Conscious Choice: Herb Schools

September 1998 | Herbs for Health

Herb Schools

by Meg McGowan

With September arrives the autumnal equinox, the time when energy that has danced about the world year-long turns again toward home. Leaves, for example, fall to the ground to nourish next year’s growth. Our own autumn nourishment might take many forms. For instance, you might consider delving into herbal studies, which have the potential to sustain mind, body and spirit.

If you’re still in the mood for a short jaunt or two, take advantage of the workshops and apprenticeships offered at Blazing Star Herbal School in Massachusetts. The setting of the school certainly is attractive enough to encourage ideas of vacation planning; it stands amidst 26 wooded acres of pine trees and features wildflower meadows, a Medicine Wheel Garden, and overnight accommodations. Particularly appealing to distance learners, Blazing Star offers a five-day apprenticeship intensive for beginning and intermediate students, incorporating classroom studies with field hikes and herb identification, herb gardening, herbal pharmacy and product making. A weekend apprenticeship program in Therapeutic Herbalism requires a commitment of one weekend a month for seven months.
Blazing Star Herbal School is also involved, along with Sage Mountain Herbs, in presenting the Annual Herbal Women’s Conference held in Vermont.

Students of Rosemary Gladstar, co-founder (with husband Karl Slick) of Sage Mountain Herbs, may venture far beyond the pristine setting of East Barre, Vermont, where that school is located. In 1998 Gladstar is hosting an herbal retreat in Switzerland, and in 1999 she will journey with students to Montana and Ecuador. Gladstar also teaches herb classes at Sage Mountain throughout the year, alone and with guest instructors. The Spirit and Essence of Herbs, her seven-month apprenticeship program (already filled for 1999) serves as an excellent foundation course. It offers instruction, lodging, and Gladstar’s home study course, Science & Art of Herbology. (The correspondence course can also be purchased separately — and Lesson One may be purchased as a sample.)

In case Gladstar’s students can’t get enough of her, she is also among the regular faculty of The Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies (RMCBS). Other distinguished faculty members include Christopher Hobbs, Amanda McQuade-Crawford, Michael Tierra, and Susun Weed; in all, 22 regular faculty members teach in this facility, which is approved and regulated by the Colorado Department of Higher Education. The center offers three comprehensive residential study programs with job placement assistance upon graduation. An eight-day, intensive version of the Herbal Supplements Retail Training Program is designed to provide a holistic body of knowledge for non-residents involved in herbal retail or other herbal related businesses.

The school also offers several other events worth traveling for, including Herbal Adventure in the Rockies: an introductory hands-on intensive; a course in Shamanic Herbalism: Ancient Roots of Healing, and the Clinical Case Studies Conference, geared toward professional herbalists and advanced students who want to enhance their clinical repertory. Executive Director of RMCBS, Feather Jones, is the founder of Turtle Island Herbs and a practicing herbalist, wildcrafter and medicine maker since 1982.

The luminaries of herbalism teach overseas, as well. On your way back from Europe, you can get instruction from Earl Mindell, on the faculty at The British Institute of Homeopathy and Complementary Medicine. The institute offers a range of courses using open university style, advanced distance learning techniques. For all institute courses, each student is assigned a personal tutor who will mark their papers and exams and guide them through the course. Of particular interest is the Veterinary Basic Course. Designed for pet owners and veterinary assistants, the course offers a solid understanding of veterinary homeopathy, animal first-aid and acute care.

The EastWest Herb Course, written and created by Michael Tierra, accommodates the needs of the herbal layperson as well as the professional. The 12-lesson Home Study Course is the base upon which the 24 consecutive lessons of the Professional Herbal Course builds. Essential principles of herbs including diet, energies, tastes and the principles of disease and diagnosis for the application of herbs encompassing the Western, Ayurveda and Chinese medical systems are presented. Herbal preparations, therapeutics and formulary are also addressed. Introduction to EastWest Herbalism — A Beginning Study Course offers a third option, seven lessons drawn from the Home Study Course, but without test or exam material.

Clayton College of Natural Health (CCNH), another distance learning institution, is made up of three divisions: the School of Natural Health, the School of Nutrition, and the School of Naturopathic Medical Education. An accredited member of the World Association of Universities and Colleges, CCNH offers undergraduate and advanced degrees in Natural Health and Holistic Nutrition, and Ph.D. programs in Naturopathy and Holistic Health Sciences. Students already holding a Bachelor’s degree may enter Clayton College at the Master’s level by completing certain prerequisites; with a previously earned Master’s, there is the same option to enter at the doctoral level. Courses include reading and writing assignments, with supplementary audio or video tapes and hands-on experiences where appropriate. Clayton also plans to add an on-line campus to its web site. Students complete course work at their own pace. The expected time of completion for each degree program is three years.

The Australasian College of Herbal Studies offers thirteen courses for home study: Herbal Studies; Nutrition, Bodycare and Herbalism; The Basics of Herbalism; Natural Therapies; Flower Essences; Iridology; Homeopathy; Aromatherapy; Homeobotanical Therapy and Physiology and Anatomy. Lessons come complete with study aids, which may include textbooks, videos, herb samples, essential oil samples, and charts. Prospective students may purchase a sample lesson for any of the courses. Unlike regular course work, however, the price of a sample lesson does not include evaluation by a tutor.

Closer to home, the Chicago Center for Psychophysical Healing offers an in-depth, three-year training program designed to give students a thorough education in medicinal herbalism and clinical Chinese medicine. The program combine lectures, discussions, hands-on workshops, herb walks, clinical work, internships and electives, for a total of over 1000 hours of training. Students may choose to take only the first ten-month course, Foundations of Herbal Medicine, but those completing the entire course will be awarded a certificate. Classes meet on the north side of Chicago, with two weekends spent at Glastonbury Woods, an 80-acre herb farm and nature sanctuary in north central Indiana (about two hours from Chicago).

And then there’s home itself. Debra Nuzzi St. Claire has created an inspired short course, Herbal Preparations and Natural Therapies: Creating and Using a Home Herbal Medicine Chest. Designed as a laboratory class to be taught in your kitchen, St. Claire demystifies the creation of ointments and creams, poultices and lozenges, taking students step-by-step through the processes on two video tapes. A detailed manual/recipe book accompanies the tape, providing further in-depth information and a wealth of sources. Also included is the Pocket Herbal Reference Guide.

The herb school profiles in this column are just a sampling of available courses; many other fine programs exist. Not only do herb schools provide instruction, they also offer a community in which to learn and grow. Be open to the idea of guides who will lead you back to your healing roots this year.

For more information
The Australasian College of Herbal Studies, www.herbed.com, 800-48STUDY
Blazing Star Herbal School, 413-625-6875
The British Institute, 800-494-9790
The Chicago Center for Psychophysical Healing, 773-975-1655
Clayton College of Natural Health, www.ccnh.edu, 800-659-8274
EastWest School of Herbology, www.planetherbs.com, 408-336-5010
Morningstar Publications, Debra St. Claire, 303-473-9997
Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies, 303-442-6861
Sage Mountain, 802-476-3722

DISCLAIMER: Choosing a holistic approach to medicine means choosing personal responsibility for your health care. Herbs for Health offers a doorway through which to enter the realm of herbal healing, an invitation to further investigation on the part of the reader. It is in no way intended as a substitute for advice from a health care practitioner.

Recommend this page to a friend

Top Ten pages recommended to friends: