Year Two: Community Herbalism Intensive

Picking up where we left off in the first year program, we dive more deeply into the herbal actions & energetics of Western Herbalism for a more practical and applied approach to working with herbs in a healing capacity.

We explore the six tissue states introduced in the Year One ‘Foundations’ course across a wider variety of contexts and body systems, allowing us to develop a deeper understanding of how the four humors and constitutional types inform the pathophysiological manifestations in the body and our approach in addressing these conditions that arise as a result.

In our exploration of herbs and how they impart their influence within the body, we connect herbal actions to tissue states and the phytochemical constituents that inform the herbal actions that orient the body towards healing, balance, and vitality.

We delve into some key body & organ systems, including the Liver, Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Urinary, Generative / Reproductive, Structural / Musculoskeletal.

We cover the digestive, immune, and neuroendocrine systems in the First Year program, but will touch on them in this class as well since they overlap significantly with the systems explored more deeply in this course.

We will discuss real-life examples of common health issues related to our explorations of the body systems, and work together to create a holistic herbal protocol to support the healing process for our imaginary ‘client’. We will often compare the protocols we create together in class with actual protocols I have made for clients with similar concerns in my private practice.

Exploration of pulse and tongue assessment along with recommendations for reading the body as a whole.

Overview of herbs that excel in addressing a variety of health conditions, along with a discussion of their additional virtues and energetics, how their ecological context informs their healing attributes and why you may choose one herb over another based upon the tissue state presentation and constitution of the person you are hoping to support.

Gain a better understanding of how herbs actually work to support healing in the body by looking closely at some key herbal constituents that are widely found in the herbal preparations that herbalists employ in practice. The deeper one understands the phytochemistry of herbal medicines, the more one comes to understand that science and magic are not mutually exclusive.

By deepening our understanding of herbal constituents, polarity, solubility, and extraction, we can also develop confidence in the efficacy of the herbal preparations we make to support our community.

Record keeping, systems, and processes for managing a growing apothecary.

• Equipment

• Storage considerations

• Record keeping and batch tracking

Through various ‘field days’ we will go out to various Chicago parks and hone our Plant ID skills together.

Field Days are somewhat different from Plant Walks in the First Year ‘Foundations Course’ – on Field Days we are utilizing field guides, keys, and other tools to develop our plant ID skills rather than focusing on the medicinal uses of plants we encounter (which is covered in the first year plant walks.

Hone your skills in a specific realm of herbalism or ecology that is of particular interest to you, either alone or in a small group. At the end of the course, you will have the opportunity to present your project with your fellow students, or if you feel called, to present as a workshop or class at our end of year open house!

Typically held on weekday evenings, once a month throughout the course of the intensive, students will have the opportunity to drop by the apothecary to engage in complementary explorations of individual herbs through tea tastings, medicine preparation discussions, and materia medica discussions of a particular plant. Every once in a while, we may have some fresh herbs to process, allowing us to nerd out about plants as we immerse ourselves in the sensual experience of garbling to prepare an herb for medicine.

These evenings are informal and loosely structured, but provide a great opportunity for students to connect, strengthen our community of herbalists and also provide an opportunity for general Q&A for any other topics related to materials we discuss on class days. Limited to 7 students per evening to maintain intimacy. A few students from the First Year course who are participating in mentorship are also welcome to attend herb study evenings.

Herb Study Evenings will be scheduled after the intensive starts when we have a better sense of student availability.