Hi! I’m Heidi Villegas

Certified Professional Aromatherapist (NAHA, AIA), Community/Clinical Holistic Herbalist, Certified Animal Aromatherapy Specialist, Homesteader, Gardener, Grandmother, Chicken Mama, Teacher, and Author. 

I'm SO happy you're here!

Healing Harvest Homestead is the perfect place for you if you’re interested in:

  • Using herbs and essential oils confidently and correctly so you can be medically prepared and empowered

  • Making your own natural skincare and body care products or how to find good products to purchase

  • Growing your own medicinal herbs and also vegetables for medicine and food

  • Foraging wild medicinal plants without fear

  • Cooking and preserving real food from scratch…with herbs as an added benefit

  • Cleaning your home with natural homemade products that actually work

  • Getting creative with botanicals! Gifts, skincare, cooking, fermentation, and so much more….infusing healing herbs into your life just makes things better!

**Although Healing Harvest Homestead is not a school or website specifically for faith, it’s important that I tell you that I am a Christian herbalist, so I conduct my practice and teach my students through the lens of Judeo-Christian philosophy. I am not a judgmental Bible beater, and I love all people. I share the art and science of herbalism through the viewpoint of God as the creator of all. I love my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and His teachings are the foundation for everything I do. You can read more about how I got to this place and why I even bother to mention this in the article, “Is it OK for Christians to Practice Herbalism? Cautions and Considerations”

With that said, everyone of every faith, belief system, culture, ethnicity, gender, age, etc. is welcome here to learn herbalism and aromatherapy from me. I love you all.

I believe that every extended family needs to have access to the people’s medicine….plant medicine from the plants God so graciously gifted to us for our health and healing. We ALL deserve to have choices when it comes to our wellness.

For the Good of People and the Planet

Between 10 and 20 percent of the profits from our school, the Healing Harvest Homestead School of Botanical Arts & Sciences, goes to support human causes and earth causes in alignment with our values. We believe that our today affects our tomorrow, and that of our children and grandchildren. It’s our hope to help humans, animals, plants, and the earth in whatever way we can while we’re here in this worldly realm.

My Experience: The Bullet Point Summary

  • Began dabbling in natural health practices and herbalism over 20 years ago (in the mid-90’s), and started learning and experientially finding that herbs and essential oils effectively supported my health and allowed my body to finally heal from many debilitating health issues caused by decades of Rx and OTC medications common in allopathic medicine. I also began using herbs and oils on my animals and neighbors' animals beginning in around 2010.

  • 2010-2015: Started giving away and selling herbal products, first in person, then online. Began educating my customers, co-workers, friends, family and clients (pretty much anyone who would listen to me). Interest soared, and I had a popular and engaged customer base enjoying herbal tinctures, salves, handmade herbal soaps, herbal teas, and more.

  • 2010: I took my first “official” herbalism certification course via “snail mail,” since I couldn’t just leave my career and life and move to Portland, OR or the east coast where there were a couple of in person schools. I couldn’t find an online course at that time. Since then, I have continued taking a wide range of herbal and aromatic courses and programs, engaging in heavy self-study and research, and grown my practice with thousands of hours of study. I have learned from many teachers and have a broadened perspective of herbal medicine.

  • 2013: Moved off-grid to the S. Nevada mountains and commuted into the city of Las Vegas to work in my long-time career as a public school teacher. Off-grid in the mountains, we began growing more medicinal herbs and vegetables than we could in the city, started homesteading by adding livestock and poultry on our small property, and leaped into learning more and more about self-sufficiency.

  • Early 2016: My online herbal products shop became overwhelming between managing an ever-growing number of customers, clients in person, working full time, raising my last child at home, and staying healthy myself. So, I shut it down. When I closed up shop, little did I know how upset my customers and clients would be! So, I decided to share my formulations publicly and generously so they could learn to make their own.

  • Late 2016: The website, Healing Harvest Homestead, was born in order to share my homesteading and herbalism path including formulas and remedies with those interested. Many people have taken skills they’ve learned for free from me and turned these into business ventures and begun their own natural health paths!

  • January, 2017: I was invited into an online homestead business group. As a newbie to online business, I learned that my website could become a way to generate a bit of income to offset the time I spent writing, researching, helping, and sharing. From there it grew and grew….. I consider January, 2017 the official beginning of Healing Harvest Homestead.

  • 2018: My husband and I retired from our careers in the city and moved to Northern Idaho where we could expand our medicinal herb farm and foraging endeavors while continuing to grow Healing Harvest Homestead.

  • In the years since…..

    • We expanded the website into an herbalism school! The HHH School of Botanical Arts & Sciences was born with the goal of providing structured curricula in herbalism from a Christian viewpoint. I’m a career teacher and have taught humans for over 40 years, and this was a natural progression for me.

    • Our student community for our larger courses is one of the best (if not the best) out there in terms of vibrant and active sharing, helping, friendships with like-minded people, growth, and being a safe place (OFF social media on a private platform) for students to hang out. Many lifelong friends have been made in this community, my Healing Harvest Homestead exclusive village.

    • I love teaching in person, so I show up “live” on zoom weekly in the Confident Herbalist Tribe and for “open” six week periods of time for Ditch the Drugstore students in order to provide a place and a way for students to get answers from a real herbalist, the teacher.

    • Our school has grown to serve thousands of students between both shorter and longer courses. We are spreading the word about the value of herbalism in the Christian community, the homestead community, and beyond!

    • My weekly newsletter has grown to nearly 40,000 people who learn new herbalism, aromatherapy, and natural living tips, recipes, and content not found anywhere else…plus some encouragement and inspiration. You can join the newsletter here, and unsubscribe any time. It’s FREE.

I want to thank you so much for all of the valuable information that you send out.  You have inspired me soo much....
— ---Debra M

Click HERE or use the QR Code to find out more about our courses!

As the school grows, we are building an excellent team for even more student support, and we’re continually adding new programs, both short and longer more advanced certifications. I’ve written many books for our masterclasses inside the Tribe, and I have a wonderful researcher who helps me with this. Besides paid content (like courses and certification programs), I love serving through sharing the hundreds of articles on my website and the hundreds of videos on my YouTube channel.

**Over the years, I’ve formulated thousands of herbal and aromatic preparations between the Confident Herbalist Tribe content, Ditch the Drugstore content, course content otherwise, my YouTube channel, the website, and for unique clients, community members, and my own family! Sometimes it’s important to customize formulas to match the individual’s needs, and I teach people to do this.

Our Mission

Our mission at Healing Harvest Homestead is help modern individuals and families re-learn traditional skills, especially herbalism. We want to get an herbalist into every extended family to benefit people, provide greater choice and health empowerment to individuals, to help people leave this knowledge and legacy to their children and grandchildren, and provide a strong and safe support network for those learning herbalism.

The goal is ultimate health and healing for the earth, our communities, our bodies, minds, spirits…and sustainability for humans, plants, and animals.

Click the image above to check out many of our most popular course offerings! Or just click HERE.

The Long Story: My Herbal Path….

Like you most likely did in this modern time, I too grew up NOT knowing that there were healing herbs all around me! Even in the harshest environment of the Mojave Desert where I lived for 50 years of my life, my parents taught me to forage edibles, but I had no idea about all the medicinal herbs growing wild around us. I’ve always loved plants, and I gardened and foraged foods with my family as a young child….so you could say I’ve been growing plants and foraging for well over 48 years at this point in my life!

Because like most of us, herbal medicine has been “untaught” in our developed culture for the past 150 years or so, I didn’t have a clue about the concept of “herbal medicine” or even aromatherapy. Like most people I turned to modern allopathic medicine for decades of my life from childhood into my late thirties when I finally starting waking up to the fact that the drugs being pushed by Big Pharma were killing me. Literally. 

I experienced a variety of different health issues from childhood onward, and time after time, the medical community failed me. It wasn’t until I happened across a dermatologist in my thirties (one of many dermatologists I visited over the years who had tried to help me with my horrible rosacea) who told me that, “my liver was probably shot.” 

HORRORS, right?

This good doctor then went on to explain that after being on antibiotics and two rounds of accutane for as long as I had been (around ten years) he just didn’t see any way this wasn’t possible. He was the FIRST doctor to sit down and talk with me, to ask me questions, and also to explain how the drugs I’d been on, both over-the-counter AND prescriptions had most likely affected my body—-which most likely was causing the rosacea. He also gave me a natural option for my skin that was expensive…but it worked. Of course, my insurance wouldn’t pay for this “natural” treatment.

From that day, I was hooked on living naturally and being healthy.

I wanted to learn every single thing I could about natural health, and this extended into my learning about all the toxins in our environments, the dangers in the chemicals in over-the-counter and Rx drugs, and the killer toxins of the cosmetics industry with the proven carcinogens and hormone disruptors in those products. But I still had no clue about herbalism….using medicinal plants for health, at least outside the stale capsules in the health stores.

Shortly after this doctor visit, I sustained a sports injury. It did something to my back, causing disc issues with my L4-L5 area and resulted in nerve problems causing severe back pain and sciatica. The pain doctor put me on oxycodone and Xanax. I had no idea how addictive these substances were, but luckily for me, I couldn’t take even a quarter of the full dose because I became a zombie…and at that time I was a public school teacher. You can’t teach and be a zombie at the same time…..

I was supposed to have surgery on my back, but luckily, I stumbled across a book on using herbs to heal, and I dove in head first! I call this a “God thing.” Those times when we’re prompted to do something…and we listen.

Using natural methods: medicinal herbs that support the bones and the nervous system, breathing techniques, attending to my sitting and standing postures, and doing certain exercises, I healed my back issues 100% naturally. It was at this time that I was also introduced to essential oils, and I learned to combine my herbal preparations (phytotherapy) with essential oils (phytoaromatherapy) for some very powerful, safe, and effective products.

As I made more and more herbal preparations and found out how WELL the healing herbs WORKED, I dove more deeply into studies of the plants, understanding phytochemistry and formulation, and started healing my body from one after another after another of LONG time health issues. 

I realized I HAD to share this with people!

This lost knowledge of healing plants and how to work with them safely and effectively has been stolen from us in this modern era of big pharma, the health insurance industry, government over-reach, and big money. The people (US) need to re-learn what we’ve all collectively lost.  

You see, God has provided for all of us perfectly. In His creation of the world, He’s given us plants! These are plants that both heal and nourish us; to ease our pains; to speed recovery from wounds and hurts; and…to calm our anxious minds and hearts. 

God has given us the gift of healing plants to help us soften and soothe the burdens placed on our earthly bodies in the world. Until we leave this world and get to experience the true healing promised to us in the Heavenly realm, we have the plant medicines and foods God made so perfectly just for us. We just have to re-learn how to work with them!

Here’s Mr. V. and me foraging on top of our property here in Idaho. If you look closely, you’ll see a polypore mushroom (Fomitopsis tomentosa) on that log near the ground.

What So Many Have Forgotten….

Collectively, people in developed countries have “forgotten” how to use the healing plants that our ancestors have used for thousands of years before us. You see, science and modern Big Pharma, the AMA, and the government have literally educated the knowledge of how to work with these healing plants right out of our culture over the past 150 years. 

Herbs are now “weird,” and synthetic chemicals are “normal.”

Thankfully this is starting to change….We’re long overdue for this paradigm shift to “normalize” herbal medicine again and return to our traditional, long-standing roots.

My husband and I are so blessed to be able to say that we’ve been OFF all over-the-counter and prescription drugs for well over twelve or more years now (except for a three-month stint where I was “scared” onto medications for blood pressure). Suffice to say…they didn’t work, and after gaining weight, being put on another additional medicine for the side-effects, and having swollen feet I couldn’t walk on at the end of every work day, I said, “NO more,” and went off them cold turkey. Of course, I continued to turn to my herbs, essential oils, and lifestyle shifts to help manage my BP naturally.

In our family, we make ALL of our medications using the plants God has given to us now. I manage all of our health issues naturally with herbs and essential oils. Knowing how to do this is such a blessing.

YOU can do this too! You can leave this legacy of herbal knowledge to your children and grandchildren and be a beautiful part of making sure this important knowledge about using herbs for our healing and health doesn’t disappear.

It’s time to re-learn the knowledge of plant medicine that collectively we’ve lost!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

I am not against allopathic (modern) medicine. In fact, my youngest daughter is in medical school, and we have many medical practitioners in our family. I simply believe there’s a time and a place for it. If I were to break my leg, I promise you I’d be at the hospital getting X-rays and a cast. And doctors are great for diagnosing issues. But a great majority of our health concerns can potentially be handled with holistic methods (mind, body, spirit, emotions) and skilled knowledge of plant medicine.

Also, I do not make medical claims. I’m not a doctor. I’m an herbalist and aromatherapist. Every person is responsible for doing his/her own research into their individual needs and making their own decisions accordingly. In no manner is anything I say or write meant to treat, cure, diagnose, or prevent disease, and I don’t provide suggestions or advice in any manner unless I have a personal herbalist-client relationship with you with a completed intake form and signed waiver. The FDA wants me to be sure I make statements like this so people learn there is a difference between medical advice and herbalism.

True Herbalism…..

Herbalism is an art. And, it’s a science. 

Over the decades, I’ve continued to study and learn about the medicinal plants we have at our fingertips or that we can now easily purchase. Yes, the science and clinical studies are important validations for why we use certain plants and how they work, but the fact remains that herbalism is FAR more than data. 

Big Pharma likes to take one constituent from a plant because they feel they’ve identified the “active” component, but truly, God created the whole plant perfectly, and I’ve seen over and over again how much more gentle and powerful using whole plant medicine is for us. There’s an undeniable synergy among the chemical components of medicinal plants that science likes to ignore and often doesn’t understand, but that is relevant, important, and God-given.

The art of holistic herbalism extends beyond the science. 

True herbalism is taking a holistic approach and valuing each individual person in terms of their unique constitution. Besides a person’s individual tissue states (wet/dry, hot/cold, tense/lax), it’s also about our emotional and spiritual health, too. It’s taking the time to fit the right plant with each person’s whole and unique needs. True herbalism is FAR more than just reading a book or two and learning about an herb from a theoretical view. 

True herbalism is experiencing the plants and how people interact with them in a holistic manner.

It’s working with them through the seasons. It’s touching them, smelling them, creating with them, and interacting with them. It’s also seeing ourselves holistically through the lenses of our body, our mind, our emotions, and most importantly, our spirit. 

I hope you join me on this journey to wellness choices through plant medicine (herbs and essential oils) and the resulting empowerment and self-reliance you’ll find on the other side. 

Enjoying the scents of pine, spruce, fir, and medicinal plants like arnica in the forest….Forest bathing.

And Today…..

My husband and I are now retired from our long city careers, and we’ve had the opportunity since 2012 to live off-grid for the first five of those years, to garden for all of them, and to continually expand our herbal knowledge. We’ve been able to bring herbs to people who, like us, didn’t even know medicinal plants existed!

As a long-time empty nester whose grandchildren are scattered to the winds via children’s professional choices, my baby and my passion is Healing Harvest Homestead and the School of Botanical Arts & Sciences. There’s a fire in my soul to get this knowledge BACK into the people’s hands where it was before the rise of Big Pharma, the AMA, the health insurance industry, and other “big money” entities. We deserve to have this knowledge.

Instead of my sweet brand new baby back in 1985 suffering from colic, and me a super young nursing mom with no support crying right along with him….I COULD have simply taken a cup of chamomile tea 30 minutes before nursing, and it would have calmed us both while supporting his tiny digestive tract. But this knowledge was STOLEN from all of us years ago, unless we were lucky enough to have an herbal granny in the house. It’s time to take the knowledge back!!!!!

 The Community….

There are different ways to join us in community, here at Healing Harvest Homestead, and I hope you’ll choose one or more! I’m proud to say that the culture in our communities values kindness, like-mindedness, open-mindedness, support for each other, sharing of experiences and ideas, and learning from one another.

1) Facebook: I’ve recently re-opened my private Facebook group, Practical Herbs + Oils with Heidi. This is a free group, and I’d love to have you join us if you’re on Facebook.

