Pre-Clinic Training
From Herbal Knowledge to Professional Practice
Learn how to become a Professional Herbalist through seven months of advanced education, hands-on practice, personal mentorship, and meaningful professional preparation.
There is a moment in every serious herbal student’s journey when learning more information is no longer enough.
You want to know how to use it.
How do you listen to someone’s story and recognize what matters most? How do you move from individual herbs to a thoughtful formula?
How do you create a practical protocol—and explain why you chose it?
Pre-Clinic Training was created for that transition.
Under the guidance of Jane Richmond, you will practice the skills Professional Herbalists use:
- Case-history intake
- Pattern recognition
- Therapeutic priorities
- Formulation
- Protocol development
- Medicine making
- Plant spirit medicine
- Practitioner awareness
Every class includes practicum because professional confidence is not something you are simply given.
It is something you develop through guided experience.
No previous Self-Heal coursework is required. Students from other herbal programs, practitioners from complementary healing fields, and those beginning a new professional path are welcome to apply.
To preserve the depth and personal nature of the experience, Jane will select only 15 students for this seven-month training.
Choose a convenient time for a private conversation with Jane.
Your Training at a Glance
Begins: Sunday, October 4, 2026
Opening session: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Pacific Time
Then meets: The first Sunday of each month
Length: Seven consecutive months
Attend: In person in San Diego or live through Zoom
Enrollment: Limited to 15 selected students
Application requirement: A private interview with Jane Richmond
Next step: Graduates become eligible to interview for the Clinical Herbalism Apprenticeship
Do You Recognize This Place in Your Herbal Journey?
You may already know medicinal plants, make herbal preparations, own a shelf of well-loved books, or practice another healing art.
Yet when you imagine working with a real person and their unique history, you may still wonder:
- What questions should I ask?
- Which information is most important?
- What larger patterns am I seeing?
- Where should I begin?
- Which herbs belong together—and why?
- How do I create a clear, responsible plan?
These questions do not mean you are unprepared to continue.
They often mean you are ready for a different kind of learning.
More books can give you more information. Pre-Clinic gives you a place to organize, apply, question, discuss, and practice what you know.
It helps you cross the distance between:
“I know about herbs.”
and
“I am learning how to work with herbs professionally.”
What You Will Learn and Practice
Over seven months, you will develop experience in eight essential areas:
- Advanced Materia Medica: Deepen your working knowledge of medicinal plants while learning to understand and “own your own information.”
- Case-history intake: Practice listening carefully, asking useful questions, gathering relevant information, and understanding the person’s larger story.
- Pattern recognition: Organize what you hear, identify meaningful connections, and establish thoughtful therapeutic priorities.
- Herbal formulation: Move beyond studying individual herbs and begin creating purposeful, well-considered combinations.
- Protocol development: Practice building clear herbal strategies for the individual rather than relying on one-size-fits-all formulas.
- Herbal medicine making: Strengthen your ability to create practical, high-quality preparations you understand and trust.
- Plant spirit medicine: Explore observation, intuition, direct experience, and a deeper relationship with medicinal plants.
- Professional development: Build confidence, boundaries, self-awareness, discernment, and integrity as an emerging practitioner.
Each gathering includes opportunities to participate, practice, ask questions, and receive feedback.
Knowledge opens the door. Practice teaches you how to walk through it.
What Could You Create With This Training?
Pre-Clinic teaches you how to become a Professional Herbalist while helping you discover what professional herbalism could look like in your own life.
Self-Heal students have continued from Pre-Clinic into Clinic Training and carried their education into many forms of meaningful work.
Your path might include:
- Establishing a private Clinical Herbalist practice
- Creating and selling an herbal medicine product line
- Developing retail or wholesale relationships
- Opening an herbal apothecary
- Partnering with other herbalists to build a business
- Teaching herbal classes in person or online
- Creating workshops, memberships, or digital courses
- Integrating herbalism into an existing healing practice
- Using your knowledge to support your family and community
Herbal training can also add valuable depth to experience in Massage Therapy, Holistic Health Practice, Reiki, Energy Healing, Aromatherapy, Rapid Transformational Therapy, NLP, Life Coaching, nutrition, bodywork, yoga, meditation, and other healing arts.
For some students, herbalism becomes a new profession. For others, it expands work they already value.
Either way, you are building knowledge and practical abilities that can continue serving you long after these seven months have ended.
Professional, career, and business outcomes vary. This training does not guarantee employment, income, licensure, or business success.
