Herbs for the Menopausal Years

Sunday September 13, 2026 11:00-4:30

Location: Wild Valley Wellness Center 320 East Fairhaven, Burlington

Tuition $105

Is this menopause? Menopause can be a challenging time for some but can also be a powerful transformational journey. This day class is designed to offer botanical solutions to some of the physical and emotional changes that may arrive during the menopausal years.

About 75% of American women will experience some symptoms if change during menopause including hot flashes hot flashes; 15% will have severe hot flashes. They can be as quick as 10 seconds and can last for extended periods causing red flush to skin, rapid heartbeat, skin flush/sweating, followed by a chill as it rescinds.

The most common symptom is menstrual changes.

Other symptoms may include:

• Memory difficulties can arrive with hormonal changes, and are elevated by lack of sleep and emotional stress.

• Insomnia is also common  and lack of sleep magnifies stress, memory loss, depression, and physical discomfort.

• Heart palpitations accompany many symptoms- some aggravated by adrenal surges and may be a sign of thyroid or cardiac issues which causes stress until that’s ruled out

• Vaginal dryness increases susceptibility to vaginal and urinary tract infections

  Herbs can be effective allies for hormonal shifts, skin changes, hot flashes, emotional upheaval, menstrual irregularities and even headaches and shoulder pain. Explore simple solutions, nutritionally supportive plants and how you can integrate plant medicines into your daily wellness routine.

Tuition is $105 and includes all samples used in class, hand outs and in person training.

Herbal Bodywork Fundamentals: A two-day immersive learning experience from Erin Vanhee, Herbalist, LMT—For anyone who is feeling the call to learn more about their body, their practice, and the healing aspects of plants and plant medicine.

Tuition includes all materials used in class

No previous massage or herbal training necessary.

Location: Wild Valley Wellness, Burlington, WA

Herbal bodywork infuses massage with the healing energies of the land - plants, stones, and botanicals. Traditional plant medicines are blended in the treatment room, for self-care or community; herb infused warm and cold compresses, poultices, herbal pain relieving salves and body oils are integrated into treatment to soothe, relieve pain and create a general sense of well being.

Take the mystery out of applying herbal oils and plant compresses by learning Erin’s unique methods of massage treatment with demonstration and practice of herbal infused oils, liniments. Elevate your botanical offerings with traditional compress bundles or enhance topical herb infused oils. Time is allowed to practice these tools to enhance your herbs and massage practice immediately.

New to herbalism or a storied herbalist already?

Love to make things in the kitchen or apothecary?

I've been teaching this course for 30 years in person and am so excited to bring it to you again just in time for the Fall season. I'm honored to continue the tradition of teaching the art and science of plant medicine making in this engaging, hands-on class. 

Herbal Medicine Making features hands on demos and lectures that lead you through exactly how to make your own herbal infusions, decoctions, syrups, oxymels, tinctures and herbal salts all in one day!

Class Schedule- Saturday October 3, 2026 10:00-4:30 Wild Valley Wellness Center, Burlington

Medicine Making follows the ancient tradition of using plants as nourishment and medicine. Our explorations include the crafting of traditional, seasonal herbal remedies. Students will leave with their own medicines to take home.

No previous experience with plants necessary; this class is appropriate for beginner to advanced herbal students.

Course outline:

Fundamentals of Medicine Making:

• Assessing plant quality

• Safety, ethics, and dosage of herbal medicine.

Step-by-step, interactive instruction on making different types of Herbal Medicines:

• Water based preparations: teas, infusions, decoctions, syrups

• Herbal salts made from fresh plants

• Using herbal-infused vinegars to make mineral-rich meals and mocktails.

• Tincture making using the Folk Method

Location: Apothecary Wellness Spa, Burlington, WA

Saturday October 17, 2026 11:00-4:30

Location:

Wild Valley Wellness Center

320 East Fairhaven Avenue Burlington

Tuition is $95 and includes extensive handouts, all plant materials used in class. You will make and take an aromatherapy Earth and Sea Salt blend

Stress and anxiety seem to be the new normal. Many of us are navigating through layers of trauma, fear, uncertainty on personal, community, global and even ancestral levels. Our nervous systems may be struggling to find calm and you may be wondering when or if you will ever be “normal” again.

Herbal allies offer nutrients and medicine to restore and strengthen our nervous system. Over time they help regulate our nervous system back to health.

