Podcasts about western herbalism

Welcome to the second installment in our Anatomy of a Formula series. In this post, we'll examine a classic North American herbal duo: the archetypal stimulant, Cayenne (Capsicum annuum), and the archetypal relaxant, Lobelia (Lobelia inflata).  If you missed the introductory post, which explored a brief history of formulation in Western herbalism and the strategic thinking behind herbal pairs and triplets, be sure to check it out[LINK]—it sets the stage for this series and what we're diving into today.   Here's what you'll learn in this epsisode: Why Cayenne and Lobelia—seemingly opposing herbs—create powerful synergy in herbal formulas How this pairing acts on multiple systems, including circulatory, respiratory, and neuromuscular Key energetic patterns (Western, Ayurvedic, and astrological) that guide the use of these herbs Traditional and modern uses of Cayenne–Lobelia combinations Clinical considerations: where this pair works well, and where to use caution How to think constitutionally and systemically rather than symptomatically when formulating with pairs   ———————————— CONNECT WITH SAJAH AND WHITNEY ———————————— To get free in depth mini-courses and videos, visit our blog at:  http://www.evolutionaryherbalism.com   Get daily inspiration and plant wisdom on our Facebook and Instagram channels: http://www.facebook.com/EvolutionaryHerbalism https://www.instagram.com/evolutionary_herbalism/   Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyP63opAmcpIAQg1M9ShNSQ   Get a free 5-week course when you buy a copy of the book, Evolutionary Herbalism: https://www.evolutionaryherbalism.com/evolutionary-herbalism-book/   Shop our herbal products:  https://naturasophiaspagyrics.com/   ———————————— ABOUT THE PLANT PATH ———————————— The Plant Path is a window into the world of herbal medicine. With perspectives gleaned from traditional Western herbalism, Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, Alchemy, Medical Astrology, and traditional cultures from around the world, The Plant Path provides unique insights, skills and strategies for the practice of true holistic herbalism. From clinical to spiritual perspectives, we don't just focus on what herbs are "good for," but rather who they are as intelligent beings, and how we can work with them to heal us physically and consciously evolve.   ———————————— ABOUT SAJAH ———————————— Sajah Popham is the author of Evolutionary Herbalism and the founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism, where he trains herbalists in a holistic system of plant medicine that encompasses clinical Western herbalism, medical astrology, Ayurveda, and spagyric alchemy. His mission is to develop a comprehensive approach that balances the science and spirituality of plant medicine, focusing on using plants to heal and rejuvenate the body, clarify the mind, open the heart, and support the development of the soul. This is only achieved through understanding and working with the chemical, energetic, and spiritual properties of the plants. His teachings embody a heartfelt respect, honor and reverence for the vast intelligence of plants in a way that empowers us to look deeper into the nature of our medicines and ourselves. He lives on a homestead in the foothills of Mt. Baker Washington with his wife Whitney where he teaches, consults clients, and prepares spagyric herbal medicines.    ———————————— WANT TO FEATURE US ON YOUR PODCAST? ———————————— If you'd like to interview Sajah or Whitney to be on your podcast, click here to fill out an interview request form.

Kristin and Julianne speak with Rebecca Holly, a Naturopath, Astrologer, and Green Witch practicing Folk Herbalism in an earth-centred and heart-led way.  In this podcast, Rebecca explores some of the language and concepts in Astrological energetics, differentiates Western and Vedic Astrology, and discusses herbal medicine prescribing using Astrology, particularly focusing on the properties of solar herbs and their capacity to act as antidepressants.  Rebecca generously shares patient case examples which incorporate Astrological energetic concepts and offers her wisdom to practitioners who would like to incorporate Astrology into their clinical practices.  Through this podcast, Rebecca provides our practitioners with an insight into her upcoming webinar “Astrology - The Missing Energetic Map of Western Herbalism” as part of our July 2025 webinar series, “Traditional Herbal Medicine Series – Roots and Remedies: Essentials of Traditional Herbal Prescribing”.Send us a textwww.optimalrx.com.au

This week on Everything You Didn't Know About Herbalism, we are joined by our long-time beloved friends, farm partners, and stewards of the regenerative organic farming movement, Elise and Jeff Higley. Tune in with Tommy, Elise, and Jeff, as they explore what it means to be a Regenerative Organic Certified® farmer and how we must grow alongside the movement of regenerative agriculture for the preservation of our food systems and the future of our planet. Elise and Jeff also share about the upcoming Oshala Herb Camp, which is weekend campout hosted in the breathtaking landscape of Grants Pass, Oregon on July 27 – 29.  Filled with classes on medicine making, materia medica, botanical crafting, and hands-on experience for what life on an herb farm is like, Oshala Herb Camp weaves agriculture, herbalism, and sustainability into one to create a weekend of community building with plant-lovers from all walks of life. Be sure to check out the hyperlink above or detailed links included below to learn more about this invaluable opportunity!   Learn more about Oshala Farm and the farmers behind it below! ⬇️

Kristin and Julianne speak with Dr. Jimi Wollumbin, a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor and a registered medical practitioner with AHPRA, regarding the depth and richness of traditional medicine systems, including TCM, Ayurveda and Western Herbalism. Since completing his TCM internship in Beijing in 2002, Dr. Jimi has pursued extensive research across India, Tibet, Mongolia, Persia, and Siberia, exploring diverse healing traditions and integrating the wisdom of these traditions into his practice clinically and soulfully. In this podcast, Dr. Jimi discusses the meaning behind the term “Energetics”, compares and contrasts different traditional healing systems, and generously shares his case taking fundamentals and patient case examples which incorporate energetic concepts from traditional paradigms. Through this podcast, Dr. Jimi provides our practitioners with an insight into his upcoming webinar “Traditional Herbal Prescribing – Incorporating TCM, Ayurveda, and Western Energetics” as part of our July 2025 webinar series, “Traditional Herbal Medicine Series – Roots and Remedies: Essentials of Traditional Herbal Prescribing”.Send us a textwww.optimalrx.com.au

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of placenta practices with Carissa Rose. Carissa is a daughter, partner, tender of wombs, and devotee to the portal of life and death. With a deep belief in the sacredness of life and the innate wisdom within each body, she brings a wealth of knowledge and compassion to her work. Carissa shares her unique perspective on honoring the placenta through cultural, spiritual, and scientific lenses, highlighting its potential benefits for postpartum healing. Whether you're curious about placentophagy, Lotus Birth, or sacred rituals, this conversation provides valuable insights for parents and birth workers alike.Carissa Rose is a Full Spectrum Doula, birth assistant, and Innate Postpartum Care Provider with over 8 years of experience. She is passionate about supporting women from pregnancy through postpartum with physiologically-based wisdom. Carissa incorporates Western Herbalism, nutrition, and elemental connection into her practice, guiding women from womb to tomb. She is now focusing on her dream of becoming a midwife and works as the primary student midwife with Born Wild Midwifery. Learn more about her offerings, including Placenta Encapsulation and Herbal Consultations, at www.postpartumnourishingritual.com.What You'll Learn • Quick Release vs. Lotus Birth: Exploring the differences between these two placenta practices and their benefits. • Expert Insight: Dr. Johnson's perspectives on placenta healing and postpartum recovery. • Sacred Practices: The role of spirituality in honoring the placenta and connecting to its life-giving energy. • Robin Lim's Wisdom: Teachings from the internationally recognized midwife on placenta care. • Placentophagy: Comparing raw consumption vs. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) preparation methods for placenta encapsulation. • Breastfeeding Benefits: How the placenta may support lactation and early postpartum bonding. • Placenta Rituals: Unique and meaningful ways to incorporate ceremonies, including burial, artwork, and keepsakes. • Practical Tips: How to integrate spiritual, cultural, and health-oriented practices into postpartum recovery.Links and Resources Mentioned • Dr. Johnson's Article on Placenta Healing • Robin Lim's Resources and Teachings • Further exploration of Lotus Birth and its significance in various cultures. • Insights on placentophagy and preparation methods for postpartum recovery.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review! For questions or suggestions, email us at bornwildpodcast@gmail.com. Stay tuned for more episodes exploring the sacred journey of birth and beyond.Links • Carissa Rose's Website: www.postpartumnourishingritual.com • Instagram: @Carissarosehayes and @postpartumnourishingritual • Follow Us: @sophiabirth, @bayareahomebirth, @bornwildmidwiferyStay Wild

This episode is brought to you by our HerbRally Schoolhouse members If you'd like to try your first month for free, use coupon code PODCAST at checkout! LEARN MORE & REGISTER | http://www.herbrally.com/schoolhouse In this episode of The Herbalist Hour I'm joined by CoreyPine Shane. CoreyPine is a holistic clinical herbalist and the director of the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine, which he founded in 1999.  We chat about how he got his name, discovering the world of herbalism, studying with his mentor 7Song, starting his school in his living room, herbs for insomnia and a whole lot more. Always great to catchup with CoreyPine! He's a wealth of knowledge and I know you're goin' to love this episode! Until next time,  ~Mason  LINKS & RESOURCES Blue Ridge School | BlueRidgeSchool.org Herbs for Insomnia | LEARN MORE & REGISTER CoreyPine on Instagram | @coreypineshane Appalachian Herb Collective | LEARN MORE Beloved Asheville | LEARN MORE Rural Organizing & Resilience | LEARN MORE

I've known Beth for many years, and I knew from experience that the two of us were going to have a lively conversation! It was a joy to sit down with her to discuss kava - a plant that has been supporting her since day one of her herbal journey, and one that I have also found to be super helpful in times of stress and anxiety. Beth has gotten to know this plant so well that her friends sometimes even refer to her as the Kava Queen!Beth has worked with kava in so many different ways, from tinctures to powders and even chocolate bars! One of her favorite ways to take kava is in her delicious smoothie recipe, which she calls Kava Kolada. You'll find a beautifully illustrated recipe card here, so that you can give it a try too: https://bit.ly/3YBeQQJBy the end of this episode, you'll know:► How kava can help you lower your walls and speak from your heart► Why kava is so great during times of grief, stress, and anxiety► Five different herbal preparations for kava► An unusual way that kava affects you - and how that might help you when you go to the dentist!► and so much more…For those of you who don't know her, Beth's love of nature came from growing up on her family farm. She spent years walking the woods collecting treasures (bluebells being her favorite), and "sucking the sugar" out of red clover blossoms. A sun worshipper at heart, at 26 she fled the snow & moved to the desert. There she discovered the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA), where she studied herbalism, hypnotherapy, aromatherapy, astrology & more. She graduated with an Associate's Degree in Holistic Healthcare with a specialty in Western Herbalism, taught by the brilliant herbalist JoAnn Sanchez. She worked for Whole Foods, herb shops, Dr. Hauschka, SWIHA, and many herb companies, and she taught herb classes. In 2009, life led her to Austin, and her dream of owning an herb shop came true. Sacred Moon Herbs came to birth on April 17th of 2012 in Dripping Springs, Texas.I'm excited to share our conversation with you today!----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and through nature connection. Each week, I focus on a single seasonal plant and share trusted herbal knowledge so that you can get the best results when using herbs for your health.Learn more about Herbs with Rosalee at herbswithrosalee.com.----Rosalee is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of the bestselling book

A very, very brief introduction to western herbalism and how the wise women were displaced.   Wise Herbal Ways Patreon

Denis Stewart

#43 - Join us for a wonderful conversation with Medical Herbalist Lucy Jones on working with herbs as individuals and the profound healing that can occur when we listen to the inherent wisdom of plants. In this episode, Lucy shares deep herbal wisdom from the experience of her Celtic healing lineage and extensive background in clinical western herbalism and Tibetan Medicine studies. She also offers insight into how Tibetan Medicine complements western herbalism frameworks for healing, and how growing, gathering and processing her own herbal medicines is such a valuable experience and important part of her practice. Lucy Jones is a qualified medical herbalist and owner of Myrobalan Clinic, a busy high street practice in Somerset, UK. Prior to qualifying in western herbalism, she earned two degrees from Oxford University and studied Tibetan Medicine with the great master, Khenpo Troru Tsenam. When treating patients, she combines Tibetan and western approaches to treatment in her practice. Lucy grows, gathers, and processes most of the herbs she prescribes and is the author of "Self Sufficient Herbalism" (2020), and her new book, "A Working Herbal Dispensary: Respecting Herbs as Individuals" (May 2023). Both are published by Aeon Books. Aeon Books is offering Plant Spirit Podcast listeners a 20% off discount code, available for a limited time on Lucy's new book, “A Working Herbal Dispensary.” Here is the discount code, which you can redeem at  www.aeonbooks.co.uk: WHD20You can find Lucy at: https://www.myrobalanclinic.com/On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrobalanclinic/On facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myrobalanclinic For more info please visit Sara's website at: https://www.multidimensionalnature.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/multidimensional.nature/facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saraartemisia.ms/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@saraartemisiaLearn how to communicate with plant consciousness in the free workshop on How to Learn Plant Language: https://www.learnplantlanguage.com/

Shereel Washington graduated from the California School of Herbal Studies Community Herbalist Program in Clinical Herbalism, and she has completed over 1200 hours of herbal craft making training. She is an instructor in Scarlet Sage's Community Herbalist Program & in the Land of Verse Apprentice Herbal Certification Program, as well as in herbal classes and intensives at the Northern California Women's Herbal Symposium in Mendocino. Shereel also teaches dance and qi gong at the Deep Root Center for Spiritual Studies MOVE: Spirit & Rhythm Dance Program in Oakland, CA.Early in this episode Shereel invites us to unpack the term "Western Herbalism" and to honor the immense influence that Black, Indigenous, and People Color have had on herbalism on this continent. She then goes on to share her research and experience with Black North American Herbalism while diving into traditional herbalism recipes and stories. Shereel also shares with HerbMentor Radio listeners...Traditional uses and stories of asafoetidaWhy molasses is a powerful medicineThe key difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation And so much more!You can learn more from Shereel on Instagram @ixaltednaturalbodyPS...Are you ready to take your herbal learning to the next level?HerbMentor offers a wide variety of rich herbal content — including an in-depth course on food as medicine — that gives you the opportunity to choose your own herbal adventure, take your time, and connect with other herbal learners and experts whenever you login.You can join HerbMentor for just $1 to see if it's part of your own herbal path. We have a special offer right here for HerbMentor Radio listeners.PPS...Would you like to start building your herbal first aid kid? Download our free recipe cards here.

You have a double treat in store with this episode.First, have you ever wondered what it takes to grow herbs commercially on a large scale? I kept hearing about Oshala Farm from my students, so last year, I placed an order to check them out. I was so impressed with the herbs I received and knew immediately that I wanted to interview Elise Higley, the farm's cofounder! From finding the right location to the hard work of growing, harvesting, processing the harvest, fulfilling orders, stewarding the land… there are so many details to juggle! I came away from this episode with even more respect for herb farmers than I already had. I hope you'll enjoy this peek into running a successful herb farm, too!Second, stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is one of those herbs that people grow to love and crave, even if they're not initially drawn to the taste. I loved discussing the gifts of this nutrient-dense herb with Elise! Who couldn't benefit from an herbal ally that:► Is deeply nourishing, strengthening, and energizing – an herbal tonic you can enjoy every day (and that your body will thank you for)► Can provide support to folks who suffer from seasonal allergies► Supports kidney health► and more…To quote Elise, “Nettle is nutritive, high in iron, high in minerals… I feel like it's a staple as far as nourishing and fortifying the body.” I completely agree.This episode is full of tips and ideas you can borrow like:► Best practices for growing medicinal herbs (whether you use this to inspire your own garden or as a springboard for asking questions when you're sourcing herbs to purchase)► Possible herbs to blend with nettle when making infusions (and how they complement nettle)► Various ways to work with both fresh and dried nettle leaf► How to grow stinging nettle in your own gardenFor those of you who don't already know her, Elise Higley is a folk herbalist, wife, mother, grandmother and farmer.With her background in Western Herbalism at California School of Herbal Studies and her husband Jeff's background in organic farming, they blended their dreams and created a full-fledged herb farm in 2013. Together they own and operate Oshala Farm. Located in Applegate Valley, Oregon, Oshala Farm has over 80 medicinal herbs in cultivation.Elise's teachers and mentors include Cascade Anderson Geller, Rosemary Gladstar, Karen Aguiar, Teri Jensen, Lily Mazzarella, Autumn Summers, David Hoffman, Shana Lipner-Grover, Jon Carlson and, of course, the plants themselves! In her downtime, (9pm-5am) she helps with the Breitenbush Herbal Conference and TerraVita Herbal Symposium and works on agricultural advocacy with Our Family Farms.If you'd like to hear more from Elise, which I highly recommend, then head to the show notes where you can get easy links for her website and social media. You can also find the transcript for this episode in the show notes.I'm so delighted to share our conversation with you today!----Get full show notes and more information at: herbswithrosaleepodcast.comFor more behind-the-scenes of this podcast, follow @rosaleedelaforet on Instagram!The secret to using herbs successfully begins with knowing who YOU are. Get started by taking my free Herbal Jumpstart course when you sign up for my newsletter.If you enjoy the Herbs with Rosalee podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review and sharing the show with someone who needs to hear it!On the podcast, we explore the many ways plants heal, as food, as medicine, and...

Kari Jansen, herbalist, astrologer and ayurvedic practitioner, founded Poppy and Someday after years of studying herbalism, combining her passion for plants with her love of gardening, wildcrafting and herbal medicine making.The company's product line features an evolving collection of organic body care products. The product design process is rooted in the study of Ayurveda and Western Herbalism and focuses on native plant ingredients. Every ingredient comes from the earth and never contains any synthetics or preservatives.Kari is a graduate of the California School of Herbal Studies, the Dhyana Center, the Ayurvedic Institute of America, Kairos School of Astrology and also holds a B.S. in Health and Nutrition.

Erin Masako Wilkins is an Asian American herbalist and acupuncturist. Her clinical work is rooted in Eastern energetic theory - tapping into her own ancestral healing traditions to empower others to restore health and prevent illness. She has been a practicing herbalist for over a decade specializing in Asian folk remedies and Traditional Chinese Medicine. She is passionate about applying Eastern energetics to domestically grown herbs and herbal medicine.  A seasoned educator, her classes include Asian American herbalism and folk traditions, TCM theory, seasonal wellness, and community care workshops. Erin has a master's degree from the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College in Berkeley, CA. Her book, “Asian American Herbalism: Folk Traditions in Modern Day Practice” is set for publication in Spring 2023. To learn more about her work visit HerbFolkShop.com

Visiting Scotland and marveling at the juicy blackberries, rosehips, hawthorn, and elderberries led me to ponder about the history of Western Herbalism and our relationship to the plants that grow around us. Why do we use the pants we use? What is our role in preserving and passing on the knowledge? How did our perception of health and healing change through history? And, where are we now? I visited the amazing Scottish Wild Food Festival organized by a team around Rox Madeira who I found through listening to her podcast "The Sage's Cabin". It was lovely to meet her and her family at the festival, and we enjoyed taking part in so many activities, from herb walks to workshops and trying wild foods and herbs in beautiful nature. I'm so thankful for this experience. Join my free herbal channel on Telegram! Follow my updates about the herbs I'm taking, planting, or harvesting in nature! I will also share some herb pictures from my Scotland trip! You just have to download and set up the Telegram App on your phone first (it's easy!), then click this link to join my channel. Would you like to come to my live classes on zoom? We have exciting topics coming up, more about adaptogens and tonic herbs for the brain, including memory, focus, ADHD, and anxiety. You can ask me your questions directly, in class, that's what I most enjoy about these classes, that we can actually discuss and interact. Please sign up for the Herb Student Membership on Ko-Fi and you will be notified about the next classes. You also get access to the recordings of 20plus of my herbal videos and mini-classes, and to the whole class of last week and some herbal case studies! A lot of great material to help you learn and deepen your understanding of medicinal herbs and empower you to use herbs in a safe and effective way! Would you like to work with me one-on-one and book your Online Health Consultation? Send me a message through the contact form on my website: www.herbalhelp.net Or click on my calendar to book a free 20 min call to get your questions answered directly and see if we are a good fit! I am a professional, clinical Herbalist registered with the American Herbalists Guild and would love to give you personalized help! YouTube Channel: Herbal Help by Tamara Follow me on Instagram: herbal.help If you like the show please let others know and write me a review! You can rate me on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, Castbox, Audible Podcast Addict and more, and it's super easy, just click on this link. This show is meant for educational purposes only. This is not health advice. Please send me a message through the contact form on my website. I love to hear from my listeners and get feedback! What herb would you like me to discuss next on this podcast? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downtoearthherbalism/message

On today's episode we'll hear from herbalist Heather Irvine. She's going to teach us about some classic botanicals for sleep used in Western Herbalism, plus one we learn about from Ayurveda. Today's episode is sponsored by our good friends at Mountain Rose Herbs.  Get 15% off of your order with coupon code HERBRALLY15 at checkout.  Visit MountainRoseHerbs.com for organic herbs, spices, essentail oils, bulk ingredients and more.  Thanks for listening!  HerbRally www.herbrally.com  Follow us on YouTube!

Ep #202 -  Reclaiming Your Health - An Interview with Author and Wellness Coach, Jovanka Ciares. Jovanka Ciares' latest book, “Reclaiming Wellness,” is not just about reclaiming wellness but it's also about claiming yourself and becoming an empowered individual. One who owns their body and understands how their body functions. Jovanka's personal journey began in Puerto Rico, where she was raised. She and her family lived alongside the land, the rainforest, and her family's food did not travel far from its origin to reach their table. Eating the foods from the land and having them home cooked was common for Jovanka in her early years. Then she moved to New York City to pursue her education. And that's when her body gave her what she calls “a smack down.” Chronic sickness soon became part of her daily life. By her mid-twenties she was told by Western medicine that they could do nothing for her. And that she would have to learn to live in pain and discomfort for the rest of her life. Can you imagine being told that by your trusted doctor(s)? Well, that was not acceptable to Jovanka so she began to explore other options. She began by reclaiming her heritage and the foods she grew up with. She also incorporated other healing practices such as, traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Herbalism. Jovanka's journey involved doing a deep dive both for her personal wellness and her spiritual growth. In her book, “Reclaiming Wellness,” she gives her readers many tools for how to heal your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies. Some of the tools Jovanka touches on in her book include, meditation, hypnosis, journaling, acupuncture and so much more. And as we have both learned through life experience, not everything works for everybody. The important lesson here is to be open to the possibilities and be willing to try different modalities until you find what works for you. We also talked about the importance of seeing your doctor(s) as partners in your journey to heal. You are the authority of your body and the doctor may be the expert in a specific field of medicine but that does not make the doctor an expert on your body. It's all about working together so you can reach understanding and become knowledgeable in the quest to heal your body. To learn more about Jovanka Ciares please visit her website: JovankaCiares.com To purchase her book, “Reclaiming Wellness” go to: amazon.com To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website at: SusanBurrell.com

Joining us today is Isabelle Taye, a Naturopath and master's candidate, and today we'll be discussing "Researching Clinical Aspects of PEA.In today's episode, Isabelle with discuss: The benefits, safety and mechanisms of action of PEAEmerging evidence linking PEA to the microbiome How to use PEA in clinical practice Forms and dosage requirementsExpectant results from PEA treatmentAbout Isabelle: Isabelle started studying naturopathy straight out of high school. In 2007 she graduated from Health Schools Australia with Advanced Diplomas in Functional Nutrition, Naturopathy and Western Herbalism and a Cert IV in Aromatherapy. In 2008 she graduated from Charles Sturt University with a Health Sciences (Complementary Medicine) degree.While studying at Charles Sturt University, she was accepted into the Golden Key Honour Society and received the Alison Watson Memorial Scholarship through the NSW Arthritis Foundation. Being diagnosed with arthritis at a young age has always had an impact and continues to shape how Isabelle practices.She is currently enrolled in Master's by Research at Southern Cross University and has completed 3 research projects that centre around chronic pain. One study used an N-of-1 model to investigate the use of probiotics for osteoarthritic pain and has been published. Another looked at the use of PEA and probiotics for osteoarthritic pain and decreased wellbeing using a multiple baseline design. The final research project was a qualitative study that investigated empowerment in naturopathy for individuals with chronic pain.When not playing in the world of naturopathy, Isabelle deeply loves music and teaches classical piano, singing and theory for all grades.Connect with Isabelle: Website: amabelle.com.auShownotes and references available on your local Designs for health website www.designsforhealth.com.au Register as a Designs for Health Practitioner and discover quality practitioner-only supplements at www.designsforhealth.com.auDISCLAIMER: The Information provided in the Wellness by Designs podcast is for educational purposes only; the information presented is not intended to be used as medical advice; please seek the advice of a qualified healthcare professional if what you have heard here today raises questions or concerns relating to your health

It's easy to keep your cool during meditation, but real life isn't always quite so serene. So what do you do when someone cuts you off in traffic? Simple daily practices like meditation, breathwork, Qigong, and especially martial arts can teach us how to keep our composure and flow in the face of life's many challenges, even if someone's throwing a punch at you. So today, I'm thrilled that joining me on the show is my friend, Elzabieta Kosmicki, a Martial Arts teacher, entrepreneur, Qigong instructor, host of the Reasons & Season podcast, and a mother of 2. With over 20+ years of experience in energy healing modalities and martial arts, Elza has professional credentials in BodyTalk, Classical Chinese Medicine, Structural Integration, Somatic Therapy, Women's and Children's Health, Eastern and Western Herbalism, Qigong, and Martial Arts, including Enshin Karate. She has some powerful words on training to build resilience and confidence while breaking through emotional limitations. I hope you enjoy today's show. We're chatting about: • How small daily practices can lead to major transformations • The benefits of breathwork, Qigong and energy medicine • How to keep your composure when someone cuts you off in traffic • Martial arts training to build resilience and confidence • The link between your breath and your mental, physical and emotional well-being • Working through emotions and limitations through bodywork • And tons more… Read the show notes: https://fatburningman.com/elza-kosmicki-how-small-daily-practices-create-major-transformations/ Check out and support Elza Kosmicki at https://www.reasonsmag.com/ Join The Wild Guild and get freebies on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/abeljames  Like the show on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fatburningman  Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/fatburnman  And click here for your free Fat-Burning Kit: http://fatburningman.com/bonus

It's easy to keep your cool during meditation, but real life isn't always quite so serene. So what do you do when someone cuts you off in traffic? Simple daily practices like meditation, breathwork, Qigong, and especially martial arts can teach us how to keep our composure and flow in the face of life's many challenges, even if someone's throwing a punch at you. So today, I'm thrilled that joining me on the show is my friend, Elzabieta Kosmicki, a Martial Arts teacher, entrepreneur, Qigong instructor, host of the Reasons & Season podcast, and a mother of 2. With over 20+ years of experience in energy healing modalities and martial arts, Elza has professional credentials in BodyTalk, Classical Chinese Medicine, Structural Integration, Somatic Therapy, Women's and Children's Health, Eastern and Western Herbalism, Qigong, and Martial Arts, including Enshin Karate. She has some powerful words on training to build resilience and confidence while breaking through emotional limitations. I hope you enjoy today's show. We're chatting about: • How small daily practices can lead to major transformations • The benefits of breathwork, Qigong and energy medicine • How to keep your composure when someone cuts you off in traffic • Martial arts training to build resilience and confidence • The link between your breath and your mental, physical and emotional well-being • Working through emotions and limitations through bodywork • And tons more… Read the show notes: https://fatburningman.com/elza-kosmicki-how-small-daily-practices-create-major-transformations/ Check out and support Elza Kosmicki at https://www.reasonsmag.com/ Join The Wild Guild and get freebies on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/abeljames  Like the show on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fatburningman  Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/fatburnman  And click here for your free Fat-Burning Kit: http://fatburningman.com/bonus

It's easy to keep your cool during meditation, but real life isn't always quite so serene. So what do you do when someone cuts you off in traffic? Simple daily practices like meditation, breathwork, Qigong, and especially martial arts can teach us how to keep our composure and flow in the face of life's many challenges, even if someone's throwing a punch at you. So today, I'm thrilled that joining me on the show is my friend, Elzabieta Kosmicki, a Martial Arts teacher, entrepreneur, Qigong instructor, host of the Reasons & Season podcast, and a mother of 2. With over 20+ years of experience in energy healing modalities and martial arts, Elza has professional credentials in BodyTalk, Classical Chinese Medicine, Structural Integration, Somatic Therapy, Women's and Children's Health, Eastern and Western Herbalism, Qigong, and Martial Arts, including Enshin Karate. She has some powerful words on training to build resilience and confidence while breaking through emotional limitations. I hope you enjoy today's show. We're chatting about: • How small daily practices can lead to major transformations • The benefits of breathwork, Qigong and energy medicine • How to keep your composure when someone cuts you off in traffic • Martial arts training to build resilience and confidence • The link between your breath and your mental, physical and emotional well-being • Working through emotions and limitations through bodywork • And tons more… Read the show notes: https://fatburningman.com/elza-kosmicki-how-small-daily-practices-create-major-transformations/ Check out and support Elza Kosmicki at https://www.reasonsmag.com/ Join The Wild Guild and get freebies on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/abeljames  Like the show on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fatburningman  Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/fatburnman  And click here for your free Fat-Burning Kit: http://fatburningman.com/bonus

We have specific, cultural ideas about what tension and relaxation mean, but do they mean the same thing when it comes to tissue states? And what do they have to do with symptoms like headaches, muscle knots, hiccups, canker sores, yeast infections, and excess sweating? In this episode, I share how the states of tension and relaxation must be in balance to prevent these and other symptoms, and how to do that with every day foods and herbs. I also share how the four elements and tastes of Southern Folk Medicine align with the Six Tissue States of Physiomedicalism and Western Herbalism. To help you determine what element you are dominant in, download this free PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dE62pU3BoGlFISRwav4PikoxkeKojqh3/view?usp=drivesdk

Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed by the presence of Jason Scott, founder of Feral Fungi.  Jason Scott is a Mycologist, Ethnobotanist and Spagyricist who has studied traditional Hermetic Alchemy, from history and philosophy to practice, for the past 9 years. He has a background in Ethnobotany and Plant Medicine that started on the Big Island of Hawaii and has carried back with him into his home: the Pacific North West. Born and raised in Oregon, Jason has an intrinsic interest in the Fungal Queendom and all of its aspects: from cultivation and mycoremediation, to historical and cultural relationships. Jason has studied various different healing modalities including Ayurveda in Nepal and Western Herbalism all over Oregon and Washington. As Owner of Feral Fungi, he produces Mushroom Spagyric Tinctures, and he curates AlcheMycology.com where he shares some of his teachings and writings alongside other fascinating discoveries in the world of Fungi. Jason is also a co-organizer of the Radical Mycology Convergence and the Fungi Film Fest. He is on an ever-deepening journey of education to understand the practical applications of his interests, and the golden threads that connect them.   TOPICS COVERED:   Growing up Adrift in a Disconnected Culture  Radical Mycology Convergence  Heremetic Sciences – Alchemy, Astrology, Quabbalah  Philosophies & Origins of Alchemy  Embracing Practical Alchemy in Laboratory Work  Doctrines of Signatures, Correspondences & Emanations  Alche-mycology & Transmutation  Astrology & Planetary Correspondences  Astro-mycology - Mushrooms & Their Planets  Understanding Through Powers of Observation   Embracing the Qualitative  Dangers of Reductionism with Herbal Medicines  Spagyric Processing – Metaphor of Sulphur, Salt, Mercury  Frontiers of Mushroom Spagyrics  EPISODE RESOURCES:   Feral Fungi Website: https://feralfungi.com/  Feral Fungi IG: https://www.instagram.com/feralfungi/  Alchemycology Website: http://www.alchemycology.com/  Radical Mycology: https://www.radicalmycology.com/  Robert Bartlett: https://www.spagyricus.com/about-robert-bartlett/  Paracelsus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus  Plant Path Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plant-path/id1243181579   Manfred M Junius: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Manfred-M-Junius/410051223  

In this episode I record live from the production facility of Feral Fungi and have an in-depth conversation with it's owner...Jason Scott. Jason has had a lifelong passion for mycology which evolved into his ownership of this unique company and also as a teacher of the many facets of the mushroom. Jason and I talk about what makes his products special, and what the spagyric process entails.. We also talk about 'AlcheMycology' and the bourgeoning mainstream psychedelic mushroom acceptance.. Drop In!www.feralfungi.comJason Scott Bio: Jason Scott is a Mycologist, Ethnobotanist and Spagyricist who has studied traditional Hermetic Alchemy, from history and philosophy to practice, for the past 9 years. He has a background in Ethnobotany and Plant Medicine that started on the Big Island of Hawaii, and has carried back with him into his home: the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised in Oregon, Jason has an intrinsic interest in the Fungal Queendom and all of its aspects: from cultivation and mycoremediation, to historical and cultural relationships. Jason has studied various different healing modalities including Ayurveda in Nepal and Western Herbalism all over Oregon and Washington. He is on an ever-deepening journey of education to understand the practical applications of his interests, and the golden threads that connect them.  Jason has been published on the topic of AlcheMycology, exploring fungi through traditional Alchemy in Radical Mycology by Peter McCoy and Verdant Gnosis Volume 3, compiled by Jenn Zahrt, Catamara Rosarium, and Marcus McCoy. He has taught through these topics all over the United States. He is the Founder and Owner of Feral Fungi where he produces Mushroom Spagyric Tinctures, and curator of AlcheMycology.com where he shares some of his teachings and writings along side other fascinating discoveries in the world of Fungi. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this week's episode, we revisit a past episode with Sarah Wu (@villagewitch.sarahwu) who is a passionate educational curator, facilitator, and mentor dedicated to adult learners of all backgrounds. A representative for Mother Nature as a writer and teacher of Deep Ecology, Therapeutic Ecology, and whole systems design through the lens of Herbalism and Permaculture. Sarah Wu has 20 years studying the science, art, and craft of Planetary Eclectic Herbal Medicine. Her foundation is in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Wise Woman Tradition, actively practicing clinical herbalism in the Neo-Tropics for 10 years. With 25 and counting, 75+hour Permaculture Design Courses in her portfolio, Sarah teaches full length and specialized Permaculture courses and workshops tailored to community dynamics, event production, and holistic health. Sarah is the friendly Village Witch, co-founder, and producer of Envision Festival, where she curates the educational offerings and founded the unique Herbal First Aid Clinic Training. She founded and produced Medicines from the Edge: A Tropical Herbal Convergence, dedicated to bridging the eclectic healing traditions of Latin America, produced the Permaculture Plaza and Village Witches at the Oregon Eclipse, is a regular faculty member at the Punta Mona Center for Regenerative Design & Botanical Studies, is a faculty member of the Permaculture Women's Guild and a regular contributor to organizations such as NuMundo and United Plant Savers. She has studied with numerous leaders in the Western Herbalism renaissance and has worked in relief efforts in Guatemala and at Natural Doctor's International on the island of Omatepe, Nicaragua. Join our Patreon to support the show and get BONUS secret episodes! What we chat about: What is deep ecology? How to connect to the soil and pay reverence to its great mysteries Communicating with the land, the earth, and the seeds How to compost to give back to the earth Going from an industrial mindset to a sustainable and ecological one Permaculture as the answer to the world's problems Tapping into your eco-witch Learn more about Sarah's work here! Special thanks to our sponsors! CLARYTI CLARYTI is the complete zero waste home cleaning solution made with all-natural ingredients provided by Mother Nature. Founded and created by Nixie Marie. Raise the vibes of your home with CLARYTI! Tribe love: Intro music created by Deya Dova www.deyadova.com Mid-roll & Outro Music created by Saritah IG @saritahmusic FB saritah.official SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/artist/6uY5fL10UMBGn5d03v6eKN?si=hv1T5XQGRTGTlA8fdriLHA www.saritah.com Podcast Production by Ease of Mind Co. info@easeofmind.co https://www.easeofmind.co/

If you have questions about what Ayurvedic herbs are right for you, this is the episode to tune into. Tamara goes over 5 common Ayurvedic herbs in detail to help you uncover the best approach for your health needs. Tamara Hiller is a licensed midwife and professional herbalist and helps people to address the root cause of their health issues with effective herbal strategies from science-based Phytotherapy, ancient Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese and Western Herbalism. She is born and raised in Germany, has traveled a lot, lived for 10 years in Brazil and is now living in Southern Europe with her family. Connect with Tamara Instagram: @herbal.help https://www.instagram.com/herbal.help Website: http://herbalhelp.net Podcast: Down to Earth Herbalism with Tamara On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/down-to-earth-herbalism-with-tamara/id1567302109 On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2WW8FR5XWuNI37PFelBQnw YouTube Channel: Herbal Help by Tamara https://youtube.com/channel/UCjjVO5KC0FZ85O_m1Zf-EMQ Where to connect with Andrea Website: https://andreaclaassen.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/seasonallivingmamas Freebie: 5 Day Ayurvedic Challenge- https://andreaclaassen.com/5-day-ayurvedic-challenge Divine Body Wisdom Book- https://andreaclaassen.com/book Andrea Claassen Bio Andrea Claassen is an Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor, RYT 500 hour yoga teacher, and Wild Woman Project Circle leader who has been in the wellness space since 2007. Her mission is to help people slow down, tune in, and connect to your divine body wisdom.  She does this by teaching her Peaceful Power Practices centered around movement, mindfulness & mother nature through an Ayurvedic lens. You can hear more from Andrea on her Peaceful Power Podcast where she aims to deliver actionable takeaways to live a more holistic lifestyle. Connect with Andrea on her website at www.andreaclaassen.com

In a world ever obsessed with advancing technology, it may sound strange to refer to the inner workings of the body as technological. However, diving into the deep and complex relationship between breath and heart awareness, and the physical effects of these vital elements, Elzabieta Kosmicki explains the ways in which we are able to synthesize and sync our internal landscape in order to create a positive effect on our physical health and external experiences.  Elza is the founder of Advanced Wellness Partners and the Reasons & Season multimedia health education platform. Drawing on years of experience in BodyTalk, Classical Chinese Medicine, Structural Integration, Somatic Therapy, Women's and Children's Health, Eastern and Western Herbalism, Qi Gong, and Martial Arts, Elza shares her passion for heart-centered, seasonal living. She illustrates how the heart, the breath, intuition and intention all work in concert to support the mental and spiritual inner workings that ultimately pave the way for physical wellness.  Disclaimer: These statements and products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The information on this show, and C60 Purple Power products, are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. Please consult a healthcare professional before starting any new diet or exercise regimen. Individual results may vary.   Links & Resources Elza's Website Free Breath 101 course  Reasons & Season Podcast    Elza's Social Media Facebook  Instagram    Thanks for listening! To learn more about C60, please visit: https://c60purplepower.com/what-is-c60 Use the Coupon Code: THEC60SHOW for 15% off your first order at: https://c60purplepower.com Visit us on social media! Facebook. Instagram. YouTube. Twitter. Pinterest. 

Lily Cano comes on and joins me to discuss Overall Health Support. She shares about what inspired her to get certified in Western Herbalism and also go for Chinese Diagnostics along with moving forward with Nursing degrees as well.She shares about how support human beings with options, what they want and what supports them the best is her overall goal. Whether that be a mix of traditional and modern or just one of the other. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lunarisapotheca/Email: lunarisapotheca@gmail.com 

Acupuncturist and Chinese medicine practitioner Peter Kington has built a successful fertility and pregnancy-focused practice, working with couples and individuals experiencing sub-fertility. In this very open conversation with Mason Peter discusses erectile function, semen analysis, reproductive health, male health literacy, lifestyle, emotional, spiritual factors of male preconception, red flags for infertility, and breaking down cultural barriers around the male role in conception. Living in a world where infertility issues and IVF procedures are increasing, one can find an array of lifestyle, biological, and environmental factors that play a role in both men and women not being as optimally fertile as they could be. But how can we get to the root of what's causing infertility if the right diagnostic tools aren't being used, and the right conversations are not being had? Looking through the holistic lens of Chinese Medicine, Peter explains why male preconception is a vulnerable topic for men to openly discuss, especially when there is an infertility factor present that lies with them. One of the things that stands out about Peter Kington as a practitioner is his approach to diagnosis and his sensitivity to understanding the male psyche. In this insightful conversation, he explains that a good diagnosis is about looking for bits of information that give insight into the patents mind/body connection and being aware of the cultural narratives around male reproductive function.   "So often I'll be presented with the situation where I'm talking to someone who's probably 33 or 34 years old. You go through everything, they drink moderately, they don't smoke, they don't do drugs, they might have a cup of coffee every day or two. They don't add sugar. They're doing all the right things. From an overall health perspective, they look healthy and okay. But then, when you drill down to the fertility results, they have these terrible outcomes".    Mase and Peter Discuss: Masturbation. Semen analysis. Low sperm count.  Male sexual health.  Healthy ejaculation. Male preconception. The lifecycle of sperm. Male physical examination. Erectile function/dysfunction.  Male vulnerability around sex. The pressure of conception.   Pornography and low sperm counts. The micro environment of the Testes.  Sperm/Semen; Whats the difference? The IVF path and options to support it.  The impact of infertility and infertility treatment on men.    Who is Peter Kington?  Peter Kington is a registered Acupuncturist and Chinese medicine practitioner who lives and practices in Brisbane, Australia. Prior to his Chinese medicine career, Peter had a short and unfulfilling career in retail before traveling the world as an international tour director. He graduated from the Australian College of Natural Medicine in 2005 when he also went into full-time practice. Initially, a generalist in his practice, but over time has built a fertility and pregnancy-focused practice that includes working with couples and individuals experiencing sub-fertility. In addition to his Chinese medicine degree, Peter also completed a Master of Reproductive Medicine. Since 2010 Peter has taught many professional development seminars to practitioners in Australia and New Zealand. He also completed a four-part series for eLotus in Los Angeles. Peter has presented papers at AACMAC, Acupuncture New Zealand's annual conference, the International Integrative Chinese Medicine Conference, and, more recently, the Rothenberg TCM Kongress and a two-part series for ATMS.   CLICK HERE TO LISTEN ON APPLE PODCAST    Resources: Peter Kington.com.au   Peter Kington Facebook Peter Kington Instagram   Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We'd also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher, CastBox, iHeart RADIO:)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Mason Taylor: (00:00) Hey there, welcome.   Peter Kington: (00:02) Thank you for having me.   Mason Taylor: (00:03) Absolute pleasure. I am quite humbled having someone of such experience on the podcast, talking to me about... Especially, I'm really excited to go into your style of talking about male preconception, which is obviously such a small aspect of what you understand and know from your expertise. Have your own practise. Nonetheless, it's an area that, just the little that I know about what you know, I just know we are going to be able to go deep into this, beyond the do this, take these herbs, work on testosterone. I just can't wait to dive into this slippery world. I don't know if you want to introduce yourself in any other way that wouldn't have been done to say hello to everybody.   Peter Kington: (00:56) So, well thank you. My name is Peter Kington. I practise in Brisbane. I've been practising since 2005 in full-time capacity. I've kind of done it all a bit. I've owned a clinic and I had that for many years. That kind of came to an end when the building got sold. I just decided to have a break from being a commercial tenant and rented rooms in another practise. I did that for three years. Then, COVID came along. It would kind of change the landscape a little bit. I think I'd been sort of getting to a point, anyway, where I felt like I wanted to develop a more sustainable way of working and living harmoniously. The risks, I guess, from a business perspective that COVID brought to us all, but had business interests, meant that I thought maybe it's time to do what I've been thinking of for a long time, and that's, relocate my practise to a home base, practise which I did. It's the best thing I've ever done.   Peter Kington: (02:03) It took a lot of stress out of my life, put a lot of joy back in my work, and I feel like I'm the practitioner I probably thought I was going to be 15 years ago. Didn't kind of get to and weaved around a little bit and got really stressed about that along the way several times. So yeah.   Mason Taylor: (02:25) I mean being a professional or a business or not, you just mentioned it's probably time for you to live a little bit more sustainably and harmoniously, which is something especially in what you're delivering to people in helping them find harmony in their own bodies. What you can see, even for what I do at times, I've gone, my God, I'm not living sustainably, I'm educating about it, I'm talking about it, but I haven't quite made those leaps. I love hearing that. I've heard a few practitioners say that when this whole thing went down, all of a sudden, it's given that little pop and that capacity to change to go, you know what, I'm going to start actioning that move back into harmony. And then just seeing the blossoming come.   Peter Kington: (03:08) I'm very mindful of being respectful of that because in this country, and certainly around the world, lots of people have had a very terrible impact from COVID. Here in Queensland, we've been very fortunate. So I'm grateful for that. But I realise in other parts of the country, that hasn't been the case. I certainly know of practitioners that have lost their businesses and their livelihoods because of extended lockdowns. I'm grateful for that, but also just from a personal point of view, being able to work from home, it's meant that I got rid of my car. So, that's one less car on the road. That's one less cost in our lives.   Peter Kington: (03:51) I've bought a little e-scooter. I don't go anywhere through the week. If I have to go somewhere, I jump on that, scoot off, go and do what I have to do, and then come back. It's actually been really good. It's allowed me to feel a little bit more, I guess like I'm living a little bit more true to the values, like you said, the types of things that Chinese medicine practitioners bang on about. The whole practitioner, heal thyself. Sometimes, the ego can get in the way of that and we don't stop to think about the bigger picture. So yeah, here we are.   Mason Taylor: (04:25) Here we are. I think holding that space, something emanates from you. Something emanates from a practitioner who is actually evolving along the road, and not just saying stuff.   Peter Kington: (04:36) Yeah. I used to run two rooms. I ran two rooms originally because I had taken on this commercial space that was a bit more expensive. I was working a lot harder. I did that and I thought this is really good. I'm successful because I'm running two rooms, that's what successful practitioners do, that's what we get told. Then, I started to get really burned out. I figured out that okay I'm running two rooms but I'm actually working a lot harder to run those two rooms. I'm actually not seeing a lot of profitability from a financial perspective, as a result of running those two rooms. I kept perpetuating that myth in my head for a long time, but with this new arrangement, I just had one room. I see one person at a time. I can have a genuine conversation with people. I can do moxibustion with them, do as much of it that I need to do, rather than having to think about the next room that I've got to run to.   Peter Kington: (05:39) When people are facing distress or discomfort, I can kind of be in that space with them and have them feel like they're heard, as opposed to me kind of looking at them and not registering what they're saying and thinking about a clock. It's taken a lot of that pressure off. At the end of the day, I think the people who come to see me get a better level of care. I can't imagine any circumstances under which I would ever revert back to that old model.   Mason Taylor: (06:05) No doubt you're getting better results and that it's like everyone going back to slow cooking, slow food, slow living, slow healing.   Peter Kington: (06:16) I call that the sourdough revolution.   Mason Taylor: (06:18) Oo, yeah. The sourdough clinic renaissance. Well look, speaking of you speaking of myth, perpetuating myths, I'm going to use that to segue into our conversation around male preconception, because, there obviously are a lot of myths, but even the myth in where you need to start, that was something I'm really interested to talk to you about, what's the context in which we need to be having this conversation before we just start getting to the list of things you need to do to make yourself more potent. Or what's the point of male preconception even? That's probably a myth that the guys don't need to worry about it. That's probably the one to start with.   Peter Kington: (06:57) Yeah. Men basically have to step up. There's a whole lot of sociocultural reasons why they don't and why they're avoidant around issues of fertility, masculinity and sexuality. They're all kind of intertwined. In this reductionist world of ours, and in a medical system that's reductionist... By the way, I just want to say [inaudible 00:07:26], I'm not an anti-medical person. Nothing I'm saying is meant to be destructive, not destructive but disrespectful to modern medicine. I think it's delivered us lots of many wonderful things. We all have our place on the spectrum of medical care. The medical model is a reductionist model in that it reduces things to a cellular level or two, a blood serum level, or if you've got a problem with your digestive tract you go and see gastroenterologists. If they can't define what's causing your irritable bowel syndrome, then there's a cause for that it excludes the other maybe lifestyle course. Then you get a person like me, you get that kind of holistic umbrella approach or nutritionist or naturopath. We kind of approach the body in a different way.   Peter Kington: (08:12) I don't tend to think of that male ego, super ego, that gets in the way of lots of things, as being separate from the person that's sitting in front of me. I guess the thing that stops people from being in that space, that point of view, is that they haven't got a framework to process that something might be wrong. They go to a medical path, which is logical because that's what happens. The doctor might send them off to say have a semen analysis, and the semen analysis might come back and say that for the very low sperm count. Immediately, it's been reduced because it's been reduced to a parameter on a semen analysis, which then opens up the door to fertility treatment.   Peter Kington: (09:09) The outcome of that will often be there's a referral for you to see an IVF specialist with the female partner. The IVF process will say well we'll just do ICSI, which is a particular type of IVF that bypasses male factor infertility and they select sperm and off they go. It bypasses the potential causes for infertility to just provide a treatment solution at the other end. It kind of gives the bloke a free pass, without having to think that the other issues follow the things that might actually be causing that low sperm count. It could be as simple as the diet they have, the stress levels they endure. That kind of thing is not always factored in.   Peter Kington: (09:54) Where someone like me will instantly go to those types of things. But then, the responsiveness of the client to that is a whole other discussion which we should probably talk about as well, because that's part of the psychology.   Mason Taylor: (10:09) Well I think that's a great place to start because it's definitely changing a narrative, a cultural narrative. Helping to evolve, it'll move it down the road, rather than going, you should be worried or you should be working, getting to the root cause, as you're saying, I'm sure where you're going to go right now, painting a broader picture that's going to allow that to happen in a more natural way and feel a little bit more empowering, rather than you're doing this wrong. You should be doing it this way.   Peter Kington: (10:42) There's a couple of scenarios. The most common one is this. Of a morning, I'll wake up and I'll have a look at my work emails. They'll be an inquiry from my website. Often, that inquiry will have been generated at somewhere around 2 AM. It'll say something like hi, my partner and I are about to go down the IVF path and we'd like to discuss the range of options to support what we're going to do. The first thing is that's happened at 2 AM, which means that the person that's been googling at 1:35 AM has been awake. There's obviously something going on that's keeping this person up and it does. Very commonly, these inquiries come in, in the morning, after this overnight thing. Secondly, nearly always, when I say always I mean always women, even if it's the issue is about a name. The initial inquiry will nearly always be from a woman about the other person.   Peter Kington: (11:50) The process then unfolds. I'll make contact with them. I'll call the person who's made the inquiry. I'll often just ask the questions, especially if the inquiry is about male factor, I'll just say ah so is the male partner on board with this, oh no he doesn't know I've contacted you. That's the third part of this evolving kind of cultural thing that, really what I've seen is, as from the beginning, it's actually a relationship issue, it's a relational issue between them, that this process is unfolding in this way.   Peter Kington: (12:31) Then, there'll be a little bit of discussion about that. Eventually, it'll get to that point, where you either need to make an appointment, or you need to go off and think about it. Often, they'll go off and think about it and they'll say I'll have a talk to my partner about it. Then it might sit for a day or two or three. And then, there'll be a phone call back, or there'll be an online booking made, and it'll be the person that you've spoken to, but they will almost always be the female half of the relationship, not the male. So then, they'll come, and then quite often, that will filter down to so how can I help you? The response will be well as far as I know, I've got nothing wrong but my partner's got infertility issues. Right? The person that's sitting in front of you is the female part of the couple, for all intents and purposes, doesn't really have anything wrong. Wrong from a medical point of view, not necessarily from a holistic point of view.   Peter Kington: (13:31) There is that evolving scenario. That's the first kind, I think. The second thing is that if you do happen to get a male, who comes to see you, what you're often confronted with is a really complex dynamic of someone who doesn't really know how to communicate about their body, doesn't really know how to communicate about their health, has a lot of trouble thinking laterally, across the spectrum of health, physical health, mental health, emotional health, social health. They often have trouble kind of thinking laterally rather than in a very linear sense. They themselves will come with a very reductionist way of thinking, which I think is probably a bloke thing, more so. I don't want to get too caught up in the men are from Mars and women are from Venus thing because it's a slippery slope. I think generally men do that, and I think they do that probably for a reason, because it helps them to bypass certain responsibilities along the way sometimes, and I say that as a man.   (14:40) But then, they'll often come and their ability to communicate about what's actually, they're experiencing or how they're feeling, is often really challenging from a clinical point of view. We're presented with the situation where you'll be talking to someone who's probably 33 or 34 years old. You go through everything. They drink moderately. They don't smoke. They don't do drugs. They might have a cup of coffee every day, or two. They don't add sugar. They're doing all the right things. From an overall health perspective, they look healthy and okay. But then, when you drill down to the fertility results, they have these terrible outcomes.   Peter Kington: (15:31) Their ability to kind of converse with you in a way that draws together the social, the emotional, the physical, all those types of things, it's often quite difficult. That's your job as a practitioner is to try and pull that together. But, there's a bit of a discord between how the male brain thinks and what it wants at the other end.   Peter Kington: (15:54) They're the two most probable scenarios that you'll either get an inquiry about a male and you'll end up seeing the female, and to be honest, that's probably 90% of the time. Then, there's another scenario where you might get 9% of the time, where it's a female who inquires about a male, and the male comes. Very, very rarely, you'll then get that 1% where it's a man that actually contacts you for himself.   Mason Taylor: (16:20) Yeah, I'm aware of the stereotype around that, blokes not wanting to talk about their issues, perhaps not being able to think laterally. But, it kind of amazes me that, that's still that extreme of a percentage that's only 1% of the guy, turning up on his own volition. In that case, would you say being really proactive and vulnerable in that situation?   Peter Kington: (16:52) First of all, about statistics, that's just my made up statistics about myself [crosstalk 00:16:55] but that's actually probably pretty close to the map, to be honest. Vulnerable, now there's a word. Geez.   Mason Taylor: (17:06) That's just relevant for me at the moment because I've got such a problem with becoming with my own vulnerability. That's maybe why I'm just putting that word in there.   Peter Kington: (17:17) No, I think it's a good word. That's actually a really good word, Mason. I think it's probably that fear of... Okay, I remember when I was a kid, I was scared of thunderstorms. There was a reason for that, because our house got struck by lightning. It was very terrifying. I could remember all the smoke filling up the room, and the house shaking. It was a terrible, terrible thing to go through as a small child. For many years, I was quite anxious when thunderstorms come. Anyone who's ever been to Brisbane from October through to about February will know that, that's quite common because we get [inaudible 00:18:01].   Peter Kington: (18:01) It took me many years to sort of get to a point where I didn't actually get quite anxious. There was a certain vulnerability because I can remember being told by adults are you a man or a mouse? That was a very commonly said thing to me. Are you a man or a mouse? I can remember someone once saying to me, if you don't learn to get over this, how are you ever going to protect your wife when you grow up? Well, I ended up being gay. That was never going to be an issue on that front. In terms of this idea of being the protector. Vulnerability, that's a really good word, because I think a lot of what I see is actually vulnerability that's masked by that socialisation that men have to have all the answers, that men have to be the providers. Here we go back to men are from Mars, and women are from Venus. I think that's actually quite a real thing that a lot of men perceive that they have to be the strong one in the relationship.   Peter Kington: (19:09) In recent years, I was invited to speak at an acupuncture conference over in New Zealand, in Wellington. I spoke a bit about this. I did some research and there was some really excellent research that came out of the University of New Castle, if I remember correctly, in New South Wales, around the impact of infertility and infertility treatment on men. The general essence of that is it actually deeply impacts men. But they don't express it. The reason they don't express it is if they have a partner who's actually undergoing the treatment, doing the injections in the belly, having the scans, having the anaesthetics to be able to have pick ups and go through all of that sort of thing, they have this feeling that they have to be the strong one. The one that stays to offer comfort when the hormones create an emotional cascade in their partner. So they have to have this strength. They keep having to demonstrate this strength over and over and over again, they don't give themselves that space to be upset, or having to grieve. They often express a very internalised guilt.   Peter Kington: (20:25) I think the research now that's starting to be done around the impact of infertility on men, does kind of align with the kind of empiric observations that I've made in my practise, and that vulnerability that you talk about. Actually that's a great word because there's this fragility. But, getting them to express that is really, really hard. I have had [inaudible 00:20:53] years that I'm happy to share a few de-identified stories around that. I certainly have had some really interesting clinical experiences around that. Would you like to hear one?   Mason Taylor: (21:04) Yeah, for sure.   Peter Kington: (21:05) Yeah?   Mason Taylor: (21:05) Yeah, yeah.   Peter Kington: (21:06) I actually think it's a really good story. It was many, many years ago. It was probably one of the first men that I ever worked with. We knew that he had a fertility issue. He was the quintessential bloke's bloke. They lived on the margins of Brisbane, in a rural lifestyle kind of environment. I think, from memory, he was a tradie or a labourer or something like that. He worked in a very sort of alpha male type of environment. He had this fertility problem. His wife was coming to see me and she said do you think you can help him? I said it was possible. He just wouldn't come. The only way that she could get him to come and see me, was on the pretence that he had a sore elbow. So he was going to come and see me for the sore elbow. She hoped that if he came and saw me enough times for the elbow and I could help his elbow, he might develop the confidence to then have a conversation with me about his fertility. We might be able to kind of give it what we do and help that.   Peter Kington: (22:21) I was quite inexperienced with this at the time. This was many years ago. I had probably only been practising for a year or two, maybe three. I hadn't had any of the experiences that I have now. He did come. We did the elbow. There was genuinely a problem with his elbow. It's not like we were just making that up. There was an actually issue there. True to how she thought it might be, the conversation started to kind of drift a little bit towards the fertility reading, we got talking about that.   Peter Kington: (22:53) He eventually agreed to taking some herbs. So, I gave him some herbs based on what I thought was going on with him. One day, he came in and he sat down, and I could tell that there was something. We'd sort of built a rapport at this point. One thing that happens, I often find, with men is they don't engage with the ideas. They don't look at you. Chinese medicine, the eyes that we look to the soul that's the heart. It's the shen. It's a way of being able to sort of get a snapshot into the connectedness between one's spiritual and emotional self and the piece of the self. We'll often avert their eyes. They'll kind of look at you but just slightly just off to your side, to the temple. They don't quite give you the gaze all the time.   Peter Kington: (23:42) He kind of used to do that. We got to a good point where we were having this good rapport. He came in on this day and he couldn't quite fix my gaze. He sat down. He used to wear this kind of cowboy hat sort of thing. He took it off and he set it down. He is just sort of sitting there and his eyes are fixed to the floor. He just wasn't communicating and it was really weird. Eventually, I said is everything alright? He went quiet. He said can I ask you a question, and I went, sure. He said I'm just wondering, and then he paused. This is a long time ago and I still remember this conversation really clearly, how it unfolded. I'm just wondering, and he paused. Uh, and he paused. I've got a little one and I'm really worried that because it's little, it's not going in far enough. Maybe that's why we can't have a baby.   Peter Kington: (24:54) It set me back because the anxiety and the stress that this man carried. It was obviously something that he had thought about a lot for his life. He was obviously aware that, for whatever reason that, in his mind, what he had was not enough. It was inadequate. Then, they got to this point. There's this infertility issue and maybe that's the reason why.   Peter Kington: (25:29) From my point of view as a practitioner, I needed to have sufficient knowledge to be able to have a conversation with him about the difference between how sperm works, how the penis works, and how the testes work. They're all very inter-related but different things. At the other end of it, I would assure him and reassure him that, so long as there was adequate penetration, that's all they needed to do. At the next point, it was the sperm that then did the next thing, carried their way through, and there's this interaction in the female reproductive tract that helps to facilitate that.   Peter Kington: (26:11) This may be probably one of the very first times I realised this really low bar that men have about their bodies and health literacy. Having a realistic understanding of their body and how it works. I've had many, many instances since then, perhaps not to that extreme way, but certainly in terms of having conversations with people about their fertility, what they know about themselves, and how little they sometimes know.   Peter Kington: (26:47) Another example is often people don't realise that what a man ejaculates is not necessarily a sign of their fertility, because the semen is the carrier. It's the agent. It's the sperm that live inside the semen, which you can't see, which are naked to the eye. That's what actually is the fertile component. Without being too visual and too crass, but I think we're among friends here so we can at least have a conversation, and you can delete me out if you want, if you need to.   Mason Taylor: (27:25) If you learned the things that have been asked on this podcast.   Peter Kington: (27:33) I'm sure. There's a point in most males' lives, when they figure out that if they touch that thing enough it's going to do what we call ejaculate. That's masturbation. It's usually done in privacy. It's usually done in the shadows of the night. It's usually done in the confines of the shower, while your parents are making dinner, or whatever. It starts at a very young age. It becomes something that males do, however frequently, or infrequently, I don't know. It certainly happens. I think that sets up a real domino effect about how men relate to their bodies because culturally, I think at least in our culture, it still seems to be something to be embarrassed about, ashamed of. Men don't certainly go out with their male friends, sit down, and say, hey by the way, when you ejaculate, how much do you produce? You know I like this look there's nothing conversation.   Peter Kington: (28:35) I know because of my female friends and my clients, who've said to me at times that they often talk with their girl friends, or class of girl friends, about what their menstrual experience is like, about [inaudible 00:28:45]. There's a little less of a to do around that. Women are possibly a little more comfortable discussing those types of things. Then you get this other thing that gets set up, where you've got these young men that figure this stuff out. I guess these days with the internet they can find that a lot more, a lot younger, unlike when I was their age. I had to go to the school library and try to look things up in an encyclopaedia. They would kind of figure these things out. They would have to experience and then they would attach to that experience the sensation it gave them, the physical sensation of orgasm and release. They would not really have any other parameter until perhaps they're starting to look at porn, which then gives them a very unhealthy and unrealistic metric because there's a reason that they're via porn stars. It's not because they're actually representing the average.   Mason Taylor: (29:43) It's just the way that it's edited. It's unfortunate. Anyway, sorry. Go on.   Peter Kington: (29:52) Well, I'll come back to that because I've got a good story about that. Then, they get to this point in their life where they become sexually active with a partner, or partners, girlfriends and boyfriends, or whatever else they're doing throughout their life. They get to this point where suddenly they're being asked to be a parent. They've never really had to think too deeply between that first orgasm when they were 12, and the one that matters most, when they're 32. There's a real golf in there. Porn stars, fun fact, I read this not so long ago, that heterosexual porn recruiters actively recruit ugly men with small penises because they want the focus, the market is to be heterosexual men, who aspire towards the women in the video. If you want to be in the gay porn industry, you have to have a big phallus and look good, because they're appealing to gay men and they sense a desperation towards that.   Mason Taylor: (31:02) The nuance of the gay porn industry, heterosexual, whatever. When you think that you're a teenager, you just stumble into it and start making these judgements on reality, and then you start hearing the stories of the way that the industry works and the way it works on psychology and the way they cut it. The order that they do the scenes in. Everything that goes into it, the injections that they do for the men.   