Practical Herbalism

Practical Skills for Practitioner Development

An experiential learning online course

Taste herbs • Journal their effects • Write your own Materia medica • Make medicines • Devise formulas • Apply Vitalist Therapeutics

108 total hours

16 hours of recorded lectures with Paul Bergner

45 hours of video instruction with Heather Luna

47 hours of guided hands-on projects

On-Demand Herbal Education

At your own pace • Lifetime Access

Get the course

Paul Bergner

Offers deep insight into traditional Western herbalism, physiology, and clinical thinking

Heather Luna

Demonstrates practical applications, formulation strategies, and case-based learning

Hands-on Projects

Guided projects and assignments that ground your education in real experience

Course Overview

Practical Herbalism presents the context of the vitalist approach to healing. It provides a whole system method of working with herbs, nutrition, and lifestyle factors, to address common health conditions. This course is designed for herbalists with a foundational understanding of plant medicine who are ready to develope their clinical thinking and understanding of vitalist principles.

The course contains audio lectures with Paul Bergner along with video instruction from ACORN School director Heather Luna. This blended experience enhances learning of key concepts for developing herbalists of all levels. Paul Bergner lays the foundation for learning herbal medicine and Heather Luna adds clarity and guidance, grounding this information into real-world clinical practice. This online course greatly expands on the original NAIMH material to provide deeper context in therapeutic applications to truly transform the results you get in practice.

Structured Lessons

Follow structured assignments that build real-world skill with a focus on clinical thinking. Learn to write your own Materia medica, complete sampling and journaling projects, and make practical preparations for your clients. You will not just gather information, you will learn how to think like a practitioner.

Each lesson integrates:

Clinical and historical perspectives
Structured assignments for synthesis and application
Formulation strategies rooted in real-world use
A curated reference library to deepen your study

Immersive & Hands-on Learning

Practical Herbalism offers an immersive, hands-on experience for developing a practitioner level skillset within the vitalist paradigm. You will learn to work with herbs within the broader context of nutrition, lifestyle, and individual constitution.

Learning happens through doing. Whether you are building a stronger foundation or refining skills developed over years of study and practice, this course offers a practical, hands-on approach to produce results when working with others. Throughout the course you will learn how to apply herbal medicines in context, gain a practical approach to the study materia medica, and develop a deeper understanding of how to apply herbal medicines through direct experience.

With this course, you will develop practical skills with 30 herbs and learn how to prepare and use more than 20 different types of herbal preparations. You will explore how herbs can support nutrition, digestion, rest, skin health, pain management, and common self-limiting infections and fevers.

What you will learn

How to evaluate herbal actions, energetics and uses through sampling and journaling
Differentiate herbal legends from clinical pearls
Assess for safety considerations
Make more than 20 types of herbal preparations
Use herbs to support nutrition and overall vitality
Apply herbs for common skin concerns
Use herbs to promote relaxation and restful sleep
Support healthy digestion with herbs
Understand the warming, cooling, moistening, and drying qualities of herbs
Consider constitutional patterns when selecting herbs
Use herbs to support the body during pain, common infections, and fevers

Syllabus

Sample and Journaling Experience: Learn what an herb does beyond the book
Practical Uses for Garlic: Chemistry changes in preparation
Nutritive Herbs: Herbs to correct common nutritional deficiencies
Topical Herbs: Physiology and therapeutics for connective tissue repair
Herbs to Support Digestion: Assess and correct digestive complains
Moistening and Drying Herbs: Evaluate constitutional patterns in people and plants
Heating and Cooling Herbs: Herbal safety and humoral contraindications
Herbs to Support Relaxation: Therapeutic approach to correcting sleep debt
Herbs for Pain: Understand the pain complex and build effective formulas
Herbs for Infection and Fever: Support versus suppression and treatment by stages

Practical Herbalism Syllabus

Practical Herbalism is a core part of our Footprints in Medical Herbalism program

What's included:

Audio lectures from Paul Bergner
Video instruction from Heather Luna
Detailed Notes & Slides
Formulas & Recipes
PDF Herbal texts
Classical out of print herbal books
Worksheets
Client handouts
Hands-on projects
An herbal medicine making kit

Library Resources

How this course works

Move through the material at your own pace.
Each section contains videos, readings, downloads, and hands-on projects.
Lesson material arranged in a curated learning sequence.
Your progress will be automatically tracked as you move through the course.
To earn a certificate of completion students must submit homework assignments.
If take this course for your own personal development homework is not required.
Students wishing to progress onto our pre-clinical training program must complete assignments to earn a certificate of completion.

Medicine Kit

Experience is the best teacher. Along with this course you will receive an herbal medicine kit containing over 30 herbs. This is not an add-on. It is central to the learning process. Sampling and journaling herbs teaches what can never be learned from a book.

Your Medicine Kit will be mailed within the first week of signing up for this course. You will receive tracking information once it ships.

Through hands-on experiential learning you will learn: