Welcome to the Medicines from the Earth Herb Symposium — June 3-6, 2022 in Black Mountain, NC!
Attendee Page Directory
Your registration includes:
- Attendance at one day of live lectures, June 4 – 6 (Friday intensive is extra; the day you choose is listed on the registration confirmation you received by email)
- Digital lecture notes to own
- Continuing education – $29 fee. Add it to your registration here
Plus all the beauty of a weekend at Blue Ridge Assembly: quiet nights, rocking on the front porch, seeing old friends around the fire rings, lots of herb walks and other outdoor activities, trails on 1200 acres of woodland to wander, and so much more. We can’t wait to have you back!
Accommodations
Blue Ridge Assembly, 84 Blue Ridge Circle, Black Mountain, North Carolina
Note on Safety: Here’s the latest from Blue Ridge Assembly on COVID safety:
- Face masks are now optional. (Subject to change based on County guidelines.)
- Proof of vaccination & booster / testing. Everyone presents one of the following on arrival. (Photocopy or digital photo OK):
- Proof of complete COVID-19 vaccination AND a booster (if eligible for booster) received at least 14 days prior to arrival at Blue Ridge Assembly
–OR– - Negative PCR COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of arrival at Blue Ridge.
–OR– - Negative rapid antigen test taken within 6 hours of arrival at Blue Ridge. (These are the home tests available in most stores.)
- Proof of complete COVID-19 vaccination AND a booster (if eligible for booster) received at least 14 days prior to arrival at Blue Ridge Assembly
- See all measures planned for COVID safety at the symposium
The symposium site is nestled on a mountainside surrounded by 1200 forested acres with two rushing streams. Lodging, dining and lectures are all within walking distance. Blue Ridge Assembly is 40 minutes east of Asheville, NC.
All-inclusive lodging and meal packages start at $196 total for three nights’ lodging and eight meals. Commuter meals are also available for $80 for the weekend.
Register for lodging and meals online. Blue Ridge does not take reservations by phone. You may also fill out this form and mail or email it to them.
Pre-Symposium Events on Friday, June 3
Sign up in advance for these to ensure your place
Pre-Symposium Intensive with Kenneth Proefrock, NMD
Title: Compounding Workshop for Acute and Chronic Conditions
Date: Friday, June 3, 2022
Time: 1 – 5:15 PM
Place: Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, NC
Cost: $89
Open only to registered conference participants.
Continuing Education:
- Approved by OBNM for 4 general CE credits for NDs
- Application pending approval to AAFP for 4 CME credits for MD, DO, RN, FNP, etc.
- Approved by NCCAOM for 4 PDA for acupuncturists
Description: Kenneth Proefrock’s passion for compounding medicines from raw materials translates into unique preparations for hard-to-treat conditions, customized for the individual case. Join us for a demonstration of this dying art of compounding therapeutics, as it applies to botanical eye drops/eyewashes, nasal sprays/washes, and nebulizer solutions for the treatment of both acute and chronic conditions. Therapeutic agents include Berberis spp, Mahonia, Algerita, Bismuth compounds, Ligusticum, Licorice, Phytolacca, Ceanothus, Scutellaria, Larrea, Nicotiana spp., and amino acids such as N-Acetyl-Cysteine, Glutathione, Agmatine, and Lysine.
Add it to your registration here
In-Person Friday Field Study with 7Song
Sorry, this session is now full.
Title: Botanical Adventures and Field Walk
Date: Friday, June 3, 2022
Time: 10 AM – 3 PM
Cost: $69
Location: Blue Ridge Assembly
Open only to registered symposium participants (30 person limit).
Description: Join the irrepressible 7Song on a journey through the forests surrounding Blue Ridge Assembly to identify medicinal plants in the wild and learn their therapeutic uses. He places a strong emphasis on ethical considerations of gathering wild plants and uses his encyclopedic knowledge of botany to show us how to be sure of an ID before harvesting. Please bring a box lunch or arrange for Blue Ridge Assembly to provide a take-out container for your lunch.
