All level 8 month Herbal Medicine training. Incorporates: Western Herbalism, Local Plants, 5 Element Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory, Ritual, and Seasonal Local Medicinal Feasting

Most herbal training programs are limited to focusing on the body, it’s systems and related herbal therapies. This program is distinct in that it instead begins with recognition of the seasons, elements, and their corresponding organ systems, emotional states, herbal therapies and nutrition. As we orient in this way we develop a dynamic relationship to our bodies in alignment with time and place. This course goes beyond practical application by incorporating the cultivation of physical and spiritual relationship with nature, our bodies, our emotional states, as well as medicinal and food plants.

This is a mix of evening online lectures and weekend in person classes in Novato, CA.

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New Students are required to fill out an application form before they are able to purchase this course. Scroll to bottom of page to find form

Tuition is $2,500 for the full Herbal Immersion Training, deposit of $250 due immediately. Remainder when course begins. Payment plans available for remaining cost ($281.25 monthly for 8 month duration of course).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

Healing is a natural result of being in balanced relationship with the elements, internally and externally. Through making contact with, and embodying our relationship to Nature’s Elemental Wisdom, we awaken to our clear hearts and minds. We begin to understand that we truly belong here, to this Earth, with all Her creatures and Wild Beauty. In a fragmented world, this clarity gives us the courage to generate health and sanity for ourselves, our communities and our clients. This sense of connection renews our strength to give and receive the openness of Vitality and honest loving.

This course is not only an immersion apprenticeship in the art of Western Herbalism and the Taoist 5 Element Theory, but is also foundational work in reweaving our sometimes forgotten Ancestral Cultures, so that we may bring our gifts to feed Life, the Elementals, and to regenerate our precious world.

All traditional medical and spiritual systems hold reverence for the core essences of Nature: Elementals, Dakinis, Dralas, Devas and Plant Spirits. Together, we will cultivate relationship with these core essences of the Elements of Life that are the fabric of medicine and healing.

As well as deepening our personal relationships with the Essences of Nature, we will explore, through movement, writing, visualization and travel through the Bay area to visit natural places, our relationship with our inner elemental selves. Water, Trees and Plants, Fire, Earth, and Metal...how do these Elements influence us? As each corresponds to our rich inner life, hich is our own "home base", and which is our growing edge? In feeling our emotions, the vital alive human-ness of each Element--Fear, Courage, Anger, Fierce Intent, Love, Compassion, Overwhelm, Anxiety, Grief and Awe--how available are we to let this Vitality of Life move us, inform us, and Love ourselves in it? How do we bring ourselves through a full cycle of the elements to embody integration and metabolism of our life experiences and to mature? In experiencing the essence qualities of the Elements, how do we incorporate this understanding in our living study of herbal medicine? These are some of the core questions we will explore, as a community.

Experiencing these connections can be magical, and completely ordinary. Every Day Magic. The satisfaction and enjoyment of cooking, singing, gardening, medicine making, learning the honorable craft of Herbalism… all of these are essential threads in the richly woven tapestry of culture, which has always been the ground of medicine.

We make contact with the essence of medicine and healing, and develop relationship through:

-concentrated observation and study

-direct experience

-learning traditional ways of approaching and giving offerings

We will approach this fundamental learning in an experiential way, through various, highly respected, traditional medical and spiritual systems, including:

-Taoist 5 Element System

-Vitalist Western Herbal Medicine

-Mayan Medicine

-Tibetan Medicine

-Energetics of Plants, physical and spiritual

-Integrative Seasonal Nutrition

-Energy Medicine

-Plant Spirit Communication and Ritual

-Expressive Arts

-Traditional and Indigenous Wisdom as shared by my teachers

Through our immersive journey, both in person and online, students will:

-expand upon their basic plant pharmacopeia with special emphasis on an in depth study of Adaptogens and Superior Herbs

- develop a basic understanding of the physiological body systems through the lens of TCM 5 Element Theory and western medical understanding

-gain Confidence in distinguishing which herb to use in which condition or circumstance

- gain proficiency and confidence in basic diagnostic processes: pulse, tongue and facial analysis

-choose the appropriate herbal remedy for self, family or clients

- learn the TCM 5 Element interrelated medical systems of color, emotions, seasons, sound and organ function

-learn the fundamentals of Western Herbal Medicine

-learn spiritual aspects of Mayan Medicine

-develop personal relationships with herbal plant allies through 'Dietas' (concentrated plant diets)

-work with client intake skills, as appropriate to each students level

-gain experience in preparing foods that are therapeutically appropriate for distinct constitutions and in alignment with the seasons

-stabilize emotions and self connection through meditation, mind training, ritual, expressive arts and free movement

-learn basic components of the Daily Energy Routine from Eden Energy Medicine

- fall more deeply in love with the natural world and gain new ways to communicate with Her