2) Take a class and be invited to join one of our student groups! These groups are amazing, and I can’t even count how many friendships have been made for those who join and interact. I love holding weekly live Q and A chats in both Ditch the Drugstore and the Tribe, formulation chats (in the Tribe), and case study chats—herbal mentorship (in the Tribe).

I’d love to have you join us as a student of Ditch the Drugstore, the Family Herbalist Certification program, and/or the Confident Herbalist Tribe, which will allow you to join our amazing student community and take advantage of live herbalism question/answer and formulation talks. You can find out more about courses here.

3) Subscribe to my YouTube channel. This is a GREAT way to learn herbal concepts, and I often do live herbal chats for my YouTube friends!

4) Join over 37,000 others who enjoy my weekly newsletter for even more herbalism and aromatherapy tips.

**Subscribing to my newsletter is honestly the BEST way to stay in touch (besides joining the Confident Herbalist Tribe or taking Ditch the Drugstore so you can join our herbal student village) because herbalism is becoming more and more censored….A business’s email list is much safer right now than social media.

5) And of course, there are hundreds of articles on my website, Healing Harvest Homestead.

Healing Harvest Homestead School of Botanical Arts:

The time to start your learning is NOW.

There’s just no better time than this present moment. If you feel that same stirring I did so many years ago, that “feeling” or call to find out all you can about how to use the herbs God created for us, to be more self-reliant and health empowered in this world, then join us and thousands of others!

If you’re wondering which is the best way to start, please reach out to me! I’m thrilled to help!

I’d also love to offer you one or both of my FREE books and my free 5-Day Herbal Foundations email course:

1) How to Relax Using Herbs and Oils This 24 page digital book is filled with natural information to help you deal with stress, anxiety, and the pressures of modern living so you can have more energy and get better sleep. The recipes inside will get you started!

Click the link, and I’ll send this right along: How to Relax Using Herbs and Oils

2)  The Herbal Remedy Guide and Cheat Sheet   This is a friendly 12 page resource on 10 common and helpful herbs and their essential oils if available and how to use them. I’ve put together a handy cheat sheet at the end. It’s perfect for you home apothecary or kitchen! 

Click the link below, and I’ll send it right to you!

The Herbal Remedy Guide and Cheat Sheet

3) Take the 5-Day Herbalism email course. This short course will help you understand important herbalism foundations and give you some great starting places to start learning even more. I also share many recipes and remedies in the lessons, too. You can save these and go back to them whenever you like, as I know time sometimes gets in the way.

Click the link to get started: 5-Day Herbalism and Foundations Course (FREE)

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What others say about our weekly email newsletter and communities:

“Hi Heidi, just want to let you know, I Love your e-mails. They are more than great information. Your e-mails give a warm hug when you need it the most. Love to you and yours. Have a Blessed season” Rachel

RE: The website:

"Geez Heidi, I just found you! My hubster made me get off the computer cause i spent so much time reading your stuff. Why can’t you be my neighbor dang it? Thanks for the manly gift ideas!---Liz"

And here is another one from our community:

I want to publicly thank Heidi Villegas once again for sharing her knowledge. Many of the herbal preparations I have made so far have been to help my kids with various things. My daughter is graduating high school this year and has a tremendous amount on her plate, with an AP exam coming up and preparing for a Chinese intensive program she is doing this summer. She is understandably stressed out. I made up some of Heidi's De-Stress tea, and it helps her. I have been having her take some eleuthero, too. Part of the reason I got on the herb journey is because she was experiencing some exhaustion last year, and the doctors had no answers. Blood tests showed nothing, and they just shrugged their shoulders. Heidi, thank you! Your efforts in educating others about herbs are benefiting people far and wide. ❤️ —Heather S.