Note: Blue Ridge Assembly is a botanical sanctuary and harvesting of any plant or plant parts is not allowed.
Add it to your registration here
Friday Garden Tour with Joe Hollis
Sorry, this session is now full.
Title: Ecology, Propagation, and Cultivation of Native and Oriental Medicinal Herbs
Date: Friday, June 3, 2022
Time: 1 PM – 5 PM
Cost: $59
Location: Mountain Gardens in Burnsville, NC (about an hour from Blue Ridge Assembly)
Open only to registered symposium participants. 20 person limit
Description: Mountain Gardens is a forty-year-old botanical garden of useful plants incorporating the largest collection of medicinal herbs in the eastern US. Joe teaches the techniques of cultivation and propagation he has been honing for over 40 years. More on Mountain Gardens here.
Add it to your registration here
Symposium Speakers and Topics
(Subject to change)
7Song
7Song is director of the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine and practices as a clinical herbalist at Ithaca Free Clinic in Ithaca, NY. A native of the northeastern US, he has nevertheless spent a lot of time in the southwestern deserts admiring, photographing, and wildcrafting plants on his own, and while teaching botany for Michael Moore at the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine. More about 7Song.
Presentations:
1. Friday Field Study: Botanical Adventures and Field Walk
2. Principal Plants for Herbal First Aid
3. Keynote Panel: Inspiring a Way Forward–Navigating the Current Mental Health Crisis
Teresa Boardwine, RH (AHG)
Green Comfort School of Herbal Medicine in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, is where Teresa Boardwine offers classes, consultations, and online access to her workshops. She has been teaching her hands-on medicine-making classes for over 20 years. More about Teresa Boardwine.
Presentations:
1. Healing for Our Times through a Five-Step Protocol
2. For the Joy of BonBons (Demonstration)
3. Herbal Stories and Songs (Fireside program in the amphitheater)
4. Closing Panel: Favorite Appalachian Medicinal Herbs
Ruby Daniels, MS
With family dating back to the slave plantations of the 1600s in Beckley, WVa, Ruby Daniels (“Ruby D”) refers to her heritage as “Afro-lachian”. She spent many childhood summers in Beckley with her aunts and grandmother, learning about African American traditions, spirituality, native plants and herbal remedies. This motivated her to start experimenting with plants on her own, and later form her business, Creasy Jane’s, named after her great-great-grandmother, Creasy Jane Pack. After earning her Master’s in Therapeutic Herbalism she returned to Beckley and now offers consultations and herbal remedies based in that tradition. More about Ruby Daniels.
Presentations:
1. Antiviral Herbs Native to the Appalachian Mountains
2. Topical Herbal Treatments
3. Closing Panel: Favorite Appalachian Medicinal Herbs
Doug Elliott
For many years Doug earned his living as a traveling herbalist collecting and selling herbs, teas and old-time remedies. Along with healing plants, Doug searches out old-timers and elders from various cultures. From these bearers of tradition, he has assembled an extensive body of knowledge of the botanical aspects of plants, their history, legends, and lore; their uses in various cultures, medicinal properties, food value, as well as other practical ways we can use wild plants every day. More about Doug Elliott.
Presentations:
1. Three Herb Walks
Joe Hollis
Joe Hollis has lectured, consulted and taught workshops in medicinal herb identification, cultivation and processing at Mountain Gardens and at various colleges and conferences in North Carolina for over 30 years. Mountain Gardens sells its seeds, plants and preparations at herb fairs and medicinal herb conferences, and via the internet. More about Joe Hollis.
Presentation:
1. Friday, 1:00 – 5:00 PM: Ecology, Propagation and Cultivation of Native and Oriental Medicinal Herbs at Mountain Gardens
Kat Maier, RH (AHG)
A practicing herbalist for over twenty years, Kat Maier is currently director of Sacred Plant Traditions in Charlottesville, Virginia where she offers a three-year clinical/community herbalist training program. She began studying plants in the Peace Corps in Chile. More about Kat Maier.
