Herbs, Body Systems & Field Herbalism

July 12 | Herbs & Wellness Strategies  for the Nervous System. Registration open: Individual Class | Full Series

Reading the Terrain: A Clinical Immersion Series for the Community Herbalist

We are living through a period of compounding instability. Healthcare is increasingly inaccessible and impersonal. Food systems are fragile. Communities are fractured. Ecological, political, and economic pressures are converging in ways that many people feel every day in their bodies.

This is not simply a collection of individual problems. These conditions emerge from systems that prioritize extraction over relationship, profit over care, and disconnection over community.

In this landscape, knowing how to work with plants, how to read the body, and how to support the people around you is more than a hobby. It is a practical skill. It is community infrastructure. It is a form of continuity.

Herbal medicine has always been part of how people cared for one another when institutions failed to meet their needs. The plants have not changed. What changes is whether we know how to work with them skillfully.

This series is designed for people who already know some herbs and want a deeper framework for understanding how and when to use them. Together we'll develop discernment, pattern recognition, and sound herbal decision-making. We'll learn how to assess presentations, recognize meaningful patterns, and match herbs to the person in front of us rather than relying on symptom matching alone.

Because same diagnosis does not mean same pattern.

The goal is not simply to know more herbs.

The goal is to become more useful.

Standalone Days or The Series:

Individual classes may be taken independently. Taken together, the series forms a cohesive clinical framework that connects body systems, clinical energetics, and field herbalism into an approach that can travel with you wherever your work takes you.

Dates and Brief Overview: (Scroll down for more detailed descriptions).

Class 1 -- June 14: Herbs & Wellness Strategies for the Digestive System. Gut health underlies everything downstream ~ immune, nervous system, hormonal, inflammatory load. Sets the terrain framework for the whole series.

Class 2 -- July 12:Herbs & Wellness Strategies  for the Nervous System. Now we build the nervous system connection.

Class 3 --August 9:Herbs & Wellness Strategies  for the Immune System. Gut-immune axis follows naturally from Classes 1 and 2. Dysbiosis, mast cells, autoimmune terrain all build on the previous two classes and heading toward fall immune season.

Class 4 -- September 13: Herbs & Wellness Strategies  for the Respiratory System. The lungs sit at the intersection of immune, nervous, and gut-lung axis -- now you have all three foundations to understand respiratory presentations fully, just as the seasons shift, respiratory presentations pick up in fall.

Class 5 -- October 4: Herbal Pain Re~Leaf: Acute & Chronic. Pain as terrain builds on all four previous systems.

Class 6 -- October 25: Herbal First Aid for Events, Disasters, Front Lines. Closing the series with field application -- you’ll bring everything you''ve learned into acute care and mutual aid contexts.

Who this is for:

You know some herbs. This series is about learning to read the person in front of you -- their pattern, their terrain, their specific presentation -- and matching the right herb to that.

That shift happens best in community. Each class is a circle where everyone's knowledge and experience is in the room. We learn from one another as much as from the curriculum. This series is hosted at Fleur + Forage Free Clinic studio, a community space rooted in accessible care for marginalized communities across Atlanta.

Come if you are a practicing herbalist ready to sharpen clinical reasoning. Come if you are a student who wants to move beyond foundational herb knowledge into the art of it. Come if you have ever felt uncertain in an intake and wanted a clearer framework. Come if you want to be genuinely useful at a gathering, event, or moment of community crisis.

Healing justice pricing. Different capacities, not different worth. Reach out.

Class Descriptions:

Class 1 -- Herbs & Wellness Strategies for the Digestive System:  The gut is where health is either cultivated or slowly eroded. We start here because everything downstream -- immune function, nervous system regulation, hormonal signaling, inflammatory load -- depends on what happens in this terrain. We cover the gut as a neuroendocrine organ, the gut-brain axis, tissue states and herbal actions matched to pattern, IBS versus IBD, GERD and stomach acid dysregulation, dysbiosis, and the clinical reasoning that tells you why two clients with the same diagnosis need completely opposite formulas.

