Living Herbalism Program

2024 Enrollment is OPEN

Deepen and tend to the wisdom that lives in your bones & body through this guided journey to herbalism and connection to place. Living Herbalism Program, is an experiential 8-class series dedicated to changemakers, earth-dwellers, and those that are ready to reclaim & deepen relationships with our beloved plant + fungi relatives and our sacred ecology. 

 Join us to study with 1-2 plants per class,  work with their medicines via medicine making, recipes, insights/messages, monographs (plant profiles that share a glimpse of their medicine, folklore, etc), and explore our energetic anatomy. Part of our sessions will involve group activities and holding space for ourselves + each other. Working with these plant and fungal allies will require us to integrate our experiences and process how their medicines influence our lives and inner world.

Included BONUS! You will have 2 one-on-one sessions with me, scheduled separately.

“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”
— Robin Wall Kimmerer

  • Heart-Centered Practices

  • Sacred Ecology (inner & outer work)

  • Plantitas & Plant teachers

  • Herbal Tea Journeys

  • Widening our Circle (community)

  • Relational Activities

  • Medicine Making

  • Introspection

weaving spirit & science to know your own medicine ~ while cultivating reverence for yourself & more-than-human world

Bringing reverence into everyday life as a practice for reclaiming sovereignty & belonging

“You are not Atlas carrying the world on your shoulder. It is good to remember that the planet is carrying you”.

- Vandana Shiva

Class Flow

  • This is an invitation to ground ourselves & connect to the heart and body. The format will vary with the theme (i.e. organ system, plant kin) and energy of the day and circle.

  • Journal Prompts & an invitation to bring awareness into our body’s intelligence and sensations. (journal not included). This is a good time to set personal intentions & assess personal needs.

  • We’ll explore and talk about the body’s anatomy and function. The depth and format of this portion will vary. The content may be more scientific or energetic-based. We will touch up some food & vitamins that support the corresponding system or organs.

  • We will meet plant / fungal ally via infusion, journey, presence, etc. This may take place indoors or outdoors.

  • Shares on any insights, stories, memories, etc., received. We’ll also share more about plant & fungal kin medicine.

    (Materia medica is like a profile or in-depth summary of plant history, usage, energetics, taste, etc., but for this class, we’ll cover what may be helpful to know for added context. To truly know a plant requires time & consent, just like building any relationship.)

  • An invitation to move the body, and follow a practice that invokes our senses that compliments the theme of the class.

  • Circling back to acknowledge ourselves and the wider world. This is an opportunity to express and share any words of gratitude, feedback, or curiosity. Close the circle with an invited (not mandatory) integration HW.

Note, your 1:1 sessions with me are individualized & scheduled separately during the program.

Location: SE Portland (near Sellwood & Johnson Creek)

CO-CREATING WITH PLANT + FUNGAL RELATIVES

Herbal & Fungi Medicine ✧ Inner Child ✧ Energetic Anatomy ✧ Medicine Making & Ritual ✧ Relational Activities ✧ Food as Medicine 

Course Overview

  • 1) Initiation: Co-creating the circle (shorter time)

    Opening circle. Land/place, self, and ancestors. Introduction to (re)membering / decolonizing practices. Intro to elemental herbalism. Community agreement & Intention.

  • 2) Earth: Grounding & Immunity

    We will engage with themes of safety, place, and community, to understand how all of our relationships inform our immune system and sense of belonging. 

  • 3) Water: Healing for Fluidity

    Generative system. More than a binary world, connecting from our inner child/ child's mind. Becoming unstuck to release.  Experiencing herbalism through our senses. 

  • 4) Fire: Reclaiming Our Power

    Inspiration, vitality, sense of identity & knowing who we are.Digest & assimilate without fear// with joy & balance. Tending to our inner & digestive fire & gut intuition.

  • 5) Air: Radiating Compassion

    ​Circulatory & Cardiovascular system, heart & breath. Receptivity, grief, sacred protection vs guarding. Perceiving from the heart. We’ll also engage in plant journey & sharing circle.

  • 6) Bloom: Unlock Your Story

    Processing fear & the power of vulnerability. Meeting a plant ally to guide us to nourish our throat, thyroid, and lungs; practices to ease channeling our voice & holding space.

  • 7) Mind: Bridging Within

    Setting the space to feel grounded and connected to the wider self. Working to support the nervous system & headspace (i.e. dreamwork, migraines, overwhelm). Intro to ancestral plant journey.

  • 8) Sky: Guiding Star

    Self-care & wellness plan for our wholeness. Understanding our individual & collective journeys. Remembering our guiding star. Coming to a close with a gratitude circle.  