Peter Kington: (31:33) You mean saline injections.   Mason Taylor: (31:35) Yep. You go oh my God, it's obvious now. It's so fabricated. It's so fabricated and you don't think of it when you're a little kid.   Peter Kington: (31:48) I remember the first time I heard about a fluffer. We probably should explain to people what a fluffer is in case they don't know. A fluffer is the person who's employed to keep a man erect. They fondle them. They keep them kind of going. I think in this day and age, they probably also use a lot of Cialis and Viagra medication now, because filming days for porn stars are long, long days. They start really early and they go really late. They have to kind of keep going, and going, and going. From a Chinese medicine point of view, it's appalling because it depletes the gene, which is the Chinese way of accounting for the semen and the sperm.   Peter Kington: (32:43) I remember the first sort of documentary about the porn industry, and it was on Netflix or one of those things, and I was watching it. You're right, the stuff they do have fabricated. It's basically just acting. Most of the time, it's bad acting because people in it aren't really actors, they're there because of their body. It's not because [inaudible 00:33:16].   Mason Taylor: (33:16) When it gets to this point where, because obviously you have a lot of men, who are infertile, or they're wanting to get their chances of making sure they can save during IVF. They want them to be better. I'm assuming what you're talking about, this barrier to engaging this conversation, also applies to any man who's going we're planning to conceive and I just want to ensure that I'm as healthy as possible. I've got the healthiest gene possible to contribute, to bring in this baby into the world. Is that the first barrier, the fact that there's something there. We don't talk about the insecurities about our size, insecurities about how much cum we are producing, the way we curve to the left, that we think we have funny looking pubes, whatever it is. That you're too big or whatever it is. Is it a barrier in what that's representing is we're not able to actually engage with that part of our body and therefore get into a place where we can potentially aid our fertility or become fertile.   Peter Kington: (34:27) Good question. My conversations have involved very little to do with the anatomy of that person. I always ask the question has the doctor ever examined your genitals, because it's not really within my remit to do that. I'm not trained to, and that's really out of my scope of practise. I'm not qualified to examine someone's testes, for example, to see whether they are of an appropriate size, which can be an indicator of various genetic conditions. If males don't develop through puberty and the genitals don't evolve, they can have under-sized testes, which are often infertile. It's not my place to do that, but I will always ask the question about whether they've ever had a physical examination. I can tell you that almost always they never have. Even if they've been, with their partner, to an IVF doctor. IVF doctors are trained in female health and they do IVF as some sort of specialty.   Peter Kington: (35:42) Over the years, there's been a couple of doctors I knew here in Brisbane that would have a look at the bloke's business. But by and large, that never happens. That's actually another massive problem, because women are used to having their genitals inspected because they go for their pap smear. They have to do that. Where men, unless there's a problem, it's not likely that a doctor's going to say hey pull your pants down, I want to have a look and see what's going on down there. It just doesn't figure into the Medicare seven minute increment. It's just not something that happens.   Peter Kington: (36:18) I will ask that question. I do ask questions about erectile function. I ask questions whether a man has trouble achieving an erection. I ask questions whether they have trouble sustaining the erection during intercourse. I will ask questions of whether they have trouble losing the erection, whether the erection is painful, or whether they experience pain with or after ejaculation. I'll ask those questions. From a Chinese medicine point of view, that tells me something. Also, from a red flag point of view, that would be, if there were things that came up in there, they would be red flags to me, that I might say hey probably you should talk to your doctor about this because you know x y z.   Peter Kington: (37:10) I don't ever ask questions about genital size. I don't ask them to trace it on a piece of paper and show it to me, or anything like that. That's not really appropriate. I do quite a bit, especially if men experience erectile function issues, that I kind of want to drill into that, to find out whether it's emotional or organic-   Mason Taylor: (37:34) Mm-hmm (affirmative)   Peter Kington: (37:34) In nature. I do want to find out, and this is always the case, usually, eventually it will become both. If a guy regularly is okay and performs to achieve erections and maintain them through to orgasm, and then they lose the erection after orgasm, which is normal, and that's what they're used to, and then all of a sudden, at one point, they have trouble with an erection just on a one-off, that could often just be enough to plant a seed of concern in the mind. So the next time they have to, there's this dark voice that talks in the back of their head that says what if that happens again. It almost becomes self-fulfilling.   Peter Kington: (38:27) The other thing that I've learned over the years is when a couple is actively trying, if they know they have to have intercourse at certain time, and female partner comes from work and say by the way, we're going to have sex tonight because I'm surging, I'm ovulating, and he just really had a big day at work, he's really tired and he's not feeling the love, he's got to somehow manage to conjure up the energy to have an erection and have intercourse, that could be really hard. I've had many conversations with frustrated partners who've said well that's another chance we've lost this month because he wasn't interested in having sex. There's this pattern that then comes in about the pressure of conception.   Peter Kington: (39:15) I think a part of it is that men are driven quite differently around this than women, because women feel the surge in the hormones. They know when the oestrogen is arising. They know they might be experiencing extra cervical mucus. They'll be feeling aroused perhaps which is what happens prior to ovulation because it's nature's way of saying you're ready, where men are wired differently. Sure, men can be fertile whenever because that's how men are designed. But if they are not feeling like they're just in that right space to be able to jump to attention, have an erection, and have intercourse at that precise moment, it sets up this real anxiety cascade. This stress response is often a really big cause of erectile dysfunction in men.   Peter Kington: (40:15) There's always an organic possibility as well, which could be related to low testosterone. An anecdotal wave, and by the way if it's just anecdotal, if people have a concern about this, they really do need to go to a doctor and get this tested properly. The old joke about morning wood, morning erections that men will wake up with an erection, and when they don't, that can sometimes be an indication that their testosterone is low. Typically, it should be higher in the morning, after a night of sleep. So that can be an indicator, which would be something that someone should go off and get tested via blood. That's the only way of finding that out.   Peter Kington: (40:58) Certainly that cycle of emotional impact, either through the pathway of just like a performance anxiety because of some triggering event, or outside of that, just the time of work, or there's been a global pandemic and your business has died, or there's all these other things that can happen which will trigger this emotional kind of cascade which can cause that to happen as a consequence. It's a really hard thing for men to process because when you're a teenager, the wind can change direction. That all just happens spontaneously and it's natural that as men age, the stimuli takes more stimulus to achieve. It takes more stimulus to sustain. That's just part of the natural ageing process. No one should feel shame or guilt about that. When there is a window of opportunity for a couple to conceive and there's this call, that can be a real problem because it sets up this cascade.   Mason Taylor: (42:03) We were talking earlier about living in balance or in harmony, and making those changes, because when you're not living sustainably, I just think it reflects there in that, where we as men or as a society, don't put this erectile health as just a general health ed indicator. In Chinese medicine, it's such a huge thing that, even if you're not trying to get pregnant, there's a general awareness that if you are having a little bit of erectile dysfunction, if you're not feeling like you have a libido, it's an immediate red flag. You can start to get into a bit of harmony here and have a new, better foundation for health. That definitely doesn't happen in the worst and that we get to that point where we want to get pregnant. It's like this has been building up, most of the time it's out of the emotional pressure of the situation or it's been building up a long time. Now you want to very quickly be healthy and in harmony when it might take a little bit of a lifestyle journey as well. It's, I imagine, is a pickle clinically.   Peter Kington: (43:10) Yeah, it is, because we've been acculturated to have had [inaudible 00:43:15]. Have erectile dysfunction, take Viagra. That's it.   Mason Taylor: (43:22) For you, obviously, ideal for men to come and find you and not just have a pill, and hit me up in the morning. For your ideal for men in preparing for conception, getting themselves high libido, possibly greater quality sperm, a capacity to really contribute to that inoculation, make beautiful, strongest child possible, what are your ideals? What do you want to see men doing? Whether that's lifestyle or emotional or spiritual?   Peter Kington: (44:05) I might just talk a bit generally. I think this probably scope here first to how long we talk about the aspects of this from more of a treatment type of thing we haven't really touched on in terms of a clinical setting. We could talk about that at some point with a bit more discussion about how sperm are made and how the physiology of it all happens. That's actually a really interesting discussion because I think men need to understand the physiology of their reproduction to understand sometimes how the intervention can help them.   Mason Taylor: (44:45) Gothca.   Peter Kington: (44:45) Okay. Having conversation, you and I sometime maybe around the physiological aspect and the time that into, say Chinese medicine treatment and what would happen in a clinical situation, would be in terms of probing the health of sperm. Generally speaking, the whole thing about Chinese medicine is it's predicated on a Chinese medicine diagnosis. So, the Chinese medicine diagnosis is not a biomedical diagnosis and that's the most important thing for anyone to remember.   Peter Kington: (45:15) You'll go to a doctor and they'll do a semen analysis and they'll say to you, based on these parameters you're not going to conceive, naturally. So, you've got subfertility. There's your diagnosis. It's actually quite a meaningless diagnosis because there are a myriad of parameters on a semen analysis. There are seven main ones they use. It's the volume of the semen. It's the colour. It's the scarcity of it. It's the number of sperm. It's the motility of the sperm. It's the morphology of the sperm. That's six, I'm sure there's another one somewhere. There's all these measures right. Some men might be below in one measure. More likely, most men will be below in multiple measures on the analysis. When you say subfertile, it's quite meaningless because it doesn't really clarify what that means in the first instance.   Peter Kington: (46:14) Be that as it may, someone comes and you go through the Chinese medicine framework, as a practitioner, and you ask questions, and I guess I've developed my own way of doing that after my many years of doing that, and learning lots of stuff about sperm and how it all works. You just look at the person. That's the first thing, just sitting and pointing towards the wall where my client would normally sit. You look at them. If you see someone who's got boobies and a bit of a belly, straight away you ask yourself, there could be some sort of hormonal imbalance going on there, either low testosterone or excessive amounts of oestrogen, which men in their system. There could be something going on there. Or you look at them and they are very ruddy in the face and they've got greasy skin and sort of slimy hair, or that tells me something from a Chinese medicine point of view. Or you look at them and they are pale, they're thin and that tells me something different from a Chinese medicine point of view.   Peter Kington: (47:15) Really, the diagnosis that sits on a semen analysis is just another piece of information from a Chinese medicine point of view. It's not a be all and end all. It just tells us how that person's health dynamic is impacting that particular measure. I discounted this initially because from a Chinese medicine point of view, we have actually no way of a system. Classically, in the texts that talks about the practitioner tasting the semen. Be that as it may, it's not going to happen in 21st century Australia.   Mason Taylor: (47:57) That'll be very edgy at the moment, won't it.   Peter Kington: (48:00) That would be a brave practitioner that would do that.   Mason Taylor: (48:04) Alright, requirements. Glasses of pineapple juice before coming.   Peter Kington: (48:12) That's the first. The classics used to talk about sniffing it. I mean all these things are predicated on a man giving a sample. That's just not going to happen because you're going to end up in jail, or you're going to be de-registered, because someone is going to think that's got some sort of ejaculate fetish. Did you like how I was polite when I said that?   Mason Taylor: (48:33) Yeah, absolutely.   Peter Kington: (48:39) Maintaining a certain level of professionalism here. If you don't have the semen analysis to guide you, you don't know that. So it's useful. I'm not saying it's not. As a practitioner, you need to understand that. That's the sort of thing we might talk about some other time as well, because there's a whole sort of framework around that I've worked out over the years. You've got the semen analysis and it tells you something. You're only interested in that within the context of the person. If the person sitting in front of you is clearly 20 kilogrammes overweight, slightly short of breath, and got greasy skin and red complexion, that's going to tell me something. If the person sitting in front of you is lethally thin, pale, doesn't sleep, highly wired, very anxious, and has five cups of double shots of coffee a day, and they've also got lowsy sperm, that's going to tell me something different.   Peter Kington: (49:37) The way I treat that man is going to be completely different than the way I treat the other one. Whereas bio-medically speaking, they'll go and have ICSI, which is where they get them to ejaculate in a cup, they put it under a microscope. They examine it and they actually choose the best sperm that they can find by visual inspection. They eject that into the egg. I'm not putting that down because that's clever medicine. It doesn't really go to the issues of why that man has got a low sperm count. It might be that it's just genetic. It could just be a genetic thing in which case, nothing is really going to change that. It's just the way that he was born.   Peter Kington: (50:22) If it's because he has three chicken rolls and meat pie for lunch every day, and a highly sugar lated in ice coffee on his way to work every morning and he's up until 11 o'clock at night, watching porn and masturbating, and doing all of these other things that we can work through and try to repair and replace with other activities that are more nourishing and sustaining. Then, there's a real place for that intervention to take place, over a period of time, because sperm don't just improve overnight. You don't come from one acupuncture session and suddenly you've got a splendid number of sperm at your disposal. The lifecycle of the sperm is at least three months. Mason, the sperm you're making right this second, you will ejaculate in 91 days time. Set your clock to it.   Mason Taylor: (51:14) Aww, cute.   Peter Kington: (51:18) Three months. It's a three month life cycle. That's just producing that. Realistically, it's actually longer than that. You've got to think of this as a change in life over a significant period of time, if you're wanting to have a really deep impact on improving your overall vitality over the sperm.   Mason Taylor: (51:42) As you say that, vitality of the sperm, one of the happy accidents, what happens there is you get a bunch of vitality as well and a bunch of healthy, happy sperm. Happy man.   Peter Kington: (51:54) Yes, that's true. One of the great incongruities of working with men is that a man like you, I'm looking at you because we're talking over Zoom, who looks young, virile and healthy, and actually looks a picture of health, can come in and hand you a semen analysis that is actually completely the opposite. That's actually one of the really hard things to reconcile. If a woman comes to see you and says I've got heavy menstrual loss, I have huge clogs, massive pain and the menstrual blood is purple, and then you ask the questions and you find out that she drinks a lot of coffee, drinks a lot of alcohol, has a really high stress life, does all these things, for a Chinese medicine point of view, you can actually draw a line between those things and bring them together and provide a very clear diagnostic that provides a clear treatment path.   Peter Kington: (52:54) Men have this very unusual thing where they will come and often their sperm health will be quite different from their physical health. That's the great challenge. That's what I was saying about sometime we should talk about the physiology of that. I've got this working theory that thinks of the sperm, when you think about it, testes are outside of the body. Tissue wise, the testes are the same tissue in men as ovaries in women. They call them amogalus anatomical structures. There's all these things. Men and women are basically the same thing. It's just that men have a Y chromosome and women have two X's. Men are XY. Women are XX.   Peter Kington: (53:42) That different chromosome is what gives men a penis and testes and gives us hairy chests, facial hair, and deep voices in puberty. That's why women develop breasts and the female form. Part of that is the testes sit outside of the body. Because they sit outside of the body, if we were hunters and gatherers in the bush, our testes would hang free and they would sit ideally at around 35 Degree Celsius, the temperature inside the testes would be 35 degrees. That's the optimal temperature for making sperm. For women, the optimal abdominal temperature, core temperature, is around 36.2 or 36.3 degrees. So it's significantly warmer. Ovaries need a lot more warmth. Testes need a cooler external environment. Each, there's blood flow that carries nutrients and hormones, and helps to regulate the temperature of thermodynamics and keep it at this consistent temperature.   Peter Kington: (54:47) When we think about men, we have to think about the testes as almost like a micro environment. I think that's why it is that you can have a healthy specimen as a person, but you can have unhealthy testicular outcomes because of this micro environment that's been compromised. Your job as a practitioner is to figure out what's going that's causing that and trying to rectify that. That's where some of those lifestyle things like not wearing tight underpants for instance. I'm wearing jeans right now. Well these jeans are pulling my go nads right up against my body. Fortunately, I don't need them to make babies with but you know they're pulling them up against my body. They're going to be keep them warmer than they ideally should be.   Peter Kington: (55:35) Spa baths is a classic example. Men go in and have a soak in a spa or a jacuzzi at this time, that's probably set at probably 38 or 40 Degree Celsius to keep it warm but you're frying your balls while you're in there. Oops I said it. My professional video slipped.   Mason Taylor: (55:49) I knew I'd get you eventually.   Peter Kington: (55:54) I nearly said something else. There's this micro environment. I think that's a really big part of what a good practitioner needs to be able to do. A lot of the education I've done over the years with teaching practitioners, I've run these professional development seminars over about 10 years, has been about trying to teach practitioners about how the male bits work because in our study, we almost do none of that. We get taught how the female reproductive system works but very little is given to us about the way the male reproductive system works. A lot of my professional drive has been trying to help practitioners to understand this a bit better and find a framework to work within that wall. That way they can help clients.   Mason Taylor: (56:44) I think when we first spoke, when you brought that up, it's like how there's so many oestrogen mimicking herbs established within Western Herbalism over decades and decades for women's fertility, [inaudible 00:57:04] etc. about when Stephen Buhner came along. He was like there's no androgenic herbs documented of being used in clinic whatsoever. We now understand women's preconception needs or fertility needs. There's not much going on for male fertility herbalism. I guess it kind of speaks to what you're saying. We've got to head off soon. I really can't wait to go into how the male bits work and continue to get that education out there. It's not just engagement, just getting that male engagement to begin with, not just having nothing wrong with you. It's her that needs to be worked on. Creating enough of a vulnerability. That's where this whole conversation needs to be starting.   Peter Kington: (58:01) Yeah. Just as an example, lets just say that somebody has a low sperm count.   Mason Taylor: (58:08) Mm-hmm (affirmative)   Peter Kington: (58:10) I will ask them how often they ejaculate. I never ask how often do you have sex because my experience is that most men are not truthful about the difference between how much they ejaculate and how much of that is actually related to penetrative intercourse in the guise of trying to conceive. If you've got a low sperm count, there's this idea about if you've got a normal sperm count or a healthy sperm count, whatever that is, let's say a couple of hundred million sperm, it's healthy to regularly ejaculate. What that does is, the way that the male physiology works that there are actually sperm always sitting in the background in reserve. That's why men can have multiple ejaculations in a day and be fertile, unlike women who ovulate once a month. Once that ovulation passes, they're not fertile until the next time they ovulate.   Peter Kington: (59:13) Men and women are wired differently. That's all well and good. If you're 25 years old and you've got a good healthy sperm count, it's actually not bad for you to be ejaculating fairly frequently. The general rule of thumb I say to my clients is every three days, every four days because what it does is it allows you to ejaculate, it gets rid of the sperm, and then it creates a fresh palette in that micro environment for the testes to recruit more sperm, to bringing forward ready for the next ejaculation. You're getting a good kind of replenishment for healthy sperm.   Peter Kington: (59:54) If you've got a low sperm count and you're not following that sort of framework, and you actually masturbate twice a day, morning and night, and you're doing that every day, and then in the middle of that you're having a bit of sex because it's hey presto time, we've got to have a baby, it's highly likely that you actually don't have the physical capacity to produce enough sperm based on your numbers to be ejaculating viable sperm. This semen analysis is a useless tool but it's actually quite a good tool because we can see on the numbers what someone is producing. It allows someone like me to give someone like you, or someone else, the advice that might be so how many times are you ejaculating? When you get to that point in conversation, and you might find out that it's seven or nine times a week, there's probably a conversation that needs to be had about okay we might need to pull that back for these reasons.   Peter Kington: (01:00:59) I've always found that if you could give a reason that's rooted in some sort of systemic, scientific methodology, men will listen to that. As opposed to, it's just because your genes going to be really badly affecting, which means something to me as Chinese Medicine Practitioner, that means nothing to the average person. From a professional point of view, being able to think and speak in two languages is really important. From a client's point of view, you just need to be able to give them manageable and bits of advice that they can enact.   Peter Kington: (01:01:41) I do genuinely find, if you say to men, look I think you're ejaculating too much, let's try and keep it to no more than three times a week or once every 3 or 4 days, and you can explain to them why that's the thing, they'll genuinely try that. I'm also interested in why somebody needs to feel the need to masturbate 10 times a week because they think that actually says something as well. If it's a stress mechanism or if whatever that might be, I think that's an interesting insight as well. I'm always interested to find that out because it's just another piece of evidence for my diagnosis to help me to understand the connection between that person's mind and their body.   Mason Taylor: (01:02:26) I mean it's fascinating and I always love this topic. I love talking about male preconception, infertility. I know we've got a lot of women that listen to this podcast. We've got more and more men. I know every time we talk about male sexual health, the feedback is just so positive. The guy's loving it. The wider female audience is eating it up, eating the topic up. I think that's a beautiful thing as well, is having women becoming just as engaged with this conversation, just as much as men becoming engaged in this conversation. Say vice versa, when we talk about women's fertility on this podcast and saying boys, you better be listening to his.   Peter Kington: (01:03:21) The message though is if you've got a son, you need to talk to your son from a young age and demystify his reproductive function because it will make it a whole lot easier for him as he gets older if he can talk about his penis and his testes and his ejaculate and not feel awkward about that. It's rare I think in this world to find a man who can do that. I think that's the key to it. I think the key to it is for us all to better understand, be more health literate. I think the key to it is to be confident enough to be able to have conversations with your children, whether male or female, about how their bodies work.   Peter Kington: (01:04:13) I remember once I got into a conversation with somebody. I didn't like it because it was getting towards rape blame. I just sat there, and I'm not a violent person, I'm a pacifist completely, I've never punched a person in my life, I've never hit someone in my life either, but I remember sitting there and thinking if I could just grab you right now and put your head through the wall of wood. Man was basically blaming, this wasn't to do with work, this was a social situation, blaming this woman for getting pregnant. I just sat there and I looked at him. I said you know what if you didn't ejaculate inside her, she wouldn't have been pregnant. Every unwanted pregnancy out there is actually because some bloke ejaculated. If you didn't want that baby, you shouldn't have done it in the first place. That's opening a whole other can, right on the clock.   Mason Taylor: (01:05:12) It kind of sits in that same world. It reflects from not taking responsibility for your part to play in conception and fertility on that side of things. That same cultural narrative can then lead to the emergence of I'm not taking responsibility for the fact that there's a pregnancy here. Anyway, not a nice conversation and not a nice man, but nonetheless.   Peter Kington: (01:05:40) It's that thing. The lack of awareness of consequence. You can bring it back to your word vulnerability. It is his ego driven attitude towards that was masking invulnerability and a sense of responsibility. But he didn't think of it like that. He was far too engaged in blaming her for not being careful enough. That's one of my bandwagons.   Mason Taylor: (01:06:15) I definitely see how that is perpetuated, not as extreme as that obviously, but you can see how, when it comes to the act of getting pregnant, that the entire onus is put upon the woman. Even, she's pregnant. It's just the little simple things. I remember saying when we were pregnant, and having people say well she was pregnant, and I say I had a lot to do with that as well. I feel quite involved, not to take away from the reality that Taney was actually holding the child and underwent that huge process. I physically didn't. Nonetheless, having that conversation did allow me to engage. I got to engage with my responsibility of preconception via my engagement during the pregnancy. I get to take on responsibility as well. Ultimately, be a little bit more connected. Hopefully, feel a little bit more vulnerability around the process. Hopefully, become a better dad because of it, be connected to my child. It's like a domino effect.   Peter Kington: (01:07:23) Yup.   Mason Taylor: (01:07:25) Verse that's her. That's her responsibility. I'm aware of the time. We've gone over.   Peter Kington: (01:07:32) Yes   Mason Taylor: (01:07:33) I'm really appreciative to you and really looking forward to having you back on so we can really get into it. I know we said sink our teeth into it but no that's not quite the same.   Mason Taylor: (01:07:47) Best place for people to get onto your work and use your clinic. Are you open for clients at the moment?   Peter Kington: (01:07:55) Yeah, I'm just about to go on holidays but I suspect this won't be broadcast until after I come back. I'm always, always willing to hear from people. They can find me on the web by my name, which is PeterKington.com.au   Mason Taylor: (01:08:10) Beautiful. Thank you so much for coming on. It's been a really great chat.   Peter Kington: (01:08:13) Thanks, Mason.   For more details go to: https://www.superfeast.com.au/blogs/superblog/peter-kington-ep-126  

