Will I Still Get the Most Out of the Course If I Can't Join All the Online Herbalist Course Sessions?

You are strongly encouraged to join all of our sessions, as there is a tangible benefit to attending live and in a cohesive group. All of our live online sessions are recorded for future reference or if missing any sessions are unavoidable due to life circumstances or schedule clashes. Plan to be fully present to your journey, but if there are a few small (or regular) diary clashes that are unavoidable, don’t let that hold you back from joining. Read on for more details about some common scheduling questions.

Missing the occasional live online session is not a problem at all. Life happens! Someone gets a cold. You’ve got that one hour blocked out in your work diary, but a meeting overran or someone booked a meeting over it anyway. You got stuck waiting for an appointment that’s thrown your whole schedule off. You’ve got unexpected guests. You’re going on holiday! Not a problem at all! Every single live online session is recorded and posted to your student portal in both video and audio only format, so you can catch up whenever suits you. No student has actually attended 100% of the online sessions in a year live. It is perfectly ok, although it is lovely to give the group a little heads up in the WhatsApp beforehand if possible.

This is also not a problem at all. There is usually at least one person per cohort whose work schedule means they can always make one of the live weekly online herbalist course sessions, but not the other. So they just plan ahead and pick a date and time in the week that does work for them to watch the recording of the live session they missed. The group WhatsApp is still always there for questions and sharing and we still have our in-person gatherings, so you won’t feel any less a part of the group or community or like you don’t have as much opportunity to ask me questions directly. 

This may either sound radical or silly, but you cannot fall behind on this course, because it truly is a personal journey for you. Yes, we are learning as a group, but the biggest, heftiest concepts and skills are all covered at the in-person sessions. That’s because they’re easier to digest in-person and also because they serve as anchor points throughout the year. We’ve had students miss chunks of multiple weeks of online herbalist course sessions because they had to attend to work commitments that took them away from home and far out of their day-to-day life schedules, so they just watch the recordings of any sessions they’ve missed when it suits them - even if that’s after the year for the course has officially concluded. (You have lifetime access to the materials in the student portal.) Some students begin years two or three with some recordings from year one still to watch and that’s completely ok. They are not any further ‘behind’ any of the other students in their cohort, nor do they struggle to ‘keep up’ with the current year’s content and concepts. Each cohort is a community that carries and supports each other and each person is navigating their own path weaving herbalism into their lives. In my experience, anything you don’t catch live tends to fall into your life at exactly the moment you need it later on.

You are still very much welcome to join the course, but I would recommend considering it carefully. If you are the type of person who can create a schedule for yourself to regularly watch the recordings at a similar pace as the live sessions, can make all of the in-person gatherings and will still be present with your cohort in the WhatsApp group, then it could work for you and you will still feel part of the group. If you are more likely to end up not really watching many of the recordings or are planning to take more of an on-demand online herbalism course approach, then I would recommend looking for another course that better suits your timings. Our cohorts are only a maximum of 10 students each, so not only will you not feel fully part of the group, but the rest of the group will feel the void from you not being fully present with them, as well, which is not the learning experience we weave on our intensive herbalism course. 

We can’t always plan for everything in life. Some things come out of the blue. Some things have been a long time coming, but we couldn’t know when they would arrive. Again, this is life. If you’re feeling the call to join the journey, only you can decide to the best of your knowledge if now is the right time for you. We’ve had students start out strong and then family circumstances changed and they couldn’t carry on with us live or joining the in-person gatherings. Because they were part of that bond-forming process at the beginning of the journey, they were still very much part of the group, always included, always invited, always supported and checked in on by the rest of the cohort. In these circumstances, remember all the year’s content is available on your student portal long after the course concludes - including audio recordings of our in-person gatherings - so you are able to pick up where you left off whenever it works for you. It’s also then up to you if/when you’d like to continue on to the successive years of the course, although you may end up weaving into a different cohort than the one you started with, depending on your timing. My advice would be to listen to your intuition. Is now the right time for you? If yes, brilliant! If not, there will always be another year to join when the timing may be better. Do keep in mind courses are non-refundable and are not transferable to future years, regardless of how much of the course you complete.

So if you’re wondering if you’ll still get the most out of our intensive herbalism course even if you can’t join all the online herbalist course sessions live, the answer is yes! If you’ve got occasional or regular diary clashes, no worries at all. If you’ve got a chunk or two at a time you need to miss, that’s completely fine, as well. You can’t fall behind on this course! However, if you can’t make any of the live online sessions, but you still feel the journey we offer on our intensive herbalism course is right for you, I’d advise making sure you have a plan you know you will stick to for watching the recorded sessions between the in-person gatherings and making sure you’re still active in the group chat. If you think you’ll end up approaching it like an on-demand fully online course, you may want to look at some of the wonderful courses out there that are set up in that way. And if you’re anticipating some potential changes in your life that might throw your journey off course for a time, just check in with your intuition to see if now is the right time for you.

If the timings align, you’re very welcome to take the next step on your journey building your knowledge, skills and confidence as a home herbalist 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. 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 put your name on the waiting list to see what the current cohorts are up to and get first access to enrolment before it opens.

However often you’re able to join our online herbalist course sessions, I’m sure you will 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!