Deepening - shorter courses for those who have completed ‘Hearth’ to deepen the work 

This interactive page gives an overview of the typical journey within the school. It is important to bear in mind that this training is designed to weave alongside existing professional trainings (or happen alongside another training). We see our offering as a powerful strand of herb work which can be woven together with any other related profession (e.g. massage, bodywork, coaching, therapy).  The training takes an absolute minimum of 3 years, often 4. Some choose to take longer – there is no rush! The boxes in the stronger green are the compulsory parts of the training – the others are options that may work well for different people and different paths. We encourage people to to commit to the Foundation and Hearth years together, since the Hearth year covers the professional fundamentals that allow you to develop your case studies (around 250 hours study, of which 75 hours are direct 1:1 contact hours, where you are yourself holding space). We esimate this to be a 1500 hour training, though this may differ for different individuals based on existing skills and prior experience – some a little less, some a little more (especially if you have no prior professional trainings).

1:1 Mentoring / Supervision

Embodiment - a year focused on completing your case studies and portfolio

1:1 Mentoring

Foundation - a year spent deepening your own connections with plants

Hearth year - exploring how we might share this work with others effectively, safely and in our own way. Building our own Heart.

Journeys into Insight Herbalism  

Introduction - in person (3 day) or online with 1:1 mentoring. 

July immersion - 5 day immersive course at the peak of summer

Attending CPD and Deepening classes, widening skills, assisting in the school, supporting folks on on-line courses

Completion - submission of portfolio and final assessment sessions

July immersion

Many people follow up the Intro course with the July immersion. In this residential course we dive straight in – so expect people to be familiar with the techniques we introduce in the Introduction class. It is not essential to do the July immersion before the Foundation, but it really helps! It gives you a chance to go a little deeper and get more of a taste of what this path is like, working alongside a commited group of people. It is also a stunning time of year to tbe working with the plants!

Many people like to keep the work unfolding after an Intro or July immersion with 1:1 session with a graduate – or, if appropriate, as a case study with a current student. We really encourage this – working in groups is incredible, since we tap into the collective wisdom of the entire group, but 1:1 sessions can allow more personal focus.

1:1 Mentoring

This is the longest-running course in the school and is always a profound journey for everyone! With a small committed group we journey through the year, meeting around 18 different plants, each in a different way, to different depths, with different rituals. The journey of the year in incredibly responsive to the group – we never know what is going to happen or even which plants will want to join us! Our job as facilitators is not so much to ‘lead from the front’, but to be responsive to what is alive within the group at every moment, and find how to weave plants that are just right for the group consciousness as we journey together. Sometimes we might spend three days deeply immersed in a single plant – sometimes we might meet two different plants in a day. We generally meet around 18 plants over the year, but within these there will typically be 5 or 6 that we meet with particular depth. Our hope is that everyone comes out of this year with a personal experience of being initiated by a plant and with a strong council of plant allies. 

Foundation

This is the year when we really invite you to find your own path within herbalism and support you in doing so. We start conducting case studies—sometimes one-on-one, sometimes in small groups—and we invite more peer exchanges and peer-led sessions within our time together. Our aim is to keep the momentum of plant connections developing while also cultivating a peer group that supports each other in sharing plants more widely in their lives. Some people will be raring to go, knowing what they love to share and getting started with case studies immediately. Others may need more time to experiment and discover what their path might look like. We ask everyone to complete at least 10 face-to-face case study hours this year, providing a framework for moving forward. And of course, we keep meeting plants! In a typical three-day session, we might spend around half our time deepening plant connections and the other half exploring the skills (and barriers) involved in sharing this work more widely.

Hearth

Mentoring / Supervision  & Deepening classes

Whilst some people may be ready and keen to go straight into the Embodiment year, many will want to take a year or two to develop their own practice, complete more case studies and gradually work on their portfolio.  We suport this through a mixture of ‘Deepening’ sessions and 1:1 supervision with a graduate of the school.  The Deepening classes are 3 day blocks where you will reconnect with the work and with a peer group of others on this journey - and quite possible some graduates keen to be nourished by the work we do in the school!

We love to involve graduates in the school - sometimes assisting, sometimes attending one of the Deepening classes. As the school grows it is amazing to see the variety of offerings, each unqiue to that graduate. The journey of being a herbalist never ends – any training is just the beginning ….

Ongoing nourishment

This is a highly focused group for those aiming to complete their portfolio, case studies, and write-ups by the end of the year (or soon after). We weave in a lot of role play and supervision of case studies. This is the year when we truly invite you to step up and be challenged! It’s a chance to have your blind spots reflected, to invite direct and sometimes challenging feedback—the things that are absolutely necessary on the path to professionalization. Uniquely in our school, every trainee herbalist writes their own set of competencies. By the end of this year, each of these competencies (generally around 15) will have been explored, allowing you to stand before your peers and confidently speak them. This is especially important as we are striving to move away from a hierarchical approach to training—it is your peers, as well as your tutors, who must give their approval for you to complete the program.

Embodiment

All journeys start here ... Even if you are a practising herbalist or an experienced healer we ask that everyone completes this – the material we cover gives essential foundations and can be met at any level of experience. Sometimes these will be quite mixed groups, with some people very new to all of this and some where much is already familiar from their existing practices.  These Introductory courses are not just about the experiences we have together and skills we introduce – it is also a chance for us to meet each other and feel it this is a good fit. There’s amble opportunity to check in during, before and after to the talk through what you journey might look like. For some it may be that the group work with the Foundation and Hearth is perfect, for others we might suggest 1:1 mentoring sessions as a way to start.

Introduction

We don’t have exams—instead, when a student is ready to graduate and their portfolio and case studies have all been reviewed and assessed, we gather together for a final threshold and ceremony of completion. Each herbalist has half a day to demonstrate their style of practice and receive feedback and reflection from their peers and tutors. As part of this, each herbalist speaks their own competencies, and their completion of the training is marked by both peers and tutors affirming that, to the best of their knowledge, they believe this person possesses these competencies and is able to practice in a safe and professional way. It is a very beautiful time together—an honouring of the journey we have shared over many years.

Completion