Here are some more testimonials from readers of the Healing Harvest Homestead website, YouTube channel, and weekly newsletter:

"What a delightful website you have created!!!  I can see that you’ve put a BUNCH of time, thought and Love into all the information you have organized.  Thank you very much … that is a blessing to me!" --Heather

And another:

“Hi Heidi!  Just getting your weekly newsletter helps me.  Even when things are down you always find a way to end your news with something cheerful, uplifting and full of hope.  Your writing style is delightful and fun to read.  I just started back to an online school and went through and unsubscribed from a bunch of my weekly reports because I didn't have time to keep up with them.  There was never any question about keeping yours!” —Karen

And:

"Dear Heidi,   I just want to give you a big shout out because I love your newsletters, I really look forward to each one....  You have inspired me to making some soap, which I have always wanted to do, but keep putting on the back burner and the sticky wax wraps which I now have my resin so that’s my project for this weekend. Great way to use up some of our lrg quantities of beeswax....So thank you for your fantastic, inspiring thoughts and doings for each week. May you have an amazing day. Kindest regards, Sally🙏🌺🌈👍"

Here’s another via Facebook:

I would very much like to thank you Heidi! I was desperate about 6 weeks ago when my lungs were in trouble! And with a week workshop coming up playing recorder (music instrument) when I searched the Internet your "Asthma and Lung Tonic came up! The next day I went and purchased the herbs and was on my way to no asthma and healthy lungs. The week of playing recorder has come and gone and apart from the last day, my asthma was non-existent! A very big THANK YOU - YOU ARE A LIFESAVER!

And here’s a note I received just today:

Thank you for the hard work you do to give us so much valuable information.   I love your posts and follow you on YouTube. 

I am living the homestead life through you and love it.  I do as much as I can (no livestock), but garden, canning, other food preservation, etc.

I also love your spiritual and inspirational messages. —-T.

You Guys:

I really LOVE our growing community (that’s you), and I hope you will be part of it by visiting the blog often (bookmark it so it’s easy to find), searching through the articles for things you’re interested in, emailing me with any questions, getting the newsletter and accessing the Resource Library I’ve created for you FREE. :-)

You’ll love all my information I so freely give! My mission is for there to be an herbalist in every extended family.

Here’s another email I got just the other day, and I just had to share this here….it shows a bit more about the personality of Healing Harvest Homestead, and it made me laugh pretty hysterically because I am NOT a hippie—-well at least I don’t think so:

Wow, thanks for getting back to me so quickly! It sounds like we are exactly on the same page.

Ok, I have to tell you this, and we mean it as a supreme compliment, so please take it in that spirit. My husband is into organic gardening and follows several bloggers pertaining to permaculture and sustainability. I follow you and a handful of others. Sometimes it's hard to remember which person goes with which blog or philosophy (if you don't follow them yourself). …

Even though he doesn't follow you himself, he says "I like her!" We are especially interested in your DIY herbal medicines and remedies. … Anyway if I say Heidi from healing harvest homestead he may or may not know who I'm talking about. We have renamed you "the hippie lady". I just recently made the spray version of your mosquito repellent. Before I did, he was peppering me with questions. I told him I had considered a couple of others, but settled on yours. I told him it was from the "hippie lady, so she ought to know" and he said "Oh, yeah, go with that one!"

When we call you the hippie lady, we mean this as a huge compliment! Pam

And here’s yet another:

"I want to thank you so much for all of the valuable information that you send out.  You have inspired me soo much to continue to push ahead and use the talents that the Lord has blessed me with.  I am a new beginning soapmaker and have soo many questions, and I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.  I absolutely love the scriptures that you also share and how you acknowledge the Lord in your newsletters.....Please keep up the excellent work that you do and stay encouraged because you are truly a blessing." ---Debra

Here’s another free gift for you! It’s my 5-Day Herbal Foundations email course. It’ll get you started on learning herbalism! Just click the image, sign up, and I’ll send you the first lesson and one each day for five days!

 What qualifies me to teach, write about, and consult with clients and students about using herbs and essential oils for health?

Currently, in our country, herbalism is not a recognized health care modality. However, herbalism and aromatherapy have thousands of years as bases for being significant health systems all over the world. Because herbalism is unrecognized in the United States as a legitimate medical or health care practice, there is no state or national licensing board for herbal practitioners. For this reason, there are no recognized credentials or titles, including “master” herbalist or “certified” herbalist. Certain independent entities not related to any governing boards do qualify individuals with certain titles, depending on their education and experience, but governmentally speaking…these hold no value.

