinical Herbal Skills (50 hours) is a classroom program designed for people who have already completed significant herbal education and want additional ethical and practical skills translating their education into a confident, effective and sustainable clinical practice.

Clinical Mentorship (~ 75 hours) is designed for herbalists who are already seeing clients or are ready to dive into clinical practice. Taken alongside the Advanced Clinical Herbal Skills program this is a hands-on learning opportunity to support your work with clients through observed consultations, feedback sessions and weekly round table. These hours can be used towards Supervised Clinical Practicum education requirements to be a professional member with a provincial herbal association in Canada.

Advanced Clinical Herbal Skills

with Ember Peters, Stascha Stahl, Vilde Chaya Fenster-Ehrlich, and Oren Hercz

Tuesdays October 13th-March 9th, 1-3pm AST / 12-2pm EST / 9-11am PST (Break December 22 & 29)

Advanced Clinical Herbal Skills is a classroom program designed to help herbal practitioners and students build confidence and fill gaps in their clinical training. This program is for you if you have completed significant herbal education (through formal programming and/or self-study), and want to build clinical skills (see prerequisites).

Includes:

  • 20 weekly live classes, divided into two 10 week segments with a 2 week break in between, including:

    • Clinical Skills: intake process & flow, follow-ups, professional skills, client boundaries and rapport building, clinic and apothecary management, clinical scenarios practice, formulation & protocol development

    • Practitioner Ethics: trauma-informed care, client-centered care, harm reduction, anti-oppression & anti-racism, accessibility and barriers to care, trans-inclusivity

    • Heart-work: self-exploration of herbal path, visioning hopes and desires for your practice

    • Clinic Observation: Observation of mentors conducting intakes with clients, with case round table following

  • 10+ hours of clinical observation with your teachers (scheduled outside of Tuesday class time)

  • A library of 50+ hours of videos on advanced clinical herbalism topics including: herb-drug interactions, advanced materia medica, trans herbalism, interpreting blood labs, advanced therapeutics, and more

  • Community discussion board for continued connection between classes

  • Vast resource library including reference textbooks, resource links, and recommended readings

We offer a heartfelt and encouraging environment that allows students to understand their current scope, and identify areas for growth, and challenge themselves as practitioners. An indispensable part of the program includes growing interactional skills through role-playing live scenarios, where participants can get hands-on practice with tricky clinical encounters.

We help our students grow into herbal practices that are authentic to their true selves, and aligned with their core values by delving into the “heart work” of being an herbalist - encouraging self exploration of your herbal path so far, and identifying visions and desires for the future.

Total classroom hours: 50 (plus homework)

Prerequisites:

  • 500+ hours of herbal medicine study through: 2+ years through a advanced herbalism school program OR 4+ years self-study with apprenticeship or mentorship.

Due to the interactive nature of the program, live attendance to the majority of classes is required to obtain a certificate. Classes will be recorded for student reference.

Clinical Mentorship

with Ember Peters and Oren Hercz

Tuesdays October 13th-March 9th, 4-6pm AST / 3-5pm EST / 12-2 pm PST (Break December 22 & 29)

Clinical Mentorship is a weekly supervised clinical practicum designed for advanced herbal students who are ready to see clients within a supportive container, and clinical herbalists looking for peer and mentor support with their client work. Participants will each do one intake in class with mentor and classmate observers, and bring at least two additional cases to roundtable from their clinical practice. The collaborative round table space allows for everyone to learn from each other’s consultations and cases.

Clinical Mentorship includes:

  • 20 weekly live classes, divided into two 10 week segments with a 2 week break in between

  • Intake observation and feedback sessions

  • Round table of cases from each student’s clinical practice with input from mentors and students

  • Access to the apothecaries of Ember (Canada) and Stascha (USA) for filling your client’s orders

  • Training in case presentation to a group

  • 10+ hours of clinical observation with your teachers (scheduled outside of Tuesday class time)

  • A library of 50+ hours of videos on advanced clinical herbalism topics including: herb-drug interactions, advanced materia medica, trans herbalism, interpreting blood labs, Lyme disease, diabetes, cancer, hormones, and many more

  • Community discussion board for continued connection between classes

  • Vast resource library including reference textbooks, resource links, and recommended readings

  • Limited to 9 students

Hours: 50 live (plus your client work = approximately 75 hours total supervised clinical practicum)

Prerequisites:

  • Clinical level herbal training

  • Current or past participation in Advanced Clinical Herbal Skills (exceptions occasionally made)

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the interactive nature of the program, live attendance to the majority of classes is required to obtain a certificate. Classes will not always be recorded.

