Let nature be our teacher.

Field trips in the Master of Science in Herbal medicine program enrich the curriculum and are an integral part of a student's advancement through the program. The Washington/Baltimore metro area is a prime location for the Institute as it offers many unique resources, including easy access to the National Arboretum, the Library of Congress, the United States Botanical Garden Conservatory, the National Institute of Health's Library of Medicine, as well as local farms and garden centers.

In addition to local field trips, students will travel to Rutland, Ohio in the first year of study. Herbal medicine students will visit the United Plant Savers Sanctuary and the native environment of some of the most important indigenous medicinal plants of the United States. Students will spend 4-5 days working intimately with natural plant communities, improving their field botany skills, developing an awareness of the importance of preserving natural plant communities, and manufacturing extracts. The site of the sanctuary is approximately 6-7 hours from the Tai Sophia campus. Students may opt to camp or pay for lodging. The cost of lodging and activities are covered within the program.

Each class engages in a "preparation for clinic" retreat at the end of the 5th trimester. We set up camp in well equipped log cabins of Cacapon State Park in  the rugged but beautiful Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, a two hour drive from Tai Sophia.  The intention of the clinical retreat is to acknowledge the student's rite of passage from the primarily academic portion of the program to the delivery of client care. It is an opportunity for the students to re-balance and realign themselves in the bounties of nature while reflecting on the concept of "healing presence". It is a time of both celebration and introspection.

Time is spent both in group exercises and ceremony such as the honoring of mentors and ancestors and collecting symbolic objects for personal and group medicine bags, plus time is set aside for quiet contemplation, nature walks and rejuvenating spa treatments in the nearby town of Berkeley Springs. We also visit a local homeopathic medicine factory to see how homeopathics are manufactured.