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What does an Herbalist do and what does it take to do it?

Kris

Hello and welcome to the first blog post for the Alternative Health in a Nutshell podcast. I figured for the first post two much needed pieces of information are; what the heck is an herbalist and how does someone get to be one? There are many different options and I will discuss the ones I know of as well as how I got into doing this.


What is an Herbalist?






Basics first. What the heck is an herbalist? 


An herbalist is someone who studies the traditional and modern uses of plants to heal our body. This can be seen as an alternative to working with physicians and/or a way to combine traditional knowledge with modern medicine.


Herbalists work in a variety of traditions and some combine those traditions. The most

notable traditions people look to are: 



These three modalities are typically what you hear when asking more in depth about an herbalist’s training or knowledge.


Can Anyone Be an Herbalist?





Yes! Anyone can be an herbalist! 


No, I am not joking. This is something anyone can do. However, there are different levels:


  • home herbalist

  • professional herbalist

  • clinical herbalists


The place the majority of people start is as a home herbalist.


What is a Home Herbalist?


A home herbalist is someone who treats themselves, their family and potentially their friends. They look to books found in thrift stores, gift shops, and health food stores. 


The journey to being a home herbalist can come from many different places. Some want a more natural way to treat every day ailments like the common cold. Some are parents frustrated with the lack of available over the counter medicine to help their small children. 


The largest category, which I originally fell into, are people who grow tired of the prescription pills they are on, the symptoms they have, and the general unhealthy chemical filled body they reside in. 


Once you are bitten by the home remedy bug it can be hard to stop. This leads to more and more research until you want to start helping others and feel comfortable with it.


Typically home herbal remedies treats things like the common cold, bug bites, burns, cuts, and other common everyday things the average person runs into. If herbalism becomes a passion then it can lead to running a business.


What are Professional and Clinical Herbalists?


Once we look at running a business either as a professional or clinical herbalist things become a bit more murky. As far as the difference between a professional and clinical herbalist in my personal opinion there isn’t much of one. 


A professional herbalist typically goes through schooling and then opens their practice. A clinical herbalist goes through the same schooling, then has a clinical supervisor that guides their clinical work until they reach 3,000 hours. 


The main difference between the two is the title. A responsible professional herbalist will get advice from a practitioner who is more experienced and does not track their time. Either of these people will study for a minimum of one year and then gain experience as they treat more and more people. I will only briefly discuss this next part as it will be a future post but let’s talk legality for a second.


What Are the Legal Requirements For Being an Herbalist?


The legal requirements for an herbal practice depend on the state. 


The only federal requirement is that you follow the same guidelines as food, since they consider herbal remedies to be a nutritional supplement, and that every product you sell must state this

product is not intended to treat, diagnose, cure, or prevent any disease. 


If you are interested in more of the legal requirements, sign up for future posts! 


The Journey to Opening Adder’s Health Services





My name is Kris and if you found this blog then you are someone who is at least casually

interested in plants as a healing agent. I came into doing this with a mild interest that became a voracious one. 


I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, eight years ago at the age of 23. Through the gambit of modern healthcare, I was terrified to try any more prescription medications for this condition. So I began to look into alternative sources. 


I started at thrift stores buying alternative health books, then a gift shop, and then buying all of the books my school recommended. I spent seven years learning for myself and in the beginning I sought help from a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner. 


As I gained in knowledge and experience I realized I hit a roadblock with studying for myself. I wanted to help others but I wanted to make sure that I would be treating people responsibly and safely with the herbs I was using. I researched different schools and had three different options. I went with one first that I liked the owner of the school but his teaching method was one giant materia medica that involved memorizing the plants with little structure on how to do so. I went back to researching and found the school that I went to for three years. It was called East West School of Planetary Herbology but is now under new ownership and is getting an update to the programming. 


What I liked about the school was that it mixed all three of the traditions I mentioned earlier—Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurvedic Medicine, and Western Herbalism. After studying on my own and school I was still concerned about the safety of treating others and it took some pushing from my mentor to just start. I did and it has been a fun and wild ride that I plan to continue on. 


I started this blog as a simple way for people to learn about what I do and dispel the misnomers about this profession.


Want to begin your own herb journey?



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