Herbalism is in our roots!

International Route

For international students (i.e. for those outside the U.K.) who are unable to travel to our clinical trainers for the face-to-face component of their clinical training, we are offering an International Route option.  

Now about half way through your training you will study the therapeutic application of herbs for particular body systems, conditions and patient groups as well as explore human attraction to and relationship with nature in ways that may benefit yourself and your patients. You will also study and develop clinical examination skills and start to draw all the threads of your learning together in the first of two Integration Modules, where case-based learning guides your development of patient-centred clinical reasoning.

In the final phase of your studies you continue your exploration of the therapeutic application of herbs and hone your clinical examination skills to enable you to select and fluently perform examinations relevant to your future patients. You will also learn how to set up and manage your future practice and complete your second Integration Module of case-based learning. With this behind you, you will take your final clinical exam.

Your studies will comprise 3600 academic study hours, plus 500 clinical training hours.  Choose the course that suits your needs: the 4 year course will require approximately 21 to 30 hours study a week for 40 weeks a year, and the 6 year course will require approximately 14 to 21 hours a week for 40 weeks a year. 17 modules are studied in total, normally 4 modules a year on the 4 year course and 3 modules a year on the 6 year course. When you start your clinical training (in year 2 of the 4 year course and in year 3 of the 6 year course) this  will take up additional time, starting at a few hours a week and increasing to about a day a week as you progress through your studies.

This bursary has been created in the memory of my partner Kerry Hackett, as she requested when her health was failing in 2023. She wanted to recognize her commitment to the practice of herbalism and to the National Institute of Medical Herbalists that she was a member of.  Her success as an herbalist was an integral part of a remarkable life.

Kerry was born in Vancouver, Canada. A brilliant and disciplined student, she pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of Victoria, where she specialized in drama, costume and set design. After graduation and a few years of university teaching, Kerry took to the highway for ten years working as a costume and set designer in theatres across Canada, from Victoria to Toronto and all parts in between. Later, she worked in television and film and spent several years in Edmonton, Alberta.

In her late thirties, Kerry changed careers and went back to school for four years to become a medical herbalist. She set up her own practice, first in Vancouver, then in Stratford, Ontario and finally in Hastings, Ontario. She was dedicated to her practice and to resolving the chronic problems of her patients. Kerry was a self-reliant practitioner, preparing many of her own medicinal formulations, marketing her services and promoting herself through newsletters and a website. She was able to buy her own house in the process, not a small feat when competing with the free health care system in Canada!  Kerry loved gardening: growing herbs for her practice and food for the household, always raising plants naturally and without chemicals. It was where she found her greatest peace and fulfillment. She rejoiced in caring for living things.

Kerry was fiercely independent, a feminist, and incredibly self reliant and self motivated. She was adept at learning a new skill or understanding a new topic once she put her mind to it. In 2013, this determination allowed her to pursue a Master’s Degree in Herbal Medicine at the University of Central Lancashire in England, working remotely. After completing the degree, she was accepted into a professional doctoral program at the same institution. Her dissertation was entitled “Shaker Physicians, Recipe Collections and Medical Treatments at The New Lebanon Church Family, New York, 1774-1861.” The  research explored the medical history of the Shakers, a religious movement of the late 18^th and 19^th centuries largely located in the north-eastern and mid-western United States. Kerry researched hundreds of documents in various Shaker libraries across New England and New York to discover how this insular community cared for its sick with herbs grown and processed by its members. She discovered that Shaker physicians employed some of the latest innovations of nineteenth-century conventional American medicine, including the use of opium and morphine, a fact unknown to most Shaker scholars.

Kerry was the first professional herbalist to take on this historical research challenge. It was a formidable task, and her work showed exceptional rigour, depth and sophistication. She maintained the pursuit of her degree despite being diagnosed with cancer and while still maintaining her practice as an herbalist. Kerry defended her dissertation in April of 2023. She spent the following months making corrections and revisions. The final document was submitted on November 1, 2023. She was awaiting its acceptance by the examining committee when she passed away on December 31 of that year. The university awarded Kerry her professional doctoral degree in February of 2024.

Kerry loved life, not just her own but all Life: that which makes the birds fly, the worms crawl and all that begets new life. Kerry often said that plants possessed the most incredible magic because they eat the Sun! And, from that, all of Life is sustained. She understood the order of the universe I think, and the place of humans within it. That the real meaning of life is not what we do as individuals, but what we do together to create a better world. She lamented the way we humans treat the nature. “What a debt humanity has to the living world,” she would rant.  “How can nature put up with us?” It was through nature that she found peace and inspiration. She valued our home at the edge of a marsh, a refuge away from the torrent, and seeing the wildlife it attracted: ducks and swans, ospreys and other birds, beavers and deer, rabbits and foxes. She loved animals, especially her cats.

As her health deteriorated, Kerry let it be known that she wanted her thesis to be published if at all possible. This is in process and is due to be released in 2027.  It is the product of her passionate pursuit of Shaker herbal and 19^th century medical history. She also asked for this bursary to be established, to be a legacy of her, and her conviction that herbal medicine has a place in the modern, professional treatment of the sick.

Alan Buchkowski

Hastings, ON, Canada

January 2026.