08/28/2025
DIPLOMA COURSE IN THE CLINICAL PRACTICE AND BUSINESS OF HERBAL MEDICINE & AROMATHERAPY
9-month online series of 33 live webinars with Actaea Co-Directors AC Hill, Gabriel Mojay, and guest lecturers
The Diploma Course in Herbal Medicine and Aromatherapy is unique in combining in one live course the skills and knowledge required for forging or further developing Clinical Herbalism and Aromatherapy as a professional practice, product-making or retail business, and as a successful career and livelihood.
Here are the key components that comprise this learning experience...
• Clinical Skills: a deeply-rooted approach to assessing and treating clients with herbs, hydrosols and essential oils based on the TCM Diagnostic Patterns of Disharmony, Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, and techniques including tongue and face diagnosis – together with the compelling research evidence for the benefits of herbs and essential oils and their key chemical compounds — empowering practitioners with an integrated pharmaco-energetic understanding of how 200 different plant medicines exert their therapeutic actions.
Our TCM-energetic approach to therapeutic practice is complemented by a deeply-rooted study and experience of herb craft and herbal medicine-making.
• Herb Craft: our program features a deep-dive into sustainable herb-craft — encompassing the growing and preparation of medicinal and aromatic herbs for extraction and distillation as tinctures and extracts; liniments and ointments; and essential oils and hydrosols (aromatic waters).
With over a decade of herbal medicine-making experience, AC has learned the ‘tricks of the trade’ of how to craft herbal-infused oils; vinegars and oxymels; syrups and electuaries; tinctures and fluid extracts; mushroom powders; liniments (topical herbal-infused rubbing alcohols); salves and creams; infusions, decoctions and tea blends, and more!
The art of crafting effective herbal medicine starts with high quality, potent herbs; AC will discuss sourcing herbs as well as growing, drying and storing herbs.
These key medicine-making skills empower the practitioner to gather, grow and produce their own natural medicines in the form of a whole variety of botanical products for safe, effective use via oral, dermal and ‘aromatic’ means (through olfaction and respiration).
• Materia Medica: Our hands-on approach to medicine-making is coupled by a deep-dive study of 200 herbs and essential oils, including their key botanical features and chemical constituents; plant lore and symbolism; cultivation, extraction and distillation; and their therapeutic use according to tradition, chemistry and research, and TCM constitutional energetic diagnosis.
Each herbal and aromatic remedy studied, as part of an extensive botanical Materia Medica and Materia Aromatica is fully appreciated from both symptomatic and deeper mind-body perspectives.
Our broad, detailed exploration of all the important herbs and essential oils used in herbalism and clinical aromatherapy and is put to proper use through training the practitioner to be a kind of herbal ‘matchmaker’ — matching the health needs of the client/patient with those botanical remedies that will deliver the optimal therapeutic, hormetic action.
• Case Studies: To aid training in case-study analysis, the final 10 sessions of the webinar series will give students the chance to observe case-study client volunteers being interviewed by Gabriel and AC as part of a full Herbal–Aromatherapy Consultation.
Based on the universal clinical SOAP framework of the Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Planning processes inherent to proper health assessment, we ensure that our student practitioners can confidently work with clients therapeutically as the foundation of a strong clinical practice, if this their goal.
• Business Skills: Practitioners of today benefit from acquiring a broad range of skills to support their professional practice in plant medicine, including, crucially, business skills.
• Regenerative Herbalism: We believe that plant medicine is inseparable from vital issues that concern both society and our beloved Planet. Its importance to community as well as individual health impels us to address considerations of health justice, land healing and regenerative practice, as part of professional ethics and self-development.
• Relevant topics of study include Mutual Aid; health justice and reform; trauma-informed care and harm reduction; regenerative growing practices and land healing; ceremony and seasonal ritual; and social and environmental justice advocacy.
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Transform your knowledge & practice! Enroll with us today to join our unique voyage of learning!
https://www.actaea.org/diplomacourse