(originally aired 6/18/16)In this episode of Vitality Radio, Jared discusses the problem with over-the-counter gas, diarrhea, and stomach upset pharmaceuticals. What you can do to prevent these issues in the first place. Also in this episode, Jared pays tribute to Clyde St. Clair, his father. Jared also tells the story of how Dr. Christopher became the only herbal medicine doctor in the US army during World War II. You can follow us at @vitalityradio on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Check us out online at vitalitynutrition.com. Let us know your thoughts about this episode by using the hashtag #vitalityradio and please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. The podcast has not been evaluated by the FDA. The information within is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Advice given is not intended to replace the advice of your medical professional.

Join us for a conversation with T. Aisha Edwards where we discuss recovering from complex trauma, somatics for liberation, Radical Rest, and so much more. Topics we cover include: Unburdening the impacts of socialized oppressions for POCs and Queer/Trans folks Using healing justice to support folks on the front lines of racial justice uprisings The Emergent Liberation Collective podcast The trauma-informed stabilization model Parts work: unblending and befriending About Aisha: Aisha Edwards, LMHC (xe/she) is a somatic trauma therapist, healer, writer, performance artist and fire breathing light warrior. She uniquely weaves Gestalt, Somatic Experiencing, early developmental movement, Neuro Emotional Technique, ancestral healing and concepts from Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Herbalism into a holistic approach to emotional and spiritual health that fosters the sovereign  relationship with the body as the vehicle to wellness, wholeness, connection and liberation from all forms of oppression.  Find Aisha online: On the web: www.fullflightwellness.com, www.radicalrest.org, https://linktr.ee/emergentliberationcollective On Instagram: @full_flight_wellness, @emergentliberationcollective Links to relevant resources: Somakinese school @somakinese.school  Embodied Biotensegrity https://biotensegrity.podia.com/ Janina Fisher and Trauma-Informed Stabilization model: https://janinafisher.com/tist  @langstonkahn ancestral healing around trauma Magdalena Weinstein @magdalenaweinstein Emergent strategy https://alliedmedia.org/speaker-projects/emergent-strategy-ideation-institute Nurturing Resilience/Somatic Resilience and Regulation Training: https://www.resilienceandregulation.com/ Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website On the web: https://somanywings.org On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somanywingspodcast On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somanywingspodcast On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/somanywingspodcast

Curious about how to create a tropical greenhouse in the mountains of Colorado at 8500 feet? i was too! Listen for more info and we also talk about the golden handcuffs of instagram, what it has been like for her being pregnant, pivoting to doing more online business due to the pandemic and how that has shifted the business in some surprising ways. Kate also shares some very personal stories about her experiences with being pregnant and how Lyme disease and autoimmune conditions brought her to herbalism. We talk about her love for permaculture and formulation and how opening the shop has been a way of creating a community of wonderful witchy women who support each other.  We also discuss the difficulty of slowing down in this culture and the beauty and balance of asking for help and setting boundaries as we navigate new terrain.  (Bio from the website www.alpinebotanicals.com)Kate Miller is the founder of Alpine Botanicals Artisan Apothecary in Nederland, Colorado. She is a Certified Herbalist, Biodynamic herb grower and Permaculture Designer & Teacher with a focus on Dry-land & Alpine Farming, Western Herbalism, Mountain Ecology, Ethical Wildcrafting, & Habitat Restoration.She began her studies in herbal medicine and holistic nutrition as a teenager to cope with chronic physical illness, including Lyme disease and autoimmune conditions.  She is currently exploring how various modalities in alternative medicine, such as Indigenous European and Traditional Chinese Medicine, are complemented and enhanced through Anthroposophical approaches to healing.  Kate actively explores her ancestral medicine traditions from her Celtic, Ukrainian, Germanic, & Mediterranean roots.Her apothecary’s mission is to encourage personal agency over one’s health through knowledge of and access to regeneratively grown herbal medicines.  In addition to offering a full service herbal apothecary, Alpine Botanicals includes a community clinic space, a licensed herbal production kitchen, and a 900 square foot attached tropical forest greenhouse & nursery. Kate was introduced to Biodynamic farming methods in 2010 during an internship at Growing Garden's in her senior year at CU Boulder.  She received her degree in Environmental Studies with a focus on International Sustainable Agricultural Policy.  She has been intensively learning & practicing biodynamic and regenerative farming methods at the Alpine Botanicals herb farm site located in East Boulder since 2015. Our house product line features many of these biodynamically grown herbs and flowers.Kate has taught on alpine ecology, agroforestry, herbal medicine, garden strategies, fermentation, Biodynamics, and more at Permaculture Design Courses throughout Colorado including the Boulder PDC, Denver PDC, and Sunrise Ranch PDC , and Permaculture Action Days.  When she's not at the shop, working in the greenhouse, or crafting the Alpine Botanicals product line, you'll usually find Kate hiking with her husband and dog, playing in her herb garden, or recipe testing edible and topical creations in her kitchen.  She lives in a 100% off grid home just minutes away from her shop and cherishes the nurturing quiet and beauty of living on the edge the Rocky Mountain Wilderness at 8500ft.  Alpine Botanicalshttps://www.alpinebotanicals.com/https://www.instagram.com/alpine_botanicals/https://bookshop.org/Thyme in the Studio links:https://www.patreon.com/thymeinthestudiohttps://www.etsy.com/shop/AidaZeaArtshttps://www.instagram.com/thymeinthestudiopodcast/https://www.instagram.com/aida.zea.arts/https://www.facebook.com/groups/403582056803336/www.thymeinthestudio.comhttps://www.aidazea.comContact me: sara@aidazea.comMusic by Aaron Travers!@aa.travers

In this week's episode, Nixie Marie sits down with Sarah Wu (@villagewitch.sarahwu) who is a passionate educational curator, facilitator, and mentor dedicated to adult learners of all backgrounds. A representative for Mother Nature as a writer and teacher of Deep Ecology, Therapeutic Ecology, and whole systems design through the lens of Herbalism and Permaculture. Sarah Wu has 20 years studying the science, art, and craft of Planetary Eclectic Herbal Medicine. Her foundation is in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Wise Woman Tradition, actively practicing clinical herbalism in the Neo-Tropics for 10 years. With 25 and counting, 75+hour Permaculture Design Courses in her portfolio, Sarah teaches full length and specialized Permaculture courses and workshops tailored to community dynamics, event production, and holistic health. Sarah is the friendly Village Witch, co-founder, and producer of Envision Festival, where she curates the educational offerings and founded the unique Herbal First Aid Clinic Training. She founded and produced Medicines from the Edge: A Tropical Herbal Convergence, dedicated to bridging the eclectic healing traditions of Latin America, produced the Permaculture Plaza and Village Witches at the Oregon Eclipse, is a regular faculty member at the Punta Mona Center for Regenerative Design & Botanical Studies, is a faculty member of the Permaculture Women’s Guild and a regular contributor to organizations such as NuMundo and United Plant Savers. She has studied with numerous leaders in the Western Herbalism renaissance and has worked in relief efforts in Guatemala and at Natural Doctor’s International on the island of Omatepe, Nicaragua. Join our Patreon to support the show and get BONUS secret episodes! What we chat about: What is deep ecology? How to connect to the soil and pay reverence to its great mysteries Communicating with the land, the earth, and the seeds How to compost to give back to the earth Going from an industrial mindset to a sustainable and ecological one Permaculture as the answer to the world's problems Tapping into your eco-witch Learn more about Sarah’s work here! Special thanks to our sponsors! CLARYTI CLARYTI is the complete zero waste home cleaning solution made with all-natural ingredients provided by Mother Nature. Founded and created by Nixie Marie. Raise the vibes of your home with CLARYTI! Tribe love: Intro music created by Deya Dova www.deyadova.com Mid-roll & Outro Music created by Saritah IG @saritahmusic FB saritah.official SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/artist/6uY5fL10UMBGn5d03v6eKN?si=hv1T5XQGRTGTlA8fdriLHA www.saritah.com Podcast Production by Ease of Mind Co. info@easeofmind.co https://www.easeofmind.co/

In this episode, I arrive at the headquarters of Feral Fungi and have an amazing discussion with modern alchemist, mycologist, spagyricist and much more: Jason Scott. We talk about the history and modern application of alchemy, the spagyric process, and the magic of mushrooms! Join Us...Jason Scott is a Mycologist, Ethnobotanist and Spagyricist who has studied traditional Hermetic Alchemy, from history and philosophy to practice, for the past 9 years. He has a background in Ethnobotany and Plant Medicine that started on the Big Island of Hawaii, and has carried back with him into his home: the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised in Oregon, Jason has an intrinsic interest in the Fungal Queendom and all of its aspects: from cultivation and mycoremediation, to historical and cultural relationships. Jason has studied various different healing modalities including Ayurveda in Nepal and Western Herbalism all over Oregon and Washington. He is on an ever-deepening journey of education to understand the practical applications of his interests, and the golden threads that connect them. Jason has been published on the topic of AlcheMycology, exploring fungi through traditional Alchemy in Radical Mycology by Peter McCoy and Verdant Gnosis Volume 3, compiled by Jenn Zahrt, Catamara Rosarium, and Marcus McCoy. He has taught through these topics all over the United States. He is the Founder and Owner of Feral Fungi where he produces Mushroom Spagyric Tinctures, and curator of AlcheMycology.com where he shares some of his teachings and writings along side other fascinating discoveries in the world of Fungi.www.feralfungi.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How herbs can transform your health: Amber Valenzuela, Herbalist    How did they deal with disease thousands of years ago, before conventional medicine and antibiotics?  The answer was in the ground.  They were masters of using plants and food as their remedies.  And the pharmaceuticals we have now are often derived from those medicinal plants - like garlic, onions, turmeric, thyme and so many more.  The use of spices and herbs with antimicrobial activity was necessary to ward off the threat of food-borne pathogens. The only problem is, people tend to turn to a pharmaceutical when they can get a natural answer from their own spice cabinet.  My guest today is Amber Valenzuela, a certified California Naturalist through UC Berkeley and Staff Herbalist at Traditional Medicinals specializing in the practical application of Western Herbalism in your everyday life. You'll learn how to use herbs in an effective way to help with sleep, stress, digestion and boosting immunity.  This is one you won't want to miss!

