Learning to become a bioregional herbalist is as simple as going for a walk. Many walks, actually. And spending time observing your environment, looking at plants, closely. And talking to people, usually experienced elders within your community. Learning about plants which naturally grow and thrive around you. Developing relationship with our place is part of who we are, each and every one of us. 

If you are called to develop relationship with the plants around you for food and medicine, then this workshop is just for you.

Click HERE to register for this workshop

In this workshop we will explore the fundamental aspects of becoming a bioregional herbalist: developing relationship with place and the plants within it. This endeavor leads us to the study of field botany, respectful wildcrafting, herbal medicine making, and applying these medicines for well-being and healing utilizing our knowledge of our homeland and plant energetics. 

There are many important aspects of becoming a bioregional herbalist. First and foremost is a deep relationship with the place you are in. As an herbalist, our focus is primarily on plants, but we can diffuse our focus peripherally into the landscape which contains and nourishes these plants to pull in a broader context. This workshop ties together pragmatic approaches to learning about our environment with the feeling relationship that extends to all living things. This feeling relationship is as real for us as the genus and species of each plant - if not far more so!

Join bioregional herbalist, John Slattery, for this 3-day workshop to begin to transform your approach to working with plants. Starting in your own backyard you can become a master of the wild food and medicine that grows within arm’s reach. Then begin to branch out with the basic principles and practices learned in this workshop to continually learn more about your local environment including unique ways to apply the herbal medicines you learn about. Becoming equipped with a hands-on approach to field botany can open up many opportunities for gaining unique knowledge and connecting with knowledge from other cultures once you know how to properly identify plants. 

These 3 days will be a mixture of lecture, walkabout, intensive study, dispersed exploration, hands-on plant identification, plant gathering, medicine making, holistic theory, suggested clinical applications, and much, much more. The breadth and scope of the material covered over the weekend will be vast. This workshop can serve as the foundation for a life of self-directed study for those who are motivated, as well as help many discover their personal interest within the vast world of learning from plants.

Day 1 we will focus on developing relationship with place. We’ll accomplish this through a variety of exercises and long plant walks which are interspersed with copious information about the plants we see. We will also introduce the concept of plant energetics.

Day 2 we will explore field botany in depth. Students will become acquainted with a botanical key and learn how to identify plants through the use of this key. The second half of class will bring back plant energetics to balance out the day.

Day 3 will be dedicated to discussing, identifying, gathering, and processing herbs while making them into medicine. This day brings the essential practices of the bioregional herbalist into culmination with a finished herbal product. Which is simply the beginning of a new path - learning to use this medicine safely and effectively.

The workshop will take place at The Human Path campus as well as additional nearby field locations.

Some materials will be provided. A list of additional items to bring will be provided upon registration.

Handouts with botanical terms and a listing of local plant ID resources will be provided.

Click HERE to Register for the Workshop 

John Slattery, Bioregional Herbalist  © 2017