Holistic Herbalism School with Clinical Depth
A living classroom in the heart of Southern Appalachia
Blending Chinese medicine and Western herbal traditions with a clinical focus, our in-person school is where your next chapter in herbal education begins.
You're sitting in a meadow of violets and buttercups, sun on your face and a breeze flowing through.
You notice how deeply you exhale as you take in the sound and sight of the little creek flowing by...
We believe this moment is so valuable – which is why we continue to host IN-PERSON hands-on classes, even as most herbal schools have gone online.
All of our classes are held outdoors in the beautiful mountains of North of Asheville.
Learn Herbal Medicine
Change your life – and the lives of those you love.
You’re ready to take your health into your own hands – with the wisdom of the plants as your guide.
You’ve sifted through the overwhelming amount of information online and built a fat stack of books.
But you’re still craving something deeper.
Maybe it’s a life closer to the wild.
Maybe it’s the skills to support your loved ones with herbal medicine.
What you really want is guidance.
Mentorship. A clear path.
A hands-on program that shows you how to find, prepare, and use the plants around you.
You want to learn from a wide, holistic lens – scientific, traditional, clinical, and maybe even a little spiritual.
And now you’ve found us.
Welcome – we’re so glad you’re here.
We’ve been guiding students since 1999 – back in the last millennium! – and we’d be honored to teach you, too.
Author and Clinical Herbalist CoreyPine Shane, along with a circle of gifted teachers, share their wisdom and experience, creating a rich and supportive learning environment.
But here’s something else you’ll receive here.
Something that can’t quite be taught, but all our students feel.
A new way of being in the world.
An “at-homeness.” A sense of belonging.
Not just to a community of like-minded folks – but to the natural world itself,
as the “green wall” of plants dissolves into familiar friends and allies.
At the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine, we blend Chinese medicine philosophy with the power of local plants and traditional herbal wisdom – so you can treat the root cause of disease and get to know the medicinal allies growing all around you.
Whether you are just starting out or well into your studies, we have classes to meet you where you are and take you where you want to go.
Our Programs
All of our classes are taught by Clinical Herbalist CoreyPine Shane, Author of Southeast Medicinal Plants alongside his talented and diverse team of teachers.
Our 8-month weekend program is more than just lectures, it's an immersive journey into the culturally rich world of herbal medicine. Through hands-on medicine making and guided plant walks – both in our medicinal herb garden and the richly diverse forests of Southern Appalachia – you’ll learn to recognize the plants growing around you, how to ethically harvest them, how to incorporate herbal medicine into your daily life, and how to make herbal medicines to care for your family, friends, and community.
Essentials of Herbalism Program
Ready to embody your inner Kitchen Witch or become the Family Herbalist?
To feel confident caring for your own health – and to serve as a trusted healer in your community. In this class you will learn constitutional diagnosis and holistic treatment through tonic herbs, food, and lifestyle. You will learn how to identify plants in the wild around the Asheville area and how to make many different types of high-quality herbal extracts, as well as understand how the human body works and how herbs can help treat a wide array of health concerns through a clinical lens.
Holistic Herbalism Program
You’ve put in the study, the practice, and the passion – now it’s time to call yourself what you are: an Herbalist.
This immersive dive into seasonal herbalism takes place in the incredible biodiversity of the Western North Carolina. Once a week, you will walk among the plants to learn their basic botany and plant families, as well as how to identify these new green allies. You won’t just study the basics of herbalism – you’ll also make herbal extracts and prepare wild foods. We offer only 12 spots per season to keep a close, personal student–teacher ratio – and they do fill up. If you’re ready to take your love of plants to the next level, come join us! With just 12 spots each season, we keep classes small for meaningful student–teacher connection and they do fill up. If you’re ready to take your love of plants to the next level, come join us!
Wild Medicine Internships
Whether you’ve studied online, devoured the books, or are just starting your herbal journey, this is your chance to meet the plants in person.
Can’t make the move to the Asheville area just yet? Start from home with our bite-size online courses (while you plan how you will join us in person next season)
Why Are In-Person Herbalism Classes so Important?
Community.
Being together in person means you get direct connection with teachers and classmates – the kind that leads to meaningful, lasting memories.
Being together means that you can:
Learn from each other’s questions.
Have plenty of study buddies.
Build lifelong friendships with like-minded folks.
Feel safer to open up, safe to be vulnerable, and go deeper.
The Forest itself becomes your classroom.
In-person herbalism training means a full nature immersion – in one of the most plant-diverse temperate regions on Earth.
You won’t just see plants in a book. You will:
Touch them.
Taste them.
Smell them.
Build real relationships with them, as new friends.
At the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine, you don’t just learn what a plant does – you actually meet the plants as individual beings.
“We begin to feel more at home outdoors, more in our element. What was once a flat picture gains depth and nuance. The plants that were once strangers at a party become our friends.” – CoreyPine Shane, Southeast Medicinal Plants
You build confidence through embodiment.
