Events
URHP Summer Gathering 2025
JUNE 14TH 2025
The Conference will be held on Zoom
Celebrating Unity
A Conference for Qualified Herbalists & Herbal Students
We are excited to be able to welcome you all to our online Conference. This will be an informative and inspirational day with an exciting line up of speakers. There will be an opportunity to learn and share from the wisdom, knowledge, wealth and experience within our herbal community.
Along with the set program, there will be 'open space' for spontaneous discussions, skill sharing or social gathering.
The conference will be held on Zoom on Saturday 14th June 2025 from 10am and finishing by 5pm.
Speakers include:
- Antonella Di Cillo: The Healing Powers of Mushrooms
- Christina Stapley: Aspects of Pharmacognosy
- Dominica Collis: Male Reproductive Health in the Age of Chronic Stress
Tickets will go on sale via EventBrite in April.
- URHP Members/AMH: £40. Early Bird Price: £35
- URHP Student Members: £25
- Non URHP Student Members: £30
- Non URHP Members: £50. Early Bird Price: £45
For further information contact conferenceteam@urhp.com
Conference Programme
- 9:30 - 10:00: Open Conference
- 10:00 - 11:15: Antonella Di Cillo - The Healing Powers of Mushrooms
- 11:15 - 11:30: Tea Break
- 11:30 - 12:45: Christina Stapley - Aspects of Pharmacognosy
- 12:45 - 14:15: Lunch
- 14:15 - 15:30: Dominica Collis - Male Reproductive Health in the Age of Chronic Stress
- 15:30 - 17:00: Breakout Rooms
Note: Speakers may be subject to change at short notice.
Dominica Collis
Dominica Collis is a master herbalist, naturopath, iridologist, and nutrition therapist, as well as a lecturer at the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London.
Since 2012, she has specialised in holistic health and nutrition, inspired by her own journey overcoming eczema, IBS, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Dominica integrates diverse natural medicine approaches to create personalised, whole-body therapeutic protocols.
Her key areas of expertise include gut health, hormonal balance, and the impact of toxins on the body. Through her clinic, Wellness Alchemy, she offers consultations, workshops, and training to empower others on their health journey.
Dominica balances her professional life with hobbies like crafting plant-based recipes, exploring the mysteries of astrology, and hiking. She shares her life with her husband and their cherished animal family: three dogs, two cats, and four ferrets.
Male Reproductive Health in the Age of Chronic Stress: Advanced Herbal Strategies for Supporting Reproductive Resilience
Chronic stress profoundly impacts male reproductive health, influencing endocrine balance, sperm quality, and overall vitality. This session provides an in-depth analysis of the mechanisms through which stress disrupts the hypothalamicpituitary-gonadal axis and contributes to systemic imbalances.
Drawing on current research and traditional herbal frameworks, the discussion will focus on stress-induced oxidative damage, hormonal imbalances, and systemic inflammation. Attendees will gain insights into the therapeutic potential of adaptogens, nervines, and other botanicals in mitigating stress-related reproductive challenges. This talk aims to enhance therapeutic efficacy in supporting male reproductive health in the face of chronic stress.
Christina Stapley
Christina Stapley has grown and studied more than 300 herbs for over 50 years. She qualified with a degree in Phytotherapy in 2004. Now retired from Practice she teaches Pharmacognosy, Materia Medica and the History of Western Herbal Medicine at the School of Herbal Medicine in the south west. Her early books on growing and using herbs were followed in 2021 by the two volumes of The Tree Dispensary, The Uses, History and Herbalism of European Native Trees and The Uses, History and Herbalism of Exotic Trees. Her historical research has involved practical herb workshops making recipes from a 2,000 year period at museums in England and America. Her latest book, A History of Plant Medicine Western Herbal Medicine Ancient Greece to Today was published by Aeon Books in 2023. She presently tutors historical and modern herb workshops at the Weald and Downland Living Museum and from 2025 with Ruth Mannion-Daniels in a newly planted temperament garden in the Cotswolds.
Her website is www.christinastapley.co.uk
Aspects of Pharmacognosy: Effects of Climate Change & Sustainability
Pharmacognosy translates as knowing the drug/herb. Historical observations on harvesting for the highest content of valued constituents in herbs show concern for this area of knowledge to be handed down. Just over 25 years ago when writing her third book on growing and using herbs, Christina's past notes already revealed the difficulty of exact predictions in a modern climate. Today historical observations are no longer valid as a guide to quality control. A more detailed garden diary has become necessary. Levels of constituents have been shown to vary with temperature, light intensity, and seasonal variations as well as the soil in which the plants grow and genetic factors. Climate change is triggering plant responses we need to record, monitor, seek to understand, and, where possible, support with changes in cultivation and harvesting patterns. Herbs flowering in the wrong season and pernicious fruiting of trees reveal hormonal change and were historically rare. In the past they were seen as foretelling disaster and death. Now they are common. While researching The Tree Dispensary Exotic trees in Grenada in 2016 in the 'dry season' the Guaiacum tree I expected to find flowering was fruiting and we experienced monsoon rain.
In this interactive talk ways of supporting sustainability in changing habitats, pooling knowledge of visible and chemical changes in our herbs, whether cultivated or from wild harvesting, and discussing greater use of native plants to replace endangered herbs, will provide much food for thought on the need for research and action. Emailed accounts of changes already noted are welcomed before the talk to christina.stapley@tiscali.co.uk
Antonella Di Cillo
Antonella is an Iridologist and Vitalist Nutritionist, Bach Flower Practitioner, Level I and II Myco-Medicine Expert, 3rd year Herbal Medicine Student with the Irish School of Herbal Medicine and Homeopathic Practitioner.
If not seeing patients or studying, she is busy with her apprenticeship in History of Herbal Medicine guided by her wonderful tutor Christina Stapley. She is also a Student Council Member of the EHTPA, URHP and AMH.
In her (currently very little spare time), she enjoys cooking, reading, Yoga, walking in Nature and getting lost in antique shops, but she is also very much into watching horror movies on her own in the dark!
The Healing Powers of Medicinal Mushrooms
Through Ice Age to Modern day Herbal Medicine, mushrooms have played a crucial role in supporting health. Now more than ever, with the highest numbers of autoimmune disorders and cancer cases globally, their use could be the key to successful outcomes in treatment approaches.
We will look at mushrooms' main medicinal compounds, their uses and applications and various way to implement their use in our daily life as well as in our practices.