Responsibilities - What you'll be doing

- maintaining the Living Medicine Project apothecary

- gathering, medicine making, processing herbs into usable forms, organizing, cleaning, etc

- working in the Living Medicine Gardens with the small collection of medicinals I'm growing

- occasionally, admin and computer work : updating website, emailing, etc

- helping to prep for HIC classes, other workshops and my Herbal First Aid tent for community gatherings

- compiling and adding to the Medicinal Map of the Victoria area

- assisting with Free Community Clinics and event tabling (ex.   Fire Maker Gathering, at the farmers market, some other local event)

Benefits - What you'll be Getting

- participating in the H.I.C. - Victoria’s premier class for hands-on, spiritual herbalism

- recipes and experience making many different types/forms of medicine

- stronger plant identification skills

- deeper knowledge and connection with plants

- starting to develop personal Plant Allies

- developing/deepening clinical skills

- herbal gardening skills

- herbal cooking skills

- an opportunity to start teaching some herbal basics

- you can pick my brain when you, your friends or your family gets sick

Successful Applicants need...

- a lust to learn about plant medicine

- experience with medicine making

- some plant I.D. skills

- excellent personal communication skills

- self motivation and capacity to work independently

- humility and ability to do repetitive work with joy & contentment

What I'm looking for in an apprentice...

- some/lots of experience with Nonviolent Communication (nvc) &/or strong empathy/listening skills - this isn't essential, but it helps. you'll come to see that 'empathy' is at the base of all my healing and plant communication work

- experience with activism and community building

- (herbal) gardening skills and experience - whether biodynamic, permaculture, or some other tradition

- a generous and giving heart

- good with young kids is a plus (you'll likely bump into my kids since i work from home)

This position is for someone who feels confident with the basics of herbalism (can id, harvest and make advanced remedies) who want support and guidance to either start their practice or begin teaching.

General Details

• 1 year - Mar 2023 - Mar 2024

• Apprentices will participate in all HIC classes and teach some of them

• 8 hrs/wk (outside of HIC) + (occasionally) a few extra hours during peak harvesting
  (most work will happen at my home apothecary in Vic West.)

• plus, you'll have regular assignments related to plant connection, curriculum development, skill development, etc (see below)

  
  Responsibilities - What you'll be doing

• assisting Junior Assistants with apothecary management, organizing and processing

• regular, consistent time/work with your personal Plant Allies

• medicine making - harvesting, processing, etc

• some administration and behind the scenes work with emails, website,

• possible starting up the Wild Foraging video series or the Herbalism As Activism Podcast project again(?)

• Developing your teaching skills...
  
  Over the year, you'll progress from assisting to leading...
  
  

• You'll start by creating teaching plans for some of the HiC classes and then gradually move into teaching parts of the course

• We'll co-create and offer an herb class/workshop together

• You'll create a class/workshop to offer to the public - with my guidance, feedback and teaching assistance

  Developing your plant connection skills...
  
  This 1 year program will turn into a paid mentorship program in the next couple of years. It will become the last module of the Spiritual Herbalism Mentorship Program (the vision and a few pieces are there, but it's still coming together). My point is that working with me in this program, you'll need to be interested in Spiritual Herbalism (what I’m now calling Nature-Connected Herbalism).

• I want to show you how, practically and intimately, your spiritual connection with plants can guide and inspire your work as an herbalist. There will be regular assignments for plant connection.
  
  Developing your clinical healing skills...

• Once you've got a handle on the other pieces of this apprenticeship, you'll have the opportunity to deepen your clinical skills using these deep plant connections.

• i'll also show you how to modify your plant communication skills to aid with client assessments, how to create an emotionally safe space for clients and how to call on your plant allies to aid in healing, herbal formulation and many cool and fun things.