Exploring Herbalism
As I let all the other pieces—my application for a masters in acupuncture, doula mentorship, certification requirements, and courses—fall into place, I’ve also become curious about ways to round out my practice. In the future, I’ve imagined that involving herbalism in order to support clients in a well-rounded and holistic way that compliments the medical care they’re receiving from other providers.
The program I’ve applied to for acupuncture does have an herbalism component that is optional and I’ve been interested in that, but it just doesn’t feel realistic. The reality is that the masters program is already intensive and requires upwards of 18 credits some semesters—adding the TCM on top of that doesn’t feel doable for me while I’m in a space where I’m trying to slow down. And, while traditional Chinese medicine is interesting to me and I would love to learn more about it, I feel drawn to traditional medicine practices that align with my ancestry and that is accessible where I’m located in the world.
In my explorations, I’ve found a local herbalism school that I’ve bookmarked for later—because this is certainly not work that I can dive into right this second. When I dedicate myself to learning about herbalism, I want to be able to dedicate myself to those studies. In the meantime, I’m using the Herbalista Free School as a foundational resource. They have some no cost courses that provide foundational education on herbs and information on practical implementation. They are temporarily shutting down their classes starting in the end of November as they transition from using Teachable to embedding their courses directly into their website, but during that time, individual lectures and tons of resources will still be available on their site. In the meantime, I am taking the Foundations of Herbalism course and it is such an incredible resource.
Books I’m currently reading—I’m about to finish Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and I’m listening to the dramatized adaptation of Grady Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. If you’re going to read this particular Hendrix, the dramatized adaptation is absolutely the way to go!
Happy Wednesday,
K
