Intensives require pre-registration and cost an additional $40.00 each.

ROBIN ROSE BENNETT is a gifted herbalist, writer, and spiritual teacher based in the highlands of N.J. She has been offering classes, weed walks, and apprentice training programs under the name Wisewoman Healing Ways since 1986. She offers private consultations as part of an herbalist-in-residence training program she started in 2003 at a community medical center in Riverdale, NY. She teaches at schools, clinics, hospitals, and most joyously, outside with the plants. Robin is also a frequent teacher at the New York Open Center. Robin has been a featured guest on television and radio, is the author of numerous articles, two meditation CD’s, a booklet on Wild Carrot: A Plant for Natural, Conscious, Contraception, and her book, Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook has recently been published internationally.

Workshop: Herbs to Deepen Spiritual Awareness in Meditation, Ritual and Ceremony

Medicine plants can help you deepen your sense of connectedness to Spirit (God/Goddess/All-That-Is) and cultivate trust in the voice of your own wise guide within. We’ll explore ways to use herbs such as sage, lavender, grandmother cedar, cronewort/mugwort, cinquefoil, lobelia, roses, and copal as teas, tinctures, infusions, anointing oils, ointments, smudge herbs and baths — to aid meditation, help open your third eye, guide and recall your dreams, take potent trance journeys, create safe and sacred space, and evoke healing visions in meditation, ritual, and ceremony.

It is Autumn Equinox, and we’ll turn the wheel of the year together, creating a simple, profound ritual to celebrate this time that is the peak of the power of giving thanks for and gathering in and sharing the harvest of your year. You’ll have a direct experience of the teachings we’ve been exploring together as well as the opportunity to join in a joyous circle of community to mark the equinox as a moment of peace and stillness when day (light) and night (dark) are of equal length. The magical rhythms of nature unite us all.

STEPHEN HARROD BUHNER is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of eleven books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. His work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. He travels throughout the United States and Europe teaching about herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, and the intelligence of Nature. His most recent works are The Lost Language of Plants:The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth, The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature, and Healing Lyme.

Workshop: Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Disease

In this workshop Stephen presents the research and treatment interventions from book Healing Lyme. The ecology of the Lyme bacterium, how and why it affects the organ systems it does, and multiple, coordinated intervention approaches will be discussed (Intermediate/Advanced)

INTENSIVE: The Secret Teachings of Plants; The Use of Direct Perception in the Understanding of Medicinal Plants and the Depth Diagnosis of Disease

This intensive with Stephen will explore the living communications that come from plants, place, disease organisms, our bodies, and our ability to receive and understand them through the second mode of cognition that all people possess. The intensive will focus on: the heart as an organ of perception, the nature and territory of meaning, the five steps of direct perception, depth diagnosis of disease, the nonlinearity of Nature, differentiating perception from projection, the mundus imaginalis, reading the text of the world, and much more.

DAVID DALTON is the Founder and Director of Delta Gardens a 20 year center for flower essence research in southern New England. Medicinal herb flowers form the basis of the flower essence healing system developed by David. His recent book Stars of the Meadow features a compilation of deep diagnostic study of over 40 medicinal herb flower essences. This is his first appearance at Green Nations.

Workshop: Exploring Medicinal Herbs as Flower Essences

Flower essence research yields the emergence of an energetic pattern of the plant’s action in the human system. This pattern helps the student develop a deeper understanding of the herbal healing properties of the plant. This workshop shows many examples of plants as herbs and flower essences, showing how the nature of the energy pattern provides a type of hologram for herbal studies. Slides, cases and handouts included.

INTENSIVE: Using Flower Essences from Poisonous Plants for Clinical and Shamanic Treatments

Poisonous plants generally open the crown chakra, which in certain physical doses coaxes the soul out of the body causing death. As flower essences, the same plants provide a system for exploring out-of-body experiences in a safe, constructive and therapeutic way. Part one of this intensive explores a set of 14 of these plants, giving both descriptions of their use and supporting cases. Part two provides for an opportunity to experience a shamanic journey for a life issue or health problem using one of these plants.