There’s a big difference between watching someone make medicine on YouTube – and doing it with your own two hands.
In-person learning builds a kind of confidence that lives in your body, not just your brain.
You will:
Build muscle memory through repetition.
Learn by doing – not just by listening.
Deeply anchor in lessons by using all 5 senses
Because learning herbalism isn’t just about gaining knowledge – it’s about becoming someone new.
When you sit with a plant, harvest with your own hands, and craft medicine in community, something shifts. You start to see the world differently. You start to feel at home in it.
This is how herbalists are made – not just through study, but through relationships.
“Attending herb school absolutely changed my life. The relationships I formed opened doors I never imagined possible including starting my dream herbal business and working with the American Herbalists Guild, where I now play a role in advancing herbal education and professional competency. BRSHM opened the doors not just to a career, but to my calling. It gave me the tools, the confidence, and the community to make a meaningful impact in the world of herbalism”
Nicolina Ruiz, Casa Alchemista Botanica
The Magic of the Blue Ridge Mountains in WNC
Get your herbalism education in the epicenter of wild herbs.
For centuries, the Blue Ridge Mountains have been home to a tradition of wildcrafting. The Cherokee people who have been living on this land for generations still rely on the forest for both food and medicine as did the settlers, shaped by the remoteness of the region.
The Blue Ridge mountains have some of the highest plant diversity of any temperate region in the world – thanks to its unique blend of elevations, rainfall, and geology.
At the heart of that biodiversity is Asheville, NC, a vibrant, forward-thinking town famous for its organic food, permaculture, and herbalism culture. People often feel called here by the land’s energy and the rich community life.
Your herbalism classes are held at founder CoreyPine’s lush 2.5-acre property in Barnardsville, just 25 minutes north of Asheville. Tucked into a wooded cove with a nearby mountain creek, the land overflows with native medicinal plants – Black Cohosh, Sassafras, Bloodroot, Ghost Pipe – and a cultivated herb garden.
Classes are rooted in place and centered on outdoor learning and time with the plants. Again and again, students tell us that one of the most unforgettable moments is our meditative walk through the largest stand of old growth trees on the East Coast, during our Joyce Kilmer camping trip.
It’s no wonder students travel from as far as California and Hawaii – not just to study herbs, but to do it in one of the most magical places on Earth.
Start your herbalism journey from home (for now)
While learning herbalism here at our school in-person is a magical experience that can’t be replicated – we have done our best to try, anyways.
Because even if you can’t make it to the mountains, we still want to help you go deeper into your herbal medicine journey and study herbal medicine from home.
These online classes are taught by Author and Clinical Herbalist CoreyPine Shane, bringing decades of experience straight to your screen.
Whether you’re lying awake at 2 am, carrying tension in your chest, or just tired of being tired, we have a class for that.
Our Mini Online Herbal Classes
Herbs for Insomnia
Not all sleepless nights are created equal. Learn which herbs match which sleep patterns (and how to actually get some rest).
Herbs for Anxiety
Fourteen powerful plant allies for calming the nervous system plus lifestyle tips, dietary support, and practical formulas that actually help.
Herbs for Pain
Chronic or acute, nerve or muscle – pain shows up in different ways. Learn how to match herbs to root causes and feel like yourself again.
Ready to get started? (Your nervous system will thank you.)
Meet Our Founder
CoreyPine Shane, Author & Clinical Herbalist
I started this school in 1999 because I saw a need for a new paradigm of healing – one that treats the whole person, not just the symptoms.
I am not anti-medicine or anti-doctor. But like many of the students who come here, I’ve seen the limits of the mainstream medical model.
Instead of chasing the “magic bullet,” we look for balance.
That might mean choosing herbs and food over antibiotics, nourishing the soil instead of spraying chemicals, or approaching global problems with deeper care and nuance.
Holistic medicine means holistic solutions.
It’s about finding the root cause – not just silencing symptoms.
That’s been my mission since opening this school and working with clients in my clinical practice to teach curious, committed folks like yourself how to heal with the power of plants.
As Seen At:
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American Herbalists Guild Symposium
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Medicines from the Earth Symposium
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International Herb Symposium
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Montana Herb Gathering
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Southeast North Carolina Herb Conference
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Meet our Teachers
Our faculty includes clinical herbalists, ethnobotanists, aromatherapists, farmers, healers, and activists – all with dirt under their fingernails and decades of wisdom to share.
From tropical plant traditions to Appalachian botany, they bring a rich tapestry of lived experience and deep study into every class.
They are here not only to teach you everything they know – but also to show you what it means to live and breathe this work every day. That is what is waiting for you on the other side of herbalism school.
Blue Ridge School is a member of:
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American Herbalists Guild
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NC Herb Association
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United Plant Savers
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Botanical Gardens of Asheville
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Rainforest Action Network
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Our Unique Holistic Herbalism Philosophy
Chinese, traditional, clinical lens, holistic
At the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine, we don’t teach just one tradition – we weave together Western herbalism, Chinese medicine principles, and experiential knowledge from clinical practice into one integrated path.
