Curanderismo and Community Herbalist Mentorship + Apprenticeship Program for BIPOC- Online

Join Tierra Rituals’ Curanderismo & Community Herbalist Mentorship + Apprenticeship Program, led by Lidia Ruelo-Salazar. This online two-year learning journey welcomes Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, including people of mixed heritage and QTBIPOC, who want to deepen their relationship with ancestral wisdom through herbalism, Curanderismo, and community care. The program brings together study of body systems and herbal allies, plant medicine making, ancestral teachings and ceremonies, and holistic practices that honor the mind, body, spirit, and our relationships with one another and the land. Rooted in healing justice, harm reduction, and transformative justice, the program explores how culturally rooted care can support personal healing and community well-being. Whether you’re deepening your personal practice, exploring herbal care in community or clinical settings, developing plant-based products, or sharing herbal education, this program offers space to learn and grow.

You may complete Year 1 on its own or continue into Year 2.

Key Components

• Building Relationships with Plant Relatives: Develop relationships with selected plants through observation, listening, research, medicine making, gratitude, and reciprocity. Students create a personal materia medica through plant monographs and shared learning.

• Herbal Support for the Human Body: Explore anatomy, physiology, body systems, herbal actions, and energetics. Study how plants are prepared and used in relationship to different systems of the body.

• Plant Medicine Making: Learn foundational and intermediate preparations, including oxymels, bitters, infusions, decoctions, tinctures, oils, salves, teas, syrups, and other remedies. Coursework includes hands-on practice and projects to continue at home.

• Ancestral Medicine and Curanderismo: Learn about Curanderismo practices and teachings, including limpias, barridas, los aires, ceremony, spiritual hygiene, discernment, and fire tending, while honoring the diversity of students’ lineages.

• Clinical Herbal Foundations: Explore herbal formulation, materia medica, case studies, and community herbal first aid. Consider how herbal knowledge can be applied thoughtfully in community and clinical settings. Opportunities to support quarterly clinics will be available.

• Healing Justice and Community Care: Engage healing justice, harm reduction, transformative justice, reproductive and gender justice, and disability justice. Explore mutual aid and culturally rooted ways of supporting community well-being.

• Pláticas and Emotional Support: Practice heart-centered dialogue, healthy boundaries, and care that honors each person’s choices and self-determination.

• Don, Discernment, and the Healer’s Path: Reflect on personal gifts, responsibilities, and the ways healing practices can be carried forward with humility, care, and respect.

Program Pathways- Year 1

• BIPOC cohort: Online learning and monthly in-person gatherings.

• QTBIPOC cohort: Online learning and monthly in-person gatherings.

• Online-only cohort: Online learning every Thursday 6:30pm-9pm. Students receive a curated materials kit by mail for hands-on projects. Although this cohorts classes are online, students are also invited to join the annual camping trip and/or all-day retreat in person.

Guest Instructors and Graduate Fellows

Lidia Ruelo-Salazar will teach most of the program. Guest instructors and Tierra Rituals graduate fellows will contribute specialized teachings in areas such as herbal allies, body systems, medicine making, and community care. Graduate fellows are program graduates selected to share knowledge they’ve developed through their studies and practice, , along with the unique medicine each carries.

Individual Mentorship

Year 1 mentees receive a 30 min- one-hour individual session with Lidia every other month, focused on their herbal learning, practice, and personal growth.

Certificate of Completion for Year 1: Foundations in Ancestral Healing & Community Herbalism

Upon completing the first 9-month segment, participants will receive a Foundations in Ancestral Healing & Community Herbalism certificate. This certificate acknowledges your commitment to learning traditional and intermediate medicine-making, ancestral curanderismo practices, herbal monographs, and the study of body systems within the Tierra Rituals framework. It serves as a milestone in your ongoing journey as a healer and herbalist, highlighting your dedication to serving with humility, integrity, and a deep respect for ancestral wisdom.

Please Note: Herbalism is not a legally certified profession in the United States at the federal level. The certificates provided by Tierra Rituals are intended to honor your personal journey, education, and commitment to ancestral healing practices. While organizations like the American Herbalists Guild (AHG) offer voluntary certifications, there is no federal or state licensure for herbalists in the U.S.

Our certificates are a reflection of your dedication to learning and practicing herbalism within a framework of ancestral wisdom and community care. They symbolize the knowledge and skills you have gained through this program but do not grant legal authority to diagnose, treat, or prescribe for medical conditions. We encourage all participants to practice herbalism ethically and to continue learning and growing in their practice.