If you’re new to learning herbal medicine and wondering where to start, you’ve probably noticed something pretty quickly: there is a lot of information out there, and a lot of it is completely contradictory. Finding the right herbal medicine courses can be just as confusing…
One online post tells you an herb is a miraculous cure-all; another warns you never to touch it. There are thousands of books, social media reels, podcasts, tincture recipes, and people with very loud, conflicting opinions about all of them. It can be exciting, but it can also leave you feeling paralyzed, second-guessing yourself, and wondering where to actually begin.
How do you know which books are written by reputable clinical herbalists? How do you tell if an herbal medicine course is worth your time and hard-earned money? How do you learn to make remedies safely for your family without constantly worrying you did it wrong?
Take a breath. You do not need to memorize 100 herbs by next week, and you certainly don’t need to become an expert on every trend you see on Instagram. Herbalism isn’t some far-fetched, mystical secret reserved for a chosen few. It is a practical, grounded, living practice… and chances are, you already have it in your bones.
Before Taking Herbal Medicine Courses, Realize That You Are Probably Already Practicing Herbalism.
Think back for a moment. Maybe someone in your family made you ginger or peppermint tea when your stomach was bothering you. Maybe your grandmother crushed a fresh leaf on a bug bite, or whipped up a pot of honey, thyme, and garlic syrup for a rough winter cough. That is herbalism, and it’s ancestral medicine.
Long before there were online herbal medicine courses or shelves packed with glossy books, people learned by watching someone make medicine at the kitchen stove. They learned which plants grew down by the creek, when to harvest them, how to prepare them, and when to leave them alone.
Herbalism begins with that kind of simple observation; remembering what your family already did and paying attention to the plants nearest to you. From there, it naturally grows into something deeper as you layer in botany, human physiology, pharmacology, extraction methods, clinical reasoning, and safety.
So, how do you actually make that transition from making a simple cup of tea to deeply understanding plant medicine? If you are ready to cut through the internet noise and build a solid foundation, here is a practical, step-by-step pathway to prepare for medicinal plant courses and build a solid foundation.
Step 1: Start With the Plants That Have Already Found You
The best way to start your practical study is to avoid overwhelming yourself with a massive encyclopedia of plants. Pick three to five plants you already have some relationship with.
Maybe it’s the fresh ginger sitting on your kitchen counter, the dandelion popping up in the lawn, or the elderberry bush you walk past every morning.
Slow down and get to know a plant deeply, rather than just collecting disconnected facts about it. In clinical herbalism, we do this by building a materia medica. This is a structured profile of each medicinal plant. When building your materia medica, you’ll want to record:
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- Botanical name and plant family: To ensure you have the exact species, not a lookalike or non-medicinal relative.
- Plant part used: Leaf, flower, aerial parts, seed, root, or bark (each works differently in the body).
- Identification & habitat: Where it grows, what soil it prefers, and how it changes across seasons.
- Actions: What the plant actually does in the body (e.g., astringent, demulcent, bitter).
- Specific Indications: When to reach for the plant; the perfect person or clinical setting.
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- Constituents: Key active compounds.
- Energetics & sensory observations: What the plant looks, feels, smells, and tastes like.
- Safety considerations & contraindications: Who should avoid it, and any herb-drug interactions.
A photograph in a book can show you what a plant looks like, but it can’t teach you what it smells like when you crush the leaf between your fingers. It can’t show you the sticky, resinous feel of a spring bud or the sharp, aromatic bite of a root.
Step 2: Get Out of the Books and Into the Dirt
Read the textbooks. Take the classes. Listen to the lectures. But eventually, you have to go outside.
This is why hands-on, experiential learning is at the heart of everything we do. Reading about a root in a classroom is fine, but digging it up, scrubbing the soil off its fibers, smelling its fresh resins, and tasting its bitterness teaches your brain things a book never could.
For example, when you join us for an in-person course or intensive, you aren’t staring at a screen or memorizing abstract lists. You are meeting living plants in their habitat. You learn to touch the leaves, observe where they choose to grow, and understand how weather, insects, birds, soil, and everything else affect their lives and their medicine.
Even in our online classes, every single assignment is designed to get you outside with your hands on living plants in your own area. When you harvest a plant yourself, your relationship to it changes permanently.
You don’t need a massive garden to start, either. Grow three medicinal herbs in pots on a sunny windowsill, visit a local farmers’ market, or take a walk in a nearby park to identify local weeds.
Once you can comfortably identify a plant in the dirt, the next step is bringing it into the apothecary to make medicine.
Often, learning plant ID confidently tests the limits of self-study. When that happens, it is time to look for a mentor.
Step 3: Learn How Plants Actually Become Medicine
In a good foundational program, you won’t just collect cute tincture recipes from social media; you’ll learn the clinical science behind different preparations. This includes:
- Infusions & Decoctions: Hot water extractions for tender leaves vs. tough roots and barks.