If this offering resonates with you, I hope you join us on this journey of cultivating personal relationship with our beloved Plant/Fungal kin. You are invited exactly as you are ~

Living Herbalism Program

NEW 2024 Dates (Saturdays, 2-5:30 pm):

✧ Initiation: Co-creating the Circle | April 27th (1.5-2hr)

✧ Earth: Grounding & Immunity | May 4th

✧ Water: Healing for Fluidity | May 18th

✧ Fire: Reclaiming Our Power | May 25th

✧ Air: Radiating Compassion | June 1st

✧ Bloom: Unlocking Your Story | June 15th

✧ Mind: Bridging Within | June 22nd

✧ Sky: Guiding Star | June 29th

Bonus: two, 1:1 exploratory sessions (during the program, scheduled separately)

We may offer optional forest walks or mini excursions; Location: beautiful oasis farm in SE Portland, Oregon (near Sellwood & Johnson Creek); near bus line 75

Energy exchange: $1040 for this whole series, per participant (includes medicine-making costs) // $888 for BIPOC relatives

-- payment plans available

(check out our FAQ section below)

** Jenny comes from a mixed cultural upbringing, this offering is created with the presence of Q&BIPOC relatives in mind and for those who are reclaiming their earth-based connections as well. We ask you to share this offering with your community & those that resonate with this offering. All identities are welcomed & invited. 

After completing this
program you’ll be able to…

  • Deepen intimate relationships to plant allies

  • Drop into the heart when relating to plants & ecology

  • Have a basic understanding of Herbal Energetics & Human Constitution

  • Navigate the emotional body (via vulnerability, introspection, drum journey, relational activities, and wellness practices)

  • Expand on your relationship with self, the land, and the circle (community)

  • Integrate a wellness plan & healing toolkit (i.e. some medicine-making lessons)

  • BONUS: two, 1:1 sessions (during the program)

I have a gift, sign up by April 20th to receive FREE seed bundles or plantitas.

Growing & tending to plant kin is a special way to deepen relationship with them, engage & learn directly with them, soften the heart, cultivate intuition, and for integration. Life is ceremony.

Apply here to Join the Circle

  • To register, please click the “Apply Now" button below. This will take you to an online sign-up form. 

  • I'll contact you once I’ve looked over your submission & follow up, as needed.

  • Once accepted, we’ll send you an email with instructions on submitting your payment to secure your spot. {Limited capacity}

Final Message: This offering aims to leave you feeling empowered & supported in your self-discovery and health journey while reclaiming your connection with yourself + all of life (including ancestors, place, etc.). I want to co-create a space where we feel allowed to share our vulnerability with compassion as it'll remind us that we are in this human journey together. Also, when we work together with these beloved plants + fungi, we are able to relate and widen our perspective to each other's insights and innate medicine, weaving a shared experience with each other. (i.e. dreams, synchronicities, and clarity can be amplified.)

Con amor y reverencia,

Jennyfer Lara of Earthlings Among Us

(Read more about Jenny)

 FAQs

  • This is not a clinical herbalism course and does not offer any credentials. But instead, an invitation to work with plants in a circle with others, to cultivate relationships and shared wisdom and insights. We will explore plants & fungi via medicine-making, monographs, plant journeys, and direct-relationship (via ingestion, topical, etc). This experiential program is meant to offer guidelines for connecting with plant beings and navigating tools to make sense of our relationship with them.

  • ✿ Anyone that is drawn to explore herbalism from a place of introspection, groundedness, de-programing, gentleness and more-than-human relations.

    ✿ Those are drawn to work with herbalism and cultivate a deeper relationship to self and others

    ✿ Those that will honor their own story and the stories that others share. This is a circle held in integrity so we can be witnessed and supported as we “peel back the layers” within and around us.

    ✿ Beginners on the herbal path and as well as seasoned practitioners, since this won’t be a “this herb for that approach” class but instead a relational process to work with the living world.

    ✿ Those that want to deepen their communication channel with the plant & fungal realm

    ✿ Dreamers and those that want to deepen guidance in waking and dreaming life. Oftentime, plants continue to work with us in metaphors via dreams, synchronicities, body-felt sensations, etc.

    ✿ Sensitives, change-makers, those living in liminal spaces, queers, and folks with marginalized identities ~ to work with the living world asks us to drop into our heart, lead with our beginner’s mind, and be open to move beyond a binary world. Essentially queering or de-colonizing our practice invites us to engage in a healing cycle that supports the ancestors of the land, our blood, our lineages, and more-than-human world.

