Should your herbalist be certified?
Herbalists seek to define standards and who should impose them.
July/August 2001
By Laurel Vukovic
If you were searching for an herbalist, how
would you go about finding one? “In a perfect world, every
community would have an herbalist who everyone knew and trusted,”
says Aviva Jill Romm, executive director of the American Herbalists
Guild (AHG) and the guild’s director of education and
certification. Not long ago, lay herbalists tended the well-being
of their communities without concern of credentials or
certification. An herbalist was judged solely by his or her skill
as a healer. Yet today, our society is dominated by credentials,
says Romm, and community herbalists can be hard to find. Brigitte
Mars, a longtime Boulder, Colorado-based herbalist, author, and
faculty member at the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies,
agrees. “If I wanted to find an herbalist, I would contact the
American Herbalists Guild for a referral to a qualified
practitioner,” Mars says.
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But Rosemary Gladstar, founder of the California School of
Herbal Studies and a well-known educator, writer, and activist in
the herbal community, has a different point of view. “I would never
choose a healer according to whether or not they had credentials.
I’d find someone through word of mouth,” says Gladstar.
Up to this point, there has been no certifying organization for
U.S. herbalists, and no standards for the practice of herbalism.
The AHG wants to change that and is actively working to establish
educational guidelines and a process of both registration and
certification for herbalists. This raises a red flag for some
herbalists who believe that certification will be detrimental to
the practice of herbal medicine.
“I don’t think there’s anything that fires the herbal community
up more than this controversy,” says Gladstar. “The decisions made
about these issues will have a tremendous and far-reaching effect
on the future of herbalism.”
The AHG was founded in 1989 with the intention of developing a
professional organization for herbalists specializing in medical
herbalism. Its stated purpose was to unify practitioners and to
serve the public by raising the standards of herbal medicine and
ensuring the competency of herbalists. From the beginning, though,
there has been dissension around the issue of certification.
Although the final plans for registration and certification are
still in the works, the AHG intends to make both available by the
end of this year. Meanwhile, the controversy continues.
“Many people are concerned about what certification implies,”
says Roy Upton, vice president of the AHG and the legislative
coordinator for the organization. “And some people have an inherent
distrust of anything organized.”
According to the AHG’s plan, the title of “registered herbalist”
will replace (and be equivalent to) its present designation of
“professional member.” Currently, professional members undergo a
review process by a group of peers who evaluate their education,
experience, and training. Applicants must also demonstrate a
minimum of four years of experience in working with clients and
submit three letters of reference from professional herbalists.
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