PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Our Community Herbalism Program is a comprehensive two year course. Year one, the Fundamentals of Community Herbalism, serves as a standalone program, and is also the prerequisite for year two, Advanced Community Herbalism. The core programs are held online, with additional optional in-person intensives for those who live nearby or who can travel to attend.
What can I expect from a Terra Sylva education?
At Terra Sylva, we recognize that there are no greater teachers than the plants, the land and our bodies. For this reason, we emphasize embodied herbal study, encouraging students to learn from direct experience of the plants and plant communities around them. Our curriculum features a diversity of hands-on embodied exercises: we will taste herbs together and share our impressions, and assignments include time spent with plants in the field and in the kitchen.
Despite the isolation and alienation that can dominate our society, we know that each of us is connected, to each other, to our communities, to the culture we live in and to the larger web of life on Earth. Individual health is intricately tied to the web of connections that we inhabit. Supporting health implies recognizing the impact of structural forces on the health of individuals and communities. The effects of racism, misogyny, poverty, transphobia and homophobia are important aspects of health and dis-ease. The Terra Sylva School makes clear the links between societal and individual ills. We incorporate anti-oppressive practice and education into our school’s curriculum. We acknowledge the enormous debt that North American herbalism owes to Native people without fetishizing or appropriating Native culture. We adhere to feminist values but avoid gender essentialism, and use trans-inclusive language.
We believe firmly in teacher accountability. We value the experience of our students, are receptive to feedback, and will do our best to share knowledge effectively and work to co-create a healthy container for learning and growing together as herbalists.
For more detail about our course curriculum, visit this page.
Fundamentals of Community Herbalism
In the Fundamentals course, students will receive an in-depth education in the foundational elements of Western herbalism from a holistic and Vitalist perspective: the flavors of herbs, the influences and actions of plants on the body, how to recognize patterns of imbalance and match the appropriate herbs to those patterns. We will cover basic anatomy and physiology, Vitalist practices for supporting health, a wide array of medicine making practices, and botany. Graduates will be able to provide support to those suffering from a wide variety of common complaints and conditions. In this course we will focus on the most accessible herbs in the herbalist’s toolkit: kitchen medicine, weedy herbs, and plants that are easy to cultivate. Students who complete the program will have a solid foundation in holistic herbalism that will enable them to provide basic care for themselves and their loved ones.
Details about Year 1 of our program.
Advanced Community Herbalism
Our Advanced Community Herbalism course builds on the curriculum covered in year one, Fundamentals of Community Herbalism. In year two, we study holistic anatomy and physiology in more depth. Students will learn to assess deeper imbalances in the various organ systems, learn herbal remedies for addressing these imbalances, and gain the ability to craft multi-faceted protocols for supporting overall health. Students will learn advanced medicine making techniques and methods for precise formulation. In the Advanced course, we expand our herbal repertoire, incorporating herbs that require more knowledge to use safely and effectively. This course also covers a comprehensive range of clinical skills for the community herbalist. Graduates will have the training they need to provide informed holistic care and consistent potent medicine to their communities. This is not a clinical program but does offer the clinical skills needed to provide a higher level of care to one’s community.
The video above gives you a sense of what our video lessons are like. Along with these videos, the online classroom features forums for Q&A and discussion; readings and resources; and periodic assignments. Biweekly Zoom meetings add live discussion and practice exercises.
THE ELEMENTAL APPROACH
AT TERRA SYLVA WE MAINTAIN BALANCE, AND HONOR DIFFERENT WAYS OF KNOWING AND LEARNING, BY TAKING AN ELEMENTAL APPROACH TO OUR CURRICULUM:
INVOKING EARTH, WE ARE GROUNDED IN THE HERBAL TRADITION. WE SHARE THE LESSONS OF OUR ELDERS AND TEACHERS. THE SUPREME TEACHERS ARE THE PLANTS THEMSELVES, AND IMMERSION IN NATURE IS FOUNDATIONAL TO OUR PROGRAM. WE ARE NOURISHED BY THE EARTH AND NOURISHED BY TRADITION. EARTH CONNOTES THE WORK OF HERBALISM, THOUGH IT DOESN’T ALWAYS FEEL LIKE WORK. ETHICAL WILDCRAFTING, MEDICINE MAKING, AND FIELD BOTANY ARE ESSENTIAL TO OUR PRACTICE.
WATER EMBODIES OUR INTUITIVE SIDE. TO LEARN FROM THE PLANTS REQUIRES LISTENING, OPENING OURSELVES TO THEIR LESSONS, QUIETING OUR INNER CHATTER TO HEAR THEIR VOICES. WATER REMINDS US TO REMAIN RECEPTIVE AND OPEN TO NATURE AND TO OUR INNER WORLD SO THAT INTUITION AND DEEP KNOWING CAN GUIDE US. WE TEACH THE ART OF HERBAL ENERGETICS, OF FLOWER ESSENCES AND SUBTLE MEDICINE.
FIRE SPURS US TO ACTION, PASSION AND COURAGE. THIS IS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING, LEARNING BY DOING. WE SHARE OUR PASSION FOR PLANT MEDICINE WITH OUR STUDENTS, PASSING THE TORCH TO THOSE WHO WILL BOTH FIGHT TO PROTECT NATURE AND WORK TO CREATE A BETTER WORLD. HERBALISM AS COMPASSION IN ACTION.
AIR BRINGS US GIFTS OF THE MIND: NEW IDEAS FROM SCIENCE, RESEARCH AND BOOK LEARNING, AND EVER-EVOLVING THEORIES OF HEALTH, THE BODY, AND THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF NATURE. AIR IS THE INSIGHT AND KNOWLEDGE TO WEAVE ALL THE ELEMENTS OF THE ART OF HERBALISM TOGETHER.