I’m rusty. It’s been 7 years now since I was an apprentice at the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine, and 3 years since I have worked with an herbal client in a semi-formal way (utilizing an intake form and an in-depth consult and recommending herbs). I feel like I don’t quite have what it takes to see clients as an herbalist, but the catch-22 is that in order to become a registered herbalist, you have to see clients! (300 hours worth in fact, which averages out to about 100 or so people if you guesstimate that each person has a 1-1.5 hour initial consult, 1-2 hours research for protocol and formulating remedy and 30 minutes for a follow-up). So how does a not-quite-ready herbalist with a mix of self taught and apprenticeship education start seeing clients while also being ethical and not imploding from imposter syndrome?
- Make a plan.
The first things I’ve done is check out the requirements for membership in both the American Herbalist Guild and the Alberta Herb Association (see images above) . The requirements have changed and become more strict since I last looked in 2018. Though I don’t think it’s necessary to be registered to be a good herbalist, I do think that guidelines for education and learning in an unlicensed healthcare field are important if you are serious about taking good care of clients as a full time gig. Guidelines give one a sense of where ones knowledge level is at, as well as avenues for future learning. ALSO, this is peoples health we are talking about. There’s not a lot of room for fucking around and recommending protocols for people that aren’t going to work, or potentially causing harm. Reading the guidelines, understanding where one is at with their knowledge base (and being humbled by that fact) and working within your means is key. Seeing the holes in my own education is really illuminating–herbal energetics, nutrition and diagnostics for example–and points me in a clear direction for building up my knowledge base.
2.Get organized.
The administrative organizational tasks are the ones that can feel like a lot of work. We all love studying the herbs, reading up about formulating and playing potion master in the kitchen–I mean, wasn’t that the initial draw to herbalism? But there is also a whole other side to prepare in order to present a professional image for folks you are seeing. Things like having your intake form ready, a simple website or linkinbio on social media, a list of people to refer your clients to if you come up dry, a place for your clients to get the medicine they need if you don’t have a fully stocked apothecary, a place to meet them (in person or virtual), a follow-up protocol. And this is just a short list! Camille Freeman has a great paid resource (that I’m planning on taking) called the Roots course that gets all the administrative stuff lined up for you.
Give yourself a deadline or date goal when you want to have everything organized and when you want to start seeing clients. And if you are seeing clients, think about how many people you want to see in a week, month or year.
3. Keep learning.
By now you have probably decided on what herbs you will be stocking in your home apothecary, or at least you know the herbs you will be using in your practice. Keep learning about those herbs! Read everything you can, listen to podcasts and conference lectures, go to workshops and conferences, ask your herbal colleagues for help! I’ve made a personal learning goal of listening to one 1.5 hour lecture from the AHG website per week. By the end of the year, that will be 78 learning hours logged, and 78 more hours of learning I can apply to helping people. Other great resources include (I will update as I gather more):
- Herbalista. Lorna has put together an herbal free school that is more directed to beginner students, but valuable nonetheless. She also has a member toolkit (for a small fee) where you can swipe all her templates, worksheets, packing lists and recipes!
- Jim MacDonalds Master index. Organized by topic on anything from wildcrafting, to nervous system to childrens medicine. A lot of broken links, but a great place to start.
- Rosalee de la Foret blogroll. A dizzying list of blogs from herbalists around the world!
- Podcasts! My favourite of the moment include: Herbrally (Mason Hutchinson), Herbal Radio (from Mountain Rose Herbs), The Holistic Herbalism Podcast (Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism), In the Clinic with Camille (Camille Freeman), The Herbalists Path (Mel Mutterspaugh).
- AHG lecture Archive. Like I mentioned above, I’ve been listening here every week, and it really is worth every penny of the membership cost ($60 USD). My recent favs have been Aviva Romm talking about starting out in clinical practice!
4. Be honest and realistic/focus on your strengths.
Focusing on your strengths might mean initially just working with specific health issues. Feeling pretty confident about gastrointestinal health? Or maybe upper respiratory tract infections? Focus on attracting and marketing to people with those specific issues. With that being said, if you don’t know the direction to proceed with a health issue, or if it feels too challenging or complex, say so or refer out. As a newbie herbalist, you do not know everything and you are not expected to know everything. There is no greater harm than pretending to understand someone’s health concerns and throwing shit at the wall to see if it helps. Peoples time is valuable, and so is their health. Not to mention that if you are charging for your consultation at this point in your practice, people are losing out on money to see you. So just keep it simple and honest and expand out from there.
5. Make it affordable.
Consider offering free or pay-what-you-can as you start out. The only thing about a free service is that you may not garner as many clients as you think. Many people don’t take a service as seriously if it’s free, so you may have issues with people showing up or following through (speaking from my own experience here). Money gives value to the service, even if its just a fraction of what you will eventually charge! It’s like an accountability buddy for people to show up.
6. Ask for help/work with a mentor.
This is huge. Being able to call or email someone up that has decades of experience (or just different experience) over you when you’re stuck or just need a second opinion is a massive help. My own mentor has graciously offered to look over any consultation I do, and give pointers or recommendations. There are a vast number of resources for mentorship and also courses that guide the new herbalist into confidence within a safe container. I will link some that I know of below1. Remember that this is about gathering all the resources you can to help the client. Leave your ego at the consultation door.
Mentorship resources:
- HPX Connection. I was in this for a few months, but the timing of some of the workshops just didn’t work for me with a toddler at home. It seemed like a great community and Erika Galentin is a very talented herbalist.
- Camille Freeman. I mentioned her roots course above, but she is amazing and also has Monday Mentoring for people that are already in practice and want to work through intakes . She also has an herbal observation group if you need or want more herbal observation hours. It’s really fun and a great way to learn from other herbalists in a group setting.
- AHG mentoship list and resources. To access the templates you need a membership, but you can access the mentor directory for free.
7. Get out there and have fun!
This is what it’s all about. Show up, talk about what you do, IDENTIFY as an herbalist and start helping people with your herbal knowledge. Consider hosting herb walks or doing little workshops in your community as well to get yourself out there. The world needs you!