Aromatherapy is a bit different, though. Aromatherapy is more likely to be considered an alternate health practice and is more and more becoming part of integrative medical care. Practitioners are “officially” certified through two main governing entities, NAHA (United States) and AIA (International) based on years of training and experience. I’m currently a certified level 2 (professional) aromatherapist with both organizations. I’m working on the highest level 3, which is clinical aromatherapy. I expect to finish up this year! (There are also other certifying aromatic entities as well, but those are the most recognized.)

Here’s a video about why I became an herbalist/aromatherapist.

My formal education includes a bachelor’s degree in education, a master’s degree in educational administration, and certifications of various types in the field of education, including special education and second language instruction. I’ve spent my entire adult life from the age of 16 teaching humans from pre-school to adults, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it!

I love working with people. I’m an expert human facilitator. I’m an expert herbalist and aromatherapist. And I’ve combined these in this drive I have to share before it’s too late.

My mission is to work toward getting a knowledgeable and safe home herbalist/aromatherapist in every extended family so that the traditional knowledge of the old ways of natural health can be preserved. I believe people should have options and empowerment when it comes to their health. Plant medicine is powerful, gentle, and when done right is extremely safe and effective. It’s a far better option than most drugs for most people, in my opinion.

Here’s a list of schools I've attended over the years for my plant medicine knowledge. As I made this list, I realize I'm well into the thousands of hours of herbal study at this point. It goes by so fast!

But I just love it, and I love the learning and all the working with the plants! Here are a few of the schools I’ve attended——

  • Sage Mountain School, The Science and Art of Herbalism (This is Rosemary Gladstar’s school, and I consider her to be my first and most important herbal teacher.)

  • Herbal Academy of New England (Nearly all the courses :-)

  • Commonwealth Herbs (various courses)

  • Learning Herbs (Rosalee de la Foret's "Taste of Herbs")

  • Chestnut School of Herbalism (Foraging course)

  • The School for Aromatic Studies (five courses so far, and I've begun my clinical level coursework at this time, too) I’ve earned several additional aromatic certifications, including internal usage of essential oils.

  • Aromahead Institute (where I earned my level 2 professional aromatherapy certification)

  • New York Institute of Aromatic Studies

  • Northwest School of Aromatic Medicine

  • Animal Aromatherapy School with Dr. Janet Roark

  • The Tisserand Institute with Dr. Tisserand—various shorter courses, including safety of essential oils, aromapsychology, and chemical constituents

plus other smaller courses from several others, such as Matthew Woods’ Institute of Herbal Medicine, etc.

If you made it this far, thank you! I hope you love my website, the YouTube channel, and any courses you take from me.

I hope to be one of your herbal teachers as you start or continue your own herbal path.

Hugs, Herbs, and Hope,

Heidi

P.S. I have received comments about the philosophical foundations underlying some of the schools I’ve attended and that they may not be the best place to learn if you are a Christian believer. Although I have enjoyed learning from a wide variety of schools and even have an Ayurvedic background from my years in yoga prior to being born again, I do not recommend necessarily any school teaching from a non-Judeo-Christian view due to potential clashes in value systems. It’s up to you to do research on the schools, and make your own decisions. You’re welcome to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Thank You for Stopping By! 

P.S. And, if you like what you see here, please follow me on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, too! I’m so glad you’re here!

Foraging yarrow in the pasture….

May “the Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 

 
 

Follow your dreams! I'm Heidi— a clinical aromatherapist, community herbalist, homesteader/self-reliance advocate, writer, teacher, grandmother, and your BFF in your herbal and natural living studies! Take a look around on our site, and know it’s never too late to start your herbalism and natural living journey with me!

The information herbalists are privileged to share in these modern times may disappear again as Big Government gets stronger and it once again becomes more and more difficult to find legitimate information on medicinal herbs….

Yes, it’s happening. Herbalists are being censored and stifled…and it’s just the beginning. Start your herbalism journey now! Even if you don’t choose me as your teacher, please do start learning!