In the latest episode, I speak with Megan Wakefield the founder, herbalist, and gardener at Walking Wild Herbs, located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia at Walking Wild Herbs. Megan creates various blends and produces high-quality, balancing herbal teas that are formulated to support a healthy lifestyle. She also provides gardening education and consultations to help people bring fresh fruits and vegetables, herbs, and flowers into their own spaces. We discuss how she came to be an herbalist and how a long love inspired by her grandmother created a business she is passionate about, the importance and value of herbs to your diet and the medicinal benefits. How Megan creates her delicious teas and working with clients to customize ensures that organic and best practices applied for a high quality ingredients. Supporting local farms that grow the herbs needed for the teas and the importance of using locally grown ingredients improves the healthfulness. Gardening can be both a soothing recovery activity as well as develop an appreciation for slowing down along with providing healthy food options in your back yard. To learn more about Walking Wild, visit www.walkingwild.org Gardening Classes can be found on HERE Instagram @walkingwildherbs Books: Traditional Practice of Western Herbalism by Matthew Wood Podcast: Cultivating Space Music: Cat Stevens Radio on Spotify R&R Favorites: Breathing and Grounding practice & Gardening Thanks for listening please subscribe, listen and share! #BeRestedBeWell --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In the latest episode, I speak with Megan Wakefield the founder, herbalist, and gardener at Walking Wild Herbs, located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia at Walking Wild Herbs. Megan creates various blends and produces high-quality, balancing herbal teas that are formulated to support a healthy lifestyle. She also provides gardening education and consultations to help people bring fresh fruits and vegetables, herbs, and flowers into their own spaces. We discuss how she came to be an herbalist and how a long love inspired by her grandmother created a business she is passionate about, the importance and value of herbs to your diet and the medicinal benefits. How Megan creates her delicious teas and working with clients to customize ensures that organic and best practices applied for a high quality ingredients. Supporting local farms that grow the herbs needed for the teas and the importance of using locally grown ingredients improves the healthfulness. Gardening can be both a soothing recovery activity as well as develop an appreciation for slowing down along with providing healthy food options in your back yard. To learn more about Walking Wild, visit www.walkingwild.org Gardening Classes can be found on HERE Instagram @walkingwildherbs Books: Traditional Practice of Western Herbalism by Matthew Wood Podcast: Cultivating Space Music: Cat Stevens Radio on Spotify R&R Favorites: Breathing and Grounding practice & Gardening Thanks for listening please subscribe, listen and share! #BeRestedBeWell --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Tahnee is joined by Erin Lovell Verinder on the podcast today. Erin is a fully qualified Herbalist, Nutritionist and Energetic Healer who has worked in the healing realms for twenty-one years. Erin is deeply passionate about individualised treatment approaches, empowering others to reconnect to their innate ability to heal and rediscover the primal foundations of thriving health. Working deeply in one on one sessions, Erin enables her clients to unfold profound change in their health and wellbeing by bridging together herbal medicine, nutritional medicine, energetics and lifestyle change. We're thrilled to have Erin on the show today, sharing her experience as an intuitive Western Herbalist. “There's medicine everywhere.. There really is” - Erin Lovell Verinder Tahnee and Erin discuss: Erin's journey into energetics and herbalism. Embodied healing, physical, mental, spiritual. The medicinal powers of culinary herbs. The beauty and strength of medicinal weeds. Wildcrafting and plant identification. The restorative powers of time in nature and adequate nutrition. Herbalism as activism. Herbalism in Australia - how the institutionalised regulation of the craft has stolen some of the magic. The lack of knowledge and understanding that surrounds our native Australian herbal medicine. Folk medicine in America.   Who is Erin Lovell Verinder ? Erin is a fully qualified Herbalist, Nutritionist and Energetic Healer who has worked in the healing realms for twenty-one years. Erin holds a Bachelor of Western Herbal Medicine, an Advanced Diploma of Nutritional Medicine and a Diploma of Energetic Healing and is a member of the (ATMS) Australian Traditional Medicine Society. Walking the plant path, Erin is a woman in tune with the natural world. On a full hearted mission to educate, assist and up-level how we can all heal with the rhythms of nature, through the bounty of plant medicine and gentle innate interventions to unearth thriving health and wellbeing. Marrying the wisdom and philosophy of naturopathic medicine as the golden compass, to treat the whole- not just the symptom is the pure guiding force in Erin’s practice. Getting to the roots of ill health is the solid intention and directive, addressing the drivers and encouraging the body gently to return to balance and harmony with food as medicine, medicinal plants, lifestyle changes, functional testing and energetic medicine to deliver a wholesome high vibrational experience and to ultimately promote healing. Resources: Erin's Website Erin's Instagram Erin's Book - Plants For The People   Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast?   A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Tahnee: (00:00) Hi everybody, and welcome to the SuperFeast Podcast. Today I am here with Erin Lovell Verinder, I hope I'm saying that correctly.   Erin: (00:09) That was very fancy.   Tahnee: (00:12) She's a beautiful herbalist and naturopath that I was fortunate to meet a little while ago, and she does Western Herbalism, so I'm really excited to have her perspective on the podcast today. She also has a really great and interesting background as an energetic healer as well, so I'm really excited to weave that into our conversation today, because I think your journey, Erin, from coming from energetics to herbalism is a really exciting one. She is just kind of an all-around, on the ground, herbal earth lady wise woman. She lives out here in Byron. She has a really beautiful hubby and puppies and lives in a church, which is kind of my dream. I'm really excited to have you here today, thanks for joining us.   Erin: (01:02) Thanks so much for having me. I'm so stoked to be here.   Tahnee: (01:05) Yeah, and I have a copy of your book here. Plants for the People. I really want to talk about that today, because I think, given what's going on in the world, it's such an empowering read, and it makes herbalism seem really easy and kind of accessible, but I really wanted to get back to your roots, because you say, in the book, that you had an uncle who gardened and fostered a love of plants in you, so I was wondering if you could kind of tell us about your childhood and your special uncle, and any other little seeds that might have been planted at that early stage for you, as to why you are now the wise woman that you are.   Erin: (01:41) Thank you, yeah. Definitely, he was such a beautiful force in my life. He was really like my adopted grandfather. Both my grandfathers passed when I was quite young, so I didn't have that sort of figure in my life when I was growing up. He was our neighbour, actually, started as our neighbour, and just like dear friends over the fence, and as it all evolved, he ended up moving in with us when his wife passed away. We lived with him for years, he just became a part of the family so I call him, he was my Uncle Les, but he really was like my grandfather and I just adored him.   Erin: (02:21) My parents, there was not a green thumb in the household, really. My dad's a structural engineer, very very, super cerebral, dad particularly. Earthy mum, but not in the way of translation into connection to nature. Uncle Les just, he was an old Englishman and he just adored his garden and had this kind of relationship and magic with his garden that really inspired me. His roses were always the best in the neighbourhood. He had so much fruit growing on his trees, his veggies were always bumping. I was so impressed that he could plant something and it would just take off. That seemed magical to me, because the only place we got roses was at the corner store. You know what I mean? Get your veggies at the veggie shop.   Erin: (03:10) I learnt a lot from him, and he introduced me to growing and getting my hands in the dirt, and just all these really simple tips that totally inspired me as a child. I really was just so drawn to that. That definitely was early-day seeds of how I thought plants were magical. My mum reminded me the other day of also my connections to nature, but my entrepreneurial side, of I used to go around, it's so funny. I used to go around the neighbourhood cutting people's flowers from their garden, making arrangements, like making them beautiful, and then I would literally knock on their doors and sell them back to them.   Tahnee: (03:52) That's hilarious.   Erin: (03:58) [Crosstalk 00:03:58] though. I would come home with gold coins, which is major when you're little, gold coins, and she would just be like, "How did you do that?" I think I just thought it was cute. I just noticed, even when I went and picked their flowers, I just was really enamoured by nature, and in the suburbs in the '80s and '90s, growing up in the suburbs of Western Sydney, everybody had gardens. It was very tame though, but I was still deeply connected to the gardens, and I was always seeking as much wildness as I could. There was a reserve up the road with lots of eucalyptus and kookaburras laughing, and I was just so deeply in love with being outside always.   Tahnee: (04:41) I think we're super blessed in Australia, because even if you do grow up in a city, you typically have access to more nature. Like I've been in Sydney and seen lorikeets flying around and parks and trees, so I think it breeds a little bit of, I don't know, that kind of connection to the natural world. Even if we do grow up around white picket fences.   Erin: (05:05) Totally, yeah.   Tahnee: (05:08) But also what I think people probably don't appreciate in their suburban area, and I'm sure you probably do now, but as a little girl, you weren't aware, maybe, of how many of those kind of things that we might have once piled Roundup onto, and hopefully people aren't doing that anymore, are actually really useful medicinals.   Erin: (05:28) Surely.   Tahnee: (05:30) This time right now where we're all kind of at home more, and kind of in our natural suburban habitats, there are so many accessible plants for us to get to.   Erin: (05:41) Absolutely.   Tahnee: (05:41) At what point did you kind of realise, "I can actually start to create medicine from this natural world," as opposed to just being kind of obsessed with it?   Erin: (05:52) A novice. A young, obsessed novice. Even when I was small, with Uncle Les, he would point out things that were medicinal. Although he didn't, he wouldn't really make remedies or things like that, but he would sort of point out what he knew about them. So I think that definitely planted seeds to me. He would point out something about dandelion, and how dandelion had lots of nutrition in it. It's very nutritious. He would say things like, "When spring springs, spring awakens, and the dandelions really wake up." He'd say, "The medicine, or the nutrition of the leaf is at its highest." He'd say things like that. Even though I wouldn't really see him eat any dandelions, I think this is just knowledge that were passed down through his family as well.   Erin: (06:53) Little seeds like that. My grandmas also used herbs to heal, so I think, for me, it wasn't like someone was actively teaching me herbalism back in the day, but there were these real little nuggets that were planted that I was quite enamoured with and it just stayed with me.   Tahnee: (07:12) So you actually started more in the esoteric realm, which is kind of, I feel like normally people would go for the more tangible things and then end up [crosstalk 00:07:24] certainly that's my experience, so it's interesting to me that you went kind of backwards in some ways. Can you explain how a 16 year old from Western Sydney gets into the woowoo... [Inaudible 00:07:37]?   Erin: (07:37) Totally. Especially with, again, coming from my family, where it wasn't really, it was so foreign to where they were at, but really inherent in me. My grandma's, both of them were really intuitive in different ways. One of my grandma's, who I was closest with, her lineage was Russian, Romanian, gypsy. It was kind of known in the family that there was this alarmingly psychic line that had gone through the family, aunt's and even her half sister. She had a lot of skills, my nan. I only got to spend three, four years with her. I was tiny when she passed away, but she really imprinted on me. My mum always says to me it's just insane how similar you are to her, even though you really didn't get to spend that much time with her. So I do feel like that was inherent in my cells, in my blood and my bones, and in my lineage.   Erin: (08:42) I just was always fascinated with anything mystical, from a really young age. And my Uncle Les's wife, who I always named Auntie Maureen, so cute, she was the first person to introduce me to crystals. I was probably like 10, very little. She had a little bowl of crystals, and she would always talk me through them. Even then I was like, "Wow, what are those?" When I was 16 I was really into tarot, and I was really into runes, those Celtic runes. Anything divination-based, I loved it. Palm reading, I'd have all these books on palmistry, and I got a few books on aromatherapy and herbalism, so I was just starting to read about all these kind of things and learn about them myself.   Erin: (09:31) I actually came up north here when I was around 16, 17. I was visiting a friend in the hills out here, who'd moved up here, and it was, she was living with this beautiful woman who was just so intuitive and was absolutely a medicine woman, is a medicine woman in her own right, and they introduced me to reiki, and they introduced me to sitting in circles, and sitting in circles with women, and healing circles and holding space, and I was 16, 17, and that's just where it all began for me, in a deeper sense. That's when I went and learnt reiki. That's when I sort of did all the levels. I started just doing different courses and learning things outside of my schooling, and that's when I was about 18, I went and did the two year energetic healing, just solid two year energetic healing diploma as an 18 year old.   Tahnee: (10:28) Good times.   Erin: (10:30) Totally, so kooky, but it was great.   Tahnee: (10:32) Did you actually do that as a career, then, until-   Erin: (10:36) Yeah. Yeah, no I didn't go solid into practise. I dabbled, and went and really cultivated and studied other things as well, over the years, and then went and retrained as a herbalist and nutritionist, so I did dabble, but I got out, Tahnee and I was like, "Oh my God, I'm like literally," I think I was 20 when I got out, and I was like, "This is nuts. I need to go live. I don't really know what to do with this." All this auric healing and kinesiology and sound healing, I didn't really feel ready to hold space for people in that way as a permanent thing, and also I was trying to figure out how you even do that. Back then-   Tahnee: (11:19) I know, it wasn't an option.   Erin: (11:20) That was so different.   Tahnee: (11:22) Yeah.   Erin: (11:22) No. That was like 18 years ago, guys. It was really weird back then.   Tahnee: (11:27) I remember wanting to be a yoga teacher when I was 16 and being like, "There isn't such a thing." Like seriously, there were two yoga places in the entire city I lived in, and I was like, "Well." And now it's like-   Erin: (11:37) Everywhere.   Tahnee: (11:41) You can throw a rock and hit a yoga teacher. That's a pretty huge jump in such a short period of time. How did you get drawn to a career in herbalism, though, if you're kind of in this more esoteric realm and still finding out who you are as a 20 year old you know?   Erin: (12:00) Yeah, totally. A few things happened. Lots of big things happened to me around the age of 20, 21, 22, those few early, formative years. I met my husband when I was 21, so we've been together for 17 years, which is a long time. Growing together through those years. I met him, I lived in the States, I lost my partner before him, he passed away from cancer. I just learnt so much in those few years. It was huge. When my ex-partner passed away from cancer, and it was really an aggressive cancer, and within five months he was gone. It was so intense, really. I watched him do all of these things to help his spiritual bodies, because at that point, his physical body was, he was really advised to not do treatment. There was really nothing they could do at that point, because it was a reoccurrence and super aggressive. I watched him do all of these things to shift his spiritual body.   Erin: (13:13) Now, here I am sitting there, an energetic healer. Young, novice energetic healer, but still, having studied for years, three years, let's say. Watching him go through this, do all of these things to shift his body spiritually, to try to shift his body on the spiritual levels to try to make a physical effect, and he died.   Erin: (13:34) I understand now that the work that he did was absolutely healing, and he was able to let go of his life by doing that work. He was just so brave, truly. Such a brave person, so courageous. I look back and I'm so impressed that a 21-year-old could do all of those things to let go of his life like that, but he didn't heal his body, and I was just broken man. I was so broken about it, because I was like, "Why didn't those things help him heal his body?" Because he was doing all the things, and when we work on ourselves, on those more etheric, energetic emotional levels, in my brain, at that time in my training, I understood that technically should actually impact your physical body, and that didn't happen. I was just broken about it.   Erin: (14:30) Fast forward some years later, where I had processed a lot more, I realised that I just wanted to know so much more about the body, and I wanted to know how to heal the body, because we're these spiritual beings having this physical experience. How can I impact and support people having the physical experience, not just supporting them on a spiritual, etheric level, because we're here, you know? In that way in our bodies.   Tahnee: (14:54) What's actually changed for you. This is a tricky question. I have thoughts around this, I'm curious to hear yours. If you're trying to affect change that way, spirit-down, what are your thoughts now on the effectiveness of that process to shift a physical, especially a really deep physical, let's say, process that's maybe negative for the body. Do you have-   Erin: (15:27) I think now my understanding of the body and the being is that all parts of the being need to come onboard. I actually believe that that can be so powerful as working on the spiritual level, but of course coming at it, as well, from a physical level, is just as important. That's my understanding of it now. People absolutely might have different opinions, and I respect all of them and honour all of them, but my understanding is that we need to come from both sides and all parts to come on board to really heal a physical issue.   Tahnee: (16:01) Yeah. My experience is also it's such a subtle form of energy and the energy required to transform that kind of, I see it as more dispersed, subtle. To actually concentrate it and bring it into a physical expression requires a lot more, we would say Jing, a lot more of your strength to really be able to kind of do that, and if someone's really suffering, I think it can ease their transitions, obviously. I think that's probably the gift that your ex got out of that process, but yeah, I think often the more gross effects can be easier for people to then cultivate that spiritual awareness, and that spiritual kind of healing, but you kind of need to have a bit of capacity in the physical body, sometimes, I think, for those things to all integrate. I guess my teacher talks about it as they all knit together through the chakra system-   Erin: (17:04) Yeah, totally.   Tahnee: (17:06) So if we're weak in, let's say we have a stomach cancer and we can't fully integrate on that level, it's just going to be tricky for us to do that. It's definitely something I think is interesting and worth talking about more, because, especially in this area, I'm sure, we have so many people proposing their way as "the way", and I think we have to be really conscious. We are physical beings having a physical experience, and we have to treat the physical body. It's such an essential part of our healing journey, I think, is to integrate and fully land here.   Erin: (17:43) It really is.   Tahnee: (17:45) Was that kind of what you feel like happened in your 20s? You became more at home in your physical and in the physical?   Erin: (17:51) Totally. I think journeying through so much in my early 20s, I realised I had gone so far out of my body to learn about healing that I was almost a little uncomfortable in just being in my body. I think I'm actually a naturally very grounded person, so being out of my body actually felt more challenging for me. I'm not very sort of Vata, I'm quite like Pitta/Kalpha, kind of more in my body in that way, and I think just coming more into it, I found my power more as I grounded more into my body, not out of my body.   Erin: (18:33) Really, with my ex-partner, it really inspired me to want to understand more about health, and that's actually, that was a long answer to how I got to herbalism, but it really kind of brought me to I know that plants have powers, and I know they impact the body. I really just want to know all about their mysteries and really learn more about them, and I became a nutritionist as well, really learning about food as medicine and how to heal the body with food.   Tahnee: (19:01) Yeah. I think when we talk about these things that we ingest, that we transform and alchemize through our internal processes, we are talking about physical, energetic, it's on both levels. Herbs don't just work on the physical body. They work on the energetic body and the subtle body, and they give us that strength, I think, for these spiritual processes and practises. That's what I love so much about your work, I think, is there's that intersection where there's still a really intuitive kind of feminine knowing and relationship with the plants. It's not just, oh, they're full of, I'm looking at a reishi right now, triterpenes.   Erin: (19:42) Right, right.   Tahnee: (19:43) You know? To me, to look at that and think of, I'm holding up a red reishi right now, if you're listening, to think of that as a triterpene pod has no romance for me, but if I think of that as a Heart tonic or a Liver tonic, and on the energetic level, a Shen tonic and a Blood tonic, then I'm starting to get a little bit more in romance with the kind of relationship I'm going to have with that plant when I ingest it. I think that's what you've done so beautifully in the book, Plants For The People. There's stuff in there to appease the western mind, and I read that, you were like, "We're all educated, we need that little bit of reassurance that these things are actually researched and safe," and all that stuff.   Tahnee: (20:27) But on another level, there's this kind of relationship that we develop with herbs when we take them and when we work with them and when we harvest them and forage them and when we learn to see them. I think it's actually a really fun line to walk, so I wondered if you could talk a little bit about that, in practise and in clinic, like how you, I read in your book that you were saying you learned all the western herbal stuff when you were studying at uni, but when you're actually in clinics, you had to develop that more intuitive relationship with the herbs. How did that work for you? What was that process like?   Erin: (21:05) It is interesting, because herbalism now, particularly in Australia, naturopathic studies and herbal medicine studies, western herbal medicine studies, it's very clinical. It's gotten more and more clinical, so it's heavy sciences. You get a, I remember back in the day, I don't even know if they do it now, but you get a tiny portion of making medicines and also identifying medicines. I remember we went, for one, a weed walk, into the botanical gardens or something, into the herb garden in Sydney. It was like, "That's it." Which is to me, totally, my whole degree. It was incredibly cerebral, all through books. Through books, through clinical studies, through sort of evidence-based, clinical-based knowledge, and a lot of the teachers were great.   Erin: (22:09) I think what actually got me through something like that was the inspiration of these amazing herbalists and naturopaths giving you all their experiences of having relationships with the plants over the years, and working with them and seeing them work their magic and alchemy. It was still very inspiring, but gosh, it could be dry. It was so dry, some of the studies, and I know people listening are probably going through that right now. It's a lot. It's a lot to go through.   Erin: (22:38) Also, you get all the knowledge and then you've got to figure out how you want to then actually take that knowledge and mix it with your unique offering, and offer it out. So whether you are going to be a practitioner, you're going to write, you're going to research, you're going to create products, whatever it might be, it's a huge learning curve and commitment. For me, I just felt like there was a lot lacking. I did feel I'd got a great education, but for my individual spirit and what I know I have to offer and what I am drawn to, it was much more about really bringing the plants to life in a deeper way, so I had to do a lot more study outside of my studies to actually get to know the plants, to be able to identify, to be able to learn how they like to grow. What is the energy of them? How do they feel? And sit with them and get to know them, and I've done that for years and continue to do that.   Erin: (23:42) A lot of it actually has been self-taught, self-directed, or learning from older herbalists who I've been lucky enough to cross paths with, but a lot of it is you actually have to step outside of that traditional training now, because it's so clinical.   Tahnee: (23:59) Yeah. I speak to a lot of my acupuncturist friends about this, because you go through this degree and then you come out and you actually don't know how to take pulse properly, and that's the foundation of Chinese Medicine. Things like that.   Erin: (24:13) Totally.   Tahnee: (24:16) I mean I even know, with naturopathy friends, you don't learn, often, a lot of the more subtle aspects of the herbs and how to treat the energetics and all that kind of stuff I don't believe is really covered. I think they talk about it, but they don't really teach it. So it is a tricky, we did the, and I know you're a big fan of Tierra, Michael Tierra's program.   Erin: (24:37) Yeah.   Tahnee: (24:39) I found he was really big on the practical stuff, and I really felt, for people who were kind of learning, it's like to really do it and touch it with your hands and make mistakes and have everything go mouldy and do all of those dumb things.   Erin: (24:57) Totally.. Just learn, really experience.   Tahnee: (25:01) It's part of the process. It's like learning to cook. Some of the cakes just flop.   Erin: (25:05) Don't rise. Totally.   Tahnee: (25:06) It's like I've got a brick. But yeah, I think that's part of it. People are so afraid, we have this fear around plants and weeds and that they're dangerous or poisonous. We went to an event you hosted with Kate and Jasmine at the Church Farm, and you were talking about how so many of our culinary herbs are medicinal and we don't even think about that. What are some herbs people would regularly encounter in their daily lives that they might not realise are actually medicinal allies?   Erin: (25:36) Medicinal. Just the most basic ones come to mind. Oregano, thyme, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger. All of these herbs that you cook with most days, or you have them in some food in your life, in your cupboard, they're all highly medicinal. They've so smart, because they've masked themselves as these culinary herbs and worked their path into your everyday life, but they're actually really potent medicinals. Also most of those are super easy to grow, especially your weed herbs, like your oregano, your thyme, your rosemary, your sage, so easy to grow, and can actually be used for so many different medicines, and I use them a lot in the book. You'll see them repeated a lot, because they're just very easy to come by and accessible and approachable for people as well.   Tahnee: (26:27) Yeah, and even if people don't have fresh ones, right, they can use dried herbs.   Erin: (26:31) Dried, totally. To be fair, a lot of medicines are actually easier to make from dried herbs, because again, you won't get that mouldy spoilage as much you mentioned as well. In the book, I use a lot of dried herbs, and it's also easy for people to find them or order them online, access them without having to cultivate a whole garden or wildcraft...   Tahnee: (26:53) Yeah, buy expensive weird herbs.   Erin: (26:56) Exactly. Totally.   Tahnee: (26:57) That's what I think, we do, obviously, the Taoist Tonic herbs, and some of them are expensive, but I think you don't have to take fancy herbs. Really a lot of herbs are super cheap. We just harvested a whole bunch of dandi from our yard, and the roots were huge, and it's like, you know, dry those up, eat the leaves. We've got a great Liver herb there now, to sit in the cupboard and boil up whenever we want it. Yeah, but that took all of two seconds. My toddler loved it, because she was, you know, destroying the lawn.   Erin: (27:28) Digging them up. Yep, totally.   Tahnee: (27:31) It's like, yeah, that's great. There's lots of beautiful, potent medicine around that's free or very accessible. So people are kind of, if they are interested and feel the call to plants, but they're not really confident, and obviously get the book everybody. It's called Plants for the People. Is it teas that you recommend people starting with, or just learning to identify edible leaves? What are your favourite starting points for people?   Erin: (27:59) Teas are so great because they are just such an accessible way to take your medicine. Again, all cultures are really, all of our ancestors, that's the way that they utilised their medicines. They were boiling them, infusing them. I think getting the added hydration is really positive for your health as well. Tea is super easy. You seriously can't go wrong with making a tea, you know what I mean? Even if you forget about it and brew it for a long time, then you've just got a strong tea.   Tahnee: (28:28) Dilute it and drink it.   Erin: (28:30) Exactly. Dilute it and drink it. It's just an easy way, and also it gives people the chance to play with dried herbs or fresh herbs, but understand flavour combinations and what feels good and what works for their body. I do think tea is a great place to start. I am encouraging people to really go out and look at what's in their yard, and it's something that I say in the book a lot. I give some little golden tips on wildcrafting which, first and foremost, is about identification, because we all want to be safe, right? So you need to practise identification and really be sure. But there are many things growing in your yard, like my yard, you mentioned we live in a church, it's an old, flat churchyard. We've lived here for a year and a half, but it's interesting for me because it's such a different landscape than I'm used to, because I lived in the Blue Mountains for 12 years, and I had all these English gardens that were just so grandiose and beautiful, and this is a flat churchyard.   Erin: (29:35) But we've been growing a lot on this land. It's very fertile land. We've got a great medicinal herb garden growing now, but because I never planted proper grass, I think, on this block, it's just full of weeds, really. I've watched them over the seasons, and what I have on my block is I've got a lot of gotu kola, I've got plantago, I've got dandelion, and I've got chickweed coming up now, because it's cooler. We eat a lot of our chickweed, we eat our dandelion leaves. I'll eat a few gotu kola a day as well. A bunch of those are edible, super nutritious. They're free. They're weeds, so the energy and the might of weeds, they persist, you know? They're strong. They're such good tonics for our bodies, so nutritive, and also you can make medicines from them, and that's just growing in my backyard.   Erin: (30:37) I know some people will be living in the city, so we've got to be mindful of sprays and, for sure, pesticides. You've got to find some wildness where you don't think it's sprayed, so a park where you don't think it's sprayed, do a bit of research. Even in parks around cities, there's medicine everywhere. There really is.   Tahnee: (30:57) [inaudible 00:30:57].   Erin: (30:57) I just encourage people that, yeah.   