Alumni Series: Kirsten Loesch

Welcome to the August, 2020 addition of the BHC Alumni Series! Every month, we connect with an alumni of the Berkeley Herbal Center certification program.

This month we’re hearing from Kirsten Loesch. She’s a German native who made her way to the Bay Area on her journey. Kirsten graduated from our clinic program in 2018, has moved back to Germany, and started the Frau Holle Akademie!

Here’s Kirsten’s first hand story:

From the first green love to the film industry and back

I remember playing with plants when I was a child. I would take a mortar and grind needles from the fir tree and different grasses in it. Just for the smell and pretending I would prepare food. Nobody told me to do so. It came to me out of the blue. Being in the woods and meadows of my father’s forest district just made me happy.

I forgot about my first love for plants when I grew older and started a career as a public relations agent in the film industry in Germany. I moved from my hometown to Munich and later to Berlin with my focus on work and glory. But, it did not make me happy at all.

Then my husband got a job offer in Silicon Valley. We relocated to Santa Cruz and my visa did not allow me to work in the US, so I got the chance to totally reinvent myself! What would I like to do for the rest of my life? Yes, it must have to do with my first green love. I want to have a mortar in my hands again, but this time really knowing what to do with it. I want to learn the ancient way of healing with plants!

Time at the Berkeley Herbal Center

The moment I stepped into my first foundations class at the Berkeley Herbal Center I knew it would change my life. I can’t recall what this class was about exactly, but that I was immediately blown away. I was listening to the wisdom I have always been searching for without knowing that it really exists. But the first year of the program was also challenging for me, as I had no clue of plants and now I had to learn their names in English, Latin, and German.

In the second year with the Herbal Therapeutics program, I was blown away again! I started to understand how plants can heal body, mind and spirit. It was fascinating for me to see how all human body systems are interconnected and how plants can play a tremendous role in that dance we call “wellbeing.” The field trips had a liberating effect on me and made me connect to the green world much stronger. 

I also went to the Herbal Clinic as a client and got flower essences in my herbal formula. Never would I have imagined how powerful flower essences are! They gave me a new perspective on my life and also inspired me to do my own flower essences product line.

Although I felt insecure about becoming an herbalist and kept asking myself “Do I know enough?”, I just had to do the Clinical Internship year. Being part of the healing journey of others was very rewarding and I am still thankful for this experience at the Berkeley Herbal Center. By supervising me Pam Fisher opened a new dimension of plant wisdom for me.

Back in Germany with Frau Holle

Shortly after finishing the three-year program, my husband and I decided to relocate back to Germany. We have been lucky to find our forever home on a wonderful homestead in the Bavarian Forest. We grow our own veggies and tend our herb garden.

Soon I realized that there is no such thing as an Herbal Clinic in Germany. It is illegal to practice as an herbalist, but it is legal to teach herbalism for domestic use. This is what I do now. I give lectures, do herb walks and workshops in community schools for adults and in district administration programs.

I founded the “Frau Holle Academy”, named after the ancient German version of the goddess mother earth “Frau Holle”. My vision is to reconnect the people with the wisdom of the plant world and thus support the next generation in building a truly kind-hearted world.

How to Follow Kirsten Loesch

If you are in Germany or would like to follow the work of Kirsten Loesch, you can connect with her on Facebook or through the website for the Frau Holle Akademie.