A Practical Perspective on Herbal Education
Become more confident and effective with herbal medicine by understanding how herbs are actually working in the body with an experienced practitioner. Offering in-depth herb classes and online community integrating physiology with practical herbal knowledge.
Gain Confidence to Use Herbs Effectively
For many of us, there’s a big difference between studying herbal medicine in books and putting that knowledge to use in the real world. Making this leap can be daunting and overwhelming, especially with so much inaccurate and incomplete information out there.
Simply put, much of the herbal information you’ll find online or in books just isn’t enough. Sources often seem to contradict each other, lack crucial details, or aren’t rooted in clinical experience.
Even when reliable information on uses for specific herbs can be found, you’re still left wondering how the herb is actually functioning in the body. It is even harder to find information that explores complex health conditions in any depth.
This creates real barriers to learning how to work with herbs confidently and effectively. My goal is to remove these barriers, giving you a path to practicing herbal medicine that is clear, direct, and accessible.
Are these your goals too?
- You want to have the skills and confidence to safely use herbs to address health issues.
- You want to be as effective as possible, knowing what questions to answer to get to the core of an issue.
- You want to address health issues at the root, not just suppress surface symptoms.
- You want to learn with others for accountability, friendship, and deepened understanding.
- You want to be confident that your teacher has experience working with the things they’re talking about, and isn’t just passing it on from second hand sources.
- You want to be part of creating a network of resources and dedicated students.
If we share these goals, then you’re exactly who I created this for – and I’d love your input. I invite you to join any of my upcoming events, and to consider joining for the Aralia School membership!
Aralia School Membership
Everything Included
Joining the Aralia School Membership gives you access to participate in the community platform where you can build your schedule of live classes, watch the Organ Systems, Materia Medica, and Medicine Making videos, review the materials, and engage with other students.
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Community Based
Connect with a community of dedicated learners. Discuss questions, share resources, and learn together. Become part of a growing network of herb students, growers, and medicine makers!
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Flipped Classroom
Choose your own pace, watch lessons on your schedule, and discuss relevant topics in live sessions, community discussion spaces, and student study group. Spend more time on new concepts and move more quickly through familiar ones.
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Beginner → Advanced
Foundational concepts are thoroughly explained for mid level beginners and experienced students discover new depths through our unique focus on physiology and clinical experience. Access additional advanced topics and discussions with the Enhanced membership.
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Organ Systems Classes
Gain practical herbal knowledge and develop the skills and confidence to address common health issues at home. Learn how your body’s organ systems function and discover how herbs interact with the body to support health and healing.
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Materia Medica & Medicine Making
Access reliable, in depth information about individual herbs. The core of your effectiveness as an herbalist is based in knowing each plant in depth and high quality medicine making techniques. Learn from Caty’s time tested experience with detailed information on an array of new herbs in ongoing live classes and recordings.
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Advanced Cohort Options
Coming soon! Within the Enhanced membership, advanced classes and small cohort groups of various levels will be available. Take a deep dive into case studys, constitution and applied physiology. Explore complex health conditions and advanced topic discussions.
Classes & Topics
Study the Organ Systems
This is the original series that inspired the launch of the new Aralia School Community. When you join you’ll have instant access to the recorded lectures from ALL previous classes and you can RSVP for the scheduled live discussion sessions.
More Details
Each module combines learning how an organ system functions with practical herbal applications. This empowers you to understand not just which herbs to use, but why and how they work. Whether you’re looking to support your own health, care for loved ones, or deepen your herbal practice, these classes offer invaluable insights into effective herbal medicine.
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Herbal First Aid
In this class you’ll learn how to handle a variety of common first aid situations using medicinal plants. We’ll cover a wide range of issues, including cuts, burns, panic attacks,
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Herbs for Digestive Health
Many of us have acute or chronic gut issues. This class will discuss how the digestive system works and herbs you can work with to help to resolve common issues.…
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Herbs for Respiratory Health
In this class you will learn about common lung and sinus issues and how you can address them with herbs. Runny nose, sinus infections, asthma, bronchitis, and more will be…
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Herbs for Reproductive and Sexual Health
Our reproductive and sexual health has a strong impact on our well being as a whole. When hormones are out of balance it can affect our health in numerous ways.…
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Herbs for Kidney and Urinary Tract Health
Kidney and urinary tract health often goes unnoticed until issues arise. Most people will experience related concerns at some point. Herbal remedies can effectively address many common problems in this…
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Herbs for Immune Health
Learn about immune health and how herbs to improve your immune system. You will discover which herbs help most when you are starting to get sick, what works best when…
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Herbs for Liver Health
The liver plays an incredibly huge role in maintaining your body’s well being. In this class you will learn how the body’s primary organ of regeneration and detoxification works and
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Herbs for the Nervous System
Herbs are extremely effective at relieving stress and anxiety as well as shifting long term stress patterns. Learn more about how your nervous system works and herbs that can help…
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Herbs for Cardiovascular Health
Come and learn how you can improve your cardiovascular health! In this class, you will learn about how your circulatory system works and how you can work with herbs to…
Classes & Topics
Winter 2025/6 Programs
Along with the organ systems and medicine making series are two new courses you’ll be able to participate in with throughout fall and winter of 2025/26.