These programs could be a good fit if:

  • You have been studying herbal medicine for a few years or longer, including at least some advanced herbal education and clinical training

  • You want to start working with clients but are feeling nervous and want support through the process to build your confidence

  • You are in clinical practice but you are noticing some gaps in your skills, and want to improve your skills to better benefit your clients and improve the sustainability of your practice

  • You are generally available on Tuesdays for live zoom classes

  • You like to learn in a collaborative group setting

  • You see your values and goals reflected in the class description and topics

  • You want to become a registered herbal practitioner, and are looking to complete some of the required hours of education

These programs may not be a good fit if:

  • You don’t have time to attend the live Tuesday classes

  • You have only completed a beginner or intermediate level of study in herbal medicine

  • You don’t like groups and prefer to learn on your own

  • You don’t see your values or goals reflected in the class topics

When / Where

The next cohort of these programs will run from October 13th 2026 until March 9th 2027.

Classes will take place on Zoom during the daytime on Tuesdays, except December 22nd & 29th (winter break)

Advanced Clinical Herbal Skills: 1-3pm AST / 12-2pm EST / 9-11am PST

Clinical Mentorship: 4-6pm AST / 3-5pm EST / 12-2 pm PST

The online classroom is hosted through an online learning platform and accessed through your browser. You will need access to the internet (phone or computer) and the ability to join Zoom calls.

Tuition

Deposit required with your application: $150 CAD (returned if your application is not accepted)

Advanced Clinical Herbal Skills: $1700 CAD +hst / $1275 USD

Clinical Mentorship programs: $1700 CAD +hst / $1275 USD

BOTH the Advanced Clinical Herbal Skills and the Clinical Mentorship program: $2800 CAD +hst / $2100 USD (recommended- savings of $600!)

Tuition Assistance

There are a limited number of 25% and 50% reduced-rate spots for lower income folks. These spots will be prioritized for earlier applications as well as Black, Indigenous and People of Colour. To apply for tuition assistance, click here.

Refund Policy

We know embarking on a program like this is a big decision. We are confident that once you are in the program, it will be completely worth it, but we would also like to assure you a complete refund (minus your deposit) if you decide the program isn’t for you after attending the first session. After the first class, refunds are not guaranteed.

  • “If you’re a new or practicing herbalist who is looking for a program to expand your practical and ethics-based skills, that will also give you hope in the future of herbalism, I can confidently say this program is it.”

  • “I'm so grateful for this course! Ember, Vilde, and Stascha were thoughtful, caring, and extremely knowledgeable. Information was easily digestible and really challenged me to become a better practitioner and overall human being. This program still supports me and my herbal business, as I'm still going back on my notes and watching replays, and I'm so excited to see what comes. My cohort is amazing, talented, and open minded, which helped push me to apply this knowledge even further.”

  • “Ember, Stascha and Vilde each have unique teaching styles that foster confidence, communication and experience-based knowledge that truly lends itself to acquiring skills in ways that are embodied rather than mechanical. I would not be the herbalist I am today without these three gifted teachers as my trusted mentors.”

Application Deadline: August 20th

Register Now

Your Instructors

We have been in clinical practice for a combined 60+ years. We share a passion for teaching and creating learning environments that are both rigorous and also fun, open, and inclusive.

  • Ember Peters (they/them) is a clinical herbalist and educator living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Unceded Mi'kmaq Territory. Ember has over a decade of clinical experience focusing on accessible trans inclusive care and supporting people with complex chronic illness. Ember recognizes community based holistic health and decolonial land stewardship as a tangible step towards collective liberation and resilience. Ember is a Registered Herbal Practitioner with the Herbalist Association of Nova Scotia (HANS) Ember’s website: https://wildcurrentherbalism.com.

  • Stascha is a community centered clinical herbalist, medicine maker, apothecarist, and educator practicing in the Chochenyo Ohlone Territory so-called Oakland, California. Stascha has been studying herbal medicine since 2006 and seeing clients in free or sliding scale clinics for the last 14 years. She prioritizes harm reduction and focuses on complex chronic conditions. www.bayherbalist.com

  • Oren Hercz RHP (HANS) has been in practice as a Clinical Herbalist since 2010, working in holistic health clinics, a family medicine office, and in private practice online. He teaches a year long beginner’s herbal medicine program, empowering people to become their own home herbalists and be proactive about their health. Oren loves to teach and can often be found giving an herb walk, speaking at a local garden club, or even on TV where has been featured on the show Wild Nova Scotia. He is a Registered Herbal Practitioner (RHP) with the Herbalist Association of Nova Scotia, where he currently sits on the board of directors. Oren cares deeply about bringing this traditional wisdom to today’s world, where we need it more than ever. He lives in Chester Basin with his 3 kids and gardens. Oren’s website: www.orenhercz.ca