- Tinctures: Using alcohol as a menstruum (solvent) to pull out specific constituents like resins, alkaloids, and volatile oils.
- Compresses & Poultices: Traditional, highly effective topical methods for acute support.
- Infused Oils & Salves: Extracting oil-soluble compounds for topical skin and muscle support.
- Infused Vinegars & Honeys: Traditional, effective, delicious, and very easy methods with excellent shelf life.
- Syrups & Oxymels: Delicious medicines that offer complex constituents through combining multiple solvents.
You want to understand the reasoning behind what you are making. Why is water the right menstruum for one plant, while alcohol is necessary for another? What constituents are you trying to pull out? How does heating a plant change its chemical structure and therefore its medicine?
Also, knowing how to make a potent remedy is only half the work. You also need to know when not to use it.
Step 4: Remember That Safety Is Part of Working with Plants
Good herbal education doesn’t just celebrate what a plant can do; it teaches you where the limits are.
To work with plants responsibly, you need to understand dosage, contraindications, potential interactions with pharmaceuticals and other herbs, and situations where an herb is simply not appropriate.
This becomes especially vital if you want to work with clients in a clinical setting. A clinical herbalist doesn’t just match a symptom to a plant (“headache = willow”). They look at the unique person sitting in front of them: their constitution, medical history, nutrition, lifestyle, supplements, etc. That is why a comprehensive herbal education must include human physiology, pathology, and practical safety alongside plant study.
Learning this level of safety, physiology, and clinical assessment is often where self-study hits a wall. When that happens, it is time to look for a mentor.
Step 5: Choosing Herbal Medicine Courses (Start With Your "Why")
When you reach a point where learning on your own feels limited, enrolling in a structured program is the best way to move forward without wasting years on trial and error following questionable social media reels and the conflicting information in books. But with so many options available, how do you choose?
Start by asking yourself what you actually want to do with this knowledge:
- For Home & Family Care: Are you looking to safely support your household and build a home apothecary?
- For Land & Gardening: Do you want to focus on growing, harvesting, and bioregional plant conservation?
- For Clinical Practice: Are you aiming to work professionally with clients?
When evaluating medicinal plant courses, look beyond marketing. Ask if there is a hands-on component. Ask if the curriculum is rooted in safety and science. Most importantly, ask who is teaching you. Do they have real-world clinical experience? Do you trust their ethics and the way they view the natural world?
Place-Based Education & Finding Your Community
If you’ve found us while searching for hands-on herbal education in the Northeast, you already know that our work is deeply tied to place. We don’t believe herbalism should ever isolate plants from the ecosystem they are a part of. The soil, weather, insects, seasons, and local ecology are all part of the medicine.
Just as important as the ecological community is your human community.
Never underestimate the power of learning alongside other people. Herbalism is vast, and no single person ever knows everything. There is profound synergy in learning as part of a cohort, bouncing ideas off of each other while the learning grows exponentially. Connecting with fellow students and practitioners also gives you a safety net. When you are stuck, having a seasoned herbalist say, “Let’s slow down, look at the tissue state, and look at that plant again” is priceless.
Most Importantly, You Don't Have to Learn It All Today
Your medicine-making journey is a lifelong practice. You don’t have to figure it all out this week.
Choose one plant. Learn to identify it accurately. Study its traditional uses and safety considerations. Touch it, smell it, and make one simple preparation with it. Over time, your materia medica will grow, your confidence will steady, and you’ll start connecting body systems, seasons, and remedies naturally.
At Old Ways Herbal, we are here to help you build that foundation step by step. Give yourself permission to be a learner. Move away from the screen, come into the garden, and let’s get your hands in the dirt.
If you feel ready to take the next step on your path and find the right herbal medicine school, explore the apprenticeship programs at Old Ways Herbal School of Plant Medicine. Whether you are joining our live Online Home Herbalist course or stepping in person into our Traditional Apprentice Program here in Vermont, we’d love to welcome you into our community. (And while you’re there, you can also grab a preorder of my upcoming book, The Herbal Year!).
For online students, we are available wherever you are, whenever you’re ready to learn. For students in the Northeast who would like to study herbalism in person with your hands in the soil and the sun warm on your neck, we are located in Newfane, Vermont, near Brattleboro. We are very close to Keene, NH; Northhampton, MA (and other parts of Western Mass of course); and the Capital Region of NY. We are 2 hours from Boston, and 90 minutes to the Capital Region, Albany, and Hartford, CT. Although we are 4 hours from New York City and Montreal, many of our students make the trip from NYC and Montreal/Quebec for an authentic, hands-on, farm-based herbalism experience–4 hours is far, but it’s not too far for a weekend away in a beautiful place for a good reason! In person classes take place late spring through fall here on our farm, while live online classes take place during the late fall and winter. Of course, independent study programs are designed to be ready whenever you are.
Happy learning! I can’t wait to see where the plants take you.