You'll walk away knowing:

1. Why two people with the same digestive condition often need completely opposite formulas and how to tell the difference

2. How to read the gut as a neuroendocrine organ, not just a digestive tube -- and why that changes everything about which herbs you reach for

3. How to match herbal actions to tissue states: hot, cold, damp, dry, tense, lax -- rather than chasing symptoms

4. How the gut-brain axis shows up in your intakes -- and why nervous system herbs and digestive herbs are often the same herbs

5. The clinical distinctions that matter: IBS vs IBD, GERD vs low stomach acid, dysbiosis vs acute infection -- and the herbal approach for each

This isn't about more herb lists. It's about understanding the terrain that produced the problem -- and knowing exactly what to reach for.

Class 2 -- Herbs & Wellness Strategies for the Nervous System Most of us are walking around in a state our nervous systems were never designed to sustain indefinitely... We explore anxiety, depletion, hypervigilance, burnout, grief, exhaustion, and the herbs traditionally used to support these patterns. Learn how herbalists distinguish between different nervous system presentations and match plants to people rather than symptoms.

Class 3 -- Herbs & Wellness Strategies for the Immune System We move beyond immune boosting as a clinical strategy and into what immune balance actually looks like in practice. We cover terrain-based immune assessment, the gut-immune axis and why you cannot separate the two, mast cells and histamine, IgE and allergic response, overactive versus exhausted immune states, autoimmune terrain, and how to choose herbs that restore immune balance rather than broadly stimulate a system that may already be dysregulated.

Class 4 -- Herbs & Wellness Strategies for the Respiratory System The lungs sit at the intersection of immune, nervous, and gut-lung axis -- making respiratory presentations some of the most layered cases you will see. We cover upper versus lower respiratory tissue states, acute versus chronic pattern differentiation, demulcents, expectorants, antispasmodics, environmental and systemic drivers including air quality, mold exposure, chronic stress, structural inflammation, and gut-lung axis dysregulation -- and formula building that addresses the whole picture.

Class 5 -- Herbs for Pain ReLeaf: Acute and Chronic Presentations; Reading the Terrain

Pain is a clue. The question an herbalist asks is what terrain is this pain emerging from, and what is it trying to communicate?

That reframe influences which herbs you reach for, in what preparation, at what dose. A warming herb in a hot inflammatory presentation worsens the picture. A cooling formula a cold stagnant pattern misses the root. Pain is one of the most terrain-sensitive presentations we work with. 

This class covers:

• Influences on pain sensitivity -- constitution, nervous system tone, emotional state, lived experience including trauma and systemic oppression, and terrain

• Pain presentations mapped by terrain -- inflammatory, neurological, digestive, emotional, and stagnant patterns -- with herbs matched to each.

• Herbal actions for pain in depth -- analgesics, antispasmodics, skeletal muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatories, nervines and sedatives, circulatory stimulants, bitters and cholagogues, lymphatics, mast cell stabilizers, and mineral-rich herbs -- with energetics and clinical reasoning for each

• The 7Song hierarchy of relief -- mild, moderate, and stronger options -- and how to calibrate dose and preparation to the individual and the situation

• Palliative care as legitimate care -- alleviating suffering alongside investigating root cause, not instead of it

• Sensory and nervous system tools -- touch, smell, grounding, and simple practices that shift the nervous system out of alarm and into relational embodied awareness

• Pain assessment using the OPQRST framework -- onset, provocation, quality, radiation, severity, timing -- applied to herbal intake

• Favorite topicals -- Hypericum oil for nerve pain, Arnica for trauma and bruising, Mahanarayan oil for deep musculoskeletal pain

• Natural alternatives to NSAIDs and adrenal-liver axis support as a clinical framework

• Emotional recovery after pain -- what it looks like, why it matters, and how herbs support it

We close with an intake practice -- a pain presentation worked through in circle using terrain-based reasoning.

Class 6 -- Herbal First Aid at Events, Gatherings, Disasters, and the Frontlines. Whether you are supporting a neighborhood gathering, a regional festival, a mutual aid response, or a community in crisis -- the skills are similar.  This curriculum draws from experiences compiled into a best practices manual for herbal first aid and wellness spaces at events and on the frontlines, a 50-hour clinical training distilled into one day. My work is influenced by Wilderness First Responder training.

