Pre-Conference Events
14th Annual Midwest Women's Herbal Conference
Embracing Generosity, Care, and Creativity
Featuring Keynote Speakers:
Robin Wall Kimmerer • Gail Faith Edwards • Cornelia Cho, MD
Pre-Conference events take place Wednesday, May 22 - Friday, May 24, 2025
at Camp Helen Brachman in Almond, WI
Treat yourself to a 2 -day Intensive, 1 -day Immersion, or 3-hour Workshop! These learning opportunities happen during the week leading up to the Midwest Women's Herbal Conference (you don't need to be registered for the main Conference to take a Pre-Conference Workshop, Immersion, or Intensive - all Pre-Conference events will wrap up before the main Conference begins). You can also sign up for multiple Pre-Conference events - just make sure the times don't conflict!
Pre-Conference 2-Day Intensives & I-Day Immersions
These classes offer a special opportunity to take a deep dive into a specific topic in a smaller group with top-notch teachers.
Pre-Conference 3-Hour Workshops
Workshops that offer attendees the chance to deepen and expand their skills and knowledge in 3-hour workshops happening Thursday and Friday before the Midwest Women's Herbal Conference.
Pre-Conference 2 -day Intensives
Wednesday, May 21- Thursday, May 22 | 9am-5pm
Fine tuning the Clinical Practice of Herbal Medicine: The Consideration of Constitution, Energetics and Body Signs with Althea Northage Orr
2-Day Intensive on Herbal Energetics and Diagnostics
This intensive will focus on three primary aspects critical to developing an effective clinical protocol. The first day will focus on learning how to judge the constitutional state of the patient, and how it affects the direction of the protocol. We will look at the constitutional “types” of both the West and Traditional Chinese Medicine and learn how to map the energetics both of the typical patterns of the patient, and in their current state. We will look at pulse diagnosis in a simplified form, tongue analysis, and overall consideration of body fluids.
Day Two will continue to look at energetics, but consider how to judge the energetic pattern of a particular illness and how to look at staging illness from the standpoint of depth, seriousness, and the direction it is most likely to move. We will then consider common herbs from the same standpoint. Which are best at which stage, what are their energetics and how can we utilize them most effectively. While this intensive is meant to be accessible to those with little (or no) energetic background, a solid knowledge of the herbal repertory and herbal actions will be useful.
Wednesday, May 21- Thursday, May 22 | 9am-5pm
Sharing Medicine: Herbal Home Remedies Community Tending and Mending; Making and Sharing Medicine with Mimi Hernandez
2-Day Intensive on Maladies, Remedies and Recipes with Hands-On Medicine Making: In these times, community and self-care are essential, and the wisdom of herbalism offers us a gentle path forward. Whether we're nurturing our loved ones, connecting with neighbors, or caring for ourselves and our families, simple acts of kindness and healing can bring a warm comfort during challenging moments.
Imagine delivering healing teas, nourishing soups, and herb infused vinegars to a friend's porch, visiting an expectant mother with thoughtful herbal elixirs, or sending a care package filled with kitchen love to someone feeling under the weather. This journey invites you to explore how we can show up for one another through herbal remedies, delightful recipes, and heartfelt support.
We will explore a rich array of herbal materia medica designed to address a variety of common ailments and discomforts. This immersion invites you to engage with plants firsthand, as we craft home remedies that nourish, heal, and uplift. Specific topics include: Kitchen remedies for cold, flu and immune challenges; Remedies for digestion, gallbladder, and liver maladies; Tending to heart health and heart malaise; Mending bones, tending wounds, soothing sprains and burns; Nourishment for the journey of maiden, motherhood, and beyond; and, Calming nerve restoratives for challenging moments. Handouts will be provided.
Wednesday, May 21- Thursday, May 22 | 9am-5pm
ELEMENTAL: Seasonal Rituals for Wild Embodiment
A 2-Day Intensive Relating to the Five Elements of East Asian Medicine: Embody the Elements within and all around you. Track seasonal shifts through the Five Elements map from East Asian medicine traditions, finding resonance with your unique Elemental patterning. You are the swirling Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal of this land. Feel it. Move it. Write it. Be it.
We will meditate, move, write, create, and interact with each Element season by season, indoors and outdoors. Explore nature journaling, acupressure aromatherapy, seasonal materia medica, classical Elemental associations, Process Mapping, and intuitive movement in seasonal rituals for wild embodiment!
Pre-Conference 1 -day Immersions
Thursday, May 22, 2025 | 9am-5pm
The Continuous Weave with Black Ash
with April Stone, Ojibwe Master Black Ash Basket Weaver
For this one-day workshop, participants will be weaving a fully functioning basket capable of harvest and storage, to take home. Working mainly with knife and scissors, participants will experience cutting and laying out of their pre-harvested and pre-shrunk, choice black ash splint material in order to create a square or rectangular bottomed, diagonally plaited basket, complete with a choice of straight or saw-tooth rim.
