Program description
Our Community Herbalist Program is designed for students who want to be familiar and competent with herbal medicine to look after their health, the health of their loved ones, and that of the earth. Throughout the program, students directly interact with and are provided guidance from professional herbalists. This extensive program explores everything within the Home Herbalist Program and also unlock a wealth of additional knowledge and information.
Throughout history, plant knowledge has been passed through oral and written language, and also through ceremony. Learn about these spiritual ceremonies of plants and how the subtle, yet powerful energetic properties of plants can provide greater insight into their direct healing properties. You even participate in a plant ceremony to learn how to access this type of knowledge and to connect you to past generations of herbalists.
Gain resilience and a deeper connection to the earth by discovering more ways to prepare foods and medicines to aid you and your family. Our program contains courses on cooking with herbs and how to infuse the medicinal properties of plants into your culinary creations. You also learn seed saving techniques to ensure a long-term, sustainable supply of medicinal plants for your community. There is also an opportunity to create your own herbal first aid kit by learning which plants and preparations are best suited for various emergency ailments.
Having access to medicinal plants is an important aspect of herbalism. Perhaps you dream of having your own medicinal herb garden. This course provides you knowledge of backyard permaculture garden design and maintenance and teaches simple techniques to ensure that you can grow and harvest an abundance of quality medicinal plants. It is these same plants that you can use in your cooking and medicine-making. Since you might not have access to a garden, we discuss container growing techniques to ensure you are prepared to grow medicinal plants in small spaces.
Two areas of growth within modern herbalism are aromatic medicine (use of essential oils) and medicinal mushrooms. This program provides accurate and safe information to allow you to integrate both of these very powerful forms of medicine into your healing regime. Learn how to make various preparations using these oils and mushrooms to not only restore health but also to prevent illness in the first place.
This really is an all-encompassing and essential program designed to ground you in all aspects of herbalism. Upon completion of this program, you will be fully capable of taking care of many of your own health care needs and those of your family. If you are interested in taking your knowledge further and want to become a clinical practitioner providing safe and effective treatment strategies using herbal medicine, you are eligible to apply to the Diploma of Phytotherapy program at Pacific Rim College – the most advanced clinical program of herbal medicine in North America – to become a fully qualified herbal practitioner.