Botany and Herbal First Aid Intensive with 7song

September 28th - October 2, 2016

Wednesday-Sunday 10 am -1 pm >> (lunch) >> 2:30-5:30 pm >> (dinner) 7-8:30 pm

Join us in welcoming herbalist 7Song back to the Pacific Northwest! 7Song will be sharing his wealth of knowledge about plant identification and herbal first aid skills. Detailed class descriptions are below:

PLANT IDENTIFICATION FOR THE HERBALIST

The ability to identify plants is central to all wildcrafting herbalists. In this class we will look at the plants growing around the Pacific Northwest and cover the basics of plant identification. These include: understanding the importance and differences in plant families, learning the basic parts of plants and the fundamentals of using a plant key. This class is geared for beginning and early intermediate plant identifiers.

HERBAL FIRST AID FOR THE HOME, TRAVEL & EMERGENCIES
We will look at a range of practical, useful ways of using herbal medicines to treat a wide variety of first aid situations. These will include; injuries, pain, burns, toothaches, infections, headaches, diarrhea and animal bites. We will cover gathering, preparing and utilizing local plants. We will also discuss assessment and diagnosis during first aid situations and working with other practitioners.

HERBS FOR PAIN & TRAUMA
Pain and trauma are both common health conditions that herbalist's see and treat regularly. In this class categories and specific plants will be discussed to work on different types of pain. These included skeletal and smooth muscle pain, inflammation and generalized pain syndromes. Some of the plants discussed will be: Jamaican dogwood, Hops, Valerian, Wild lettuce, Licorice and others.

This class is open to all levels of people interested in herbal medicine though it will not cover some of the basics.

ABOUT 7SONG:

7Song is a clinical herbalist, teacher, botanist and naturalist. He is the director and main instructor of the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine in Ithaca, NY. He is also the director of holistic medicine and a practicing herbalist at the Ithaca Free Clinic which is an integrative clinic providing free herbal medicine and other health modalities to the wider community.

7Song has been involved in herbal first aid for many years. He has worked as a street medic and herbalist in a variety of clinics and first aid stations. He has helped run the first aid station at the Rainbow Gathering for over 20 years, which is an off-the-grid first aid station that sees up to 150 people a day with a wide range of health conditions.

One of his goals in teaching is showing how herbal medicine offers useful primary and adjunct treatments in first aid situations, especially working alongside a diversity of health care practitioners. He also endeavors to make herbal medicine accessible and affordable and reaching people who may know little about it.

One of his herbal medicine passions is traveling, gathering and preparing the herbal medicines that he uses in his practice. He also teaches at a number of herb schools and conferences in the US and abroad. Look for him in various habitats taking photographs of things that run, crawl, fly or photosynthesize.

ADDITIONAL CLASS MATERIALS that need to be purchased:
Each student will need the following materials for class:
*Flora of the Pacific Northwest by Hitchcock and Cronquist -about $55 on Amazon (new and used)
*Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest by Turner and Gustafson. $6-$20 on Amazon. 
*The following botany tools (about $25 total for these items): 20x loupe, a ruler, a straight-back razor and tweezers