145 – The Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress course is open for enrolment!

Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast with your host Nicole Rose from the

Solidarity Apothecary.

This is your place for all things plants and

liberation.

Let's get started.

Hello. Welcome back to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast.

This is just a little announcement episode to share that the Herbalism PTSD and Traumatic

stress course is open for enrolment today.

I will put some links to other episodes in the show notes where I go into the course in much

more depth of why I created it, how it's structured, what people have shared about it,

all of the things.

But you're welcome to look at the course page.

There is a lot of information there about the

eight different modules and what's included, how it's structured, like the kind of learning

format stuff as well as there's a whole section on commonly asked questions and there

is also a million and one testimonials from people who've worked through it.

So if you haven't heard about it, it's basically a entire self paced online course

with eight modules exploring the impacts of trauma on our bodies in terms of patterns of

chronic illness and expressions of distress through different nervous system states like

fight or flight or freeze for example and many others.

It looks at the kind of politics of trauma and how trauma is commonly framed in very

reductionist ways and some more kind of liberating ways that we could potentially

frame trauma.

There is a whole module about collective responses to traumatic stress.

So you know, there's one thing like healing from all this stuff, there's another thing

like preventing it from happening or resisting the conditions,

trying to change the conditions that are kind of perpetuating trauma.

So yeah, all about kind of connections to like social organising and movement stuff.

In terms of the herbal stuff, you will not be disappointed.

There are all the introductory things you need to get started.

So there's like a section on plant ally practises about building relationship with one

plant.

Where to start if you're totally new to herbalism.

There's lessons on how to harvest sustainably,

there's lessons on medicine making, there's very detailed videos about how to make

tinctures and glycerites and infused oils and ointments and various other things.

And then there's also like, you know, how to kind of design your herbal learning journey,

like how to find projects to get involved with, how to,

yeah, kind of give back to the plants that are giving us so much.

And then the kind of main like herbal content is all about nerve irons.

So these are herbs with an affinity for the nervous system.

And there are 32 comprehensive plant profiles in the course.

So I categorise them in kind of different groups, even though that actions kind of

overlap.

So we have relaxant nerve ions which kind of

help tone down the fight or flight response in the body and have like many other actions.

There are cardiac nervines that have an affinity with the heart and the cardiovascular

system that are also like especially special for like emotional pain and grief.

We have nerve tonics which are very, very important category of nervines, which are

herbs that help support the kind of structure, communication and functioning of the nervous

system over time.

And they have again, like loads of different actions on the body.

You know, maybe they help address a nutritional deficiency, maybe they support the

production of a certain neurotransmitter.

Like they all have different kind of actions

on the body.

And then there is a module on sedative nervines.

So these are herbs that help kind of induce a kind of deeper state of relaxation and a big,

basically help us to sleep.

But I talk about the kind of nuances of that for people who've been through like traumatic

experiences, like where they've potentially been sedated, for example.

So it's like every part of this course has all the nuance of how do you work with these herbs

in practise, how do you work with them safely,

how do you support yourself, how do you support other people?

What kind of affinity do they have with certain nervous system states?

Like are they okay for someone who is quite shut down and depressed or are they

inappropriate, for example?

And then finally there is a category called stimulating nervines.

So these are herbs that have a kind of more like uplifting,

strengthening, mood enhancing property.

But yeah, so there's 32 plant profiles.

I go into depth about the plant's kind of

chemistry, their actions on the body, their affinity with different nervous system states.

Like I've mentioned how I've worked with them in practise, my sort of commentary on

different forms of medicine, how I've worked with them in the solidarity apothecary.

And then I also share like the clinical studies that I've found that have shown this

herb kind of work in practise.

And alongside the course there's like a comprehensive resource library with like book

recommendations.

I include all the like original research

papers of things that I've read so that people can kind of look at those themselves.

So that's on my to do list.

For next year.

But yeah, I've had lots of commentary about how comprehensive the kind of like citing of

resources is.

So, yeah, so you can basically bounce around in whatever order you want.

You can do one lesson one day, a totally different module the next day.

If you're suddenly feeling really connected to rose or lavender, you can like, you know,

watch those videos.

There's no pressure to complete it in a kind of structured way.

But, you know, if you like doing that, like, I'm a bit of a structured person.

I do like kind of following something in a sequence.

So that will be really pleasurable that you can just work through it in order and it just

layers and layers and layers.

There are like no kind of like assignments or quizzes.

Like, I've tried really hard to create this course for people that are kind of feeling

generally overwhelmed or triggered or kind of have experiences of trauma which, you know, I

sort of define as kind of any,

like, life changing experience that's kind of,

you know, been kind of like a wounding experience of some kind.

And again, we unpack that in loads and kind of detail.

But I think, you know, most humans have been through some level of wounding experience.

Right.

Obviously there's like massive structural

disparities between that, but I think it's part of the kind of human experience to

experience suffering, to experience pain, shame, humiliation, all of the things.

So,

yeah, so there's lots of content about the kind of.

Yeah, how we, how we frame trauma.

What was I going to say? So before I create the course, I did a lot of

like, research, like asking friends and comrades and different people about, like,

what would be helpful.

And like, pretty much everyone was like, I just can't do,

like, calls where like, you have to kind of like compulsively share your stuff with other

strangers.

Like, online learning is just not supportive

for that.

So there's just like no pressure to

participate.

I have had several emails over the years from people that are kind of like longing for that

sort of community.

So what I'm organising for this round is in November I will be hosting a live workshop

where I am looking at kind of herbal support for trauma in practise.

