ACCREDITED HERBALIST COURSES
Accreditation
The Excelsior School of Herbal Medicine’s accredited herbalist courses are recognised as meeting the core-curriculum criteria set by the Irish Register of Herbalists (IRH), the largest professional association for herbalists in Ireland, including Northern Ireland. Graduates can gain appropriate indemnity insurance and are eligible to join the IRH as professional Herbalists.
Accredited Herbalist Courses in the UK & Ireland
Herbalists practicing in the UK, including Northern Ireland, have a legal right to practice under the Human Medicines Act (UK) 2012. Herbalists practicing in the Republic of Ireland have a right to practice under Common Law. Overseas students can also join the IRH provided they meet membership requirements and are in line with any specific legal requirements in their country.
We are continually investigating and exploring other avenues of accreditation as the course develops.
Benefits
Students of Excelsior can register for student membership and the best insurance premiums in the country. On graduation students can upgrade to full professional membership, and be eligible to practice herbal medicine anywhere in the world where it is legal to do so.
The Irish Register of Herbal Medicine
The IRH is a professional body for fully trained, safe and competent herbalists who meet our qualification threshold and who accept the high standards of ethics, stringent criteria and professional conduct the Register demands.
The IRH is the largest professional association of its kind in Ireland and is the only all-Ireland body representing herbalists throughout the 32 counties. The IRH continues to raise the standard of best practice and fully supports, offers guidance and updates its membership on key developments within the sector while also providing representation to government, media and the general public.
What is a Herbalist?
Plants have been used since the dawn of time to heal and prevent illness and to restore health naturally. Herbalists select and formulate remedies which suit your individual health needs. Rather than simply offering a one-size-fits-all natural ‘alternative’ to prescription drugs, they use a comprehensive consultation to check what systems of the body may need support and formulate a specific remedy just for the patient’s needs. This bespoke service is unique to herbal medicine.
What happens during consultations?
The initial appointment with a patient is scheduled at 60-90 minutes. During this time the qualified herbalist will go through a questionnaire which covers the patient’s current concerns, symptom picture, previous medical history, family history, diet and lifestyle, a systems analysis and if necessary physical examination.
The patient can give key information such as medical diagnosis, prescribed medications currently in use, recent scans or blood tests.
This comprehensive approach provides information that is then used to create a protocol which is unique to the patient. This involves bespoke herbal remedies and adjunct advice on diet and lifestyle, tailor made to their individual needs.
Monthly follow up meetings are thereafter scheduled at 30 minutes, and involve discussing progress and refining their protocol as need arises. Some herbalists also offer a range of optional lab tests including hormone profiling, digestive stool analysis, parasitology, food intolerance testing, heavy metal burden and DNA among others.
Do Herbal Medicines Work, and Are They Safe?
Herbal medicines have been around for thousand of years; are found in every culture and are the world’s oldest medicine. If they didn’t work people would have stopped using them a long time ago. The World Health Organization estimates that 80% of the world’s population still use herbs as their primary source of healthcare! Many important pharmaceutical drugs are originally derived from plants, and research continues to look at possible applications. While positive clinical trials, meta analyses and systematic reviews exist for a growing number of herbs, other research provides information on plant chemistry from which potential applications can be extrapolated.
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a term used in biomedicine to suggest that any medicine needs to be proven to work effectively and safely by undergoing clinical trials, however it is the author’s opinion that many trials are deeply flawed or poorly designed to evaluate herbal medicines and may be unreliable. It is also worth noting in passing that many pharmaceutical drugs and surgical procedures do not have clinical trials behind them! Thousands of years of tradition tell us how to use herbs wisely.
Herbal remedies are very safe when used appropriately and in accordance with the recommendations of a qualified herbalist. This is why the consultation process is necessarily in-depth and detailed so that everyone can be screened for potential issues such as allergy, pregnancy and breastfeeding, or concomitant use with medications. Professional herbalists have an excellent safety record accordingly!
Applications Open
We are currently accepting applications for the next herbal apprenticeship intake.