DOUG ELLIOTT, whether pointing out poison ivy, pontificating on poke sallet, crooning about creasy greens, jiving about ginseng, or extolling the virtues of dandelions, herbalist, author and storyteller, is known for his lively presentations as well as his broad, practical, scientific and cultural knowledge of the area's many useful plants.

Workshop: Weeds for Your Needs™

Doug will lead a ramble around the camp focusing on edible, medicinal and otherwise useful wild plants - their botany and folklore, as well as their traditional and contemporary uses.

Storytelling: Weeds, Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom

Stories, Songs & Lore Celebrating Healing Herbs & the Natural World

MARGI FLINT, Village Herbalist, enjoys practicing and teaching in Marblehead, MA. She has taught at many herbal conferences as well as North Shore Community Colllege, MA College of Pharmacy and Tufts Medical School. She supervises two Practitioner's Circles, clinical training, one at EarthSong Herbals and one in Newport, RI. She recently published The Practicing Herbalist, a text for beginning and advanced herbalists.

Workshop: Assessments of the Body

Open your eyes to see the changing lines, colors, and blemishes of the face, tongue, and hands. Recognize clues leading us to the condition of the person's well being. Ayurvedic body types assist us in determining herb and food choices as well as potential compliance. This knowledge will alter the way you look at those who sit before you. We will spend time assessing as many people as possible noting three or more areas to confirm nutritional imbalances. Bring your face and nails free of adornments.

KATE GILDAY is a practicing herbalist, flower essence practitioner and teacher who is presently completing training as an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant and working with Collaborative Healing, a group of practitioners in upstate New York who address health care through a unique integrative network educating the community and combining conventional medicine with expert complementary care. She brings her love of the wild places, song and healing to the workshops she presents throughout the Northeast.

INTENSIVE: Old Growth Forest Hike at Dunbar Brook

Dunbar Brook State Park has one of the most intact Old Growth forest ecosystems in New England. The harmony of the old trees, diversity of forest floor plants and energetics of this rich woodlands give rise to inspired understanding of nature and self. We have found ourselves subtly transformed by this particular Old growth site. Simply being in the midst of such beauty and spirit as an opening and rewarding experience in finding one’s own indigenous heart.

We will spend the day exploring the hilly terrain, learning what determines an Old Growth site. We will also see examples of 300-500 year old trees, medicinal mushrooms and at-risk native plants, and track animal sign along the brook. We step into the forest and let it guide us, for that is when the true magic happens!

Some of our hiking will be on moderately challenging slopes through boulder fields and uneven ground. This explore requires comfortable, sturdy, rain-proof hiking boots, rain gear and day pack. We will pack in lunch. Please bring a personal water bottle and trail snacks for yourself.

Workshop: Buds, Barks, Berries and Resins; A Woodland Study at Rowe

The heart of our work, our business and our lives rests in the woodlands of the Northeast. We have learned much in the company of trees and delight in time spent walking among these old friends.

The gifts of the trees are the finest example of nature’s renewable resource; from flower, pollen and leaf to bark, resin and shelf mushrooms, there is a rich harvest of food, medicine and more. As we walk in the woodlands of Rowe Center, we will share our practice of the wild, including ways of harvesting and using tree medicine to ensure a vibrant spirit ecology in the woodlands and in ourselves!

ROSEMARY GLADSTAR is an herbalist, author, and forever student of the green nations. She's the author of The Family Herbal and Herbs for Women's Health, founder/director of Sage Mountain Herbal Retreat Center & Botanical Sanctuary, and founder/president of United Plant Savers. She brings the spirit of joy and a passion for the green world to all she does.

Workshop: Herbs for Longevity and Well Being

Experience Well Being and Celebrate Every Stage of Life. Using herbs and simple common sense practices, you can restore and maintain vitality ~ whatever your age. W'll discuss herbs used around the world that have earned a reputation for improving and maintaining energy, vitality and health. Special considerations concerning those in their 'sageing years' will be addressed including herbs for improving eyesight, digestion, bone health, and sexual well being.