This basket style incorporates a warp (uprights) and weft (weavers) into the making of a very useful and structurally sound harvest or storage basket made using locally harvested and hand-processed, choice Black Ash sapwood and heartwood splint. Students will learn firsthand what it means to shape a basket through “tension” as they work intimately with such flexible material. The finished basket will measure approx. 7” x 7” x 7” for a square bottom or 5” x 11” x 5” for a rectangular bottom, upon completion.
Note: All materials and tools will be provided by the instructor. There is a $35 Material Fee to be paid to the presenter directly.
Thursday, May 22 | 9am-5pm
Family-Directed Funeral Workshop with Liz Franklin, Susan Nesbit & Tracey Mangold of Threshold Care Circle
Until the latter part of the 19th century, most people were born and died in their own homes. When they were born, their family cared for them; when they died, their family cared for them. Dying, like birthing, was integrated into living.
Please join Susan Nesbit, Tracy Mangold, and Liz Franklin for our Family-Directed Funeral Workshop. In this 1-day workshop, participants will gain the information and hands-on practice skills needed to care for family members after death at home. Everyone will understand how to carry out a home or family-directed funeral, with or without the services of a funeral director.
Topics include:
• Meeting legal requirements and acquiring the necessary paperwork
• Care of the Body, Creating Sacred Space, and Home Vigils
• Family Direct Cremation & Green Burial options
Pre-Conference 3-Hour Workshops
Thursday, May 22, 2025
Thursday, May 22, 2025 | 2-5pm
Herbs for Magick! with Judith Laxer
Magick is a way of being, a way of living, one that elevates our sense of delight and enjoyment. In a world becoming increasingly more fractured and socially isolated, we can live in a way that is beautifully connected and wonderfully inspiring by aligning with the moon, the sun, and the realm of the Deva. The practice of magick vanquishes loneliness, enhances joy, and is the fertile ground of our personal empowerment. In this workshop, we will drop more deeply into our relationship with herbs for magick-making through guided reflection, chanting, and direct experience with the use of herbs to shift the state of our being. This workshop is for those who wish to increase their sensuality, become adept at the use of herbs in spellcasting, and want to infuse their life with an embodied sense of spiritual union and reciprocity with the plants we love.
Thursday, May 22, 2025 | 6:30-9:30pm
Dreaming with the Ancestors: An Immersive Journey into Southern Italian Dream Work with Gail Faith Edwards
In this workshop, journey into the mystical realm of Southern Italian dream work. Through guided practices, storytelling, and ritual, explore how dreams have been used to connect with ancestral wisdom, receive healing messages, and cultivate personal insight. Participants will learn traditional techniques for dream interpretation, create their own dream amulet, and leave with practices to deepen their relationship with the dream world. This is an invitation to step into a sacred space where the ancient wisdom of Southern Italy meets the inner landscapes of modern dreamers.
Thursday, May 22, 2025 | 6:30-9:30pm
History, Epigenetics, Psychoneuroimmunology and Patient Zero with Gina Perez Baron
In this course, we will reach way back to “Patient Zero” to understand current times. Using our own lineages, we will look at how ancestors shape biology, build our emotional lens, and create our cognitive map. Through psycho-neuro-immunology, we will review our own social determinants and how they impact our health and wellness. Finally, we will explore what some “Old Ways” say about thriving in challenging times.
Thursday, May 22, 2025 | 6:30-9:30pm
Community Herbalism in Disaster Situations with Leah Wolfe
Preparing for disasters can be an act of empowerment on a personal and community level. Herbal street medic Leah Wolfe will take you on a journey of bringing healing to disaster situations. Listen to stories, enter scenarios, walk with the plants, and practice herbal techniques to help you increase your confidence and hone your skills in assessing and responding to emergent situations. Immerse yourself in the healing potential of herbs in challenging times.
Pre-Conference 3-Hour Workshops
Friday, May 23, 2025
Friday, May 23, 2025 | 9am-12pm
Sip, Savor, and Heal: The Magic of Cacao Ceremony with Crystal Dawn Silas
In this cacao ceremony with Dr. Crystal Dawn, participants will journey into the heart of this sacred plant’s history and healing power. After exploring cacao’s role in traditional cultures, we will enter a guided ceremony designed to open the heart, quiet the mind, and connect us to the earth. Experience the transformative power of cacao as we share in a meaningful ritual for inner peace and connection.
Friday, May 23, 2025 | 9am-12pm
For The Honorable Harvest: Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainability
with Robin Wall Kimmerer
In this 3-hour workshop, Robin will talk about the Honorable Harvest, focusing on indigenous philosophy and practices that contribute to sustainability and conservation. She will share approaches to how Indigenous knowledge can contribute to a transformation in how we view our relationship to consumption and move us away from a profoundly dishonorable relationship with the Earth.
