FIELD TO FARMACY – A CLINICAL HERBAL MEDICINE APPRENTICESHIP
with Chanchal Cabrera, MSc., FNIMH, RH(AHG)
assisted by Thierry Vrain and Alina Baker
at Innisfree Farm (Vancouver Island).
Are you a senior student of natural medicine, or a newly graduated herbalist, nutritionist or naturopath? A nurse, a nurse practitioner, or a pharmacist?
Are you seeking to deepen your understanding of herbal medicine and botanical prescribing?
Do you still struggle to understand the nuances of herbal formulating?
Do you want to learn about the internal logic of a herbal formula?
Do you want to build confidence about using herbs with drugs?
The Field to Farmacy Apprenticeship program will open new ways of learning about plants, new ways of seeing plants, from the science to art, using them for medicine and for deep healing. Apprentices will have extensive opportunity and resources for self-directed learning including access to the library, and the gardens, as well as regular Q&A sessions and personal tutoring. There are over 200 medicinal plants on the farm and apprentices are encouraged to get to know and recognize as many as possible.
Dates:
Cohort 1: May 18th – July 10th
Cohort 2: July 13th – September 4th
***Live-in apprentices should plan to arrive 1 day prior to start date & depart 1 day after end date
Course overview
- Weekly in-person classes on Tuesday evenings (6 pm – 8 pm) and Wednesday afternoons (2 pm – 6pm) at Innisfree Farm. No recorded or zoom option.
- Personalized learning plan, regular tutorials and extensive learning resources provided
- Enrollment in 3 months of Clinical Mentoring on line series after completion of apprenticeship on site.
- Practicum shifts in the herbal medicine dispensary
- Opportunity to attend the Healing Forest series (5 shinrin yoku sessions open to the public)
- Opportunity to attend herb walks in the botanic gardens over the season
- Opportunity to volunteer in the herbal gardens and grounds if you don’t live on site
Fees
$1750 CAD plus GST (includes $500 non-refundable deposit)
How to Apply
- Fill out application form.
- We will notify you when your application has been accepted
- Fees are due within 10 days of acceptance of your application, this includes a $500 non-refundable deposit (see cancellations and refunds below)
APPLY NOW
Overview of 8-week program
Mondays 6-8pm: Holistic Biology Lectures with Thierry Vrain (16 hours)
Wednesdays 2pm – 6pm: Clinical Materia Medica Tutorials w/ Chanchal (32 hours)
Friday (single class) 4-6pm: TCM Herbal Lecture with Alina Baker. (2hours) June 12th (Cohort 1); Aug. 14 (Cohort 2)
Plus 2 x 4 hour dispensary shift on Tuesdays or Thursdays (on rotation)
Bonuses
- Clinical mentoring after apprenticeship is over = 6 hours
- Cohort 1: attendance at the Vancouver Island Herbal gathering June 26th – 28th.
- Cohort 2: Enrolment in on-line phytochemistry series led by Chanchal
Total Program Hours – 60 (Certificate of completion provided)
- 60 hours Direct Teaching Time
- 32 hours Practical Garden Experience
- 4 hours Dispensary practicum
Plus:
- 20 hours video lectures from Chanchal for self-study (case reviews and clinical formulating, pharmacology, plant
chemistry and toxicology, herbs for cancer care)
- Access to extensive google drive of learning resources including study guides on gardening, ecology, plant science, herbal medicine, health care and horticultural therapy
The apprenticeship program is best suited to those pursuing a career as a herbalist or looking to weave herbal medicine into another type of clinical practice. Some prior experience and or herbal training is helpful but not strictly mandatory.
If you love growing food and medicine and more interested in the work-trade aspect of this program, please check out our farm internships
Live and Study on-site
It takes a village! Every season Innisfree welcomes people from all over the world to come live with us for 2 to 4 months, to learn to grow food and medicine, to share the experience and to help us make this place
truly special. There are no fees exchanged but we operate under a work trade agreement where participants work 25 hours / week in trade for board and lodging (accommodation and all meals).
We grow all sorts of herbs, vegetables, berries and orchard fruits for sale at the farm shop and the live in apprentices may be involved in all aspects of growing, harvesting and processing the produce. Innisfree runs a registered Botanic Garden and is open to the public every week during the summer season, serving brunch and afternoon tea, selling herbal products from the farm and giving guided garden tours, and live in apprentices may be involved in all aspects of this business as well, as part of their work trade.
What the live-in apprentices learn during their stay
- Garden planning – assessing your soil, understanding the terrain
- Cover crops, green manure and composting
- Making soil mix
- Preparing garden beds
- Sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings
- Food forests
- Soil types and soil health; tilling, mulching, irrigation
- Crop Selection: (nutrients, pH, water, space, support, pests) and crop rotation
- Weed control
- Pest control
- Harvesting and processing crops
Requirements for Live-in Apprentices
- Good work ethic – some gardening and farming is dirty and muddy and cold (or hot) and it still has to get done. We especially like people with experience working outdoors – farming, landscaping,
tree planting, construction, because you know how it is to work in all weather.
- A strong back – literally, because we do some landscaping, lifting, hauling and shoveling.
- No significant health or other physical restriction
- Good time management – we work as a team and showing up late or not being ready on time puts extra work on other apprentices.
- Sociable and friendly – apprentices have private bedrooms, and share kitchen, bathroom and common space. Ability to get along with others is very important.
- Willingness to be challenged, to try or to do new things, curiosity and desire to learn through doing.
Cancellations and Refunds
When you are accepted to the apprenticeship program, we reserve the spot just for you. Since spaces are limited, this often means we end up turning away applicants once the program is full. As such, we ask that you do your very best to commit to the program when you apply.
However, we understand that circumstances change and ask that if you do need to cancel, you let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your spot to someone else.
Should you choose to withdraw anytime up to 30 days before the start date, all fees apart from the $500 non-refundable deposit will be returned to you.
All fees become non-refundable 30 days before the apprenticeship start date.
