Student Clinic

Our student clinic is staffed by our clinical herbal interns who are in the third year of our comprehensive training program and have already completed at least 900 hours of the curriculum, including 60 hours of clinical observation and case review. Your session at the clinic will consist of a meeting with two interns who are supervised by a member of our professional staff. Appointments last two hours, including a 15-30 minute waiting period during which students consult with the supervisor regarding your case.

We’re delighted to have provided this service to our community since 2009. Your participation allows us to provide quality clinical experience for our students, for which we are very grateful.

The student clinic is staffed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Consultations are by appointment only and offered virtually, via secure video conferencing. To learn more about the current interns and contact one directly, visit our Student Intern page. You may also call or email VCIH to be connected to a student practitioner.

“I just wanted to thank you for your wonderful herbal clinic. The herbalists I met with were incredibly professional and quite astute as well. I feel nourished in a whole new way. The tinctures have been fabulous and not only do I feel the medicine of the herbs within, I feel the equally important good medicine of the people who made the tincture, just for me.” – SH, student clinic client

Fees and Payment

Just as in our professional clinic, student consultations and herbs are offered through a sliding-scale payment structure. We employ a sliding scale model not only as a tool for economic justice for our clients, but also as our sole source of operational funds. We recognize that we are all part of an ecological web where the health of our organization, our clients, our wider community, the plants, and our planet are mutually interdependent. Our payment structure values the labor of our clinicians and staff, as well as the plants themselves, while expanding access to care and herbs for folks who need them.

Sliding-Scale Consultations and Herbs

The bottom of our scale reflects the costs we incur to provide herbs and consultations while the top reflects the lower end of retail pricing for comparable goods and services.

Consultation

Initial Visit (2 hours): $10 – $30

Follow-up Visits (1 hour): $5 – $15

Herbs

Bulk herbs (tea, powders): $2.50 – $5 /oz (3 – 12 oz are typically recommended monthly)

Liquid extracts (tinctures, oils): $6 – $12 / oz (5 – 15 oz are typically recommended monthly)

Access Support – Below-Cost and No-Cost Consultation and Herbs

While there are real costs associated with providing herbs and consultations, when needed, we are committed to absorbing and offsetting these costs to make our services available in solidarity with our community. We turn no one away for inability to pay. If, after careful consideration, you find that your current circumstances prevent payment at the bottom of our scale, we are happy to receive whatever payment you are able to make. If you can’t afford to make any financial contribution, we will cover the full cost of your consult and herbs (not including shipping).

How does payment work?

For each appointment or herb order, you’ll be asked what you can afford to pay based on your current situation. We don’t ask for income information. Payment can change as your needs change. If you can pay full retail price (or more!), you support our capacity to provide low cost and even free herbs and consultations to those with less access to resources. No matter the amount, all payments truly do make a difference.

Why sliding-scale?

Despite our non-profit status, we are not supported by philanthropy. In order to cover the costs of producing and transporting herbal products, pay our staff, and maintain our facilities, financial exchange with our clients remains crucial to our continued operation and service. In addition to covering our costs, the scale enables well-resourced clients to support our ability to offer services and herbs at cost–and even below-cost, to clients who need it.

It is our ultimate goal to undermine and divest from the capitalist economy that extracts from the earth and exploits communities for resources and labor. Until then, we offer a sliding-scale structure as an act of solidarity while we continue to build a world where all of us can thrive.

Not sure where you fall on the scale?

Many folks who utilize a sliding scale refer clients to the excellent graphic below created by Alexis J. Cunningfolk. Very simply, if you recognize your experience in the full bottle on the left, we ask you to pay at the top of our scale. At this end of the scale, you are engaging in mutual aid through redistribution of resources and care. If you see yourself reflected in the middle bottle, you might pay in the middle. At this range of the scale, you are covering our costs, plus a little extra to support our mission of collective care. If your experience aligns with the bottle on the right, you’re welcome to pay at the lower end of our scale. At this point on the scale, you are covering our costs for the services and herbs we’ve provided.

If you find the low end of the scale is still inaccessible to you, you can indicate that at the time of invoice. No one is turned away for lack of funds. (See Access Support, above.)

You can read more about the purpose and navigation of sliding-scales as a tool for economic justice here. If you have questions after reviewing the article and image below, feel free to be in touch to discuss your circumstances.