Curriculum

50 plants will be covered in depth, focusing on those that are bioregional and clinically relevant. They will be presented as online lectures and in person sessions with Q&A, discussion, clinical experience sharing, plant connection experiences, and tasting. Students will learn how to identify and grow or source each plant. They will understand specific indications, dosing, energetics, mechanisms of action, relevant scientific research, safety concerns and appropriate applications.

Time: 25 hours pre-recorded, and 25 hours live

Therapeutics classes will cover a holistic understanding of a wide range of acute and chronic health concerns with principles for herbal support for a variety of issues. The lectures will be primarily delivered online with in person class time devoted to questions, review and case study activities. The goal is for students to learn how to integrate information from the program and apply it towards real life health situations they may encounter.

Time: 58 hours pre-recorded, 29 hours live

Understanding energetics, both in plants and in people, is one of the keys to learning to use herbs more effectively. Through this lens, students will learn how to make energetic assessments of imbalances and choose appropriate herbs for each individual. These in person classes will focus on the four universal qualities (hot/cold/damp/dry), the tissue states, the four elements (earth/air/fire/water), and the Ayurvedic doshas

Time: 12 hours live

These classes will cover common therapeutic plant chemical families and specific medicinal constituents found in medicinal plants. This familiarity helps us understand how to better choose appropriate and safe herbs, make better formulations and make effective extracts. It will also help us integrate an energetic and scientific approach.

Time: 8 hours live

These in person classes will explore medicinal plant communities in the wild and garden. Students will learn basic botany, plant identification, and how to grow medicinal plants through the lens of ecosystems and interrelationship. We will discuss ethical and sustainable harvesting, we will look critically at what the dominant culture teaches us about how to relate to the land, and together learn to be of benefit to the earth as our priority.

Time: 13 hours live

We will cover basic and advanced preparations including tinctures, percolations, dual extracts, infused oils and honeys, salves and creams, syrups, vinegars and flower essences. These classes will be held live and offer hands-on practice. Students will feel comfortable making a variety of high quality herbal preparations, and they will learn how to discern what preparations are most appropriate for each situation.

Time: 20 hours live

Nutrition is foundational to health and also a bedrock of herbal medicine. Through optimal nourishment, we provide our bodies with the building blocks required to maintain and regain health. In these classes, students will learn the role of food and nutrition in health, including an understanding of macronutrients, micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals. Class content includes: nutritional deficiencies, using nutritive and tonic herbs to augment our nutritional intake, the pitfalls and potential benefits of different diets, with a focus on our relationship with food.

Time: 15 hours live

Being a herbalist is about more than choosing the right herbs. We live within a dominant culture and society that has deeply ingrained values and stories that impact how we relate to each other and the plants. We want to unpack values and biases we have learned, such as colonialism and white supremacy, cultural appropriation, fatphobia and more. We want to grow a herbal culture that is empowering to all bodies, accessible, respectful, and guides us to be in good relationship with herbal lineages & the earth.

Time: 10 hours live

Connecting with plants is like a muscle we can train to cultivate deeper relationships. In this class, students will spend time sitting with plants both outside of class time and during class together, practicing a heart-centred tuning to nature and felt observation. Through this class, students will engage with plants as beings, cultivate a deep connection with plants, and learn to apply this to their herbalism practice.

Time: 11 hours live

All students will gain access to Tammi Sweet’s online anatomy and physiology program. Tammi Sweet is an herbalist who has after many years of teaching anatomy and physiology, created this very engaging program geared specifically for herbalists. She makes anatomy and physiology fun! More information about this specific part of the course can be found on Tammi’s website: https://courses.heart-stone.com/p/online-anatomy-physiology

Time: 24 hours pre-recorded