Workshop: Foundational Wellness for Women

Let's embrace our holy temple bodies, play with the herbs, and rejoice in the feminine! Rather than focus on herbs for specific problems, we will use our time together to discuss herbs, food, and natural practices that help maintain health and well being in our goddess bodies. We'll discuss a Materia Medica of herbs that help support our bodies through their cycles of womanhood. And which foods/herbs we need to include in our daily diets and which ones should be avoided. Learn to use vaginal steams, sitz baths, and poultices that aid in removing congestion from the pelvic region and support good health. Do you know how to do a self-exam? And why you'd ever do one? If not, this will be a great supportive time to learn. A time to celebrate herbs, woman, and the healing power of plants.

TONY(A) LEMOS runs Blazing Star Herbal School in Shelburne Falls MA and maintains a small massage and herbal medicine practice in Northampton, MA. Tony(a) is on the faculty at the Connecticut Institute of Herbal Studies, the International College of Herbal Medicine and teaches at conferences in the North East. She has written several seasonal curriculums for young children including "An Herbal Summer" and "Fun with Fall Fruits and Foods" available for sale on her website. She is vice president of the North East Herbal Association.

Blazing Star Herbal School is dedicated to teaching traditional herbal medicine in a way that supports a more sustainable future for all members of the green world and shows respect for the integrity of nature. We offer a unique perspective on herbalism, weaving social and political aspects of health and healing through the study of medicinal herbs and food practices. We inspire students to find their own healing path by creating a personal relationship with the plant world.

Workshop: Children, Food and the Environment - Ideas on Raising Healthy and Vibrant Children

This class is an exploration of ideas on raising healthy children by weaving the values that sustain us. We will look at who our children are today, what does the child of the 21st century look like? Then we will discuss holistic treatment plans for common children's disorders (ADHD, Anxiety, Stress, Depression, Obesity) including herbal remedies, nutrition and lifestyle such as alienation from nature, and environmental factors. Good nutrition is essential to developing and keeping the immune system healthy and strong. The more children laugh and enjoy life, the better their immune function and the healthier they will be. Watching a child in a natural environment one almost feels it is the child's true home. By experiencing the daily, monthly and seasonal rhythms of the earth the child learns to breathe in a way that can be experienced as having a flexibility of soul.

“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement” ~ Rachel Carson, A Sense of Wonder

CECELIA MITCHELL, a Mohawk elder, began her education of the plants and healing ways at age five since her elders recognized her “gift”. She has carried her families healing tradition forward by working with native plants and traditional medicine of the Mohawks for more than fifty years. She is a bridge between native and non-Indian peoples and has facilitated environmental negotiations between the American and Canadian governments as well as teaching native children of their indigenous heritage. Cecelia is also an extraordinary basket weaver.

Workshop: The Original Medicine
Cecelia will share for the first time at Green Nations the story of how the first medicine came to be and how this medicine was able to be used by the people. Interspersed in this traditional native story will be Cecelia’s own experiences as a child with the “gift” and how she became a Mohawk medicine woman.

Workshop: Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Mohawk People
Cecelia will share her wealth of information of how plants are used both as food and medicine. You will learn about harvest, preparation and storage as well. This class will be partly outdoors where you can see the live plants and indoors where Cecelia will bring some of her own preparations and dried plants for you to see.

PAM MONTGOMERY is the director of the Partner Earth Education Center in southwestern Vermont. She is the originator of Green Terrestrial Herbal Products of Vermont and was one of the founding members of the Northeast Herbal Association where she served as their president for four years. For a decade, Pam was on the Executive Council of the Board of Directors of United Plant Savers, an organization dedicated to preservation of our native medicinal plants.

Pam has been organizing the Green Nations Gathering for the past seventeen years and has presented the Spirit Healing Conference and the Healing With Flowers Conference. She teaches workshops internationally on herbal medicine, Plant Spirit Healing, and spiritual ecology. Pam is the author of Partner Earth; A Spiritual Ecology published by Inner Traditions and a contributing author in Planting the Future. Pam’s new book, The Triple Spiral Path of Plant Spirit Healing; The Shamanic Use of Plants to Heal Heart, Soul and Spirit will be published by Inner Traditions in 2007. Pam is an herbal and plant spirit healing practitioner who offers consultations and treatments from her home at Sweetwater Sanctuary.