Presentations:
1. Understanding the Elements of Plants and Humans for Health
2. Deep Medicine and Inflammation–How Health is Tied to the Human Condition
3. Plant Walk: Establishing Plant Relations
4. Keynote Panel: Inspiring a Way Forward–Navigating the Current Mental Health Crisis
Kenneth Proefrock, NMD
A naturopathic physician practicing in Sun City, Arizona, Kenneth Proefrock specializes in difficult-to-treat conditions in his clinic, Total Wellness. He is the vice-president of the North American Board of Naturopathic Examiners and chair of the biochemistry portion of the naturopathic physician’s licensing exam. His lectures combine a detailed understanding of biochemistry and physiology with a passion for plant medicine. More about Kenneth Proefrock.
Presentations:
1. Pre-Conference Intensive: Herbal Compounding Workshop for Acute and Chronic Conditions
2. Lost in Translation: Epigenetics, Mental Health and Botanical Medicine
3. Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy: Exploring Botanical Medicine through the Work of Mircea Eliade
4. Panel Discussion: Reducing Medication Prescriptions and Side Effects in our Elders
Mary Rondeau, ND, RH (AHG)
Mary Rondeau ND, RH(AHG) is a registered naturopathic doctor, functional medicine specialist and registered herbalist. Her interest in plants and natural healing stemmed from her upbringing in the Rocky Mountains learning about folk remedies with her mother as a child. More about Mary Rondeau.
Presentations:
1. The One and Only Ashwagandha
2. Phenotypes of Depression, Part 1
3. Phenotypes of Depression, Part 2
4. Panel Discussion: Reducing Medication Prescriptions and Side Effects in our Elders
CoreyPine Shane, RH (AHG)
CoreyPine Shane RH (AHG), founder and Director of the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine near Asheville, NC, has spent over 25 years helping clients and teaching people by artfully blending Chinese and Western herbal traditions with a focus on local plants. His new book “Southeast Medicinal Plants” covers how to identify, ethically harvest, and use the wild plants of the Southeast. CoreyPine has taught across the United States and in Europe, at many national herb conferences, and is a Professional Member of the American Herbalists Guild.More about CoreyPine Shane.
Presentation:
1. Plant Walk: Seeing Medicinal Plants as both a Wildcrafter and a Clinician
2. Closing Panel: Favorite Appalachian Medicinal Herbs
Katie Stage, ND, RH (AHG)
Katie Stage is a naturopathic physician practicing at the SCNM clinic in Tempe. She is a full-time faculty member at SCNM, teaching botanical medicine, hydrotherapy, GYN lab, and clinical skills. More about Katie Stage.
Presentations:
1. SIBO, IMO and More! Updates on small and large intestinal bacterial overgrowth
2. Engaging the Post Pandemic Libido
3. The Impact of the Circadian Rhythm on Hormone and Whole Person Health
4. Keynote Panel: Inspiring a Way Forward–Navigating the Current Mental Health Crisis
Jen Stovall, BSN, RN
A community herbalist and health educator, Jen Stovall believes that herbalism is a potent tool for social justice. Her work as a teacher and practitioner is informed by Western Herbalism, Southern Folk Medicine, and harm reduction practices. She has a BSN-RN and is a NADA Ear Acupuncture Detox Specialist and Trainer. She provides education and outreach for the Trystereo Harm Reduction Collective, a grassroots Syringe Access Program in New Orleans. Her herb school in New Orleans, the Samara School of Community Herbalism, is dedicated to increasing health sovereignty and herbal education for all. More about Jen Stovall
Presentations:
1. The Damage Done: Navigating the Physical Impacts of Long-Term Drug Use with Herbs & Nutrition
2. The Siren’s Song: Working with Addiction When Someone is Ready to Quit
Marc Williams, MA
Ethnobiologist Marc Williams has taught hundreds of classes to thousands of people about plants, humans, other life forms and their interface. His training includes a B.A. in Environmental Studies/Sustainable Agriculture from Warren Wilson College with a minor in Business and a M.A. in Appalachian Studies/Sustainable Development from Appalachian State University with a minor in Planning/Geography. He has spent over 20 years working at various restaurants, farms, and travels throughout 30 countries in Central/North/South America, Europe and all 50 states in the USA. More about Marc Williams.
