The classroom training we offer at the NAIMH begins with this the 5-month, 315-hour Fundamentals of Medical Herbalism Program. In this program you learn the tools, terms, and concepts necessary for more advanced studies in the next program. The centerpiece of this certificate program is a 126-hour class integrating physiology, pathology, herbal actions, and herbal materia medica. The class begins with the basics of the vitalist paradigm of healing, then moves through the various tissues and organs of the body, and the herbs most commonly used to influence them. Also included in the program are basic nutrition, introductions to botany, herbal medicine-making, and plant identification, and a class focusing on herbs of commerce.

It continues with the six-month Advanced Herbalism Program. In this program you learn the applications of the tools and concepts of the previous program, and engage in deeper studies of the roots of chronic disease and develop the clinical skills necessary to see clients face-to-face in the clinic. The Advanced Program prepares the student for the professional practice of medical herbalism and clinical nutrition.

It completes with the 8-month Clinical Internship Program where the emphasis is on case-based learning in an actual clinical setting. In this program you and your fellow clinical residents will study the clinic cases in detail under the supervision of the clinical faculty. You will see paying clients in our sliding-scale public clinic. The cases from each week are analyzed in a weekly case-review to maximize learning opportunities. Interns also engage in practice-management and client-education practicums and write a thesis on materia medica.

During the Clinical Internship you may also complete requirements for a Certificate in Clinical Nutrition and/or a Certificate in Flower Essences, by engaging in extra classroom and clinical work.