Support the Resistance - An Herbalism Clinical Skill

When you’re using your herbal skills to help others – whether you’re doing that as a Clinical Herbalist in private practice, volunteering in your community, or even just caring for your own family – it becomes obvious pretty fast that your herbal knowledge is only part of the skillset you need.

You also need to creatively adapt what you know, so that it will actually work in that person’s life. Since every body is different, different strategies work for different people. Holistic herbalists are never trying to present “one right way” that everyone has to adhere to.

Which means that as herbalists, we need to be creative and flexible. We need to match our strategies to each person’s life individually – and that creativity can be challenging!

That’s one of the skills that we teach in our Clinical Skills course. Today’s episode is a segment of content on this topic, from that course, which we wanted to share with you. It’s self-contained, but it’ll also give you a peek into what our course material sounds like.

When we talk to a client, we listen to their health goals and priorities. We also form our own understanding of the case, and our own thoughts about what to prioritize – which herbs and interventions to try first. Here’s the thing: their priorities are more important than ours! If we discern some fundamental factor they aren’t aware of, it’s our job to teach them why it’s a priority. It’s our job to educate and negotiate – not to dictate.

Sometimes we’ll propose an idea and the client will be uncertain, or will outright reject it. When this happens, it’s not helpful to insist they follow our instructions. That’s not the relationship we have as herbalists – we’re not doctors, giving “orders”. So when the client expresses some resistance, we respect it. That respect may look like offering more information and context, or it may look like going in another direction entirely.

The motto for this mindset is: Support the resistance.

It’s easier said than done – but learning to do it is something we consider essential to the herbalist’s skillset.

If this episode caught your attention, then our Clinical Skills course is for you! Learn to practice legally, safely, collaboratively, and effectively. Get all your client forms & scheduling systems sorted. Cultivate consultation interview skills, and explore methods for planning personalized protocols. Everything you need to be a top-notch herbalist!

Like all our offerings, this self-paced online video course comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!

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Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.

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You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!