Discover the transformative
power of plants.
NEW LOCATION!
Blue Forest is Savayda's home garden and surrounding 100 acre, oceanside wilderness in the Head of Jeddore.
Have you ever wanted to...
...know more about your body and how to take good care of it in a holistic way?
...identify the plants growing in the wild and learn how to use them as food and medicine?
...learn how to make home remedies safely and effectively, to care for yourself and your family?
Immerse yourself in the
healing power of plants.
In this year-long seasonal wellness program you'll
form dynamic relationships with over 100 helpful plants.
We’ll go outside together in this plant-centred, hands-on, interactive course, learn to identify the plants, and learn how to use them to make herbal tonics to boost your health year-round.
My goal in offering this program is to provide you with experiences and knowledge to increase awareness of yourself and the natural world, both vast sources of wisdom and healing. We will explore, in an experiential way, the value of seasonal attunement, nature’s remedies, mind-body awareness and holistic living in order to create a personal model for health and wellness.
Optimize your health & well-being.
Much more than a herbal medicine course, this is a
holistic self-care program
during which you will create a
personalized wellness plan for yourself,
using the seasons and elements as a guide.
You will get to know yourself and your body,
and learn how to use Ayurvedic techniques
to balance your constitution.
By the end of the year, you’ll have compiled a personalized seasonal reference guide that you can use year after year, as you continue to deepen your relationship to healing herbs.
Hi, I'm Savayda. I am excited to once again be welcoming a new group of herb and health enthusiasts to this program, which has been evolving over the past fifteen years.
It keeps getting better and better.
I created this Holistic Herbal Wellness Program because...
Plant study changed my life, like a light switch going on, I was turned on and tuned in to my environment in a much more meaningful way.
I've been enchanted ever since.
We live so close to the plants, they are all around us, yet most people seem disconnected from the natural world. I created this course to facilitate this re-connection and to empower people to live healthier, happier lives by including herbs in their lifestyle.
Schedule
This is a one year program, beginning in September.
Our group meets one Saturday per month.
from 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.,
except December and August,
which are home study months.
You can choose to attend the course in Halifax with field trips to other special green places or at Blue Forest on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.
2025 classes start in SEPTEMBER
Dates to be determined.
Registration below is for Halifax or Eastern Shore.ONLINE VERSION HERE
In this course a connection a larger community, to the outdoors and to the magic of plants is fostered throughout the seasons. It helped me realize that the journey to health is cyclic and get in touch with my own rhythms.
This course is a great intro to herbalism and a true gift to one's Self.
Sophie Pilipczuk
Science & Spirit
You’ll learn the different systems of your body, how they are interconnected, and how plants can affect you as a whole.
We’ll explore the mind-body-spirit connection and see how plant-spirit medicine can help us work with our emotions,
reduce stress, and uplift us.
You'll form meaningful relationships with the plants, getting to meet them in their habitat so you can taste, touch, feel, identify, harvest, and enjoy them.
Beneficial topics include:
Restore & Reconnect
As a part of this program, we’ll all participate in
powerful detoxification and rejuvenation,
in these three therapeutic modules.
Herbal Detox Cleanse
This three week cleanse helps to ease us through the winter/spring transition and will leave you feeling revitalized, with lasting healthy eating habits.
Sweat Lodge Ceremony
Savayda belongs to a sweat lodge community, and has participated in ceremonies with them for over fifteen years.
The lodge keepers graciously welcome Savayda and her herbal students each spring to commence the three week cleanse.
It is a beautiful opportunity to experience the sacred use of plants and to partake in the healing traditions of our First Nations
DIY Herbal Facial
We will enjoy a five part, all natural facial that is easy to repeat at home using simple ingredients.
We co-evolved with herbs, and we are designed to integrate plant molecules into our bodies and lives.
Whole plants heal whole people.
Whole Plants
We learn to make medicines using whole plant parts, resulting in a remedy with a broad spectrum of phytochemicals.
Long term safe and effective use of these methods has been established because this is how herbs have been used for centuries, before science started isolating their constituents.
Whole People
It is far more important to know the person who has the disease than the disease the person has.
--Hippocrates
Knowing the disease means treating specific symptoms, but herbal medicine considers the whole person including factors such as constitution, stress and overall health.
Happy Plant People
Savayda has run this course for 20 years,
touching many people's lives,
helping them heal themselves,
and make lasting connections with local plants.
Meet Coleen
This course has created a growing community of students, and has influenced a movement toward herbal medicine in the Maritimes. Personally, I noticed that the process of year-long commitment strengthened relationships between participants, with family and friends I care for, and with myself.
By cultivating this knowledge, and empowering learners, the course helps connect individuals to their health, their inner healer, and moreover, to nature. I think many of my classmates resonated with the feeling one fellow student expressed:
“I don’t want it to end!” In fact, I see this course as extremely valuable on my path, and the experience continues to be relevant long after the classes concluded.
Meet Bernadette
Thank you for all the teachings.. it seems like every class makes me more thankful for the opportunity to learn and share plant wisdom and magic. This has been a journey that I had not anticipated when I first signed up for the classes. I am both grateful
and curious to continue learning about herbs that our grandmothers and great grand mothers used to help their families be healthy and happy again, Thank you Savayda, … your teachings are inspiring and ……awesome!!
Meet Valerie
I have enjoyed all aspects of every class, workshop, seminar and all of the time we have spent together. You are an amazing facilitator and your thoughtful approach to the information you present does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. Your incorporation of the herb visits, the medicine making, the historical info and the spiritual aspects of the herbs into our journey has been incredibly well balanced and very interesting.
I know that I am blessed to have your guidance and inspiration in my life and I can’t imagine it any other way. Please know that you have touched my life in a profound and everlasting way and I am grateful beyond words.
Meet Alyssa
This year long herb course finds the abundant beauty in Halifax. Savayda has a wonderfully knowledgeable outlook of the wild things around us and she is an inspiration to follow the woodland trails with. This course drew in an incredible group of plant lovers. We learned and laughed together in the welcoming environment, while capturing a thorough introduction to Ayurvedic and Western medicine, anatomical body systems, meditation, Bach flower remedies, and plant identification/preparation. Collectively learning in accordance to the season.
The paths may differ from all those seeking knowledge of herbal medicine. For the ones who enjoy herb walks, sipping medicinal teas and learning hands on, this course will be sure to reward them.
The program includes:
- 70 hours of in-person instruction*
- Two home-study modules*
- Personal encounters with plants in their living habitats
- Tasting of prepared medicines including tinctures, teas and more
- A 3 week spring cleanse
- A complete DIY herbal facial with recipes
- Traditional sweat lodge experience
- 200 pages of course materials including herbal monographs, worksheets, and diagrams
>> NEW! Some modules will count toward professional accreditation.
ARE YOU READY TO OPEN YOUR EYES TO A whole new botanical world?
You've got questions, I've got answers.
Are there any additional costs?
Do I need any special equipment
What books do you recommend?
Where do the classes take place?
Will I get a certificate?
Will I be able to continue studying after Level 1?
Is herbal medicine safe?
Is herbal medicine effective?
What is your refund policy?
Registration is now closed.
Class starts every year in September. Join the waitlist to be the first to hear when registration opens in 2025.
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