FHC 2026 – Intensive – Tending the Wounded Heart: Trauma-Informed Herbalism for Grief & Resilience with Emily Ruff

$50.00

In an era of escalating climate anxiety, collective loss, and personal upheaval, our communities desperately need trauma-literate herbalists who can hold space for the wounded heart. This intensive workshop bridges clinical understanding with plant wisdom, equipping practitioners to support those navigating acute trauma, prolonged grief, and the long shadow of unresolved loss.

Date: Sunday March 15, 2026

Tuition: $50 / Early Bird Tuition: $40 until February 15, 2026

Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm EST

Platform: Live, In Person

Location: The Carter Center @ Bill Frederick Park At Turkey Lake, 3401 South Hiawassee Road, Orlando, FL 32835

3 CEUs are available to Massage Therapists, Dietitians, Nurses & Midwives in the state of Florida through CE Broker for students who successfully complete the course through attendance and submission of assignments. To add CEU credits to your enrollment, click here. An additional $15 educational credit processing fee will apply.

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2026 Florida Herbal Conference - General Registration

This memorable event is designed for herbal enthusiasts of any level and vocation to learn from each other, as well as our keynote speaker, teachers, and the plants themselves. We will build relationships with our herbal sisters and brothers, meet vendors with services and goods that bolster our passions in herbalism, and we’ll get grounded in our practice through education, fellowship, and community in nature. All the while, we’ll dance and sing along with uplifting musicians.

Date: March 14, 2026    Time: 9am - 5pm EST

Tuition: $60 / Early Bird is $40 until January 16th, 2026

Location: Bill Frederick Park At Turkey Lake
Address: 3401 South Hiawassee Road, Orlando, FL 32835

Level: All are welcome! This will be great for everyone from budding herbalists to the advanced practitioner!

5 CEUs are available to Massage Therapists, Dietitians, Nurses & Midwives in the state of Florida through CE Broker for students who attend the conference. To add CEU credits to your enrollment, click here. An additional $15 educational credit processing fee will apply.

Be sure to bring your water bottle, your favorite note taking tools. Please reach out to info@floridaherbalconference.org with any questions or concerns. 

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FHC 2026 - Intensive - EEK! Using herbs for anxiety and overwhelm with Jim McDonald

Stress - both personal and systemic - is one of the largest obstacles to wellness, depleting our bodies of the energy and ease needed to maintain health, digest our food, fight off infection, and keep us happy & smiling. All too many of us feel like we’re swimming upstream or in a constant state of “fight or flight”, even if we’re just standing in our kitchen. Fortunately, there are a myriad assortment of herbs not only known to offer a calming influence, but which act in a restorative manner upon the nervous system as well.

Join herbalist Jim McDonald in a discussion of the herbs and behaviors that will support us through times of stress and strain, whether it be due to acute trauma or just trying to keep up with the unsustainable pace of life that surrounds us. With a focus on energetics & specific indications, we’ll look at a number of herbs that can support us through hard times, emphasizing how plants can help specific manifestations of stress, from overwhelm to outbursts to heartache.

Date: March 15, 2026

Tuition: $50 / Early Bird: $40 until February 15, 2026

Time: 1:00-4:00 pm EST

Platform: Live, In Person

Location: The Carter Center @ Bill Frederick Park At Turkey Lake, 3401 South Hiawassee Road, Orlando, FL 32835 

Be sure to bring your water bottle and your favorite note-taking tools. We will have a variety of teas and filtered water available. Please reach out to our office@holisticlivingschool.org with any questions or concerns.

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Description

In an era of escalating climate anxiety, collective loss, and personal upheaval, our communities desperately need trauma-literate herbalists who can hold space for the wounded heart. This intensive workshop bridges clinical understanding with plant wisdom, equipping practitioners to support those navigating acute trauma, prolonged grief, and the long shadow of unresolved loss.

Please review this link for our school’s tuition and cancellation policies.

Instructor: Emily Ruff

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Photo by Herb Swanson

Emily Ruff is a community herbalist who has practiced the art and science of plant healing for over a decade. Her studies have taken her around three continents where she has studied under healers of many traditions. Her background in gardening and botany came in childhood while wandering the wilderness and digging in the sandy soils of Florida with her grandfather, a tobacco farmer turned urban gardener, and her father, a botany and astronomy professor. Her journey into herbalism continued through apprenticeships in Guatemala under the tutelage of local healers on the southern coast of Lake Atitlan, in the mountains of Vermont at the feet of Rosemary Gladstar, and in the Central Florida apothecary Leaves & Roots with herbalists Carolyn Whitford and George D’Arcy. Emily’s academic studies include Ethnobotany, Philosophy, and Women’s Studies at the University of Central Florida and Curanderismo with the University of New Mexico. She is a Bach Flower Registered Practitioner.

Emily’s dedication to preserving bioregional medicinal plant traditions and ecosystems led her to become active in the organization United Plant Savers. Inspired by a need for greater connection among her regional community, she founded the Florida Herbal Conference event in 2012, an event that continues to sell out annually. In past years, she served multiple terms as president of the Herb Society of Central Florida and as co-founder of Homegrown Local Food Cooperative. Most recently, in response to the tragic shooting at Pulse Nightclub, Emily founded the Orlando Grief Care Project. From the community relationships cultivated through the national response to this tragedy, Emily formed the Herbal Action Network to continue weaving the web of compassionate herbalism into community engagement. Emily is an instructor in the Herbal Academy Advanced Herbal Training Course. Sharing her time between Florida and Vermont, she currently serves as director of the Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary.

Emily’s classes have been described as “heart-filled,” “enriching,” and “empowering,” creating a bridge between the teachings of our ancestors and the technologies of our modern world. Emily can be found in joy cooking, practicing yoga, writing, photographing flora, creating music with family and friends, and digging her fingers in the dirt. The plants continue to be her greatest teachers.

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