Year Three
Plant Medicine Apprenticeship
Clinical Practice, Plant Spirit Medicine & Holistic Herbalism
Online Course, Beginning May 2026
10 Live Class Sessions & Optional On-site Immersion
Year Three is the culmination of the apprenticeship journey, where students step into their role as practitioners, facilitators, and stewards of plant medicine. This immersive year weaves together clinical herbalism, plant spirit healing, bodywork, ceremony, and the practical foundations of building a sustainable healing practice.
Students are trained in clinical herbalism, learning how to conduct professional consultations, assess client needs, create safe and effective herbal protocols, and maintain ethical boundaries. Through hands-on practice clinics, students gain experience offering intakes, formulating remedies, and providing follow-up care.
A central thread throughout the year is building your practice in the world. This is where vision meets reality, developing your offerings, creating your apothecary, and learning how to share plants in ways that feel aligned and sustainable.
Register for Year Three 2026
Scroll down for detailed course information & for low-income payment plan options.
Deepening our Connection with the Plant Realms
More Course Details
The journey expands into the subtle realms through plant spirit medicine, bodywork, and energy healing. Students learn to hold one-on-one sessions that integrate ritual, touch, and energetic healing. Incorporating herbal oils, plants, aromatics, and external herbal treatments. You will explore how to create sacred space, guide someone through a healing process, and remain grounded while holding a safe container.
As the year unfolds, students begin to step into leadership and facilitation, learning how to teach, guide circles, and hold ceremony with integrity and care. This includes understanding how to create inclusive, safe spaces, to honor the roots of these practices, and support others in meaningful and respectful ways. You will be invited to lead, share, and find your rhythm in working with groups and community.
Throughout the year, students are invited into ongoing self-reflection and self-care practices, recognizing that the healer’s path requires continual tending of one’s own body, heart, and spirit. The journey culminates in student-led offerings, community service, and presentations that embody each student’s unique expression of their medicine.
This training is rooted in reciprocity, honoring the land, ancestral lineages, and the spirit of the plants as teachers and allies. Supporting students to step forward as grounded, ethical, and heart-centered practitioners in service to the Earth and their communities.
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All lessons are held on Zoom. Each month includes:
10 Monthly Sessions
2+ Hour Classes
Solo 2-hour mentorship session with Sage
Recordings of all live sessions for future viewing
Group communication between classes.
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YEAR THREE COURSE SYLLABUS
1. ROOTING WITH THE PLANTS ~
Calling the elders, welcoming support from guides.
Offerings to the plants & home lands.
Herbal Garden Project – Visioning & planning.
Gathering Medicines & Preparing offerings.
Identifying & working with local medicine plants.2. HERBAL CONSULATIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS ~
* Herbal Consultations – Outline & Practice.
* Client forms, intake, recommendations, dosages, safety, liability.
* Structure & Boundaries within a consultation.
* Creating apothecary of medicine allies.
* Networking, Marketing, & Outreach
3. HERBALISM CLINIC & PRACTICE
* Setting up office space, clinic, and marketing.
* Stocking the clinic with medicines.
* Student Practice Consultations – Intakes & Recommendations.
* Discussion post consultation.
* Dosages, safety, and recommendation forms.
* Follow - up from consultations.
4. PLANT SPIRIT MEDICINE SESSIONS ~
* Offering plant spirit medicine sessions.
* Structure of offerings & healing ritual.
* Understanding our lineages of ritual practices & healing.
* Plant Spirit Medicine Session – Demo
* Student practice & documentation.
6. EXTERNAL HERBAL TREATMENTS & OFFERINGS
* External herbal treatments for bodywork, ceremony, and medicine.
* Preparing for a session & Outline for healing session.
Preparing & Using External Herbal Treatments
Practice clients – Bodywork & Healing Sessions.* Self-care, cleansing, and blessings.
5. BODYWORK & ENERGY HEALING SESSIONS ~
* Bodywork techniques – Demo & Practice
* Reiki & Energy healing
* Tools for Bodywork & Chakra energy healing
* Using oils and plants in energy healing/bodywork
Creating sacred space & ceremony in sessions.
Structure of healing sessions.7. TEACHING & FACILITATING PLANT MEDICINE ~
* Opening sacred space & circle - Practice facilitating
* Outlines for Facilitating classes & workshops.
* Class structure, preparation, marketing, and set up of supplies.
* Guidelines for holding safe, sacred space in class.
* Class exercises, tools, and activities to use.
* Target audience, inclusivity, & access.
8. FACILITATING CEREMONY & HEALING RITUALS
* Opening sacred space & circle.
* Facilitating group ceremony & rituals.
* Guidelines for ceremony – preparation, tools, and structure.
* Exercises, activities, and ingredients for ceremony & ritual.
* Student led ceremony & offerings
* Organizing, outreach, community offerings of prayer & ceremony.
9. DEVOTIONAL SERVICE - BUILDING AN HERBALISM PRACTICE
* Devotional service ~ Offerings from our heart – Student Share
* Building your healing practice & business – Lessons & Timeline
* Practice Herbal Consultations & Student clinic
* Marketing, outreach, business skills, space rental, money exchange.
* Students creating logos, brochures, websites, bios, social media tools etc.
* Sustaining & growing a practice ~ Expectations, patience, devotion.
10. SACRED PRACTICE & SELF CARE
Self care practice & goals ~ Medicine Wheel Journeys
Practice Herbal Consultations & Healing Sessions* Student Share ~ Medicines for the Earth ~ What am I here to share?
* Medicine & Activism for the earth, animals, people.
* Presentations - community service & offerings.
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Students attending the lecture series can also sign up for the Certificate Track. Please review the Live Lecture Series tab above for more info about it.
Optional Home Practice for Year Two Course
Part of our Certificate TrackBlending Herbal Formulas
Apothecary Stock of Simples started in Year One
Intake Forms & Practice Consultations
Materia Medica
Readings & Research
Monthly Tea Meditations
Course Taught by
Sage L. Maurer, Director of The Gaia School of Healing
Sage founded The Gaia School of Healing in New England in 2001 and has trained over 50 rounds of apprentices. She blends traditional folk herbalism with plant spirit medicine, teaching in partnership with ten acres of abundant healing plants in Southern Vermont. Sage’s courses include sacred plant medicine, ethnobotany, ancestral herbalism, deep ecology, and eco-spirituality. Her students over the last 25 years have created their own incredible herbal businesses, schools, and holistic practices. Learn more about Sage.
In-Depth Herbalism Education for All
Accessible Pricing Options
We price our courses lower than most because we believe in keeping herbalism education accessible. This course is priced with the intention of fighting the ever-increasing prices of herbalism and natural medicine training. We hope to ensure that plant medicine is available to everyone, as it is the primary and most ancient method of health care globally. Our offerings are made in service and gratitude to our ancestors, communities, and plant teachers. We hope our alumni will also help uphold this ethic by keeping herbal education accessible and affordable for future generations.
PAYMENT PLAN OPTION
We understand that some folks may be needing tuition support more recently. This payment plan option is reserved for low-income students who require tuition assistance.
*Payment plans begin on the date of purchase and continue for 10 months. Once the payment plan is completed, you will receive unlimited course access including all future course updates.