  • As per the application, I ask you to please include any medications or sensitivities you may have. If there is something that you are specifically concerned with, please reach out and also consult your medical healthcare provider for health-related questions. If you cannot ingest certain plants for any reason, you can still participate (via sensory participation, listening, reading, etc.)

  • If this program resonates with you and you are experiencing financial challenges - you are welcome in this space too. Please send me a message and we can work something out.

    After filling out the application, we can set up a payment plan :)

    For those without credit or debit cards, payments can be made via Venmo / PayPal. (cash is also accepted)

  • Please message us with any curiosities you have.

Testimonials & Client Love

  • Jenny's Living Herbalism program was a wildly expansive and deeply rooted experience of truly deepening my relationship to Self and my wider energetic ecosystem - plant allies, kinship amongst fellow participants, the land, ancestors and even my larger soul purpose. The plant journeys (and Jenny's facilitation) helped me make contact with my power in a way that was so gentle, embodied, and able to meet me where I was at - and I think this truly shows the measure of Jenny's gifts, stewardship, and heart. The supporting 1:1 sessions with Jenny were rich with clarity and deeply healing on a somatic level. I highly recommend this experience and I can firmly say that the experience opened my heart and mind to a vast sense of aliveness and purpose that I will carry with me forever. <3

    Aysha Rose, Portland, OR

  • Jenny has been a major influence in my attempt to learn plant medicine, become more sustainable, and attempt to decolonize my thoughts/habits/behaviors. She is incredibly knowledgeable, compassionate, and kind. I’m grateful to have met you.

    Stacey D., Jacksonville, OR

  • The Living Herbalism Program allowed me to deepen and expand my relationship to myself, sense of place / belonging, the land, Ancestors and community--both human and non-human. Through this course and the practices Jenny shared with us, I have a better understanding of how to support, nourish and be of service to myself and the entire living world. Jenny offers incredibly well rounded knowledge and experiences related to our plant and fungal relatives. Jenny is supportive with integration practices, they gave us tools and thoughtful journal prompts to incorporate and deepen all that we were learning. They hold a container that is inclusive, safe and encourages to playfulness and in this way we are all able to explore and weave in our own experiences to create a colorful tapestry that continues to inform us. I highly recommend the Living Herbalism Program with Jenny, it has given me new perspectives while deepening my relationships--I'll be carrying this course in my heart for the rest of time.

    Hannah F., Portland, OR

  • Your medicine has been a divine guidance and tool in my healing journey. Thank you for the work that you do and the knowledge you share with others, and thank you for honoring these plants and working with them with the respect that they deserve.

    Hamideh L., Miami FL

  • For anyone wanting to support their own health and feel safe with who they are inviting into their energetic space, I trust Jenny's connection to plant and medicine making. They are very self aware, intuitive, queer attuned & friendly, and knowledgeable. I look forward to signing up for more of Earthlings Among Us remedies and classes.

    Amanda W. Portland, OR

  • Jenny is honest and inspiring. They have reminded me how to trust in my own healing process. All of their offerings are delivered with love and intention. I have taken their workshops and enjoyed some of their plant medicine goodies, and I highly recommend their unique way of communicating the wonders within the natural world.

    Michelle R., Portland, OR

  • My journey has been guided and by both your medicine and your education on these plants and their uses. From the topical remedies soothing aching muscles and feet after long shifts at work, to the chamomile helping soothe my anxiety and insomnia, to your smoke bundles that have helped protect me and my space, to your online mentorship that opened me up forming relationships with plants and how to interact with their properties in different means. Honestly I could go on forever, I haven’t found a single product to be dissatisfactory in the slightest. Many times they surprise me and teach me something new about myself and my needs. Like lemon balm! That was a wild time, working with lemon balm. I felt unstoppable and radiant with energy.

    Hamideh L., Miami, FL

  • Jenny’s medicine is deeper than just her products~ she is weaving healing prayers through the Earth’s crust while interacting with plant kin. She prays for the waters, animals, people and rocks. As one of Jenny’s long time customers I am always excited to experience the creative ways Jenny brings healing to this Earth & our fellow earthlings. I enjoy sipping her teas, cocoas, softening my skin with shimmery herbal oils, salves and I’ve yet to try her body butter! What a treat to look forward to! The experience of opening a package shipped cross country from Jenny feels like a warm and encouraging hug, “you are supported” is the essence it brings to my life. Thank you Jenny for all you do to create the world you’d like to see in this life, I am thankful and inspired.

    EmPower, Herbalist & Nutritionist