The Essential Dozen: Be Your Own Herbalist (4-Week Online Live Series)

Essential Herbs for Thriving

May 9 – 30, 2024

Discover herbalism’s many facets by focusing on the essential dozens. You will work with these plants in our medicine wheel herb garden, wildflower meadows, and forest gardens.

This is one of the first workshops ever taught at The Living Centre in the early 1980s. I continued teaching this workshop at Fanshawe College for 12 years. After 45-years, it is still an important and foundational study of plant medicine. An understanding that needs to be applied in every home. This workshop covers plants growing everywhere that can be used as food, spice and medicine. They are safe for pregnant moms, infants, and the elderly. We will address the most common health ailments that may arise, and these plants can be used daily to prevent and keep us vibrant and healthy. Discover these essential dozen and be charged by their generous gifts. We will look at the healing plants from numerous angles, including botanical, native, therapeutic, energetic, historical and sacred.

You will gain knowledge and confidence in your ability to assess body systems and which herbs work effectively on those systems, as well as tools to address the emotional body and its connection to disease processes.

80% of the people on this planet use herbal medicine to maintain their health. Support yourself and your community with herbal remedies for the most common ailments.

Some of the possible topics include:

Herbal Therapeutics
The 12 Essential Herbal Families
Ancient and Modern Applications
Using Plants Internally & Externally
Creative Hands-on Medicine-Making

Curriculum

Week 1

Learn how to create your own Materia Medica, your personal healing guidebook.
Individual Projects: deepen your learning in an area that particularly interests you,
Materia Medica: in-depth overviews of the 12 Essential Medicinal plants, including preparation + dosages

Week 2

Study of Body Systems:
Energetics of Plant Medicines: how energetics change with preparation, and more
Sustainable Wildcrafting: the art and study of working with the wild medicinals throughout the year

Week 3

Herbal Medicine Methods of Delivery
The Art of Formulation: how to create individually-tailored herbal formulations
Medicine-Making Practices: alcohol, vinegar, glycerine, extracts, tea blends, topical preparations, taught with specific ratios to allow for comprehensive dosing

Week 4

Shantree’s unique formulations that he has made for over four decades
Case Studies: real-life examples of common health issues and herbal protocols to support healing
Individual Projects: deepen your learning in an area that particularly interests you, either alone or in a small group