Reviews

Review Details

• Review fromNancy H.

  Date: 02/14/2024

  2 stars

  Nancy H.

  Date: 02/14/2024

  Buyer beware of Lily K******, dba Roots + Rizomes, Haven Herbs, and others. Lily recently advertised her herbalism course stressing the importance of “in-person” learning. I agree; it is precisely the reason six classmates and I took her “Foundation of Western Herbalism” class in ********, Ohio, beginning March 2022. Although Lily is reasonably knowledgeable, she was quickly disinterested in her “baby herbalists” and was annoyed if a classmate knew something she didn’t. The opportunity to learn from other classmates was fabulous; Lily was irritated by the time we spent sharing. Lily moved to West Virginia 8 months into our 16-month course ($1600), she rescheduled one class to the end of the course and promised to honor her commitment and travel to ******** monthly for the remaining 7 classes. That lasted 3 months when she announced all future classes would be on Zoom. We indicated that we did not wish to continue the class via Zoom and requested a refund for the remaining classes; Lily refused and cited her written no refunds policy. We would not have taken an on-line herbalism class from Lily; there are many other on-line classes. We felt strongly that a prorated refund was in order; Lily would not budge. We later learned that the attrition rate for Lily’s classes is in the neighborhood of 50%. Lily issues no refunds, only the ability to get a discount on a future class. While declaring disdain for capitalism, Lily is very focused on the money. It is important to note, while Lily calls herself a “community” herbalist, she has in effect been practicing “clinical” herbalism. Two of my classmates had serious negative reactions to protocols Lily suggested and Lily was dismissive of their concerns. Herbalists are not licensed and there is no supervising agency for their practices. There is only a "certification" through the American Herbalist Guild that Lily has chosen not to complete. Do your homework on Lily K****** before you take her class or seek her advice.

  Haven Herbs LLC

  Date: 02/16/2024

  ***** was asked to leave my class and this is her passive aggressive way of not dealing with her issues and trying to sabotage my reputation online instead. I have been an educator since the 90's and an herbalist for 21 years. I have never experienced this level of absurdity in all my days. I have always talked about the different ways to be an herbalist and while I am indeed a trained clinician, I did not seek the AHG RH certification, because I choose to be a community herbalist first and foremost. This dos not mean that I do not have the training to be a clinician- it means I did not seek a certoficate that is optional. I am a member fo the AHG and have been since 2014, when ******* ***** ran the organization. The different ays to show up as an herbalist was discussed many times throughout the class and I teach people about their options, whether or not I have chosen them myself. She represents that I was hiding this- absolutely not. It says this clearly on my website and I talk about it in class multiple times. She was told at the outset of this class that refunds were not possible. That policy is on my website and in the syllabus- available before you even sign up or pay anything. What ***** is truly angry about is not discussed in her review, and that is deliberate, as I am sure she would find it embarrassing. Instead she is trying to embarrass me. I refuse this mischaracterization. Never in my life have I had to remove a student from my class, but ***** is special. She was a disruptive, divisive person in the class, and dominated discussion, derailed lessons, and inserted her own agenda- month after month. She left very little room for me to teach. She simply tried to run the discussions (with no experience or training) and I had to ask her to leave. Shame on me for letting it go on as long as it did, but eventually- when other students asked if we could focus on learning what was in the syllabus, the first thing I had to do was discuss this with *****. She flew off the handle and tried to mount an insurrection. Instead of the unified "we language" she uses in her review, I will tell you the other students remained and continued to learn. In an 18 month class, there is always attrition. There were two people who chose to leave, around the same time ***** was asked to leave. The rest stayed- the majority of people just wanted to learn and not get involved in drama. I responded to student requests for a refocus and increased the time I was available to them, and we completed the course. Certificates were awarded. As for disclosing personal health information of her classmates in her review- that was her violation of their trust. We all agreed at the start of class not to talk about health issues that come up outside of class, whether it's from taking the herb of the month, formulas, or existing conditions that folks have. As budding clinicians, we discussed what was recommended and how the method of trial and error must be employed in a clinical setting with herbs, just like with pharmaceuticals. I am dismayed that ***** would violate the agreement she made with classmates for a personal vendetta against me. If anyone has questions about how classes are run, what the policies are, or how people learn herbalism, I urge them to get in contact with me. We all know the type of person that posts negative rants online. I instead choose to address this once, and move on. I will be doing good work out in the wolrd- free clinics, swaps, and yes, teaching instead.