Tahnee: (31:02) I often, I have personal rules about thievery. I won't go into someone's property, but if it's over the fence it's fair [crosstalk 00:31:11]. Mason's mum used to live in Gladesville, which is kind of inner west of Sydney, and I would go for walks with a green bag and come home with kumquats and lemons and rosemary and sage and thyme and we'd brew up things. There's actually quite a lot of medicine out there if you [inaudible 00:31:28].   Erin: (31:28) There seriously is.   Tahnee: (31:31) Just obviously don't steal from inside people's yards.   Erin: (31:34) Don't do what I used to do as a child and go and trespass and pick from someone's garden. You can get away with it when you're like eight.   Tahnee: (31:44) Oh yeah [crosstalk 00:31:44] story. It's a great story.   Erin: (31:46) You can get away with it when you're little, but maybe not now. This morning we just went for a big walk, and we just walked through the paddocks and just the edges, there's a school here, and just the edge of the school had this giant rosemary bush. It was insane, it was so huge. Then I also found a whole lot of lemon myrtle trees.   Tahnee: (32:05) I love lemon myrtle.   Erin: (32:06) Because I walked past and I was like, "Oh my God, the smell," and I touched the leaf and I was like, "It's lemon myrtle." So I picked a few leaves just to make up a cup of tea this morning. It was beautiful.   Tahnee: (32:15) Yeah. Medicine is all around.   Erin: (32:17) It really is.   Tahnee: (32:19) And so, if people I guess if they're learning identification, I typically say if you're not sure, don't eat it.   Erin: (32:31) Don't eat it.   Tahnee: (32:31) If you have a friend who's better at identifying, share it with them. For a lot of the ones we're talking about now, like dandy and stuff, even the ones that look like they aren't toxic, and gotu kola, there's that violet that looks like gotu kola.   Erin: (32:46) It is.   Tahnee: (32:47) I've eaten that. It tastes bad, but it's fine. I've done that. If you eat, there's a native yellow-flowered plant that looks like dandy, it's the same thing. It's just like-   Erin: (32:58) Like cats ears?   Tahnee: (32:59) Yeah, cats ears.   Erin: (33:01) Yeah, they're fuzzy. No, they don't taste good. The difference is dandy is smooth and it's more serrated on the edge, so there's no hairs on it. Cats ears are a little rounded on the edge, and they've got hairs all over them. If you're thinking what that is, is it hairy? If it's hairy, it's not dandelion.   Tahnee: (33:22) Yeah, people can start to work that stuff out.   Erin: (33:24) But totally, if you don't know what it is don't eat, yeah definitely don't eat it, there are actually a lot of great Facebook group identification, garden identification things that you can join as well, and you get a lot of expert gardeners coming on there and giving you tips or giving you a link to a YouTube video to watch for identification. It's very helpful, but yeah, you've got to practise. A lot of the things you can't, like rosemary and sage, you can't really get those too wrong. But they're cultivated, obviously, in someone's garden.   Erin: (34:01) Just get to know them. That's why, in the book, when I taught the 40 plants, I really tried to teach 40 most common or relevant plants. A lot of them are super common kinds of kitchen herbs. We shot a beautiful photo of all of them.   Tahnee: (34:20) They're gorgeous.   Erin: (34:22) Thank you.   Tahnee: (34:22) Just gorgeous. Oh, I've got chickweed.   Erin: (34:26) Yeah, look at that.   Tahnee: (34:26) They're just stunning. I was just going to ask, because I think, one of the things we try and help people kind of get their heads around, it's a tricky conversation because yes, these things are medicinal, but they're also, we consider herbs as part of our diet, and that's something Mason and I are really passionate about. We don't just take them when we're sick. We're not taking them even, always, for medicinal reasons. I love eating chickweed in a salad, and yeah, it's mucilaginous and high in vitamin C and great in all these, blah blah, but it's just a delicious salad green and same with dandy. Yes, it's cleansing for the Liver and the Blood, but it's also bitter and it stimulates your appetite, it's great to have before a pasta or something. It's a yummy herb.   Tahnee: (35:16) When you work with people one on one and when you're talking about that, is that something you encourage and foster, relating to plants as more than that kind of, I think that's that allopathic, it's a chemical constituent that's good for this and good for that.   Erin: (35:32) Yeah, totally.   Tahnee: (35:32) Is that something you teach people and get them to think about?   Erin: (35:36) For sure. It's funny, I think, for me, I work on lots of different levels with different people, and being a practitioner, it's so interesting, because as I've learned over the years, the art of being a practitioner is being a good shape shifter, and being able to shape shift to people's needs and to people's energies, because if I'm seeing six, ten people in a day, they're going to have completely different stories, completely different needs, and the way that I need to come at them is all really different. For some people, I will keep it more on a, I wouldn't say clinical, but there's a little bit more, I'll keep it on that level. For other people, so we'll do more diagnostics and testing and we'll get to the roots of things in those ways. With other people, I might be just using drop doses of herbs and totally tiny energetic doses, because they're very sensitive and I can feel that they just need very gentle interventions, and I'll be talking in that way as well.   Erin: (36:38) And then for other people, I'll be talking more about nutrition and how to eat those wild foods, and how to change your nutrition to support what's going on. It just really changes, honestly, and that's working on all those different levels with different people. I would love, one day, to be able to have a place where people can come and experience with me how to heal with the plants in a more tangible sense. I think that's the next few chapters away, maybe, for us, which would be beautiful, but yeah, for now, I just merge all of those skills together of how to inspire people to connect back to plants and connect back to how simple it can be as well, because I think wellness and wellbeing has gotten really complicated for a lot of people.   Tahnee: (37:28) Totally.   Erin: (37:29) Yeah, and it's intimidating for a lot of people, so my job is to try to really demystify that, support people through very complex health issues and help them shift and get better. So I really just try to meet them wherever they need me to meet them.   Tahnee: (37:43) Yeah. So which herbs do you work, I imagine you're fairly intuitive with what you work with for yourself, but are you working with anything in particular, any herbs you're really drawn to at the moment? What's your process for selecting and working with them?   Erin: (38:01) Totally, yeah. What am I doing right now? It changes everyday, because I am just like, like probably you guys too, it's kind of like, "What do I feel like? How am I? Where am I at today?"   Tahnee: (38:13) [inaudible 00:38:13]. I don't even know what I'm taking.   Erin: (38:14) Mase just makes them for you?   Tahnee: (38:17) Right.   Erin: (38:18) I'm sure. So it changes with what I'm feeling, but just also, I know we're in the time of corona, but for me, knowing that the autumn shift is coming, we're starting to go into that cooler inward cycle, so I will support my immunity more. I've just been doing a lot of nice hydration and mucous membrane support for my throat as well. I do long days where I talk and talk and talk, so I'll do a thyme, lemon and manuka, just tea, yesterday, that I was sipping all day with clients, that felt really nice. A little elecampane sometimes in there as well, but I actually am using a lot of medicinal mushrooms right now, and that's really going into all my tonics and smoothies. I don't really drink a lot of smoothies, but into my warming tonics more. I make a really nice dandy root cinnamon tonic base, with coconut, almond milk, or whatever milk we make, and then I will put in some mushrooms with that, so right now, very much so doing my Reishi, my little bitter Reishi, my Chaga, sometimes I do Mason's Mushrooms as well, just as the combo, or I've got a seven shrooms mix that I use as well from Orchard Street. I just mix up what I feel like, all the different things.   Tahnee: (39:45) That's what I think I so [inaudible 00:39:47] about having an abundant apothecary. You get to be able to really feel into what you need.   Erin: (39:52) Play.   Tahnee: (39:52) Yeah.   Erin: (39:54) Yeah, totally. For me, I do work with a bunch of adaptogens, because historically I have a sensitive adrenal system, though I'm in such a better place than a few years ago, when I was quite burnt out, I really do need to lean into the medicine of the adaptogens and sort of pulse dose those. Some days I'll go a lot stronger on them. Other days, I'll feel like I really don't need to bring them into my body. I am quite intuitive with them. I'm not prescriptive with something being an everyday thing with herbs. I'm at a point where I'm not on an actual prescription with anything. I just kind of go in and out with them and dance with them a little.   Tahnee: (40:35) When you had that healing crisis a while ago, when you were going through that whole adrenal thing. Was that when you lived in the mountains, as well? You kind of had to get out of that flow?   Erin: (40:46) It was.   Tahnee: (40:47) Yeah. You were just burning yourself out through work, right? Is that kind of-   Erin: (40:53) Totally. Not so much, it was a lot of different elements. I think, for me, I had some really intense tender fertility interventions and just went through a lot of experiences there. One of my best relationships was breaking down, this whole life we'd cultivated in the mountains I was like, we were about to build a house, then we were like, "We don't want to do that. We want to leave. We're ready to go." So we worked so hard at something and then it was just telling us that it was complete, really. The next chapters of our lives, my husband and I, were not going to be there. We'd worked so hard, we were holding on really tight to this life that we thought we should be having, and this life that we cultivated all this space, even to have a baby, and there was no baby. Which was okay, and we're in a very different place about it now, but it was like, "This is meant to happen," and then I think I was holding on so tightly was causing me so much emotional stress.   Erin: (41:51) I was also holding so much space for other people's healing process, and doing these huge long days in Sydney from the mountains. It was just a lot, and I think it became really a loud storm, and my body just told me I needed to rest, and it was really intense, the way it told me I needed to rest, and I just had to listen to that. Yeah, totally slammed me down on the ground.   Tahnee: (42:16) Thanks body.   Erin: (42:18) Like full on darkest days, in the bathroom crying, thinking, "Oh my God, is this ever going to get better," because I couldn't control my stress response, and I was just getting cortisol panic rashes all over my body constantly, yet my mind was totally calm.   Tahnee: (42:35) Your body was really-   Erin: (42:36) It was really scary. Wigged out.   Tahnee: (42:38) Do you [crosstalk 00:42:39]. Do you pull up your bootstraps and sort it out yourself, or do you go and have someone you work with in times like that?   Erin: (42:47) I actually went straight to my most wonderful naturopath. I did a bunch of things, actually. I did the herbs and the nutrition and testing to see what was going on a little bit more, and I went and saw, I actually could only do acupuncture right at the end when I was a little bit more robust, because I was almost too sensitive to even have needles in me. I was too sensitive. I did that, and I also did a lot of kinesiology, so a lot of energetic work from that, sort of more etheric, but coming into the body as well with kinesiology. I have to say, the food, for me, nutrition, my nutrition changes, and time in nature, so balancing my blood sugar with nutrition and the time that I spent under the oak trees swinging in my hammock, honestly, was the most healing thing for me, truly, because my blood sugar was so wigged out.   Tahnee: (43:47) Yeah, and I don't think, that's probably, to me, the most poisonous aspect of this wellness thing, is how food has become demonised. Just people living on liquids. We need substance and it grounds us. It nourishes us, especially if we are stressed or we have things going on like what you're describing. You were doing all those drives from the mountains to Sydney, that's a long time in the car and your energy [crosstalk 00:44:15].   Erin: (44:15) A long time.   Tahnee: (44:17) -By that. It's a lot. There's a lot there [crosstalk 00:44:23] hearty meal and a lie-down.   Erin: (44:24) Totally. And I just did that. I did that, and it really, really helped, and of course I did all the herbs, I did a lot of supplementation to support my body. I was in a crisis, so I needed to be supported in quite a major way. It wasn't a few things that came on board, it was a lot of things. Even coming back to the beginning of our conversation where I said I feel like all parts of the being need to come on board. That was truly one of the biggest experiences that for me, where I had to actually come on all levels to really work on healing my body, and I got better really quick. I know people struggle with this for years and years, and within a few months I was really able to turn around my picture of adrenal fatigue and dysfunction, which is amazing.   Tahnee: (45:12) Did it change, for you, though, how you worked? Because I think, often, certainly some of the people we work with, they want us to help them find the solution that they can go back to how things are, and it's one of the hardest things to communicate, but it's the reason this is happening is unfortunately due to this kind of lack of resonance between the way you're living and what you need. Was that a big shift for you in how you did things?   Erin: (45:40) Everything changed. Everything changed, yeah. My husband and I both acknowledged we were done with the mountains and we needed to let go of this concept of the house and everything we'd worked with. The mountains are beautiful, but it's also a very potent place, and traditionally, from an indigenous perspective, what I know of it, is that it was somewhere you'd come to do deep healing and then you'd leave. You really wouldn't need to, don't outstay your welcome, it's time to go. I think for years, actually, there were messages of we were complete, and we didn't really listen to that.   Erin: (46:15) Yeah, so for me, in that time I knew that we needed to let go of that, and I also needed to totally transform the way I was working, for sure. Only maybe a year before that I had sold my multi-modality wellness space that I'd started, so I'd sold that in the mountains, and I was heading up the Orchard Street Clinic in Sydney, and loved it so much and had been there for nearly five, six years, I think, towards the end six years, from the beginnings of Orchard Street. I just knew I had to let it go. I knew that I needed to go digital and give myself a whole lot of room to breathe and really change the way I practised, and in that moment, we sort of realised, okay, well if I go digital, I've sold my business, we've let go of the land, my husband leaves his job, we don't actually need to be, like we can let go of being here.   Tahnee: (47:03) Be wherever you want to be.   Erin: (47:03) Yeah, be wherever we want to be. And then honestly, the next day, we talked about moving up here, and the next day a friend of mine posted that she was leaving this beautiful church house.   Tahnee: (47:14) Ellie.   Erin: (47:15) Yeah, Ellie posted, bless Ellie. She posted on Instagram and I saw it, and I was like, "That's it. Let's move to the church." We got it very quickly. We'd moved in about two, three weeks.   Tahnee: (47:27) Wow.   Erin: (47:28) And that changed everything.   Tahnee: (47:29) Was Plants for the People born in the church or up in the Blue Mountains?   Erin: (47:33) Plants for the People was born in the Blue Mountains. I signed the book deal in the church, so I suppose it was really anchored in the church and I wrote it in the church, but it came to me when I was in the peak of the adrenal dysfunction and I was just laying there, surrendering to the universe, and just going, "Oh my God, what am I meant to do now? I can't keep up my practise like this," and then boom. The book just dropped in. In the absolute breakdown of the space, I had the hugest breakthrough, which was amazing.   Tahnee: (48:07) [inaudible 00:48:07].   Erin: (48:07) As always.   Tahnee: (48:07) Yeah, such a classic story, isn't it? But you have to create space for those things to be born. It's a lot like the process of birth. There's that moment where you're like, don't know if this is going to happen.   Erin: (48:21) Really.   Tahnee: (48:22) That's the strength. You dig deep and find the strength to transcend it.   Erin: (48:27) To bring it through, totally. Yeah, so I did change. I changed to a completely digital platform. Over the last year and a half I've been seeing clients digitally, so kept a lot of my beautiful clients from Sydney, which was wonderful, but I've just expanded into different spaces, working with people worldwide, all over, and it's been so wonderful, from this beautiful place that I get to call home. It's just been so grounding and nourishing for me. In that way, then I can show up, and I can really hold that space for other people so much more, in a more fortified light for all of us, which feels really good.   Tahnee: (49:03) Yeah, that's such a tricky line to walk as someone in a healing kind of industry, because it can drain you so much if you don't have a strong sense of what you need to stay supported and grounded. It's amazing that you've had that journey, because I think you can help other people then navigate it for themselves.   Erin: (49:24) Yeah.   Tahnee: (49:25) The final thing I really wanted to talk to you about, especially at the moment, it's just this idea of herbalism, this kind of activism. Something that, I've spoke to Sarah Wilson recently, and we were kind of discussing that activism doesn't have to be these grand, because I think a lot of us are devastated by what's going on in the world and we feel disempowered and kind of lost sometimes and it's often these grassroots traditions like gardening and herbalism and learning to build and cook, they kind of bring us back to what it means to be human, I think, in a lot of ways. I think especially what's going on in the world right now, there's this opportunity where people maybe do have a bit more time to jump online, order a book, or get on YouTube or Facebook and start to actually dive deep into the herbal practise and empowering themselves to treat their families and themselves when things go awry, but I know you do know a lot about the kind of historical origins of herbalism. For me, I was really into witch books when I was a kid, so [crosstalk 00:50:34], all the ones about the Salem Witch Trials and all that.   Erin: (50:38) Yeah.   Tahnee: (50:38) European witch tradition and stregas in Italy and all of that stuff.   Erin: (50:43) Amazing.   Tahnee: (50:43) Yeah, I don't know-   Erin: (50:45) I wish we knew each other when we were little. We would have been awesome.   Tahnee: (50:50) It's funny, because what you said about, all those things, when I was little, I was really into them, and then I got with this guy who was really scientific and for like.. I was with him for 11 years, and that was a really important time for me, because I actually learned how to think that way. I think I would have been pretty woowoo, I think, if I hadn't have had those years with him, but it also killed me a little bit, my spirit. I got depressed for the first time and I had eating disorders and I went through, and it's not just, obviously, but just that kind of reductionist way of thinking about things, for me, was really painful. So yeah, it's been interesting for me to come back full circle to a more holistic way of being and to reintegrate a lot of the things that I was really passionate about as a younger person, so it's interesting talking to you.   Erin: (51:41) I'm so glad you did. We would have missed out on so much gold if you didn't.   Tahnee: (51:45) Well, I think with all of us, I think we have these, and even those dark nights of the soul kind of times, the kind of a potent force for igniting [crosstalk 00:51:56] in us.   Erin: (51:55) They're important.   Tahnee: (51:56) Yeah, like pushing us to go back to what's true and real for us. So yeah, a lot of what we've talked about still really resonates. But yeah, I guess what I really got out of reading a lot of those books as a young woman was how much fear and power, when people were empowered, how the institutions and the structures were really threatened and challenged by that. In those days it was the Church and all that kind of thing, and now we've got all this crazy stuff going on in the world. I wondered if you could share some thoughts. You've got such an interesting background with your Italian and Romanian ancestry, and where you kind of see herbalism as almost a subversive, how it holds that [crosstalk 00:52:36].   Erin: (52:35) Yeah, totally. I wrote in the book, there's a sentence that is coming to me. I really wanted this to be a bold page of typography in the book, but it's a subtle line, when you guys read it. But it says, "We are activists reclaiming the right to know the medicine of self and soil." Right? Like, oh man. It gives me goosebumps too, because just that little message coming through me when I was writing, I was like, this is just bullshit that we are told that we have to go see somebody to access this information. In Australia, it is so highly regulated to be a herbalist and a naturopath. We've talked about my four years of study. I did seven years all up of study, but with the energetic healing, nutritional medicine, it's so much structured study. But four years of structured study, I understand, I totally respect and understand that study because it absolutely has its place. You definitely should see, if you're able and you have the means and you have things you want to work on with your health, it is so lovely to be supported by someone who knows, really, they really speak the fluent language of the herbs and they can really, really helpful.   Erin: (53:56) Yes, of course, that's me, right? But I also think that everybody should have access to working with the plants and healing with the plants. There are so many different layers and levels of how you can do that. It is the people's medicine. Plants medicine has been and always will be the people's medicine. I say that in the book as well. It's like, traditionally, all of our lineages have utilised plant medicine to heal. Every single one of them, I'd say. That is the oldest form of the ancient practice of healing with plants. My Romanian Russian lines, my Italian Arabic grandmother, my dad's side, they're English, so traditional folk medicine coming through Europe, coming through those Arabic bloodlines, even those Celtic bloodlines. There's so much power in those bloodlines that we have as well, and really we're just waking up and remembering.   Erin: (54:58) What's been taken away from us has been, particularly in Australia, it's like in the '80s, and I was talking to these beautiful old herbalists that live round the corner from me. They're just such gorgeous elders for me, and they both have these beautiful medicinal gardens, and they helped me out with a few herbs I couldn't find in the book that had been photographed. One of my favourite photographs is the big, gnarly chunk of turmeric. Yeah, I love it. It's got the dirt all over it.   Tahnee: (55:26) I was just looking at.   Erin: (55:28) It's so pretty, and the ginger as well, and they were grown in their garden, because I wasn't growing those at that time. Being welcomed into their garden was so healing for me, because they were just such lovely women, and they were telling me about their experience as herbalists back in the '60s and '70s, and how in the '80s, basically, all the legislation changed in Australia, and we were no longer able to make our own medicines for our clients, and all the bigger companies came in to make the medicines for the practitioners and it all became regulated, so the right to actually make the medicines for the clients were taken away.   Erin: (56:05) Now the flow on effect that that's had as well, it has been enormously disruptive for herbalism in Australia, because that hands-on approach has been taken away, even from the practitioners, you know? I think what's been lost is a lot, in that sense of making. I also think that generation of our grandmas, I know your mum was a trained herbalist and she was amazing and onto it, but for most of us, our mothers and fathers kind of lost that traditional folk knowledge, but our grandmothers and the generations before, so grandmothers, great-grandmothers, they were still quite in tune with that traditional folk knowledge. My grandmothers were, because they were, like my grandmothers were immigrants, right? They immigrated, and they had lived that immigrant life where they lived their way of life from where they came here.   Tahnee: (57:02) Old country.   Erin: (57:03) The old country, right? But my mum and my dad, who were, sorry, they actually immigrated here as small children as well, but they were just told to fit in and lose their roots, because they were new to this place. My mum had a thick Russian accent, my dad had a Liverpudlian accent, and they were weird, you know? They were just like, "Fit in, get in line. Be as Australian as possible," so they lost a lot of that. They didn't want to know about the traditions of their parents. I've talked to my mum about this, and that's been lost, that wasn't handed to me. We've lost a bit of that because we were all told to fit in, which is so sad, you know? It's sad. For me, I'm honouring my bloodlines by remembering.   Tahnee: (57:50) [inaudible 00:57:50] feeling, isn't it?   Erin: (57:52) Right. That's it. So yeah, I do think that a lot of this is about, it is almost an act of activism to remember. To reconnect, and to honour where you came from, and to honour where you are now. It's an act of activism to honour the land and to say, "I honour you," and I want to have a relationship with you. Even if it's this little patch of whatever it might, it doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter. The little patch is a microcosm of alchemy and universal energy. We're getting cosmic here, but it's like, just tune in, wherever you are. You're actually fighting the system by tuning in and taking that into your own hands in a lot of ways, and you're creating waves of healing by doing that as well.   Tahnee: (58:43) I think when we have people around us and children, those things, they become, they sort of, like viruses, move through communities and they change people. Look at this area, we have such a strong culture of health and healing around here because people have persisted with that culture in the Byron area. It serves all of us so strongly.   Tahnee: (59:10) I wonder, though, something I'm really sad about and still trying to solve, is my relationship with the actual endemic plants of this land, because I grew up with Western Herbalism, so it was plants that don't really naturally grow here. [inaudible 00:59:27] here, but they don't grow here on their own. Then we obviously work with Chinese herbs which, again, I'm really passionate about. I've been told I was a Chinese person once upon a time, so maybe that's-   Erin: (59:41) I believe that.   Tahnee: (59:42) Yeah, possibly. Part of me is really devastated that I, apart from lemon myrtle and some of the really obvious famous ones, I don't really know much about, I can't walk through the bush here and go, "Oh, that's medicine." Have you had any experience with our native plants?   Erin: (01:00:02) You know, I'm getting asked this all the time, which I really appreciate the question, but I'm getting asked this all the time, and I was just saying to my husband, "Wow, this is really coming up strong in conversations with me." The truth of it is, is no. I wish I did. My training is so classical Western Herbalism, which, as you said, it's really plants of Europe and North America. That's sort of traditional Western Medicine, and now we've got, it's interesting, the more Eastern plants are also coming into our training as well.   Tahnee: (01:00:38) Yeah. Using a lot of Ayurvedic and Chinese herbs.   Erin: (01:00:42) Yeah, a lot of Ayurvedic and Chinese herbs have come in as well, but traditionally it's those folk medicines of North America and Europe, and I feel so fluent in them, which is such a weird thing when you don't live on a land where they totally grow. Obviously we grow a lot of them ourselves, but I'm not walking in the fields of yarrow. I was in the States shooting the book, we shot a lot of the book in the States, so that wildness that you see with the fields of valerian and yarrow is in the States. I'm not walking in those fields. I spent a lot of time in America, so I feel very connected to those plants as well, with my experience of them and the land there, because my husband's American, but I really honour that that is a bit of a debacle. Also, how then do we practise bioregional herbalism?   Tahnee: (01:01:34) Yep, totally.   Erin: (01:01:35) Right? As Australian herbalists, when we don't know the plants of our land intimately? Now a lot of the weeds grow, like we talked about, the weeds in my garden grow here and that's great, but I don't know the medicine, the indigenous medicines. Because a lot of the indigenous medicines are cloaked in a lot of mystery [crosstalk 01:02:00].   Tahnee: (01:01:59) -Everybody, really, that a lot of wisdom has just been-   Erin: (01:02:01) Right, a lot of the wisdom has been lost-   Tahnee: (01:02:06) [inaudible 01:02:06], yeah.   Erin: (01:02:07) Is either held really dear, which is totally understandable. It's hard to access it, even as a herbalist. There was no training, actually, at all for me in my course on indigenous medicine. That might be something they're doing more now, but I see there's a bunch of courses up here where there's a little bit more knowledge being shared up here. I've been seeing those and thinking, "Oh, I'd actually like to start to feel into it." You know, Tahnee it's funny. My husband's American, we're very drawn there. Given what's been happening in America and whose governing it, we haven't been drawn to move back, but I feel such a big call back to the land there, and I think the plants are calling me. I feel like they're calling me really loud over there. For me here in Australia, I'm a firstborn Australian, but my lineage is so different. I feel like I'm so new here.   Tahnee: (01:03:05) I think America has such a strong folk herbal tradition.   Erin: (01:03:12) Oh my gosh, it really does, yeah.   Tahnee: (01:03:14) Yeah. We're members of the American Herbalist Guild and we go-   Erin: (01:03:17) Guild, awesome.   Tahnee: (01:03:18) Yeah, we've been over to the Oregon-   Erin: (01:03:19) That's awesome.   Tahnee: (01:03:24) Just how much knowledge and wisdom is held there. I don't know, for me, how free they are, really, to practise, and how free the sharing of information is. It might just the culture of the event that we attended, but I think it was a week-long or five day immersion [inaudible 01:03:47] basically, with talks from early morning to night time. I was going to herbal medicine for abortion clinics, and there just these beautiful women who had been working with women to-   Erin: (01:03:58) And supporting people.   Tahnee: (01:03:59) Yes. Through miscarriage, abortion, and here people are terrified to even speak about that. The stigma around using a herb in that case, I don't know. It was such an open-hearted, free conversation around how herbs can help. We went to a clinic on using herbs for AIDS patients. It was just a beautiful [inaudible 01:04:23] dialogue.   Erin: (01:04:23) It's amazing.   Tahnee: (01:04:26) People like Christopher Hobbs are there and Tierra.   Erin: (01:04:28) So cool.   Tahnee: (01:04:31) I'm like being part of their wisdom.   Erin: (01:04:32) Totally, yeah.   Tahnee: (01:04:34) I think that sort of makes me sad, I think, here, that it has become so clinical and so regimented and controlled. Every naturopathy clinic is using the same brand of [inaudible 01:04:44]. Kind of like that.   Erin: (01:04:44) Yeah, really true. Honestly, this is why I wrote Plants for the People, truly, because I was like, "This just needs to come back into people's homes and hearts." We all need to feel free to practise kitchen herbalism. Seriously, because it's like, this is what a lot of traditional folk medicine in America is. It's kitchen herbalism. It's things that you can make in your kitchen from your garden or from your surrounds that are super easy and accessible. I'm so grateful that the book got a UK and USA release as well, because that feels so good to know that that's also spreading into those spaces, but I was just so stoked that it's all over Australia and New Zealand, because I do feel that we really have lost that connection here. There are no rules about those things. These are things that you can bring into your everyday life. That is the spirit of activism around it.   Erin: (01:05:44) America is different, I think, in their sense and the way that fol

