Meghan Rhodes MCPP MAPA

Four Signs You’re Ready to Go Beyond Herbal Medicine Short Courses

If you’ve been enjoying herbal medicine short courses, you may be wondering when to take your learning to the next level - and how. Whether you’ve been frequenting weekend workshops and mini retreats or have watched as many free webinars as you can find, there comes a time in your journey of learning herbalism and integrating it into your daily life that you want to go beyond what can be covered in herbal medicine short courses. Read on to discover four signs you may be ready for the next stage in your herbal learning journey and what options are available besides clinical practitioner qualifications.

students ready to go beyond herbal medicine short courses

1. Your Herbal Medicine Short Courses Are Starting to Repeat Themselves

One of the clearest signs you’re ready to go beyond herbal medicine short courses is the workshops, mini courses and webinars you’re attending are starting to repeat themselves. You’re coming up with the same factoids and snippets - this herb is laxative, that herb is wound-healing, this tea for that ailment, that blend for ‘hormone balancing’.

What you’re craving now is nuance.

You want more depth than looking at a herb as being ‘good for’ a particular symptom. You want to understand how to identify and interpret imbalances in the body so you can bring them back into alignment, supported with herbs. 

You want to decipher the differences between the list of twenty herbs that all ‘do’ the ‘same thing’ and unpick which ones in which context for which type of person so you can engage with the herbs more effectively.

You want to turn up the volume on your intuition, on your connection with the seasons, on your sense of place and responsibility as a part of nature - and you don’t want to have to do a classic degree course or clinical practitioner qualification to develop that depth. This is where an intensive herbalism course like the one we offer helps you get beyond herbal medicine short courses, because it gives you the time, space, context and container in which to explore all these nuances without having to write essays or sit exams or spend time in a clinical setting.

2. You Want Herbalism to Be Your Daily Life, Not Just a Weekend Activity

Popping off to herbal medicine short courses on a Saturday or Sunday can be a great treat to look forward to, especially when you’re first starting to explore herbalism. You’ll come home feeling energised, excited, eager to try something new you learned and very likely with a jar or two of something you’ve made. You’ll also likely have a full head of new pieces of information, which all make sense at the time. But then Monday morning comes, the momentum of daily life takes over and herbalism ends up living on those occasional weekend workshops, struggling to integrate into your daily life.

This is because herbal medicine is a vast field of ancient skills and knowledge that require you to not only understand the medicinal plants, but also yourself - your biology (although it doesn’t have to be all anatomy and physiology diagrams!), your intuition, your constitution, your balance and what throws you out of balance. It draws in the context of the seasons and the stages of life. It asks you to question the current status quo and explore where you want to create something different for yourself. This journey extends beyond the weekend and benefits greatly from having a knowledgeable guide who can walk with you consistently, not just at ad hoc herbal medicine short courses.

3. You've Got More Disparate Notes and Handouts Than You Can Make Sense Of

When you’re on herbal medicine short courses with knowledgeable teachers, you want to soak up every drop of wisdom they share. And of course you do! Learning herbal medicine is both fascinating and important to you. This probably means you’ve got a smattering of notebooks with notes scribbled well into every margin and assortment of handouts precariously shoved in, sticking out every which way, maybe even a bulging binder or two that started off with a system to it and is now virtually impossible to navigate. One day, you want to sit down and pull it all together to distil what you’ve captured so you can integrate it into your life, but it feels like an overwhelming task that keeps getting knocked down the priority list.

What you’re ready for is an anchor in your learning - a guide, a container, an underpinning of knowledge to help you bring everything together and give it context so you can make sense of it and, most importantly, so you can put it into action.

4. You'll Still Not Feeling Confident Enough to Use Herbal Medicine When You Want To

At the end of the day, herbalism is an essential life skill you want to be able to work with in your daily life - especially when a loved one gets a cold, your gut goes off kilter, your spouse is struggling to sleep well, your daughter’s periods are uncomfortable and so on. Confidence comes with building knowledge and skill consistently, engaging with herbalism regularly, weaving it into both moments of balance and imbalance in your life. This requires commitment and more regularity than can be gained from ad hoc herbal medicine short courses or mini workshops on an individual topic in isolation. It also benefits from having a credible teacher you can engage with regularly - someone you can ask directly as you’re learning and trying something out in the moment, so you can get reassurance when you’re on track and guidance when there are additional considerations. This is why our intensive course not only entails 75 hours of live learning each year for up to three years, but also why we have our cohort Whatsapp group, so you can ask questions when life raises them and then implement your learning when you need it. The fact that each cohort is increasingly able to support, guide and give feedback to itself, becoming less reliant on my guidance as the teacher as each year progresses is a testament to just how solidly our intensive herbalism courses enable our students to build their confidence in living herbalism.

If you’re wondering if you’re ready to go beyond herbal medicine short courses, check in with yourself. Are the workshops, mini courses and webinars you’re attending starting to repeat themselves? Are you enjoying the weekend escapes, but want your herbal learning to extend beyond the weekend and infuse into your daily life? Are you struggling to synthesise all the various notes, snippets and factoids you’ve accumulated to date? Are you still not feeling as confident as you’d like to be able to actually work with herbs for yourself and your family? Are you craving more nuance than can be shared in herbal medicine short courses? If your answer is yes, then you are ready for the next step in your herbal learning journey.


On our intensive herbalism course, your engagement with herbalism becomes consistent, held by the regularity of our live online Zoom sessions and the rhythm of our seasonal in-person gatherings. What may have felt like disparate facts accumulated to date gain context within the Ayurvedic energetics. Instead of an occasional weekend escape, you become part of a community of like-minded people, both within your cohort and our wider herbal medicine school. We have significantly more space for nuance than herbal medicine short courses, as your journey spans at least four seasons with us and can continue up to three years. Finally, with our teaching approach being embodied, elemental and experiential, the knowledge and skills you develop get deep into your hands and heart, as well as your head, meaning your confidence builds, unlocking your ability to work with herbs in your daily life.


If you’re here in the UK, you’re very welcome to take the next step on your journey learning herbal medicine with us on our intensive herbalism course - Awaken Herbal Wisdom - which spans all four seasons and gets herbalism both deep into your bones and your daily life. The skills you learn will become muscle memory and your confidence will grow. With up to three years of development, we get well into the nuances so you can understand and navigate them as effectively as a degree course, but without the additional commitments and requirements. Although it is intense, it’s suitable for a wide range of herbalists, including beginners! You can learn more about our herbal medicine course here. Be sure to join our mailing list to see what the current cohorts are up to and get first access to the coming year's cohorts or enrol for the current year before it begins while places are available.


Whatever the next step is for you beyond herbal medicine short courses, I hope you enjoy the journey!

At Rhodes Roots & Remedies School of Herbal Medicine, our practice of herbalism is rooted in the belief that we must remember, reclaim and relearn our knowledge of our bodies, our autonomy and how to work with plant medicine in order to bring control of our own health back into our families and homes for a sustainable future for ourselves and the planet. Through our intensive herbalism course, we facilitate the development of confident, empowered herbalists, attuned to the messages of their bodies and the natural world. Living the deep wisdom of herbal medicine within themselves, their homes and their communities, they uplift themselves and others, creating a stronger society organically. We do hope you'll join us on your journey!

Created with