Overview:

• Historical overview, Comparison with other healing traditions and paradigms
  
• Philosophy: True Suchness, Yin-Yang, Qi, Interdependent Origination, Karma
  
• Psychology: Five Skandhas, Subjectivity, Resonance
  
• Four Vital Substances, Eight Principles, Five Evolutionary Phases (Elements)
  
• Organ Networks: physiology, health, imbalance, external pernicious influences
  
• Diagnostics: tongue, pulses, constitutional types
  
• Medicinal Herbs: Chinese energetics and uses
  
• Food as Medicine: energetics and the Five Tastes
  
• Self Investigation Tools: awareness, mindfulness, sensory, communication exercises

One of the oldest and most comprehensive of medical models, Chinese Medicine has remained an unbroken an ever-evolving healing tradition for well over two thousand years. A basic understanding of Chinese Medicine vastly increases our ability to maintain and renew healthy balance for ourselves and others. This in-depth and intensive course explores the foundations of Chinese Herbal Medicine, making it accessible and practical for anyone interested in human health, and providing participants with the foundations necessary to move on to more advanced knowledge in the areas of herbalism and holistic healing. Designed for the serious student, whether new to or familiar with aspects of Chinese Medicine. Classes are both conceptual and experiential in format. Classes are designed for the those wanting more tools and knowledge for personal and family health care, as well as for those working toward community and/or clinical herbal certification and a potential career in herbalism.
Chinese philosophy is a rich tapestry interweaving millennia-old wisdom of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Essentially, this world view permeates every aspect of Chinese life, from the basis of reality itself to the rhythms and energies of Earth to the world of humanity (health, psychology, spirituality, medicine, food, politics, etc.). At its root is the deep-seated understanding of the interconnectedness and interdependence of all things. These concepts are the underpinnings that make the Chinese health model so timeless, powerful, useful, practical, and elegant. This is where we begin: with the foundations that are essential to understanding and effectively utilizing the concepts and tools of Chinese herbal medicine. This course strives to build in students a strong core upon which to cultivate their own inner, integrated healer, to develop a solid understanding of herbal medicine, and to lay the foundations for a future health-care practice. It also includes diverse and effective tools for inward self-investigation and outward resonance, for this is where healing wisdom begins.
To accomplish this goal, I draw upon extensive study and training at the Institute of Chung-hwa Chinese and Buddhist Studies, formal studies at the Herbal Therapeutics School of Botanical Medicine, and years of direct experience as a clinical herbalist, teacher, meditation instructor and author. Training in Chinese, Western and First Nation (Native American) herbal traditions allows me to add a depth and breadth of knowledge and experience that bridges cultures and age-old wisdom, finding patterns and parallels among these three healing paradigms without compromising or diluting the unique contributions of each tradition.
Topics are divided into four main areas:

(1).Philosophy and Psychology, including True Suchness, Qi, Yin-Yang, Resonance, Interdependent Origination/Causes and Conditions, Karma/Cause and Consequence, Five Skandhas, Relativity/Subjectivity.
(2).Theories and Principles of Human Health: Four Vital Substance, interweaving Eight Principle (Yin/Yang) theory and Five Evolutionary Phases (Elements) theory, Ten Organ Networks (physiology, balance, imbalance, external pernicious influences).
(3).Tools and Principles of Chinese Herbal Medicine: Chinese Diagnostic Techniques (tongue analysis, pulse analysis, constitutional types), Herbs (utilizing knowledge of Chinese energetics and principles to effectively use Chinese and Western herbs), Food as Medicine/Five Tastes (Chinese nutritional theory).
(4).Concepts and Tools for Inner Integration and Outer Resonance: Self-investigation skills utilizing awareness , breath and body to explore, understand and integrate body, mind, heart and spirit, drawing upon Chinese philosophy and psychology, including the Eight-fold Path, and practicing energy flow, awareness, mindfulness, sensory, observation, communication, empathy, resonance and communication exercises, as well as guided meditation.