We cover:

• Herbs for acute presentations in field conditions: wound care, pain, respiratory distress, digestive crisis, trauma response, heat and cold exposure, anxiety and shock

• Scope of practice in field and disaster settings -- when to refer, when to hold, when to act

• Safety, consent, and trauma-informed care in high-stress environments

• Setting up a wellness space at events and gatherings: layout, flow, intake, documentation, team coordination

• Mutual aid framing: how herbal first aid fits into collective care, not individual survivalism

• Working with what you have: improvised preparations, local plants, community resources

We close with an intake practice scenario where you practice assessment, triage, and herbal response.

How each class works:

Classes meet one Sunday a month 10 AM to 5 PM.

For body systems classes, you arrive having completed a one-page write-up on that day's topic -- anatomy, physiology, anything that has already landed for you. This way we come in refreshed on the basics, and can move into the clinical work faster.

We take breaks as needed. After a 45-minute lunch we go deeper into conditions and pattern work. We close every class with an intake practice worked through in circle -- everyone listening, everyone contributing, learning from one another.

The pace is guided and timed, and genuinely conversational. Each session makes space for practitioners to bring their own knowledge and experience into the room.

Your work is supported by detailed handouts to use as references in your practice, group intake practice shares, and personal written feedback on your submitted write-ups.

Pricing:

Individual class: $150, with a $30 non-refundable deposit* to hold your spot. Balance of $120 due by the class date.

Full six-class series: $800 ($100 off the individual class rate), with a $150 non-refundable deposit* to hold your spot. Or pay monthly -- five payments of $130, due the Sunday of each class date.

Interested in only the Body Systems classes or only the Field classes? Reach out about bundled pricing.

Community rate for Fleur and Forage Free Clinic active clinic participants: $85 per class, or $455 for the full series. For the full series, an $85 deposit holds your spot. Remaining balance of $370 may be paid in five monthly payments of $74, due the Sunday of each class date.

Pay-It-Forward Sustainer rate: $175 per class or $950 for the series -- supports community access for those who cannot pay full price. Different capacities, not different worth. Please reach out to me if have any questions!

A percentage of proceeds goes back to Fleur and Forage Free Clinic for graciously hosting these classes at their space. Payment supports the continuity of care and the ability to show up consistently for others. (Fleur and Forage Free Clinic participants -- register using the same link and note your participation in the form. Your rate will be confirmed in your follow-up email.)

Registration:

To register for an individual class, click here.

To register for the full series, click here.‍ ‍

*Deposits may be applied to a future class date if you need to reschedule with prior notice.

Questions, reach out directly.


About the Instructor:

Deia Pauline is a clinical herbalist and educator based in Atlanta, GA, practicing since 2008 and registered with the American Herbalist Guild since 2014. Her path to herbal medicine began in 1997 through activist and indigenous solidarity work -- gatherings and actions on Western Shoshone land, frontline care at Atomic Cafes serving up miso and coffee to downwinders, and sacred site defense alongside Indigenous communities.

A longtime Wilderness First Responder and former EMT, she brings field medical grounding to her herbal practice. Trained at Berkeley Herbal Center, Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine, and The Dhyana Center in Ayurvedic foundations, she now teaches in Berkeley Herbal Center's Village Herbalist 2 program and runs Grassroots Apothecary, a community herbal practice rooted in mutual aid and collective care.

Her field clinical work spans over two decades -- from street medic work with Bay Area Radical Health Collective, disaster relief deployment in New Orleans after Katrina and in New York City, to MASHH Clinic Collective, to her own herbal wellness clinics at Sunset Campout, Oregon Eclipse and Envision Music Festivals, multiple Women's Herbal Symposiums, Buckeye Earth Skills Gatherings, California wildfire relief, and supporting Fleur + Forage Free Clinic's work serving those most underserved in Atlanta.

You may catch her on a dance floor somewhere, preferably outdoors and underneath the stars.

This practice exists to keep care alive inside a system that actively devalues it.