Keeping It Clean: Sage School Spring Quarter
Urinary System and the Liver
This quarter contains 10 lessons, videos, handouts, and exercises.
For those students setting their own pace, the course is designed to be completed in 12 weeks, but you may take longer if needed. It’s yours!
For those students pursuing a certificate or continuing education credits, you must take the instructor-led session of the course, and complete all work on deadline.
This program includes a private student group for sharing ideas, notes, and questions and answers. You will also have access to the student question forum and lesson commentary to get answers and interaction directly from the course instructor.
Herbs & Therapies for the Liver & Urinary System
“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”
~ Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Spring, when you tingle with energy and think I will nest as the birds do!
There is no other time of year you can experience that soul-filling rush of throwing wide the windows to let in the sun and fresh air.
But more than our souls need refreshing.
Our bodies need to be cleansed and rejuvenated too. As nature would have it, the early plants of spring come up to meet us just in time.
Keeping It Clean focuses on the plants, practices and body systems aligned to spring. Watch the plants wake from their winter slumber and build relationships with them as they grow. Learn how to use them to nourish and promote healthy cleansing.
You are, of course, welcome to learn about the liver and urinary system
any time of year you may need it!
What’s Inside Your Program?
(The next instructor-led version begins April 1st, 2019)
WELCOME & RESOURCES
Spend part of your first week by simply:
- Settling into using your online classroom and introducing yourself to your new community: don’t worry, our online classroom is easy to use and Luddite-friendly!
- Exploring the additional resource library we’ve put together for extra fun & support, getting orientated to the weekly question forum, and receiving video welcomes from your instructor and the executive director of Sage School.
- Discovering how to set intentions and create rituals to support your journey in class and beyond.
- Learning how to learn about plants in a way that is probably new to you and is so transformative for many of our students!
- Benefitting from a self-guided mini-course in herbal medicine-making if that’s new to you, of interest, or of use as a refresher (and it’s completely optional!)
MODULE ONE: THE LIVER
Week 1: Get started by doing. Meet your first spring herb and work with it experientially and somatically (using just your five senses!). Embark on a daily cleanse.
Week 2: Dive into the fundamentals: read about the liver, watch a video of Maia as she talks you through it, and get acquainted with the herbs that help support this important organ.
Week 3: Follow up your somatic discoveries with your first herb by doing a materia medica. Then experiment with eating bitters, join Maia as she discusses your first herb in a video, and finally… go green, inside & out, by learning how to naturally clean your indoor environment & to spring forage for herbal tonics outdoors!
Week 4: Really let your skills sink in by doing some inner work and body work to deepen your holistic understanding of elimination. Then explore and select essential oils for the Liver and your own body; then do the same with flower essences.
Week 5: The best way to learn is to apply! Start practicing taking your herbal work out into the wider world by contemplating a case study and then by choosing remedies based on the given scenario. Test your new skills with a short Liver quiz.
MODULE TWO: THE URINARY SYSTEM
Week 1: Settle into the body fundamentals by first reading about the Urinary system. Then set off to expand your understanding by working hands-on with your second spring herb. And then… get acquainted with your own urine. Yes, really!
Week 2: Deepen your herbal knowledge by learning the herbs that help support the Urinary system. Then further support this understanding by joining Maia as she talks you through the system in a video.
Week 3: You’ll start to flesh out your head-work with some body-work: kegels! Then follow up your herbal somatic discoveries with your second herb by doing a materia medica and by joining Maia as she discusses your herb in a video.
Week 4: Again, really let your skills sink in by doing some inner work and body work to deepen your holistic understanding of elimination. Then explore and select essential oils for the Urinary system and your own body–and do the same with flower essences.
Week 5: The best way to learn is to apply! Start practicing taking your herbal work out into the wider world by contemplating a case study and then by choosing remedies based on the given scenario. Then test your knowledge with a short Urinary system quiz. Bring it all full-circle by creating a spring wellness plan.
MODULE THREE: STAYING IN SYNC WITH THE SEASONS
Ease into the next season with some tasty bonus materials! You’ll get:
- a summer foods list to further explore supporting your health, body and soul, from your own kitchen;
- a suggested ritual to celebrate the summer solstice;
- and a summertime reading suggestion that leads you into the next quarter.
SAGE SCHOOL CERTIFICATION
Upon completion of all 4 seasonal modules, we do offer a program certificate to those students who meet certain criteria.
Beyond a sense of achievement, this option is particularly valuable for students who might want to go on to more formal studies or ventures in the herbal wellness world, as this is a professional way to qualify past experience to other teachers, employers, or institutions.
If you’d like to go this route, please read the following requirements to find out how to easily assemble your Sage School Portfolio:
1) Submission of all specified assignments (just look out for the portfolio submission notice in each lesson). The assignments must be completed to a standard of good quality;
2) Completion of all lessons;
3) Contribution in 75% of all discussion prompts/threads;
4) Achievement of a passing mark on an open-book, final exam on body systems and herbs.