For anyone interested in understanding human health, its unceasing flow between balance and imbalance, and how to optimally navigate between them through awareness, lifestyle, nutrition and herbs, this course is an invaluable foundation for further, deeper exploration.

Overview:

• Historical overview, Comparison with other healing traditions and paradigms, Holism and Allopathy
  
• Philosophy and Psychology: First Nation and Earth-based cultures sources, Natural Law, Sign and Synchronicity, Medicine Wheel
  
• Elements, Humors and Tissue States
  
• Organ-Systems: introductory anatomy, physiology, health and imbalance
  
• Diagnostics: eyes, face, nails, pulses, palpation, constitutional types
  
• Medicinal Herbs: Western energetics and uses
  
• Food as Medicine: energetics and the Ten Tastes
  
• Self-empowerment and Self-investigation tools: awareness, sensory, communication exercises

“Foundations of Western Herbal Medicine” both honors and blends the long-evolving healing traditions of First Nation (Native American) medicine and European-based herbal medicine. For any person interested in a deep understanding of herbalism as a practice and becoming an effective healer, cultivating a core philosophy of body-mind-spirit healing and a world-view based in “Natural Law” is as important as knowing medicinal herbs, signs and symptoms. First Nation and other Earth-based traditions have always stressed the vital importance of grounding intellectual knowledge in a foundation of spiritual wisdom. Knowledge without this core spiritual foundation is, ultimately, separate from the world and “Creation,” and ultimately hollow at its center. This course never loses sight of this connection between the intellectual and the intuitive, between science and the vital spirit of our Western herbal heritage, reaching back on the one hand through Eclectics of the U.S. 1800's and further, through the millennia-old European healing traditions to its origins in the West's classical Greek (and Egyptian) heritage, along with major contributions from the Middle East; and on the other hand keeping firm hold of the rich medicinal heritage of this continent's First Nations people. The course strives to build in students a solid foundational core upon which to grow strong herbal practices, and includes diverse and effective tools for self-investigation and empowerment in order to grow as authentic human beings, as this is where healing wisdom begins.

To accomplish this goal, I draw upon long and continuous initiation, study and training with Medicine Elders of the Cherokee and Anishnaabe nations, formal studies at the Herbal Therapeutics School of Botanical Medicine, pre-medical training at Columbia University, science education training at Columbia Teachers College, and years of direct experience as a clinical herbalist, teacher, meditation instructor, and author. Training in Western, First Nation and Chinese herbal traditions allows me to add a depth and breadth of knowledge and experience that bridges cultures and age-old wisdom, finding patterns and parallels among these three healing paradigms while always honoring and respecting the unique contributions of each tradition.
Topics are divided into four main areas:

(1).Philosophy and Psychology, including Natural Law, Sign and Synchronicity, Medicine Wheel, Seven Directions, Grandfather and Grandmother Teachings, Astrology, Story and Language.
(2).Theories and Principles of Human Health: Four Elements, Four Humors and Constitutions, Six Tissue States, Anatomy (structure) and Physiology (function), health and illness (acute and chronic).
(3).Tools and Principles of Western Herbal Medicine: Western Diagnostic Techniques (eye analysis, face and constitutional types, nails, palpation, more tongue and pulse analysis), Herbs (utilizing knowledge of Western and Indigenous energetics and principles to effectively use medicinal herbs), Food as Medicine and the Ten Tastes.
(4).Concepts and Tools for Self-Empowerment and Outward Empathy: Self-investigation skills utilizing awareness , breath and body to explore, understand and integrate body, mind, heart and spirit, drawing extensively upon wisdom and teachings of Indigenous and Earth-based philosophy and psychology, and practicing awareness, sensory, observation, communication, empathy, synchronicity and communication exercises, as well as ceremony and guided meditation.

For anyone interested in understanding human wellness and illness, and how one can maintain or return to health through lifestyle, nutrition and herbs, this course is an invaluable basis for further, deeper exploration.