The mission of the Pennsylvania School of Herbalism is to bring knowledge of holistic herbalism and healing plants to our regional community in an accessible and reverent way. We are committed to working within a holistic framework that emphasizes the mind-body-spirit connections of health and healing. We are also deeply committed to honoring our beautiful, local landscape and working with plants in a reciprocal way, which includes sustainable harvesting, wild tending, and reverent growing practices. We are also very committed to creating herbalism that is accessible for all through financial accessibility with sliding-scale payment options; offering education in multiple formats; support for diverse people and learning styles, and an emphasis on tactile, hands-on, and experiential learning. Our goal is to root our herbalism in our local ecosystem, with an emphasis both on local abundant plants and mushrooms and protecting at-risk species.
The Pennsylvania School of Herbalism was founded at the Spring Equinox in 2024 by sisters Briel Beaty and Dana O’Driscoll. Both Dana and Briel have teaching herbalism for over a decade in Western and Central Pennsylvania. This includes teaching herbal classes, leading plant walks, teaching holistic health, growing herbs, regenerating our local ecosystem, and supporting plant-human connections. Our practices and training are rooted in traditional Western herbalism and holistic health. We founded the school out of a need for regionally-based herbal education and out of a desire to help our communities learn more about reconnecting with the ecosystem in our beautiful region.
About Briel Beaty
Briel is a Traditional Western Herbalist, Reiki and Yoga instructor offering classes in the State College, PA area. Briel grew up embedded in the PA woods and dabbled in herbalism throughout her life until she began her formal herbal studies. She started her formal herbal studies with Susan Hess in 2014 with a year-long Homestead Herbalism Certificate course. Following that she moved on to study at the The Northeast School of Botanical Medicine with herbalist/botanist 7Song, taking his 400-hour Community Herbalism Intensive. After the course she went on to apprentice with him through 2017. To schedule a private consultation with Briel contact us or book at Calendly.
Briel’s Herbalism Specializations:
- Clinical herbalism and plant-pharmaceutical interactions
- Homestead herbalism (growing, medicine making)
- Wellness and nutrition
- Women’s Health
- Movement and energy-based healing modalities (reiki, yoga)
- Children’s herbalism
- Anxiety and nervines
- Botany
About Dana O’Driscoll
Dana O’Driscoll is a traditional western herbalist, certified permaculture designer, certified permaculture teacher, writer, and botanical artist residing on a five-acre homestead in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. Dana is a graduate of the 2014 Lindera Herbal Intensive with Michigan Folk Herbalist Jim McDonald, and has continued her herbal education since then by specializing in medicinal mushrooms and crafting wild medicines. She has been teaching herbalism and offering plant walks in Indiana County, PA since 2015. As an herbalist, Dana is particularly committed to working with plants that are local and abundant and focusing on plant-based education that allows humans to reconnect and relearn reciprocal relationships with plants. Dana regularly writes for Plant Healer Magazine and Spirituality and Health magazines on herbal and nature-based topics.
Beyond herbalism, Dana is committed to a path of nature spirituality and has been a druid for almost 20 years. She is the author of Sacred Actions: LIving the Wheel of the Year through Earth-Centered Spiritual Practices, Land Healing: Physical, Metaphysical and Regenerative Approaches to Healing the Earth, and the Sacred Actions JOurnal. As a nature artist, she is currently completing her certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration and has created the Tarot of Trees, Plant Spirit Oracle, and TreeLore Oracle. Dana is deeply committed to the regeneration and protection of the Allegheny mountains and living in a reciprocal, reverent way with the living earth.
Dana’s Herbalism Specializations
- Medicinal Mushrooms
- Foraging for herbal medicine, plant walks, botany, and plant identification
- Invasive plant medicine
- Homestead herbalism: medicine making, growing, and processing plants
- Nature connection, reverence, and reciprocation
- Plant spirit medicine and working with plants on the mind, body, and spirit level
- Herbs for Lung Health
- Ecologically-baed permaculture design and herb gardening
- Herbal arts and crafts
- Herbal incense and smoke-based healing
