2021 Registration is now open!
HERBalachia offers a unique education through teaching local plant identity, world herbal traditions, sustainable harvesting practices, medicine making, and an overall inward journey of the self. This program is designed for:
- beginning herbal students
- health care practitioners
- healthy lifestylers
HANDS-ON APPROACH
By “studying herbs”, we don’t mean watching a video! Students learn through herb walks, communion with Nature, lecture, discussion, and hands-on harvesting, preparation, and home remedies.
PLANT ID FIELD TRIPS
Cherokee forest, the Nolichucky river, an Appalachian species propagation garden and various other herbal wonderlands in our midst.
My heart and my Head are full of love for plants,
for these teachers and for this wonderful journey. Aho!
—Victoria Hanson
MATERIA MEDICA OF 25 LOCAL HERBS
Selected by our faculty for their safety, ease of identification, and usefulness, these plants will be studied in terms of scientific and common names, identification, part used, preparation/dosage, actions/indications, and safety/contraindications.
PLANT ENERGETICS
We will visit the herb growing in its outdoor habitat, learn to connect with the plant’s energy, handle it, smell it, taste it, and prepare its medicine together. Part of your learning is to observe and document your own personal physical and energetic interactions with several herbs.
CREATE YOUR HOME APOTHECARY
In our hands-on Medicine Making classes, you will create decoctions, infusions, salves, honeypills, and syrups. Our aim is for you to feel confident in aiding friends and family during times of common illness such as sore throat, cough, upset stomach, etc with your preparations.
Read about our all-star faculty, which includes Master’s degree herbalists, botany professor, Ayurvedic physician, native American medicine woman, mushroom and herbal propagation experts, among others.
Although, we all came in with varying degrees of knowledge (understanding) of the topics,
there was no shortage of help with those that may have needed assistance.
—Henry Layne Jr.
Syllabus:
Herbalist Lifestyle Program
84 hours
- Materia Medica: 25 Appalachian Plants
- Abundant field trips
- Hands-on Medicine-Making
- World Herbal Traditions (Chinese, Ayurvedic, Native American)
- Botany/ plant identification, herbal energetics
- Wildcrafting: art and ethics
- Herbal ecology and stewardship of at-risk species
2021 Lifestyle Program Schedule:
March 27, 28
April 10, 11
May 15, 16
June 12, 13
July 10, 11
Aug 7, 8
Sept 11, 12
7-weekend modules, 12 hours each weekend:
Sat 10-1 & 2-5
Sun 10-1 & 2-5
Approximately 3-4 hours per week of home projects and reading is required in addition to class hours.
COVID POLICY:
In 2020, we were able to complete our program (to great reviews from all students!) by strategically utilizing Zoom for a few classes such as botany, herbal energetics, etc. To keep things lively and your senses engaged, we mail out packets of herbs to smell (incense!), taste (Ayurvedic foods!), and teas to prepare so you can follow along at home!
For the remainder of the classes such as plant walks and medicine-making, we follow strict CDC guidelines of symptom and temperature checks before class and masking when in the group. While inconvenient, we are able to SAFELY enjoy our time together.
Tuition: $1650
How do I register?
- Pay your non-refundable deposit of $550.
- Complete the online application.
- Payment due dates:
$550 by December 11
$550 by February 5
Please budget an additional $200 for books and class supplies.
Deposit is non-refundable, and no refunds will be made after the first day of class.
Payment may be made at Appalachian Acupuncture.
We accept cash, check or credit card. Card payment by phone: 423-928-9394.
For questions, please contact Michelle Bouton: Michelle@HERBalachia.com
Goals of HERBalachia:
- connect herbalists, growers, and educators
- promote safe herb usage through training responsible and compassionate community herbalists
- be a repository of Appalachian herbal knowledge, traditions, and seeds
- build confidence in the medical community of the contribution herbalists can make to patient health
- create opportunity for local experts to teach and share their knowledge
- instill stewardship of at-risk species and sustainability of foraging practices
- connect to a market of dispensing herbal clinics to support herbs grown by local farmers