Berkeley Herbal Center Testimonials

Leaving a note to let you know I was here!

Enjoyed my visit…. continued blessings!

Steve Zuwala

Counry Music Artist

BMI|NSAI|GMA|CMA

www.SteveZuwala.com

I wasn’t all that impressed with the presentation on psychedelics. I felt the presenter was disorganized and unprofessional, and although some information was informative, she did not deliver what was promised.

Love being a student here. I’m really enjoying the material, the staff, and my fellow students.

It was so much fun and interesting spending two days with Alexandra, first at Silbey Park identifying the many herbs and trees growing even in just a small area, then on the second day, foraging some nourishing oats, dandelion leaves, and wild onions at Alexandra’s home and turning them into delicious pesto, soup, seasoning powder, and more. The next time I walked in my nearby park, I had a much greater appreciation for all of natures beauty growing there. Alexandra’s love and knowledge in wild herbs is apparent in her ability to turn them into culinary delights. I look forward to the summer weekend.

I was late for my foraging class on Aril 23,2022 at John Sibley Park in Oakland. Happy that the instructor taught the entire class around

the “Sibley Park Staging Area” or I might have missed the entire class. I enjoyed the class and thought that Alexandra was very knowledgeable

about the plants with giving us a strong spiritual connection and generosity of the earth. My only regret was that we did not received any

handouts or written recipes for me to use in the future.

I have been going to BHC for close to 20 years. I have used their clinic services and have taken classes and gone on several field trips with them. Everyone I have met at the clinic has been very supportive, caring, and helpful. I highly recommend them! Their clinicians are also very good- they really listen to you, spend time getting to know your history, and offer advice and treatments that are gentle, tailored to your individual needs, and are great at following up to make sure you are doing well. It’s a great part of the herbal community in the Bay Area!

My name is Alexandra Hudson and I am a California-born wild foods educator and clinical herbalist. I live in the Santa Cruz mountains with my partner where we tend our forest and offer classes to the public. I went through the Foundations / Therapeutics / Clinic I / Clinic II program and then worked as a supervisor in the Student Clinic, while teaching classes primarily on food and relationship to students at the school.

These days I work primarily with wild foods, teaching foraging and cooking classes to groups and individuals around the Bay Area, and writing recipes for local publications and for private companies by crafting new recipes for their commercial production.

My time with Berkeley Herbal Center helped me develop the foundation of my relationship with plants that is at the root of my work. I came to the school seeking to be able to quickly assess a client and connect them with the plants necessary for their healing. What I found was this and so much more.

BHC teaches a multi-dimensional approach to plant medicine and lifestyle that involves scientific rigor, folk knowledge, plant spirit medicine, and experiential knowledge of the plants. This cross-weaving helped me develop a framework that I use in my classes and recipe development, and as I come across new plants in my environment. Exposure to teachers who think in different yet complimentary ways wove a story of belonging that holds me and guides me in all areas of my life.

The Berkeley Herbal Center has strong roots in the local herbal community, and going through their extended programs helped me and many of my classmates develop our sense of place in the world of plant medicine work. My education was a springboard for my current work and I know that I would not have the confidence to pursue my plant medicine-oriented dreams in the way I do if not for my work with the school. I am grateful for this education and the school and would recommend their programs to anyone wishing to dive into their plant medicine learning in a powerful, hands-on, community-rich way.

I first came to BHC as a client and was immediately impacted by the energy of the space. It is safe and loving, and facilitated by beautiful souls who seek out to carry out a mission of bringing holistic wellness to the people. It was truly an eye-opening and heart-opening experience to see how the herbal formulations and lifestyle recommendations of the clinicians catalyzed my health and put me on a healing journey. I have now completed the Foundations Program and am currently finishing up the Therapeutics Program with the goal of becoming a Certified Herbalist. The education has provided a very strong base in knowing plants and their applications. The instructors have been great and I love how they each provide a unique perspective to practicing herbalism. Another thing I love about BHC, is that it fosters this idea of no competition – We are all unique healers, bringing forward the strengths that each of us carry, that can help meet the needs of a diverse world in need of diverse healing. BHC has welcomed me into a community of like-minded plant people and healers. This sense of tribe and purpose has been so transformative and I look forward to continuing on this path.

If anything has become clearer over the past few years – it is the need for many new community herbal clinics throughout the country – connecting people with our original healers, the plants, and reframing health towards our natural capacity to heal with the proper support and balance. Berkeley Herbal Center is dedicated to training a legion of healers to transform our country’s healthcare system and I believe we can do just that – if enough of us heed the call.

I have engaged with the Berkeley Herbal Center in a multitude of roles through the years – as a student, employee, clinician, teacher, mentor and mentee – and I can say that Berkley Herbal Center is a true training facility. The center offers dedicated students the opportunity to work with herbs in multi-faceted ways, while exposing them to the dynamic skillsets required to run an herbal education facility and community clinic.

We have great works underway at Berkeley Herbal Center – come check it out and see how clinical herbal training can bring your vision of a better world into being.

Not only did I learn about plants, tinctures, and teas, but I was welcomed into a warm community of like-minded herbalists and change-makers by attending the Berkeley Herbal Center’s Foundations, Therapeutics, and Clinic programs. I am now confident in identifying plants out in the wild, making bath & body products, making medicine, and formulating and executing treatment plans for clients, friends, and family. The education I received was the perfect balance for my training as a psychotherapist, and I’m so glad I did it.