ONLINE HERBAL
MEDICINE MAKING COURSE

You’ll have the option to be part of a private student forum where you can share triumphs, troubleshooting, and inspirations with a lively community of herbal enthusiasts. Currently, this forum is held on Facebook. If you have questions for our staff, you can look through our FAQs at the end of each lesson, as well as our general Q & A board. If your question is still unanswered, you’ll send it to us via an e-mail form. In most cases, your questions will be answered by one of our moderators within 24 hours (Monday through Friday). You’ll be able to ask us questions and seek guidance for six months after enrolling. After this time, you’ll still be able to connect with other students via our student forum but the moderators won’t be available for questions. Since you’ll still have access to the course after six months, you’ll have continued access to our growing bank of common Q & A’s. (Our herbal team isn’t available by phone or private e-mail, except to provide assistance with technical issues or problems related to accessing the course. Please note that we can’t answer questions related to personal health due to legal and time constraints.)

We explore the therapeutic uses for many of the herbs featured in our recipes. The course includes a 40-page printable manual of herbal profiles. However, the primary focus of the course is how to make herbal medicine, natural body care products and culinary preparations. We do offer a more extensive program on growing and using herbs – Herbal Immersion Course, which you can upgrade to at any time (see the following question).

The Medicine Making course is included in the Herbal Immersion Course. If you enroll in the Medicine Making course and decide you want to dive in deeper, you can deduct the $599 tuition from the Herbal Immersion Course. (All of the tuition for the Medicine Making Course will be applied toward the tuition of the Herbal Immersion Course.) The Immersion is a longer, more in-depth program that focuses on growing medicinal herbs and their therapeutic uses. See the details here. The Medicine Making course touches on the healing aspect of individual herbs, but is introductory.

The medicine-making course is only available in its entirety. We don’t sell the individual modules.

Juliet Blankespoor is the green mastermind and herbal fanatic behind the program. She has been making herbal medicine for twenty-five years, including formulating her own tincture and natural body-care product lines. Juliet has been actively involved with other aspects of herbal medicine over those decades, including owning an herb nursery and directing an herbal school.

Asia Suler is a writer, teacher and herb-lover who simply lives for medicine making. She is the creator and concoctress behind One Willow Apothecaries, an Appalachian-grown company that offers lovingly handcrafted and inventive herbal medicines. Once a student at the Chestnut school herself, Asia now teaches homegrown medicine making at schools and gatherings across the country. Read their full bios here

Most of our students enroll in the program for their own personal use, and aren’t looking to gain a certificate. If this describes you, feel free to move at your own pace, watching the videos and preparing any of the recipes as you fancy. Since the course is yours for life, there’s no pressure to complete the materials at a certain time. But remember that you only have six months to ask us questions. We believe this deadline serves as an extra nudge to explore the course materials. You will, however, have continued access to the graduate forum for as long as you’d like—a diverse place to seek support amongst the ongoing community of herbal medicine-makers.

For those of you who would like to earn a certificate, you have six months to complete the program. Upon completion of all assignments and electronic submission of experiential projects, (within 6 months of enrolling and after paying your tuition in full) we’ll send you a beautiful printable certificate via e-mail. The certificate will state that you completed this 150-hour course and list the subjects covered. Currently, there is no certifying or licensing agency in the United States for herbalists, so there is no such thing as a certified or licensed herbalist, despite what some schools advertise. However, many people find that a certificate fairly represents the hours and dedication poured into one’s herbal studies. Additionally, a certificate offers a sense of pride for completing the program. We want to be clear that we are not an accredited University or vocational school. We are a school of traditional herbal medicine. Read more about herbal certification here.

We offer need-based scholarships to our online courses that are awarded around our mission of promoting equity and inclusivity in the field of herbal medicine. For details and to receive a notification when we reopen the application period, see our scholarships page.

Yes!

Yes! All weight and volume measurements are given in both standard (non-metric; ounces and cups) and metric (sensible; grams and milliliters). Please note Villagers does not ship internationally so their student discount is available only to students living in the US.

When you enroll, you will receive a list of kitchen tools and materials, used in most of the recipes. These include items you may already own, such as assorted Mason jars, an electronic scale, stainless steel funnels and labels. How much you spend on ingredients and materials will differ, depending on how prolific you are with the recipes and what tools and ingredients you already own. We estimate you might spend anywhere from $100 to $400 depending on these factors.

We have worked hard to offer this program at an affordable price and ask that you respect all the time, effort and trust put into its creation by keeping your login information to yourself. When you sign up for this course you enter a pact of community trust along with every one of the students and teachers. It is, of course, always okay to share your own insights and inspirations with friends and family, but building a healing community begins with respectfully supporting one another in our livelihoods. So we thank you in advance for helping us to build a stronger, more trusting community by keeping your login information to yourself.

However, we do encourage sharing your course materials with your children ages 13 and up. We want to nurture the next generation of plant lovers and medicine makers. This is a great program for homeschooling families with older children and teenagers interested in herbal medicine. If you wish to share the course with your children, be sure to watch our sample videos and lesson plans to gauge the level of instruction before enrolling. Please contact the school for more details if you wish to use this program for your homeschooling curriculum.

Yes, all of our course videos are closed captioned. We believe in making our content accessible to everyone, so we’ve ensured that all videos come with accurate and synchronized captions. If you encounter any issues with the captions or need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team.

The primary mission of the school is to educate about holistic healing, which includes discussing socioeconomic factors that affect health, safety, and freedom. A healer cannot truly practice holistic herbalism without understanding and addressing the stress, violence, and discrimination that marginalized people face on a daily level. If a person isn’t safe–or faces discrimination that affects their access to basic necessities and optimal health care–because of their race, religion, age, ability, sexual orientation, or gender identity, then their health is affected. It’s that simple.

The discrimination that affects human rights is a universal concern–transcending political affiliation. We believe these topics are central to any productive conversation regarding holistic herbalism (which takes into account how societal influences affect health, safety, basic human rights, and well-being).

Click here to read the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism Statement.