Have we walked on the moon only because we haven't yet the courage and the grace to walk the great and sacred earth? ~John Moriarty ​​  

Somatic Herbalist Practitioner Training 

What is Somatic Herbalism?

"And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?"
~ Walt Whitman
Mental and emotional regulation were never meant to be strictly an inside job. The complex communications nexus we are used to calling our nervous, endocrine, and immune systems evolved in constant communication with the subtle chemistries of plants, fungi, animals, and other humans.

In our contemporary lives, we exist in relative isolation, cut off from the rich matrix of consciousness from which we emerged. As a result, we tend to forget who we are and become lost in guilt, shame, and fear.

The path back into connection involves engaging our senses and our hearts to cultivate embodied presence, reawakening and re-engaging our wild selves and the part of us that understands how deeply interwoven we are with all of the living world.

Somatic herbalism uses small doses of plant medicines to bring subtle sensory shifts that change our sense of ourselves in this moment. Beauty and pleasure are part of the medicine.
   
The goal is not to make people function more efficiently in the context of a culture that cuts us off from the experience of the fullness of who we are, but to help people grow into their own power and begin the work of re-enchanting and re-wilding the world.
Picture
photo by Leslie Lekos at www.wildrootbotanicals.com


​Training Dates

Somatic Practitioner Training takes place in five, five-day intensives located in Portland, OR with self-study in between modules.

Dates for the 2018-2019 training are:
September 27th-October 1st, 2018
November 8th-12th, 2018
Jan 10th-14th, 2019
March 7th-11th, 2019
April 25th-29th, 2019

Training hours will be 9:30am-4:30pm each day with a break for Lunch in between.

Each Module will build upon the previous. It is best practice to plan on being present for every module. However if for some reason you need to miss a portion of the class time, classes will be recorded and given to current students. Modules are only available in series and not individually.

What is Somatic Herbalist Practitioner Training? 


Somatic Herbalist Practitioner Training is a unique program for herbalists wanting to deepen their practice, advanced herb students wanting to make the transition to becoming practitioners and those who recognize that their embodied presence is a fundamental part of the medicine that they bring and want to develop processes of investigation and transformation to deepen their capacity to accompany others on their journey.

Under the guidance of Sean Donahue and several guest instructors this training will prepare herbalists to practice in a way that is:
  • Vitalist:  Treating the body as a living ecology with an animating intelligence
  •  Animist:  Rooted in an understanding of the world as alive, and of the inseparability of our bodies from the body of the world
  • Committed to liberation, decolonization, and cultivation of healthy culture
  • Focused on helping to shift a person's felt sense of being to one that allows them to be more deeply and joyfully embodied
  • Trauma-informed
  • Informed by history, science, poetry, magic, collective and personal experience and gnosis

Students will gain a deep grounding in the philosophy and practice of Somatic Herbalism, hone their clinical skills, and learn to integrate magical tools and perspectives in their practice.

Due to the nature of the training this program only has 20 spots available to students. Please apply early to make sure you reserve your spot. 

What will be covered in the Training?

The Training will include:
  • The historical, biological, cosmological, and magical understandings that shape the praxis of this form of somatic herbalism
  • Understanding herbal energetics through the lens of somatic states and somatic states through the lens of herbal energetics
  • Techniques for divining elements of a person's somatic experience including pulse diagnosis, heart-centered perception, and interview skills
  • Vitalist philosophy and practice
  • Ways of developing animist and magical practices that can be incorporated into your work with people without engaging in cultural appropriation
  • Educing somatic shifts with small doses of herbal medicine
  • Testing herbs with people
  • Formulation
  • Working with your own ancestors and how to incorporate that into your practice
  • Practices for inner education, grounding, centering, attunement, and protection
  • Pulse evaluation in the Shen-Hammer method adapted for herbalists
  • Queering Herbalism
  • Radical acts of "self-care"
  • The Fascial System and Embodiment—Sensory Integration, Pleasure, Pain and Psychology 
  • Working with earthly and celestial cycles
  • Physical, psychological, spiritual, and magical properties of Herbs
  • Opportunities to observe Sean in practice with clients
  • Clinical Guidance
  • And much more...

Location

All modules will take place in person at Awakenings Wellness Center in inner SE Portland, OR.  

Awakenings Wellness Center
1016 SE 12th Avenue
Portland, OR 97214