HERBALISTA FREE SCHOOL

Welcome to the Free School

Herbalista Logo shows the Herb Bus with herbs growing out of the side. 
 Herbs include chamomile, rosemary, lavender, sage and echinacea. It reads Herbalista Free School below the logo.
A vine of bright pink roses with many petals.

Herbalista x Teach:able

Free Courses for all you Herbalistas!

In 2023, in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of our very first Herb Bus Clinic, we launched three free courses on the TEACH:ABLE platform for online learning. 

Our courses consist of extensive video lectures, handouts, recipes, and detailed resource listings. You can follow the courses from start to finish, or you are free to jump around, concentrating only on the sections you’d like to explore deeper.

All our our Teachable courses are free, self-paced and you can enroll at any time.

Teachable Courses

Dandelions blooming in front of a stone wall. The words read "Herbal Foundations".

Herbal Foundations

A Course in Community Herbalism

Learn More + Register
Roses blooming under a blue sky dotted with clouds. The words read " In the Field".

In the Field

Botany + Urban Foraging

Learn More + Register
A countertop with bowls of garlic, ginger, pomegranates, hawthorne berries and hibiscus flowers. herbs and spices. The words read "Herbal Medicine Making".

Herbal Medicine Making

From Beginner to Advanced Skills

Learn More + Register
Three crew members stand at the Herb Cart pouring remedies. The words read "Community + Clinical Care".

Community + Clinical Care

Starting February 3, 2025

Learn More + Register

Course FAQ’s

Do these courses offer certification?

  • “Herbal Certification” does not exist in the United States at either a federal or state level of qualification. Since there is no set standard for certification, anyone can simply print out a certificate and insta-presto, you are a “certified” herbalist.
  • Here at Herbalista, we feel that a certificate should stand for something and since this course doesn’t have graded assignments or offer personalized feedback, we feel it wouldn’t be right to award certificates.
  • If there comes a time where we begin to individually assess your work and provide feedback, we will happily then provide a certificate.

How is it free?

  • The Herbalista Free School is made possible by the generous support of our sustaining members. Their small monthly donations makes it all possible. Thank you!
  • If you would like to support the work and ensure that the Free School continues, please consider joining our sustaining members program or making a one time donation.

How do we ask questions about the course material?

  • Once you enroll in the course, you will be able to ask questions directly via email.

Is there closed captioning for the videos?

  • Teachable has finally begun offering closed captioning! We are thrilled this option has become available and have initiated the auto-generation caption feature. We hope they are helpful.
  • Closed captioning is also available for any videos streamed from our Vimeo site.

Live Zoom Classes

The Herb Bus is parked in a field. There are Monarda flowers blooming in the foreground with mountains in the far distance.

Herbalista x Zoom Live

The Zoom classes are our chance to be together while we learn. The next series of live classes will be taught in tandem with the start of the Community + Clinical Care Course which is launching February 3, 2025.

For each monthly module that is released on Teachable, we will offer a live zoom Study Session to give folks a chance to ask questions and review the material together.

When we schedule these Zoom Live Classes, we post the registration links on this page and also announce them in our newsletter and our social media pages.

For access to the full Herbalista Free School Library of our previous Zoom Live classes, please join us as a sustaining member.

2025 Schedule

Coming soon…

Zoom Class Vault

You can find our entire library of Zoom class recordings in your member’s Herbalista Toolkit. All videos have Vimeo generated closed captioning and are marked with chapters for easy navigation.

  • Building Medicine Kits
    
The most important tools we have as herbalists are the herbs themselves. And these herbs need sweet little homes to call their own. Herbal Medicine Kits (aka ‘kittage’) have been absolutely vital in our work at Herbalista. I find the process of building Medicine Kits to be not only immensely satisfying but an incredibly important part of the preparatory process for running a clinic. In this class we will be sharing all the nuts and bolts from construction and retrofitting to packing lists for various types of kits. We hope this class helps you craft the herbal kit of your dreams.
  • Materia Medica Series
    These Materia Medica Classes are a chance to spend some quality time with the plants. We explore a group of between 5 – 7 herbs in depth, from botanical to clinical observations. We will cover actions + energetics; therapeutic indications; common preparation + dosages; herbal safety + contraindications; and other herbalistic bits ‘n bobs. As my teacher Michael Moore always said, if you want to be a good herbalist, first you have to know the plants!
    • Materia Medica I: Spring Weeds
      The Herbs: Chickweed, Cleavers, Daisy, Dandelion, Nettles, Plantain, and Violet.
    • Materia Medica II: Heart Herbs
      The Herbs: Hawthorne, Hibiscus, Linden, Motherwort and Rose.
    • Materia Medica III: Slip + Soothe
      The Herbs: Marshmallow, Seaweed, Oats, Aloe and Licorioce.
    • Materia Medica IV: Berry Bliss
      The Berries: Elderberry, the Vaccinium Crew (Blueberry, Bilberry, Cranberry), Schisandra, Mulberry and Goji.
    • Materia Medica V: Mint-tastic
      The Mints: Rosemary, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Peppermint and Oregano.

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