Visiting Clinical Herbalist Training Program ™ 2012

The Visiting Clinical Herbalist Training Program is a six month weekend series for graduates of the professional and clinical herbalist training programs, clinical practitioners, and for intermediate and advanced herbalist. The visiting teachers are incredibly knowledgeable practitioners with a depth and breadth of clinical experience to share.

Dates and Times:

The program will take place on the third weekend of the month, from January 21st to June 17th, 2012. Classes are held from 11am-5 pm, with an hour lunch break, at the Northwest School for Botanical Studies, in Fieldbrook, CA.

Registration:

The first opportunity for enrollment will be given to individuals who register for the entire program. The registration deadline is December 1st, 2011. To reserve your space in the program, you can mail in the full payment of $1200 or a non-refundable deposit of $300 dollars. Participants are encouraged to attend the entire program, however, individual weekends may be attended for $225 or three weekends may be attended for $650. Space is limited. Payments and deposits can be mailed to: Christa Sinadinos, 36 Kingston Road, McKinleyville, CA 95519.

Schedule of Presenters:

  • January 21st & 22nd – Howie Brounstein
  • February 18th & 19th – Paul Bergner
  • March 17th & 18th – Karyn Sanders
  • April 21st & 22nd – Jim McDonald
  • May 19th & 20th – Margi Flint
  • June 16th & 17th – Christa Sinadinos

Course Curriculum

Physical Assessment Skills

Instructors: Howie Brounstein and Kristi Reese

Dates: January 21st & 22nd

This lab class teaches pertinent physical assessment for the clinical herbalist. Topics may include legalities, ethics, deep tendon reflexes, neurological screening, HEENT (head, ears, eyes, nose and throat), and other clinical assessment skills. This is not a class in diagnostics, but rather one of "red flag" assessment to determine if your client may need referral to a diagnostician.Tools required for the class: ~Penlight or flashlight. Not LED type.~Tuning fork, 128Hz -optional for vibration testing

http://www.medexamtools.com/forks-vib.htm - $ 8.60

Herbal and Nutritional Strategies for Treating Inflammation

Instructor: Paul Bergner

Dates: February 18th & 19th

Paul Bergner will talk on the clinical strategies for treatment chronic inflammation. He will describe the root pathologies underlying most inflammation, and offer strategies for addressing the root or foracutely palliating inflammatory pain. The influence of macronutrients, modern foods, micronutrients, and medicinal herbs will be presented.

Native American Energetic Herbalism

Instructor: Karyn Sanders

Dates: March 17th & 18th

Karyn will be teaching about what health and balance is from an indigenous perspective. We will be looking at light and energy in the body, what is health? We will be learning animal medicine for shifting patterns and learning about how to understand and control our energy for health. We will be taking plants and doing meditations as well.

Foundational Herbcraft... Actions & Energetics in Traditional Western Herbalism

Instructor: Jim Mcdonald

Dates: April 21st & 22nd

The energetic foundations of western herbalism aren't clearly laid out, as they are in Ayurvedic or traditional Chinese medicine, but do exist and aree clearly implied in the terms we use to describe the traditional properties and actions of herbs. We'll look more deeply at how the energetics implied in Eclectic and Physio-Medalist herbalism can be simplified into six tissue states, and how traditional herbal actions such as bitters, astringents, demulcents, relaxants and other primary & foundational actions reveal the deeper virtues of herbs, telling us far more of their nature than terms like "anti-inflammatory" or "antibacterial" could ever convey.

Reading the Body

Instructor: Margi Flint

Dates: May 19th & 20th

We will dance with various diagnostic techniques including facial signs, tissue color, elimination analysis, signs of hot, cold, damp and dry conditions and also a discussion of herbs for correlating organ systems. Margi will also be sharing the meaning of the facial lines, colors and blemishes of the face, nails and tongue as a way of reading the body’s signals in regards to disease processes. The weekend will consist of both lecture and hands on learning with ample opportunity to ask questions and will teach some very traditional and valuable tools for knowing how to read the body and translate that into a more specific herbal protocol for healing. You will observe, be the recipient, and practice these very traditional and valuable tools for knowing how to read the body.

