DATES FOR 2026 COMING SOON
Guatemala
Permaculture for the Herbalist’s Path
Permaculture for the Herbalist’s Path: A 200-Hour Training in Regenerative Herbalism for Community & Clinical Practitioners
Why Choose Permaculture for the Herbalist’s Path?
Permaculture for the Herbalist’s Path is a unique course that melds two broad interdisciplinary studies, exploring the impact the health of our environment directly has on our personal well-being, specifically working with and alongside medicinal plants.
This 200-hour course covers regenerative lifestyle and design, integrated wellness, herbalism, and community awareness by working with living plants and living people to cultivate resilience.
175 hours of the course are held in person and another 25 are available online, focusing on the philosophical and strategic permaculture teachings.
Topics Covered:
Adaptogenic Plants and Mushrooms for Personal Resilience
Anatomy & Physiology
Botany
Clinical Work
Community Organizing
Decolonization & Cultural Appreciation
Deep Ecology
Diet and Conscious Omnivory
Digestion and the Human Microbiome
Earth Sciences
Ethics & Principles of Permaculture
Fermented Foods
Gaia Theory & Eco-Psycology
Garden Design
Herbalism as Activism
Home and Community Herbalist
Intro & History of Permaculture
Intro to Herbalism
Intro to Social Permaculture
Lunar & Bio Rhythms
Materia Medica
Medicine Making
Mycology
Patterns in Nature
Plant Care & Propagation Techniques
Plants and Mushrooms for Reproductive Health
Resources & Scale of Permanence
Urban Permaculture
Wild Crafting Ethics
Zones & Sectors of your Community
Hands-On Practicals
& Field Trips:
Cultured Foods
Garden Project
Medicine Making
Seed Planting
Indigenous Projects:
Midwife Cooperatives
Bee Keepers
Natural Dyes
Qixaya Permaculture Community
Mushroom Cultivation
Meditations, Movement,
Rituals and Other Activities:
New and Full Moon Rituals
Plant Spirit Medicine Meditations
Mayan Ceremonies
Sharing Circles
Plant Walks
Temezcal
Dances
Soul to Soil Meditation
Tarot Tale
Lead Facilitators
Laura ‘Lala’ Palmieri, walks with the shoes of the biologist, botanical explorer, herbalist, gardener, permaculturist, teacher & biotechnologist, with a life-long work with plants and mushrooms.She created Weaving Remedies, integrating herbs with medicinal mushrooms to strengthen the immune system, nourish the nervous system’s response to stress and balance our constitutional problems. This approach to health integrates the knowledge of many ancient teachers and traditions, as well as spirituality with Nature, science and alchemy through the transformation of the elements.
Her passion about community life led her to be part of Punta Mona and Fungi Academy for several years. Teaching and facilitating herbal clinics and programs in permaculture, herbalism, botany, fermentation, as well as medicinal mushrooms and cultivation, with a regenerative approach to the Earth and techniques that are accessible to most. She’s played a big role in the creation of the Envision and Cosmic Converge Herbal First Aid Clinics, relief Clinics in Guatemala for the volcano eruption and is constantly crafting remedies offered in Guatemala and Costa Rica, supporting many beings in their paths.
Sarah Wu is a clinical herbalist of 23 years, studying and practicing planetary eclectic herbalism with a foundation in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Wise Woman Reclaiming philosophy, focusing on food-based healing and local ethnobotanical traditions. Sarah leads trainings and workshops in herbal medicine, Permaculture Design Courses, Therapeutic Deep Ecology, Social Permaculture, field-to-the-plate holistic nutrition and herbal first aid.
In 2018, Sarah wrote the course curriculum for Permaculture for the Herbalist’s Path and has since developed the program further with Lala Palmieri.
She is a passionate mentor and educator, who believes in the teacher’s role in unlocking the innate wisdom of the student. Sarah is the co-founder of the Village Witches project, and is a Co-Founder and Co-producer of Envision Festival.
Guest Faculty
Thomasa Simaj is local to Tzununá, a single mother, weaver and mushroom grower. We will go to her home to see her production of Oyster mushrooms.
Maria Mejiá and her mother Dominga Martin are midwives from San Marcos who carry the healing art of the Mayan Abdominal Massage. They offer a ceremony and teach a workshop on the technique as well as offer womb care to participants.
Thomas Mendoza Cholotiocarries the medicine of the Mayan Calendar and reads the Nawales. He offers our opening ceremony to welcome us to the land as well as offers readings to students.
Field Trips
Corazon del Lago women’s weaving and dying cooperative. Here students will learn about the medicinal plants that are worked with in the traditional textiles and get to dye their own items and even take a spin on the spindle.
We visit with the midwives of the Q’Omaneel association and learn about their favorite plants for health and healing while taking a nice cup of tea and checking out their demonstration garden.
I love the way Sarah’s thorough wisdom animates the world and lifts the veil to perceive the subtle poetry all around us. Her lectures and creative exercises inspire a contemplative mood that opens the way for the vulnerable reflections needed for an insight to settle deep within us. Whether it’s about plants or the stars, she knows how to ground esoteric knowledge with the precision and discipline I want to fully trust their truth in my path. I really enjoy the way she weaves play and humor into her style, too! Sarah carries a lively, nurturing, thought-provoking presence.
By understanding patterns in the environment with a permaculture lens, I was able to see the unharmonious patterns within myself and through repetition of practice and observation, I gained confidence in working with, cultivating and studying plants.
This course (permaculture for the herbalist’s path) exceeded my expectations. Everyday I felt deep gratitude for all the knowledge and wisdom I was gaining. Sarah and Lala are genuine and knowledgeable teachers. I loved learning from them and the entire community. I feel so deeply in my heart that this course will change my life and the way I show up for the earth and my community.
I am so grateful I took this transformational program! Not only did I get to much education and information, but the experience with the people in the program and the beauty of Lake Atitlan was incredible
This was such a special course for me. All the content was great and so well organized, balanced with activities and class time. I loved how not only I learned about the material but about myself and who I am in community, where I am in my journey and where I am going. Thank you for holding this space of healing for us. I will always treasure this experience. I could feel how intentional everything was and that means the world. Please keep offering and sharing your gifts because it moves mountains.
Taking part in Permaculture for the Herbalists path was one of the best gifts I have ever given myself.
All of the the teachers facilitators are incredibly knowledgeable and share their experience with so much passion, making every lesson fun and informative. The course content is vast and goes deep into the world of plants, people and permaculture. Weaving them together beautifully through the concept of Human Ecology. I came in with a deep desire to learn and left feeling confident in my ability to continue growing on the path of herbalism and permaculture with integrity.
Through plant walks, medicine making workshops, ceremony, classes, open discussions and hands on experience we learned to better understand the language of plants as well as how to work with them and the earth in more harmonious ways.
Bambu where the course was held is located in one of the most magical places on earth, amongst the lake and volcanoes and hosted us lovingly with delicious locally grown meals, comfy rooms and a sweet caring staff.