Materia Medica
An In Depth Look at 50 Medicinal Plants
In this ongoing series you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the herbal pharmacy, one plant at a time. Reliable, detailed information about each medicinal plant is vital to becoming an effective herbalist. This is what allows you to determine which plant would be best in a given situation, and how to make high quality medicine with it.
Learn how each plant works in the body, its habitat and harvesting, processing and medicine making. Medicinal uses, formulation, and specifics from Caty’s experience with clients will be explored in depth.
Fall/Winter 2025
Herbs of Resilience
Medicinal Mushrooms & Adaptogens
Build your herbal effectiveness and support long-term health with our new series of live classes. This course dives into nature’s most powerful tonics: adaptogens and medicinal mushrooms.
Discover how these unique plants can normalize body systems and tissues, mitigate stress, and support chronic health conditions. You’ll move beyond basic knowledge to develop the expertise needed to effectively integrate these herbs into your practice or personal health journey.
Ready to deepen your herbal knowledge? Enroll today and start your new year with a new set of powerful skills
Winter 2026
Learning Model
Traditional knowledge in an accessible format
The membership model puts you in control of your education – choosing your pace, watching lessons on your schedule, and discussing relevant topics.
You can learn from recorded course material at your own pace, and then participate in live sessions to have your questions answered.
The “flipped classroom” approach maximizes your learning by giving you direct connection with instructor & students.
Participatory Learning
- Study recorded lessons at your own pace on your schedule*
- Join live sessions for interactive discussion
- Participate in Q&A opportunities
- Connect with fellow students
- Library of shared resources
Unique Monthly Focus
Each month explores a different body system in depth, giving you practical knowledge and material to refer back to.
- Detailed understanding of how the system works
- Common health challenges and their root causes
- Specific herbs and their actions in the body
- Practical applications, formulas, and medicine making information
- Real-world examples
- Integration with other body systems
Accessible learning platform
Aralia School partnered with experts in community based courses to make sure the platform works for you.
- Access your program from any device
- Videos have searchable transcripts!
- Download course materials for offline use
- Connect with like minded students in the Aralia directory
- Direct connection with your teacher
- RSVP to sessions to build your schedule and get notifications to join live sessions
Aralia School Enrollment
Memberships
Choose your membership based on your learning style, goals, and levels of commitment. The Basic membership includes the full organ systems, materia medica and medicine making curriculum, with an enhanced tier for further accelerated study.
Enhanced membership starting in Spring 2026!
$195/
per quarter or $600/year
Standard
Created for herbal students of all levels who want to improve their knowledge and confidence using herbal medicine in a community based program.
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Complete organ systems course materials
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Materia Medica & Medicine Making courses
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Monthly live interactive sessions with Q&A
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Community discussion access
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Comprehensive handouts
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Growing resource library
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All new content as released
$450/
per quarter or $1,500/year
Enhanced
For students seeking comprehensive knowledge and applications who want in-depth mentorship and more personalized teaching in addition to the programs offered in Standard membership.
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Everything in Student Membership plus…
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Small cohort sessions by level
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Group mentorship
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Case study, constitution, and applied physiology
✓ Facilitated discussion topics with Caty
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Advanced classes
Not sure where to start? You can purchase individual classes here. Or check out the free mini-classes on the resources page!
Student Testimonials
I feel lucky to find a teacher with this much practical experience.
★★★★★
“Books I’ve read about herbal medicine often lack the practical insights Caty shares in her program. Caty’s years of clinical practice is brought directly into her teaching – learning herbs in the context of the human body and experience. This is hands down information that’s hard to find and everyone should know about it. “
Aralia School student
★★★★★
“The course was everything I hoped it would be and a great deal more. The content was outstanding. The shared enthusiasm of other students created a wonderful synergy, and Caty is such a great teacher.”
Aralia School student ’23-24
★★★★★
“I realized after the first class that there is so much false or incomplete information online, and this course was a world of difference. It gave me so much more confidence than reading a book or herbalist blogs. The course also gave me a much greater awareness of my own body and how I can be taking better care of it.”
Joe B
Ready to Transform Your Understanding of Herbal Medicine?
Join now to:
- Access in depth herbal education
- Learn from extensive clinical experience
- Connect with a supportive community
- Build practical skills and confidence
Transform your understanding of herbal medicine and gain the confidence to use herbs effectively. Join the Aralia School of Herbal Medicine here.