DIRECTOR

Kathleen Maier, AHG. PA has been a practicing herbalist for over twenty years. She was co-founder and Director of Dreamtime Center for Herbal Studies and has taught at nationally known herb schools and centers for the last ten years. Her studies of plant medicines began as a Peace Corp volunteer and have included the wisdom of Stephen Buhner, Rosemary Gladstar,  Susun Weed, and Matthew Wood. Her training as a Physician’s Assistant allows her to translate the language of medicine we know today and ground it in the wisdom of earth-centered practices known for millennia. She is very active locally with United Plant Savers and the restoration of native plants and the preservation of fragile ecosystems.

 

 

THE SACRED PLANT TRADITIONS STAFF

Heather Wetzel: Heather’s deep love and respect for the green world began early on her family’s farm in remote northern Pennsylvania and she’s been dedicated to walking her herbal path and listening to the plants for the last decade. She earned her herbal certifications from Clayton College of Natural Health and Sacred Plant Traditions where she serves as staff herbalist and apothecary manager. Heather practices energetic herbology to support women’s and children’s health. But with a master’s degree in education from the University of Virginia, teaching is also a comfortable niche and she offers herb classes in Charlottesville and Northern Virginia through her practice Heather’s Herbals.

 

Suzanna Stone is a graduate of the Three Year Community Herbalist training at Sacred Plant Traditions where she serves as a guest lecturer. She founded Owlcraft Healing Ways in Scottsville, VA where she offers clinical consultations and classes in plant medicine, traditional foodways, and drumming. Her passion for the drum led her to Senegal where she studied traditional West African drumming and dancing.Her chants can be found on her CD "Songs From The Spiral". She has a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and her work has been in Surface Design magazine and the We'Moon '08 date book. She was raised with an awareness of whole foods and for the past eight years has focused on learning from the plants themselves.

 

Mary Michaud, RN, FNP has been a clinician for over 19 years, and a practicing herbalist since 2005. Her private practice, Be, in Charlottesville, VA is based in the traditions of Western, Chinese, and Ayurvedic herbalism. Mary earned a master’s degree in nursing from the University of California at San Francisco, and has 10 years of experience diagnosing and prescribing as a family nurse practitioner. She is a graduate of the Sacred Plant Traditions Three Year Community Herbalist program, and has completed intensives with herbalists Stephen Buhner and Candis Cantin. Mary has worked with Kathleen Maier in the Sacred Plant Traditions clinical program since 2006 where she currently serves as a guest lecturer.

 

Robert Clickner is a licensed acupuncturist with NCCAOM board certification. In 1999, he graduated from the International Institute for Chinese Medicine (based then in Albuquerque, New Mexico) with a Masters Degree in Oriental Medicine and certification in Tua Na and Oriental Bodywork. After he finished his Masters Degree, Bob wanted to flesh out his training by studying as an apprentice under Vince Black, L.Ac., a reknown marital arts instructor and practitioner of Chinese Medicine, located in Tucson, Arizona. He has had a practice on the East Coast since 2000 and works with many physicians as well as other therapists in the Charlottesville area. His research focuses on nutrition and North American herbs, their traditional uses and those plants that are local to this bioregion.

 

 

GUEST TEACHERS

Phyllis D. Light is a fourth generation herbalist and healer, consultant, and author. She has studied and worked with herbs, foods and other healing techniques for over 30 years. Her well-established reputation and knowledgeable expertise has allowed her to travel far a field of her Southern Appalachian home, lecturing and teaching about herbs, integrative and complementary healthcare and traditional folk healing techniques. Consequently, she has taught and lectured at herb schools, universities, medical schools, hospitals, conferences and natural health food stores across the country. Phyllis is an American Herbalist Guild professional member, a national CEU provider for nurses through Diversified Nursing Services, and Director of Herbal Studies at Clayton College of Natural Health. She is contributing writer to several consumer magazines, has co-authored a paper for a medical journal, and is currently working on her book Southern Folk Medicine: Yesterday and Today which explores the principles and practices of Appalachian Folk Medicine.

 

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of seven books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, has been his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.

His most recent works are The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines for Life on Earth (Chelsea Green, February 2002) Vital Man: Natural Health Care for Men at Midlife (Penguin Putnam, Fall 2002), The Taste of Wild Water: Poems and Stories Found While Walking in Woods (Raven Press, Winter 2003) Transformational Fasting: Spiritual, Emotional, and Physicial Renewal and Detoxification Through Fasting (Penguin Putnam, Fall 2003).

 

James Snow is the director of the Herbal Medicine program at Tai Sophia Institute and a professional member of the American Herbalist Guild. He has been working in the field of herbal medicine since 1986, completing the herbal residency program at the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine in 1991. Before moving to Maryland in 2002, he was the primary clinical instructor at the California School of Herbal Studies. Snow has been in private clinical practice since 1994, blending traditional herbal wisdom with modern research perspectives. He has a strong belief in integrative healing, having worked in consort with physicians at the Santa Rosa Medical Group and Sonoma County Indian Health Services. His favorite experience as a teacher is helping students learn to think for themselves.

 

Matthew Wood has been a practicing herbalist since 1982. In a period when many authors and lecturers are merely "arm chair herbalists" who offer theories and opinions based on book learning, and others have turned to the exotic traditions of India or China , he has been an active practitioner of traditional Western herbalism. He has helped tens of thousands of clients over the years, with many difficult health problems. While Matthew believes in the virtue of many other healing modalities, he has always been inspired to learn, preserve, and practice the tradition of herbal medicine descending to us from our European, Anglo-American, and Native American heritage. He is a member of the American Herbalists Guild (registered herbalist) and has earned his Masters of Science degree from the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine (accredited by the University of Wales ).

Matthew has lectured in all parts of the United States , from Georgia to Maine , New York to California, and Santa Fe to Sperryville, Virginia. He has also taught in Canada, Scotland, England, and Australia. He is known throughout the world as an excellent teacher of herbal medicine. He is also the author of four acclaimed books on herbal medicine, published by North Atlantic Books, in Berkeley, CA.