Question:
Do you offer a Certificate of Completion or a license with your programs? Will I be licensed to practice as a Certified Herbalist? How will I be able to use this in my career?
Answer:
At this time we offer a Certificate of Completion with our Vitalist Herbalism, Alchemical Herbalism, Astro-Herbalism, Elemental Herbalism and Botanical Constellation programs. The first three programs come with their own number of completion hours that can be used towards the AHG certification (please reach out to support@evolutionaryherbalism.com for more details).
Currently there’s no homework and no testing set up with any of these programs, which means our current certification will only show that you’ve completed the course. This does not make you licensed or officially approved to practice herbalism because such certification doesn’t exist in the US at this time.
We’ve had a lot of requests to incorporate homework and testing into the course, so we’re working on developing the testing needed to make sure our students have completed the program adequately to be able to certify them according to the guidelines of the American Herbalist Guild (Find out more about their requirements here: https://www.americanherbalistsguild.com/becoming-ahg-rh-member)
Just so you’re aware, there is no official certification in the US that gives you a title, degree, or license to practice herbalism. Herbalism isn’t recognized by the healthcare system or government in the US, so we can’t become licensed like an acupuncturist could. Herbalists cannot diagnose, treat, or cure diseases - we’re not practicing medicine, we're more like health coaches who make positive lifestyle, herbal or nutritional suggestions to improve people’s lives. However, within that context there are many practicing clinical herbalists in this country. Also, each country has its own regulations on practicing herbalism, so if you live outside the US, be sure to research what that looks like in your own country.
The closest thing we have in the US to becoming recognized as reaching an advanced level of herbalism as a practitioner is to become a Registered Herbalist through the American Herbalist’s Guild - again, this isn’t recognized by the government, it’s just a third party organization that has created standards that most herbalists agree show you as qualified to practice herbalism. They have a stringent set of qualifications you have to build up to to become registered, including a certain number of clinical hours and mentorship under an AHG registered herbalist. If that’s something you’re interested in pursuing, I’d suggest looking into the process you’ll need to go through to become registered through AHG. There are very few schools in the US that actually prepare you to become registered and it takes extra work on your end to become qualified.