Attending a course about medicinal plants in Danish was not something I was feeling confident about. It turns out, that was not what I needed to worry about. Here are my first impressions.
The phytotherapy course I signed up for earlier this year kicked off on the 1st of October.
What is phytotherapy?
Phytotherapy is the use of plant-derived medications in the treatment and prevention of disease. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Phytotherapy is the use of plants or herbs to manage health conditions. It also refers to substances that come from plants or herbs. Medicinal plants and herbs are a form of complementary medicine. These are therapies that you can receive alongside traditional Western medicine. Cleveland Clinic
The experience
I attended the first of many in-person weekend sessions with butterflies in my stomach because I wasn't sure what to expect.
Was this going to be a high-quality course? Will the instructors know what they were doing, or is it one of the many McCertificate courses where they play fast and loose with the knowledge and rip you off?
My fears were unjustified. I was very impressed with the quality of the presentation and the depth of knowledge our instructor showed. Whatever worries I had about that aspect of the course are now put to rest.
While I was no stranger to the world of plants and their medicinal properties, a challenge moving forward would be to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Key takeaways
The secret to avoiding feeling overwhelmed is distinguishing the must-know information from what can be looked up in a database or a reference book.
A herbal regimen is individual because we try to bring the whole person - mind and body - into or as close as possible to a state of balance. While we might have many things in common, we also can differ quite a bit on multiple levels.
Therefore, in natural medicine, we generally do not simply address symptoms, although we can help alleviate them.
Recommending herbal supplementation regimens, more often than not, involves considerable research.
I'm looking forward to future sessions.