Enhancing Immunity with Medicinal Mushroom; Supporting Patients Recovering from Cancer

Herbal Therapeutics for Asthma

Instructor: Christa Sinadinos

Dates: June 16th & 17th

Enhancing Immunity with Medicinal Mushrooms (Saturday)

Christa will cover materia medica of medicinal mushrooms including Cordyceps sinensis (Cordyceps, Dong Chong Xia Coa), Lentinula edodes (Shitake), Trametes versicolor (Turkey tail), and Grifola frondosa (Maitake/Hen of the woods). She will spend the remainder of the day discussing natural immune system support for individuals with cancer and how to enhance recovery from conventional cancer treatments. Students are encouraged to review their materia medica notes on Ganoderma, Astragalus, Schisandra, Eleuthero, Panax, and other adaptogenic herbs.

Note - Due to time limitations, this class will cover more generalized treatments for individuals with cancer and those recovering from conventional treatments. It will not cover the specific pathophysiology of each type of cancer.

Herbal Therapeutics for Asthma (Sunday)

Christa will cover herbal materia and therapeutics for acute and long term treatment of asthma. She will discuss the clinical uses of Lobelia, Ephedra, Polygala, and additional medicinal herbs and for asthma. She will briefly review the influences of diet and nutrition for respiratory support. Students are encouraged to review their materia medica notes on Aralia (Spikenard), Grindelia (Gumweed), Inula (Elecampane), and Marrubium (Horehound) before the class.

Disclaimer: This is a tentative syllabus; the instructors and class content classes are subject to change.

The Instructors

Paul Bergner

Paul Bergner is the Director of the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism in Boulder, Colorado, where he offers clinical training in medical herbalism and clinical nutrition in a two-year program. He has edited the Medical Herbalism journal since 1989. Paul has studied and practiced natural medicine since 1973, with formal studies in nature cure, medical herbalism, clinical nutrition, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, Unani medicine, flower essences, yoga therapy, and bodywork, including undergraduate studies in pre-medicine and psychology and doctoral level studies in medical sciences and natural therapeutics at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine. In addition to directing the school and clinic at the NAIMH, he taught undergraduate nutrition at Naropa University for seven years, and is guest faculty in the Masters in Herbal Medicine program at the Tai Sophia Institute. He has authored seven books on medical herbalism, clinical nutrition, ethnobotany, and naturopathic medicine.

Howie Brounstein

Howie Brounstein is the primary instructor of the Columbines School of Botanical Studies and former owner of Columbines and Wizardry Herbs, Inc. He has taught botany, herbalism, and wildcrafting extensively for decades, including such herbal establishments as the Michael Moore's Southwest School of Botanical Medicine. Howie has a clinical practice in Eugene, Oregon specializing in chronic illness and seizure disorders.

Margi Flint

Margi Flint has been an herbalist for more than 30 years. She is the author of “The Practicing Herbalist, thoughts for meeting with clients, assessments of the body” and owner of EarthSong Herbals (www.earthsongherbals.com), a family practice and herb school. She also teaches Herbal Pharmacology at North Shore Community College and for The Masters of Applied Natural Products course at Massachusetts College of Pharmacology. Her filters of wisdom include over thirty years of labor coaching, polarity therapy, and herbal practice. Margi regularly speaks at nationally known herbal seminars in the States and in Europe. She has also been Adjunct Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine where she taught a four-week rotation in clinical herbal medicine for Fourth Year Medical Students and practitioners at Union Hospital and her clinic in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Jim Mcdonald

Jim Mcdonald has been practicing the art of herbcraft for over seventeen years, and offers knowledge of herbalism that blends western folk and indigenous views of healing with the Vitalist traditions of 19th century western herbalism. He has taught classes and workshops throughout Great Lakes bioregion & the US, hosts the website www.herbcraft.org and is currently writing "A Great Lakes Herbal". Jim is a community herbalist, a manic wildcrafter and medicine maker, and has been an ardent student of the most learned teachers of herbcraft... the plants themselves.

Karyn Sanders

Karyn has been working with plants for most of her life. She was first trained in Native American traditional plant medicine. In her mid-teens she apprenticed with a Mexican curandera and has subsequently studied with various traditional teachers as well as Western herbalists. Karyn has been teaching and practicing herbal medicine from an energetic perspective for over 32 years. Karyn has a live radio show, The Herbal Highway that has aired weekly since 1996 on KPFA, 94.1FM out of Berkeley, California. You may listen to her show live through the internet at http://kpfa.org/herbal-highway, Thursdays from 1 to 2pm.

Christa Sinadinos

Christa Sinadinos is the director of the Northwest School for Botanical Studies. She has cultivated many herbalists through the two-phase professional and clinical herbalist training programs. She has practiced herbal medicine since 1994 and has studied herbs since 1989. Christa is the proprietor of the herbal extract business Alpine Meadow Botanicals. She maintains a demonstration garden containing more than 200 species of medicinal herbs.