2011 INTENSIVES

Intensives offer the opportunity to study more deeply with a certain teacher or on a specific subject. Preregistration recommended (for the following seven workshops). Intensives cost $35 until August 20th and $45 thereafter. Length of intensives are three to three and a half hours. Registration will open March 21, 2011.
	Cherokee Household Medicine with Dr. Jody Noe, Pre-conference Intensive, Friday 10:00-1:00 A visual, oral, and hands-on mini-apprenticeship with this extraordinary teacher who has studied with the Cherokee for 25 years. Discover the first level of Cherokee medicine—that of the household healer. Learn what every Cherokee knows: when you get sick, you go home. Culture, ceremony, and plants will be discussed through teaching stories, slides, and lecture. Learn about the medicine wheel and medicine bags, stones, plants, animals, prayer, and how to approach and collect the plants. Explore 7-10 abundant and effective but underused indigenous plants and their spiritual and medical applications. Materia medica will include bethroot, trillium, doe-eyed daisy, bull nettle, jack-in-the-pulpit, yellowroot, baby mint tea, and bloodroot as well as a native mushroom used for healing.
	Energy Healing—A Somatic Approach to Health with Laurel Mamet, Pre-conference Intensive, Friday 10:00-1:00 All action begins in the energy body and moves out through other layers—emotion, belief, mental, and spiritual—before it ever manifests in the physical realm. Energy healing is learning to track and shift the flow of energy through those layers with the intention of transformation. Using the Chakra system and the Auric field as a basis we’ll learn two methods: Radiatory, using your own energy field to project healing, and Magnetic, using your hands to help alter energy. The results are clarity, release, dissolution of patterns, connection, compassion, self-love, and sovereignty (discovering oneself as the point of power in life.) As you become conscious of hidden energies, you will be able to heartfully work with yourself and clients to immediately deal with issues on a deeper level.
	Beyond Chamomile—Holistic Protocols for the Nervous System with Patricia Kyritsi Howell, RH (AHG), Friday 2:30-6:00 Herbal nervines heal, calm and stimulate the nervous system by directly affecting the function of tissues and organs. Yet their actions go far beyond eliciting a physical response; they also have a profound affect on consciousness, spiritual awareness and our sense of well-being. Understanding the interplay between the physical and psychological is critical in our ability to create truly holistic protocols for healing the nervous system. Expect an overview of how the nervous system is understood from both Western medical and energetic perspectives, followed by an in-depth look at nervines used to relieve a wide range of conditions such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, cognitive challenges, fatigue, immune system imbalances, and digestive problems. More than twenty herbs and their clinical applications will be covered.
	Earth, Air, Fire, Water—A Folk Medicine System of the Southeast with Phyllis D. Light, Saturday 9:00-12:30 Traditional Southern and Appalachian Folk Medicine is the most widely acknowledged regional folk medicine in the United States with roots back hundreds of years. Originating from earth-based and indigenous cultures, this system incorporates the four elements as fundamental to how all life works and as a means of diagnosis. What happens in nature, happens in the body. In addition to exploring these elements in depth, we’ll overview the influence of European (Galenic) medicine, Native American indigenous plant use, Irish folk medicine and African healing techniques and philosophy. Blood patterns (good, normal, bad); blood movement (high, normal, low); blood textures (thick, normal, thin); blood temperatures (hot, warm, cold); blood flavors (sweet, acid, sour, bitter, salty) will be defined and examples given.
	Journey to the Elders—Building Intimacy with your Plant Allies with Suki Roth, Saturday 3:00-6:30 Why are we so drawn to herbs? Because they need us in order to bring healing and balance. We are conduits between the plants and our families, clients, and communities. Like any relationship, the more we know about another, the better our understanding and the deeper our connection. When we are receptive, when we think of them as elders and treat them with respect, they open their gifts to us so we may be of service. When we express this robust understanding to others, compliance and healing increases. Beloved teacher Suki Roth teaches us that the fastest way to create intimacy with plants is to ask them, spend time with them, and meditate or journey to them to create a personal bond that lasts a lifetime.
	Prophecy & Promise—Ancient Understandings of a Radiant Future with Brooke Medicine Eagle, Sunday 9:00 to 12:30 Brooke will share prophecy: ancient wisdom as it relates to our present time and the awakening future. Indigenous cultures have long had knowledge of the time in which we are now living, and have offered power-filled guidance for moving into a golden time in the highest and most graceful way. You will receive Keys to Wisdom and a better understanding of the place of ‘green women' in the unfoldment of a new world and be guided in translating this ancient wisdom into practical, uplifting tools for sustainable, harmonious living. Discover ways to walk the Earth in beauty and power. Join Brooke in this workshop of rich dialogue, song, chant, circle dance and joyful experiences to open the heart.
	Parade through the Berry Queendom with Mimi Hernandez, MS, RH(AHG), Post-conference Intensive, Sunday 3:00-6:00 Explore the life-enhancing delights of berries with the International Spokesperson for the Berry Queendom. Edible and medicinal berries have extraordinary applications in nutrition and health. Berries are sweet yet their low glycemic activity and their bright colors suggest the presence of potent antioxidant polyphenolic compounds. Berries can have a clinically significant impact on the health of our blood vessels, our eyes, our skin, and even our brain. Ingredients in many berries can prevent cancer, autoimmune disease, and can improve conditions like ADD and ADHD in children and adults. Blackberries, blueberries, elderberries, schisandra, hawthorne, and bilberries are only part of the Berry Parade we’ll explore. Participants will enjoy a strawberry facial!