This day class is designed to give you practical tools to use to reduce the symptoms of stress and anxiety- fear, panic attacks, racing heart, insomnia, depression and “limbo” feeling that sometimes accompanies stress and anxiety. You will be introduced to plants that provide relief and sometimes clarification on how stress and anxiety are affecting you physically, emotionally and even spiritually. Herbs and simple daily practices of self care and body awareness are part of the discussion and will leave you with tools to integrate in to your life immediately.

Students will gain an understanding of the basic physiology of the nervous system as well as how to work with nervine herbs for acute situations of stress, anxiety, trauma and sleep struggles. We will explore how herbal adaptogens can provide long term support to help recondition the nervous system following prolonged periods of living with stress and anxiety. Students will touch, smell and experience herbal remedies in class that re-set your awareness of the para sympathetic (rest and digest) state of being. 

Herbal First Aid for Colds and Flu

Saturday, November 14, 2026

Wild Valley Welness Center

320 East Fairhaven, Burlington, WA.

Tuition is $85 and includes all plant material used in class, samples and a take home make and take vapour aromatic balm.

Herbs for Winter health—In this day workshop, expert Herbalist Erin Vanhee guides you on the who, what, when, where and how to’s of herbal first aid for winter health.

Winter time brings more time indoors, frigid temperatures which bring sniffly noses, congestion, sore throat, coughs, and body aches due to colds and flu. Learn what herbs to use for immune system support, cough remedies that target the type of cough you have instead of the-one size fits all approach of over the counter cough medicine, and herbal remedies that are easy to use and prepare for the whole family.

Herbal explorations include:

• Making your own non-synthetic Herbal Vapor Rub

• Lemon Ginger Honey cough and throat remedy samples, elderberry syrup demo

• Learning to use Herb-infused steams to open sinus congestion

• Taking the mystery out of the debate of who is more efficient- Echinacea or Elderberry?

Topics of discussion are immune building herbal tonics, herbal steams for nasal congestion, how to differentiate cough and choose the right remedy. Hands on aspect of the class is a make and take vapor balm and how to apply a onion poultice for ear pain and infection.

All will be revealed on what’s good about a fever and when to suppress it- and did you know there are different plants for different types of fever?

See full description on Immersion page.

Thank you for Registering for the 8 Month Integrated Plant Medicine Immersion 2026. Your $400 deposit is the first step towards enrollment with an introduction interview to be held via zoom or phone. In the rare case that you are not accepted or if you choose not to take the program following the interview- Your deposit is fully refundable up to 10 days after the interview. The remaining $2250 tuition is due on or before February 19, 2027.

Begins February 2027, meeting in person one full weekend per month through September 2027, Saturday 10:00-5:00, Sundays 10:00-3:00. 8 month training program with over 100 hours in person, hands on, practical training, home study projects and some online material to maintain growth in between classes.

Tuition is $2650, includes all live, in person training, all plants used in class, online and written course study.

Limited enrolment of 10 students, minimum 6. $400 deposit required to enrol, fully refundable within 10 days of acceptance after phone/zoom interview.

The course of study is divided into three key areas: field study, medicine making skills, and herbalist training.

Field Study:

• Plant identification in their native habitat, learning how to use observation, habitat awareness, and plant taxonomy as tools.

• Wild-crafting and sustainable harvest techniques of root, bark, leaf, and seed

• Materia Medica (the who, what, when, where and how) of wild and cultivated plants

• Harvest protocols, cultural practice

Herbal Medicine Making Skills:

• Deep nourishment through water based remedies- Teas, infusion, decoction, syrup, vinegar

• Folk and standardized methods of creating herbal medicine - Tincture, Glycerite, Elixer

• Internal and external practical applications of fresh and dried plants

• Creating your own herbal medicine, preparing and practice of medicinal plants

• Herbal oils, balms, salves, compresses, poultices, placements

• Making Flower Essences

Herbalist Training:

• Herbal actions and energetics, body awareness practices.

• Understand the role of medicinal plants for building strong body systems and plants that nourish and tonify,

• Somatic herbalism, drop dosing, and somatic assessment.

• Herbal First Aid for Body systems: Hands on step by step first aid for acute dis/ease

• Communication skills, holding space, talk story, and ethics in their herbal practice.