A Clear Path Into Deeper Clinical Training
Pre-Clinic does not stand alone as another disconnected course. It occupies an important place within Self-Heal School’s professional training pathway.
Foundational Herbal Learning
Build your knowledge of medicinal plants, preparations, therapeutic principles, and herbal practice.
↓
Pre-Clinic Training
Practice case histories, pattern recognition, formulation, protocol development, medicine making, plant relationship, and professional skills.
↓
Clinical Herbalism Apprenticeship
Continue into deeper clinical training and practical experience.
Graduates of Pre-Clinic become eligible to interview for Self-Heal School’s Clinical Herbalism Apprenticeship.
You do not need to decide today exactly where your path will lead. Pre-Clinic gives you the experience and perspective to make that decision from a much stronger position.
Meet Jane Richmond
Teaching Herbalism Since 1982
Jane Richmond has been teaching people about medicinal herbs and natural healing since 1982. She has also led Self-Heal School’s Pre-Clinic and Clinic Training programs for decades.
Her teaching brings together herbal medicine, nutritional counseling, energy awareness, intuitive insight, medicine making, casework, and practical self-care.
Jane does not ask students to memorize her conclusions or repeat her answers.
She teaches them how to listen carefully, recognize patterns, ask stronger questions, think through possibilities, and develop confidence in their own informed decisions.
Her approach is practical, personal, and deeply respectful of both the medicinal plants and the individual seeking support.
Pre-Clinic is intentionally small so Jane can know her students, hear their questions, observe their development, and offer meaningful feedback throughout the seven months.
You are not disappearing into a large, impersonal program. You are learning directly from an elder herbalist with more than four decades of teaching experience.
Your Interview: Four Simple Steps
1. Choose Your Time
Use Jane’s private scheduling calendar to select the day and time that works best for you.
2. Share a Little About Yourself
Answer a few brief questions about your interests, experience, and hopes for Pre-Clinic. Beginners are welcome.
3. Meet Privately With Jane
Spend 15 minutes speaking with Jane by phone, learning more about the program, and exploring whether it feels like the right fit.
4. Receive Your Decision
If selected, you will receive a private acceptance message with the registration and payment information needed to secure your place.
Your interview is a conversation—not a performance.
What Could Be Different Seven Months From Now?
You could have:
- Real experience taking and organizing case histories
- A clearer process for identifying therapeutic priorities
- Greater confidence creating formulas and protocols
- Stronger herbal medicine-making skills
- A deeper working relationship with medicinal plants
- More trust in your developing professional judgment
- Eligibility to continue into Clinical Herbalism Apprenticeship
- A clearer vision for your future herbal work
You will not leave knowing everything. No trustworthy herbalist ever does.
You can leave more capable, more practiced, and better prepared to keep growing.
The alternative is easy to recognize: another season of collecting books, courses, and fragments of information while the practice, product line, apothecary, class, or professional path you imagine remains somewhere in the future.
There is nothing wrong with learning slowly. But when you are ready to practice, information alone can no longer take you where experience can.
Pre-Clinic provides the structure, mentorship, repetition, feedback, and community that are difficult to create on your own.
An Accessible Investment in Skills You Can Keep
For $175 a month, Pre-Clinic includes seven months of professional herbal education, full-day classes, practicum, mentorship, casework, formulation experience, medicine-making practice, and eligibility to continue toward Clinical Herbalism Apprenticeship.
You can secure your spot by submitting a $50 deposit, or you can invest in the full seven-month program for $1050, saving $175 by paying upfront.
Rather than purchasing another isolated workshop, you are entering a sustained learning process in which each month builds upon the one before it.
The skills you develop may continue serving your personal wellness, family, community, existing profession, or future herbal practice for years to come.
Your First Step Is Simply a Conversation
You do not need to commit to an entire career today.
You do not need to know exactly where herbalism will lead.
And you do not need to arrive with every answer.
If you feel drawn to work more seriously with medicinal plants, begin by speaking privately with Jane.
Choose an available interview time, tell her a little about yourself, ask your questions, and discover whether Pre-Clinic is the right next step for you.
There are only 15 places because the experience depends upon personal mentorship and a committed group. Once those students have been selected, enrollment will close.
Pre-Clinic begins Sunday, October 4, 2026.
Attend in person in San Diego or live through Zoom.
Choose your private interview time now.
Self-Heal School of Herbal Studies & Healing
619-224-1268
[email protected]
selfhealschool.com