Blending Western Herbalism with Chinese Medicine
We ground our work in the roots of Western herbalism while also teaching through the sensory, pattern-based lens of Chinese medicine. This means we’re not just treating symptoms – we’re asking: what’s the deeper imbalance underneath?
Chinese medicine gives us a framework for seeing patterns in the body and helps us figure out what kind of person we’re treating, not just what condition they have.
We don’t want to just memorize herbs for diseases. We ask: what’s the whole picture? And which plants bring it back to balance?
Clinically Oriented Herbalism
With more than 30 years of experience seeing clients in a clinical herbalism practice, we teach what we have seen work – again and again – in real people. We teach how to work with health and disease, how to treat the whole person, and how to start thinking like a practitioner – even if we’re not seeing clients in class.
Holism
Our classes are hands-on and body-centered. We taste herbs, feel them in our bodies, wild-craft medicine, and spend time outside with the plants.
We don’t just want you to know the Latin names or chemical constituents – we want you to build real relationships with the plants.
Because that’s when the real learning happens.
Our school is designed to help you think about health in a different way.
We want you to have the tools to walk into the woods, know the plants, and make medicine with your own hands to support health and well-being.
And the forest is the best classroom there is.
Mission Statement
A new way of looking at life.
The mission of the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine is to help students heartfully connect with nature, the collective, and themselves through an awareness of body and ecology to promote healing in the world.
The goal of the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine is to teach students how to identify, harvest, and use the abundance of plants that grow all around us. By understanding herbal medicine, students will grasp how they can work to harmonize imbalances and improve health.
Our Founder Wrote a Book!
Yes, that is who you will learn from – a published author!
CoreyPine Shane’s first major book, Southeast Medicinal Plants, is a trusted field guide to 100+ healing herbs of the southeastern U.S. It’s packed with plant ID tips, ethical harvesting guidance, and real-world uses.
Order directly through us and you’ll also get a free bonus PDF with extra teachings that didn’t fit in the book:
A harvesting calendar
The Chinese energetics of American herbs
5 questions to ask to find the right plant
…and an ebook!
Find natural relief with plants.
CoreyPine Shane’s ebook Herbs for Pain is a 35-page guide covering nerve pain, muscle aches, cramps, inflammation, and even migraines. Readers call it “an excellent teaching tool, reference and gift” that blends specific knowledge, personal experience, and humor – making it both enjoyable and helpful.
Increase your Herbal IQ!
Check out these podcasts featuring CoreyPine
Herbs with Rosalee
https://www.herbalremediesadvice.org/podcast.html
Coming soon!
Mountain Rose Herbs - Herbal Radio
“Get Passionate for Plants with Herbal Matchmaking”
Herb Rally
https://www.herbrally.com/herbalist-hour/coreypine-shane
“Blending TCM & Western Herbalism with CoreyPine Shane”
Wild Herbs with April
“Blue Vervain & Nourishing the Nervous System”
https://www.wildherbacademy.com/podcasts/wild-herbs-with-april/episodes/2148338521
Herb Mentor Radio
https://www.learningherbs.com/podcasts/herb-mentor-radio/episodes/2148582446
“CoreyPine Shane: Southeast Medicinal Plants & Herbal Matchmaking”
Plant Love Radio
https://plantloveradio.com/herbal-tonics-coreypine-shane/
“Herbal Tonics with CoreyPine Shane”
Sage and Spirit
https://dancingsagewellness.com/podcast
“The Herbal First Aid Kit”
We’re so passionate about wildcrafting and medicine making, we started our own tincture line.
Pine’s Herbals offers fresh, bioregional herbal tinctures – ethically wildcrafted and clinically formulated by CoreyPine Shane.
Pine’s Herbals Featured Products
Herbal Synergy in a Bottle.
Your herbal tool for taming the stress beast.
We’ve recruited 6 of the most powerful stress-busting herbs to create De-Stress, a superhero dream-team of a tincture that stops tension in its tracks. Anxiety, worry, insomnia, and nerve pain are no match for these potent plants.
This elixir is made from Holy Basil or Tulsi, a different species of basil than what we make pesto from. It is relaxing, heart-opening and enhances feelings of devotion. It can be taken by itself or a teaspoon or 2 can be mixed with soda water to make a delicious and relaxing herbal soda.
Promotes proper liver function and detoxification.
Imagine
You are sitting by a lovely little creek,
watching the wind stir the sycamore leaves, carrying the scent of pine to you.
You sip warm, delicious tea – crafted just for your unique constitution – though you don’t yet know all the plant friends lending their magic to it.
A rising excitement fills your chest as you realize that soon, you’ll not only know these plants by name, but also how they heal people, where they grow, and what your ancestors have called them for thousands of years.
This is what is waiting for you at the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine.
This is where your story begins.
Let us show you the way.