Workshop: Introduction to Plant Spirit Healing

This class will answer questions like what is spirit, why plants as an avenue to spirit, why is healing on the spirit level so effective, how does modern science substantiate this work and how can this have a major impact on personal and planetary healing? We will also have an opportunity to shamanically journey to a plant spirit.

SUSUN S. WEED is internationally known as an extraordinary teacher with a joyous spirit, a powerful presence, and an encyclopedic knowledge of herbs and health. Over the past forty years she has opened thousands of hearts to the magic and medicine of the green nations, restored herbs as people's medicine, and empowered women to care for themselves. Her four books: Healing Wise; New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way; Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way; and Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year are used worldwide. Susun is founder of the Wise Woman Center, editor-in-chief of Ash Tree Publishing, the host of www.susunweed.com (woven by her daughter Justine), a Peace Elder, and happy herder of dairy goats.

Workshop: My Ally: Motherwort

Since motherwort is a rampant weed in my gardens -- and throughout the world -- I am happy that it has proven such a useful, even if overly abundant, companion. I'll share my experiences using motherwort as a longevity tonic, a heart helper, an easer of emotional distress, and a prime mover in the uterus. Bring your motherwort experiences and questions to add to our pot. This session will include a trance journey to connect with the motherwort deva.

Workshop: Elements of Herbalism: Dosage

Nothing is quite as personal in herbal medicine as dosage. We'll survey the range of dosages currently used by practicing herbalists, looking at their benefits and drawbacks. We'll discuss general dosing strategy, general suggestions for safe doses, specific ranges for tincture, infusion, tea, vinegar, and honey doses, and specifics for a number of herbs. We may also touch on energetic and physiologic aspects of dosing. (Advanced)

DAVID WINSTON, HERBALIST AHG is an Herbalist and Ethnobotanist with over 35 years of training in Cherokee, Chinese and Western herbal traditions. He has had a clinical practice for over 26 years and is an herbal consultant to physicians throughout the USA and Canada.

David is also the president of Herbalist & Alchemist, Inc. an herbal manufacturing company, and founder/director of the Herbal Therapeutics’ School of Botanical Medicine. He is an internationally known lecturer and teaches frequently at medical schools, symposia and herb conferences.

David is a contributing author of American Herbalism, published in 1992 by Crossings Press, the author of Saw Palmetto for Men & Women, Storey, 1999, the co-author of Herbal Therapies and Supplements; A Scientific and Traditional Approach, Lippincott, 2001, and the author of Herbal Therapeutics, Specific Indications For Herbs & Herbal Formulas, HTRL, 2003. In addition, David is a founding/professional member of the American Herbalist Guild, and he has served three terms on the Board of Directors.

Workshop: Differential Treatment of Depression & Anxiety with Botanical Medicine

In our society depression and anxiety have reached epidemic proportions. For many people the answer is to pop a pill. For those who prefer to avoid pharmaceutical antidepressants and actually deal with the underlying causes of depression, herbs, diet and lifestyle changes provide an effective alternative for treating mild to moderate> depression. Many people believe that depression and anxiety simply have to do with deficiencies or excess quantities of neurochemicals. This is patently untrue and both of these conditions are complex and patient specific. Therefore, in order to effectively treat either condition we need to understand that it takes more than Prozac, St. John's wort, or Paxil to help someone have a healthier and happier life. In this class we will look at the specific differentiations that help us as practitioners to accurately apply the right herbs for the specific patient we are treating.

INTENSIVE: Botanical and Complementary Treatment of Chronic Back and Neck Pain

Back pain is the number one leading cause of missed work days in the United States. Orthodox medicine has limited choices for treating this often chronic problem. Chiropractic, acupuncture, and deep tissue work can offer many benefits for treating back and neck pain but the addition of herbs and supplements can substantially enhance results in these difficult to treat conditions. In this class we will examine what really works for treating musculo-skeletal pain based on my own 34 year struggle with chronic back pain and almost 30 years of treating patients in clinical practice.

- back to top of page -