So we're going to be diving deep into the kind of course content in the sense of, like, where

do I start?

Like, how do I approach supporting someone who's, you know, navigating PTSD or certain

symptoms? And I'll kind of share the sort of frameworks

that I use in my clinical practise and in my sort of solidarity work where I've,

you Know, met and supported hundreds, like thousands of people, to be honest, at this

point, like in terms of, you know, the clinics in France and Ukraine and stuff.

Well, in Poland.

So, yeah, anyway, I will talk about all of this stuff in practise and kind of like where

to get started and they'll be like loads of opportunity for questions and answers.

And yeah, it will be a kind of chance to like meet, but that will be recorded.

There is like no pressure to participate in that.

Anyone who's joined the course previously will be able to listen to that.

I'll just basically add it to the course for a later date so you can watch that.

I am also putting all the lessons in a private podcast feed, hopefully this coming week so

that people can listen to the lessons on the move.

I think watching the lessons is ******* awesome because my.

My slides are like very pretty.

I'm like a super graphic learner so you can

download all those slides and transcripts as well.

But I also understand it's not always possible for people to kind of sit at a laptop or sit

on their phone and watch lessons.

So I want to just have that option where if someone is driving or doing the school run or

whatever, they can just listen to the course content in their phone and then whatever

strikes that interest, they can always go back and watch the video to kind of complement

their learning.

So that's coming hopefully next week?

Yeah, the course is open for a couple of weeks.

I will put an announcement up when it's the last day to join.

I've already mentioned this, but basically this course funds the majority of the

Solidarity Apothecary work.

So if you don't know about the Solidarity

Apothecary, basically the kind of mission is to materially, practically support communities

with plant medicines as a way of kind of resisting state violence and capitalism and

climate change and building autonomy and kind of self defence in our movements.

So that work on a practical level looks like.

I send herbal care packages to people around

the world.

Like that costs thousands of pounds every

year.

So people experiencing repression,

prisoner families,

grassroots groups like people organising occupations and things like I will send them

herbal support.

Say people are like mobilising for an anti

fascist demo or something.

I might send them first aid stuff and care

packages and things for the organisers.

So that's a big part of the work.

specifically for people in prison, but people outside of prison love it too, where I talk

about the plants that I connected with when I was a prisoner for three and a half years.

Well, my sentence was three and a half years.

I did just under two.

But that book gets distributed around the world for free to prisoners and there's

several translated editions.

So yeah,

that can also cost a lot of money.

And then I also run a clinic called the Black Flag Herbal Clinic, which is like an anarchist

free clinic.

And for my sins, I also support people like in a kind of solidarity way a lot through the

solid apothecary.

One to one as well,

because that was what I was doing before I started the Black Flag structure.

But yeah, basically there's a lot of solidarity stuff, let alone all their courses.

Education,

supporting people behind the scenes in their projects.

Like I've been active in a clinic in Calais supporting people on the move refugees at the

French British border.

Before I got pregnant, I spent pretty much four years bouncing back and forth like

helping support that clinic as the field coordinator.

And now I try and focus on fundraising and medicine making.

So yeah, like basically the course funds like all of that stuff in the sense of like

enabling me to do this work full time to support like a lot of people around the world

and to kind of, yeah, publish books like Herbalism and State Violence for example,

where yeah,

I'm kind of trying to bring together those threads of like, how can plant medicine

support us to not only kind of like heal and survive the conditions that our world has

created, but also to resist them and to kind of build a new world if that's not too cheesy.

Good old Darutti.

So anyway,

feel free to email your questions.

I will be kind of intermittently checking my emails.

Today I am taking my little one to see his dad.

So we'll be like bouncing around like town and softly.

But I'll be checking the emails as much as I can.

And my amazing email is like admin assistant Chantelle will also be trying to keep it on

top of them.

But if I don't get back to you today, I'll

definitely get back to you this week.

So yeah, feel free to email me if needed.

And yeah, please cheque out the course.

I think it's a amazing resource.

I think if you are new to herbalism, it will

be life changing.

I think if you're an experienced herbalist, it will also be super interesting and valuable.

And yeah, it only opens twice a year, so if you don't join now, I will be opening it again

at the end of March next year.

But yeah, and also if you've done it already, please pop a little share on the old social

media or email your friends.

I'd really appreciate that because I am quite

far behind on the old promotion because of my little one falling off a slide and breaking

his arm, bless him,

when he was my.

With my sister.

So,

yeah, like I've mentioned before, I'm just, you know, like, grafting hard on this stuff.

And this course really matters to me.

The Solidarity Pothechry really matters.

I think there is, like,

yeah, huge potential of what, you know, how we can work with plant medicines and support

existing amazing infrastructure that already exists and also support people to start new

things.

And part of that is herbal education.

So, yeah, get on the course.

If you're interested,

I will share a link in the show notes for episodes explaining how the Solidarity pricing

works.

But basically, like, no one is turned away for

lack of funds.

So you're very welcome to join for free if

needed.

Or you can, you know, set up a monthly donation.

You can have a payment plan.

Like you can.

Yeah.

Figure it out to.

To be whatever makes it most accessible to you.

You can join it now and then pop some money in October or November or whatever.

Like, it's.

Yeah, it's kind of flexible for people.

You know, I want it to be accessible as possible.

So. Yeah, please don't kind of hesitate, if that makes sense.

All right.

Thank you for listening.

Take care.

Thanks so much for listening to the Frontline Herbalism podcast.

You can find the transcript, the links, all the resources from the

show@solidarityapothecary.org podcast.