Presentations:
1. Outdoor Walk: Woody Plant Medicinals
2. All About Dandelions
3. Closing Panel: Favorite Appalachian Medicinal Herbs
Donald Yance, CN, RH (AHG)
Donnie Yance, RH (AHG) is a clinical master herbalist and certified nutritionist who is internationally recognized for his comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the healing properties of plants and nutrition. Donnie conducts his clinical practice at the Mederi Center in Ashland, Oregon, utilizing his unique integrative model known as the Eclectic Triphasic Medical System, which he evolved over more than twenty years of successful patient care. More about Donald Yance.
Presentations:
1. Spirituality and Healing – The Meaning and Practice of Spiritual Care in Medicine
2. Targeting VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor): A Main Driver in Cancer Angiogenesis and Growth
3. Calcium: Friend or Enemy – Assessing and Treating Hypercalcemia
4. Panel Discussion: Reducing Medication Prescriptions and Side Effects in our Elders
Continuing Education Information
- Please sign up for CE when you submit your registration form ($29 additional fee for all CE).
- We offer CE, CME, CNE, PDA and CEUs through these approvals
- Credits issued for full or partial attendance
- Totals below include attendance at pre-symposium intensive (4 hours)
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS (AAFP):
Approval Pending for up to 38 hours Prescribed Credit* for DO, MD, RN, FNP, California NDs and others
*AMA/AAFP Equivalency:
AAFP Prescribed Credit is accepted by the American Medical Association as equivalent to AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s)™ toward the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award.
NATUROPATHIC PHYSICIANS:
- Approval Pending for all NDs (including California CNDA) who accept AAFP credits described above
- Approved by Oregon Board of Naturopathic Medicine (OBNM): Up to 38 hours of which 12 can be pharmacy
ACUPUNCTURISTS:
- Approved by NCCAOM: Up to 21.5 PDA (CE hours) for the in-person event
NURSING:
- Approval Pending by the AAFP (see above) for up to 38 hours CE credit. (AAFP is recognized by the ANCC as a provider of nursing continuing education for RNs, FNPs and other nursing professionals)
A general certificate of attendance is available to any participant who requests it.
Questions on CE? Contact us
COVID Guidelines Currently in Place:
We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back for an in-person symposium in June! Here’s the latest from Blue Ridge Assembly on COVID safety:
- Face masks are now optional. (Subject to change based on County guidelines.)
- Proof of vaccination & booster / testing. Everyone presents one of the following on arrival:
- Proof of complete COVID-19 vaccination AND a booster (if eligible for booster) received at least 14 days prior to arrival at Blue Ridge Assembly
–OR– - Negative PCR COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of arrival at Blue Ridge.
–OR– - Negative rapid antigen test taken within 6 hours of arrival at Blue Ridge. (These are the home tests available in most stores.)
For proof of vaccine or test, a photocopy or digital photo is fine.
- Proof of complete COVID-19 vaccination AND a booster (if eligible for booster) received at least 14 days prior to arrival at Blue Ridge Assembly
Here’s a more detailed list of steps we are taking so that everyone can feel comfortable at Medicines from the Earth.
1. All attendees, whether commuters or staying on the grounds, are required to show proof of full vaccination (+booster) or a negative COVID test (see details above).
2. Anyone with a fever, cough or mild cold symptoms will be asked to stay home, even if a recent test has been negative.
3. Masks are now optional indoors.
4. Lecture halls will be arranged for social distancing, and only the two largest, Chapel and Washburn Auditorium will be used for indoor lectures.
5. More outdoor classes (herb walks and field studies) are scheduled.
6. The exhibit hall, CE table and information tables are all in the spacious Pavilion this year to avoid crowding in the lobby.
7. The dining room is arranged to avoid crowding and allow for social distancing.
Questions? Contact us.
We look forward to seeing you in the mountains in June!
Herbal Educational Services
Conference Registration
Contact us
541-482-3016
