Herbal Education At The Academy: The Beginning

Here at Growing Up Herbal, I do my best to bring you solid, well-researched information on how to use herbs in your daily life, but what about when you’re ready to take your herbal education one step further? Where do you go to get more information?

What About Herbal School

I get asked ALL. THE. TIME. about recommendations for herbal schools which brings me to this new monthly feature here on the GUH blog. Each month during the course of 2015, I’ll be sharing my monthly experiences with my studies at the Herbal Academy (HA)… or “The Academy”. It’s been almost a year since I enrolled in the Online Intermediate Herbal Course at the Herbal Academy… and no, I’m still not finished. My goal was to finish the entire course (10 units) in 10 months, but life is busy. My 10 month goal has slipped past me which is partly the reason for this new feature. It’s time to buckle down and finish up my studies so I can move on to other areas of learning… like aromatherapy school or an advanced herbal program, and some accountability is just what I need in order to help keep me on track. The other reason for this new feature is to give you an inside look at the course so you can decide for yourself if it’s a good fit for you or not.

Why I Chose To Study With HA

There are a lot of different kinds of herbal programs or schools out there, and they each have their own style which is largely based on the founder of the school and/or the course instructors. Some schools are more well-known than others, some offer certificates of completion and “titles”, and the price for these programs varies greatly. When it comes to choosing a school, the reasons will vary for each person. Below you’ll find some of the reasons I chose to study with HA.

1. It was an online program that I could do from home, and with four young children… that was a must.
2. The program was broken up into different levels which worked great for me. I was way beyond a beginner herbalist and well into an intermediate level of learning, but not quite at an advanced level yet. This helped to place me in an area where my time was best spent instead of starting at the beginning and studying a lot of things I already knew.
3. The program is evidence-based (instead of based on traditional or folk information only) with a list of experts that help fill the program out.
4. The info I’d already seen from HA was easy to understand, formatted well, and perfect for my learning style so I figured the course info would be very similar.
5. I knew and respected several of the herbalists that inspired the information and learning styles that this course contains.
6. Completing this program would help me position myself as more of an expert and prepare me for the next step in my herbal journey.
7. The price was the best I’ve ever see for a legitimate herbal program.

Your reasons for choosing a place to study will differ from mine, but I want to let you in on why I made my decision.

What To Expect From This Feature

Each month’s post will be broken down into two sections. The first will be centered around what I studied the previous month along with a few interesting facts I learned and a recipe or two, and the second part is where I’ll answer your questions from the previous month’s post on my experiences. I hope you enjoy this feature, and it really helps you to decide on whether pursuing further herbal studies with the Herbal Academy is for you or not.

Now it’s your turn. Have you checked out the programs offered by HA? If so, what do you want to know about them? What’s holding you back from continuing your herbal education? Let me know your questions in the comments below, and I’ll do my best to answer them in next month’s post!