Elemental Bodywork: :
Integrating Herbs and Natural Therapies
18-Hour | 2-Day In-Person Continuing Education Training
A hands-on, heart-centered training for licensed massage therapists who feel called to work with plants, touch, and the elements in a grounded, ethical, and professionally sound way.
Course Overview
As massage therapists, we know the body speaks.
It speaks through tissue, breath, temperature, rhythm, and response.
In this course, we deepen that conversation by listening to the plants as well.
Elemental Topical Herbal Applications for Massage Therapists is an immersive, in-person training that explores how topical medicinal plants, combined with skilled touch and the intelligent use of heat and cool, can support the body’s natural healing processes.
This work lives at the meeting point of traditional plant wisdom and modern professional practice. You will learn how to make your own herbal preparations, understand their energetic qualities, and apply them thoughtfully within massage therapy sessions, always honoring scope of practice, safety, and the trust our clients place in our hands.
What You’ll Learn
Over two full days together, you will:
- Explore how topical medicinal plants support muscles, joints, nerves, and connective tissue
- Learn foundational herbal energetics (warming, cooling, moving, soothing, tissue-supportive)
- Create and work with your own:
- Infused herbal oils
- Liniments
- Herbal compresses
- Poultices
- Learn when, why, and how to use each preparation
- Work intentionally with heat, cold, and contrast therapy to support circulation, inflammation, and recovery
- Practice integrating herbal applications into massage therapy sessions with clarity and confidence
- Strengthen your ability to communicate with clients around consent, sensitivity, and aftercare
Plants, Touch & the Elements
This course is rooted in the understanding that healing happens through relationship.
Plants offer their medicine through energetics and action cooling what is inflamed, warming what is stagnant, and supporting tissues as they repair and reorganize.
Touch listens. Massage therapy allows us to feel where the body is holding, guarding, or ready to soften.
Heat & Cool therapy guide the process opening, calming, moving, or settling the tissues and nervous system.
When these elements are woven together with intention, the work becomes both deeply practical and quietly profound.
Hands-On Medicine Making
This is a learning-by-doing course.
Participants will prepare and work with a variety of topical herbal medicines, including infused oils, liniments, compresses, and poultices. You will leave with your own prepared medicines and a felt understanding of how to use them skillfully and professionally with clients.
Course Format
• In-person, experiential training
• 18 total hours over 2 days
• Day 1: 9 hours
• Day 2: 9 hours
The weekend includes lecture, demonstration, guided hands-on practice, and a supervised clinical integration practicum.
Continuing Education, Tuition & Beta Details
This training is currently being offered as a beta course while final NCBTMB approval is completed.
- 18 NCBTMB Continuing Education Hours
- Credits will be awarded retroactively once approval is finalized
- Retroactive CE credit is permitted for up to one year following course submission
- Tuition is offered at a significantly reduced beta rate
Your tuition includes:
- All instruction and supervised hands-on practice
- Shared herbal materials during class
- Course handouts and learning materials
- Certificate of completion
- Retroactive NCBTMB CE credits once approved
Optional herbal practice kits may be available.
This beta offering is intentionally small to preserve the quality of instruction and care.
I am inviting five licensed massage therapists who feel drawn to:
- Working with plants in a grounded, respectful way
- Expanding their therapeutic toolkit
- Learning through direct experience
- Holding a thoughtful, engaged learning space together
Scope, Safety & Professional Integrity
This course is held with clear professional boundaries:
- External use of herbs only
- No diagnosing or prescribing
- Careful attention to contraindications and skin sensitivity
- Clear client communication and informed consent
- Alignment with massage therapy scope of practice