Carolina Health Innovations, a Greenville, SC Chiropractic clinic, has recently added a licensed Acupuncture specialist, Susan Lorentzen, into their clinic. This episode explores with Susan Lorentzen what acupuncture is and how it can help in maintaining good health.In 1993, Susan Lorentzen started out her health-minded career as a Licensed Massage Therapist at her Practice, Body Logic, in Milwaukee, WI.In 2000, Susan received her degree as a Holistic healthcare practitioner and a degree in Holistic Nutrition at Southwest Institute for the Healing Arts. This included nutrition classes, 500 hour yoga certification, Reiki certification, Western Herbalism, and Aromatherapy classes. After receiving her degree, she promptly started at the Midwest College of Oriental Medicine for a Masters of Science in Oriental Medicine and took her acupuncture internship in Gaungzhou, China. She completed her master’s degree in 2003. She then began implementing Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture at BodyLogic.To learn more go to: carolinahealthinnovations.com or call 864-288-8593.

Denis Stewart explores the uses of echinacea.

Denis Stewart explores western herbal medicine.

Rachelle Robinett is an herbalist, holistic health practitioner and this week’s guest on the Our Nature Podcast. After spending many years working in marketing in the fashion industry, Rachelle transitioned into her greatest passion - herbs and plant-based medicine. In this episode we talk all about Western Herbalism, the use of teas, tinctures and decoctions, which herbs are overrated (hello adaptogens and CBD) and which are underrated (nervines), why the millennial generation is suffering from an epidemic of chronic disease, and practical things each of us can do to feel healthier. If you’ve ever been curious about Western Herbalism, this episode is for you. If you’ve been contemplating a career transition or are hesitant to fully step into your calling, this episode is also for you. Rachelle is a bright light in the wellness space and I can’t wait for you to hear her wisdom! “If a person is willing to make themselves a cup of tea, it’s likely they’ll get better in your care because it shows that they’re willing to set aside the time to take care of their health.” “It’s [herbalism] a way of looking at the world where you just see the natural world as a companion, and as our foundation, as opposed to all the other ways it can be seen.” “There’s a massive disconnect from our bodies – being able to hear them, being about to understand what we’re hearing, and having any idea what to do about that.” “It’s challenging and liberating to experience being able to experience the world without all of our crutches, even if they are good ones, for a period of time.” Resources: Rachelle Robinett * HRBLS * CAP Beauty Connect with Rachelle Robinett: Rachelle Robinett’s Website Rachelle Robinett’s Instagram Connect with The Our Nature Podcast: Follow Our Nature on Instagram Gratitude List: This podcast would not be possible without the group of talented individuals below. I offer them my sincerest thanks and love. Mixed by: Kevin Aguirre Buitrago Graphics by: Tim LaSalle Music by: Nick Ceglia Support The Our Nature Podcast: Subscribe!: Apple podcasts Google Play Spotify Leave a review!: Click on the podcast app Search for the Our Nature Podcast Click on the show art Click the “Subscribe” button Scroll down and click “Write a Review” Write your review, click 5 stars :) and then click “send” - your review will typically appear in 24 hours Thank you! You just made my day Spread the word! Please follow @ournaturepodcast and share with family, friends, lovers, strangers, social friends. SHOW NOTES: What Herbalism is and why it’s synonymous with plant-based wellness and holistic wellness How Rachelle got into herbalism How all of the holistic medicine systems work with all of the same energy systems like prana and chi Why Rachelle always favors a local remedy verses one that comes from abroad What an apothecary is and how someone would get started if they were interested in herbalism The power of tea as medicine What an herbal infusion is and why you should use it A decoction is used to extract roots and medicinal mushrooms The higher fiber content, the more time, heat or force is necessary to extract an herb or substance On transitioning from the fashion industry to the wellness sphere The vulnerability that comes with putting yourself out into the world Why millennials have more chronic disease than previous generations and what we can do about it The importance of working with people wherever they’re at in their wellness journey Why adaptogens are over-hyped – adaptogens are not a synonym for herbs and how they mask symptoms of burnout Why nervine herbs are underrated and how we can use them Why we should be skeptical of an extraction from a full plant verses using the whole plant The issue of cost and accessibility in the wellness industry How Rachelle eases her clients into lifestyle changes Why it’s valuable to shed all of your supplements, phones, routines etc. and retreat for a week. How Rachelle stays connection to the natural world on a regular basis Supernatural Cafe and HRBLS The last five questions THE LAST 5 QUESTIONS: What is your favorite place in nature? The jungle. What is the animal, mineral or plant that resonates with you the most? Nettle. What is one thing we can do right now to connect with the natural world and bring more harmony into our lives? Going outside more and really taking a closer look at our food and the sources of our food. What’s the greatest lesson nature has taught you? To be flexible. To be more like water. To be receptive to the wind. To listen to the intuitive sense and to acknowledge the direction it’s blowing and flowing. Nature brings me… Immense joy.

In this week’s episode with Commonwealth Center for Holistic Herbalism, Katja and Ryn talk about one of their Family Herbalist students who has made a huge difference in her son's eczema. They share all the things she experimented with, and what worked best for her son. If you've been looking for an herbal program but haven't been sure what would work best for you, check out their Family Herbalist program! It's taught with video instruction, so you can really see what they are talking about - one of their students said it's like herbal Netflix! You'll learn 89 of the most important herbs in Western Herbalism (and they keep adding more - when they do, you get them for free!). You'll learn exactly when to choose each one, and the best ways to prepare it.  You'll also learn more than 45 ways to prepare herbs - tinctures, decoctions, elixirs, salves, and lots more! It's all easy to follow in close-up, step-by-step videos. The program is self-paced, and you get tons of support: when you have questions, you can ask them in the integrated discussion threads next to each video - or just ask Katja and Ryn in person! They have live Q&A web conferences twice a week, which is a great way to get to know all the other students who are on this path with you. There are audio versions of all the video files, so that you can review the material while you are on the go. There are printable quick-guides too, in case you like to follow along with notes. And you get lifetime access - you can watch the videos a million times if you want to! Anytime we add new content, it is added to your account for free, and you even get a discount on your herbs at Mountain Rose Herbs while you're taking the course.  Katja and Ryn are offering a special 15% discount code for listeners of the HerbRally Podcast: FAMILYRALLY Use this code when you sign up for the Family Herbalist program and get 15% off the price, and whether you pay in full or make monthly payments - you still get the discount! Find all the details here:  https://online.commonwealthherbs.com/bundles/family-herbalist?ref=0d111b  Coupon code valid until December 31, 2019 Visit CommonWealth Center for Holistic Herbalism online to learn more and browse their variety of courses. MORE FROM THE COMMONWEALTH CENTER FOR HOLISTIC HERBALISM https://online.commonwealthherbs.com/?ref=0d111b   

Alyssa found her way to herbalism by way of organic farming, realizing that she was as interested in what the “weeds” were up to as the crops she was supposed to be cultivating! While teaching hands-on garden education at Jones Valley Teaching Farm, she fed her profound love of science, plants and cooking by connecting Birmingham City School students to food, farming, and the culinary arts through standards-based lessons and after-school programs. If plants were her second love, languages were her first. At Virginia Commonwealth University, Alyssa studied legal and medical interpretation and graduated at the top of her class with a certification in Spanish-English Translation and Interpretation and a minor in Arabic. She completed her clinical training at the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine, where she earned the distinction of Functional Herbalist (FH). She also studied briefly at the Appalachian Center for Natural Health in Arab, AL. Alyssa integrates the rich tradition of Western Herbalism with movement and exercise therapies, clinical nutrition and functional medicine. She endeavors to blend the best of these fields while working to deconstruct the aspects of herbalism and its history that are colonialist, patriarchal and otherwise problematic. She is deeply invested in working with clients to build a preventative, compassionate model of care that addresses the root causes of illness and discomfort in an effective and comprehensive way. Alyssa has a bottomless and enduring love for movement and an affinity for wild things, which she feeds by practicing mixed martial arts, hiking, scuba diving, swimming, and searching the woods for reptiles with her partner, Ben. In this episode, we discuss numerous aspects of health, alternative medicine, herbalism, the dichotomy between Eastern and Western medicine, treating the whole human, and much more!

In this episode, host and Ayurvedic Consultant, Eminé Rushton, introduces us to Sebastian Pole – co-founder of Pukka. Sebastian is incomparably knowledgeable about plants – and is a trained practitioner in Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Herbalism, and to this day, still runs a herbal clinic in his hometown of Bath. Meeting in Sebastian’s lush and fascinating herb garden, Sebastian shares his own story – how he became interested in herbs, his years of travel and study in India, how he came to create Pukka, and his life-long devotion to the growing, sharing and education around herbs. Discussing everything from herbs to help women with menstruation and beyond, to herbs that help keep us grounded, healthy and focused, this episode is a wonderful exploration and celebration of nature’s wisdom – accompanied by the birdsong and bee hum of Sebastian’s productive, paradisal garden. Learn more about herbs at Pukka – pukkaherbs.com and through Sebastian’s wonderful books, A Pukka Life; Ayurvedic Medicine: The Principles of Traditional Practice and Pukka Tea: Make Your Own Healthy Herbal Infusions, are fantastic reads, and highly recommended to those who would like to learn more about Ayurveda, herbalism & holism. For more information on Eminé, you can follow her at @thisconsciousbeing on Instagram, or via her website, www.thisconsciouslife.co

Katy Bray knew early on that she was different. She started seeing angels at the age of 8 and would spend her time playing in her room with deceased relatives and her spirit guides. She found herself being the only third grader in the ”Life After Death” section at the public library.Thankfully, Katy’s mother, who was raising her by herself, always supported Katy’s gifts and never asked her to shut them down, which enabled them to grow from early on.In her professional career, Katy has read over 12,000 people individually and has led hundreds of groups, classes, gallery readings and retreats.Katy became an ordained minister in 2007 because of her commitment to serving the world with her gifts and her deep desire to serve Spirit. She is non-denominational in her work and enjoys helping people understand the nature of their soul contracts in their relationships, career, family and financial lives.Katy is also certified in Ayurveda, yoga, meditation, Praynayama, Western Herbalism, The Nia Technique, life coaching, integrative nutrition and is a practitioner of Mahamudra Tantra. She is also a Kundalini Reiki Master. She is a wife, mother of two teenage girls, 3 dogs, two cats and a charismatic hermit crab named ”Big Daddy.”

Today’s episode is brought to you by the Great Lakes Herb Faire! This recording is from their 2018 event in Chelsea, MI. Thanks to the Great Lakes Herb Faire and Micah McLaughlin for sharing this audio! Visit the Great Lakes Herb Faire online Great Lakes Herb Faire recordings for purchase Visit Micah online CLASS DESCRIPTION ​It can feel frightening and overwhelming to move from being an at-home herbalist to starting your practice. In this class, we'll explore possibilities in forming a business that meets your own unique needs and how to avoid the pitfalls of many startup practices. Understanding your goals as a person is the first step in launching your herbal practice. This class will be useful for those asking questions like “What kind of business do I want to create?” and “Is this business I created really serving my community and the life I want?”  Micah McLaughlin is a naturopathic practitioner specializing in the integration of the body and mind. Micah uses the traditional naturopathic tools of sclerology, muscle testing, holistic counseling, and facial/fingernail/tongue analysis to find the root of his clients’ health complaints. With an approach of curiosity and investigation Micah looks for the energetic and emotional blocks underlying symptoms, often requesting that these be “noticed” or “examined” by his clients. Herbs, flower essences, supplements, breath work, and energy work are used as Micah helps people connect to who they truly are. Through this process clients are able to shed their limiting beliefs and embodied patterns and find healing on a physical, emotional, and often spiritual level. Micah was trained at the Naturopathic Institute of Therapies and Education and founded Continuum Healing in 2008 and co-founded the Wellness Collective GR in 2015. He further studied Western Herbalism and the Enneagram, deepening his passion to treat the whole person. Micah  has written and taught his Survival Herbalism course at various primitive skills schools throughout the country. Micah deeply believes in the healing ability of the body and inspires his clients through hope and empowerment. Thanks for listening! HerbRally www.herbrally.com Breitenbush Herbal Conference www.herbalconference.net JOIN THE HERBRALLY FACEBOOK GROUP!

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY: AROMATICS INTERNATIONALWe provide 100% pure essential oils and natural aromatherapy products, sourced in-house, from small-scale producers located in over 60 different countries. Find out more: https://www.aromatics.com/Topics covered in this episodeIntroduction to the 5-flavor approach to herbal medicineThe energetic qualities of herbs and how they reveal their potential uses in herbal medicineThe 5-flavors and the 5-organs - what is the significance?Specific herbs that fall within the 5-flavor profiles: Bitter, Sour, Salty, Sweet and PungentAbout JADE ALICANDRO MACEJade Alicandro Mace practices community and clinical herbalism in western Massachusetts. She started studying herbs formally in 2005 (coming from a background in botany) and has been intertwined with them ever since. She has a background rich in Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and Western Herbalism in the Vitalist Tradition, and brings this diversity and breadth of knowledge to her teaching and clinical practice. Her work as an herbalist revolves around self and community empowerment, equal access, community resilience, promoting local and plant-based healthcare, and the sharing and spreading of herbal knowledge. Jade teaches herbalism avidly throughout New England, and leads an 8-month apprenticeship and 3-month seasonal class series in bioregional herbalism. She has also been an herbal educator with Herb Pharm since 2015. Jade sees folks in her clinical practice for consultations via phone/skype/zoom and in-person in Greenfield, MA and in 2012 she co-founded the Community Herbal Clinic, where she sees clients on a sliding-scale basis.Connect with JADE ALICANDRO MACEWebsite: http://www.milkandhoneyherbs.com/Herbal Courses: http://www.milkandhoneyherbs.com/education/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/milkandhoneyherbs/Disclaimer: The information presented in this podcast is for educational purposes only, and is not meant to replace professional medical advice. Please consult your doctor if you are in need of medical care, and before making any changes to your health routine.

On today’s episode we’ll hear from herbalist Heather Irvine. She’s going to teach us about some classic botanicals for sleep used in Western Herbalism, plus one we learn about from Ayurveda. For more from Heather visit GivingTreeBotanicals.com. Thanks for listening! HerbRally www.herbrally.com Breitenbush Herbal Conference www.herbalconference.net 

A few months ago, mushrooms started talking to me by unexpectedly growing in a houseplant pot next to my bed. Synchronistically, that week I found myself at Jason Scott’s mushroom workshop at Ambrosia Elixirs in Bushwick, Brooklyn. My life hasn’t been the same since. Whether you have an interest in mushrooms or not, I’m sure you will enjoy this rich, mind-expanding conversation that covers: The benefits of ingesting mushrooms on physical and spiritual levels Shamanic and ceremonial application of mushrooms Cultivation of mushrooms What spagyric tinctures are How to buy mushrooms and what you have to be careful about The top mushroom that can benefit entrepreneurs (this is where biohacking comes in) The power of intention when ingesting mushrooms What is alchemy anyway? What mushrooms have to do with planets and moon cycles, and how it can impact you The challenges of turning your passion into a business, and how Jason overcame them Lessons he has learned from being a myco-entrepreneur The role that technology and social media play in his business Connecting with mushrooms as a way to heal ourselves and our environment Mentioned in this episode: Radical Mycology: A Treatise On Seeing And Working With Fungi book by Peter McCoy Alchemycology.com - mycology through the lens of Hermetic Alchemy RadicalMycologyconvergence.com Ecovative mycelium packaging Hashtag Mindful conscious social media course on Skillshare Connect with Jason Scott: Feralfungi.com @feralfungi About Jason Scott: Jason Scott is a Mycologist, Ethnobotanist and Spagyricist who has studied traditional Hermetic Alchemy, from history and philosophy to practice, for the past 5 years. He has a background in Ethnobotany and Plant Medicine that started on the Big Island of Hawaii and has carried back with him into his home: the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised in Oregon, Jason has an intrinsic interest in the Fungal Queendom and all of its aspects: from cultivation and mycoremediation, to historical and cultural relationships. Most specifically their medicinal application. Jason has studied various different healing modalities including Ayurveda in Nepal and Western Herbalism all over Oregon and Washington. He is on an ever-deepening journey of education to understand the practical applications of his interests, and the golden threads that connect them. Jason is the founder of Feral Fungi dual extract spagyric tincture company. Connect with Woke & Wired: If you enjoyed the podcast, please share it. Rate and review the show on iTunes. Your rating and review help more people discover it. Subscribe on iTunes. New episode drops every Thursday. DM me on Instagram @wokeandwired and let me know your favorite takeaways and show requests.

In this week’s episode we get into: The creative process of how The Illustrated Herbiary was written and published Throwing out the idea of having it all figured out before you even start Western herbalism and FDA regulation The barriers of social media in relation to building community with elders The wheel of the year, moving from a feminine paradigm to a masculine paradigm How society values youth and fears aging, how this sentiment leads to diminished wisdom passed onto future generations How to recognize the beauty of aging and manifest a change in attitude towards it How to connect with elders Advice for the new wave of herbalists: “drop the old soul bullshit.” Instead, own who you are, where you are The difference between starting a career in herbalism and starting a practice in herbalism Compensating your teacher to show respect and reciprocity Maia’s trip to Ireland as her initiation into herbalism Intuitive herbal crafting How to calibrate the body to understand the difference between intuition and mixed signals triggered by the brain Links Listen to this week’s secret episode with Maia here Learn more about The Illustrated Herbiary by Maia Toll, illustrated by Kate O’Hara @kate.ohara.illustration Book to be released August 7th, pre-order to receive a FREE online course! Maia’s personal website and blog: Maiatoll.com Shop for herbs, essential oils and supplies for a sacred living: Herbiary.com Connect with Maia on Instagram: @maiatoll Connect with Herbiary on Instagram: @theherbiary Connect with Maia on Facebook: maiatoll.page Connect with Herbiary on Facebook: herbiary

In this week’s episode we get into: The creative process of how The Illustrated Herbiary was written and published Throwing out the idea of having it all figured out before you even start Western herbalism and FDA regulation The barriers of social media in relation to building community with elders The wheel of the year, moving from a feminine paradigm to a masculine paradigm How society values youth and fears aging, how this sentiment leads to diminished wisdom passed onto future generations How to recognize the beauty of aging and manifest a change in attitude towards it How to connect with elders Advice for the new wave of herbalists: “drop the old soul bullshit.” Instead, own who you are, where you are The difference between starting a career in herbalism and starting a practice in herbalism Compensating your teacher to show respect and reciprocity Maia’s trip to Ireland as her initiation into herbalism Intuitive herbal crafting How to calibrate the body to understand the difference between intuition and mixed signals triggered by the brain Links Listen to this week’s secret episode with Maia here Learn more about The Illustrated Herbiary by Maia Toll, illustrated by Kate O’Hara @kate.ohara.illustration Book to be released August 7th, pre-order to receive a FREE online course! Maia’s personal website and blog: Maiatoll.com Shop for herbs, essential oils and supplies for a sacred living: Herbiary.com Connect with Maia on Instagram: @maiatoll Connect with Herbiary on Instagram: @theherbiary Connect with Maia on Facebook: maiatoll.page Connect with Herbiary on Facebook: herbiary

Full show notes can be found at www.andreaclaassen.com/podcast141 Tiffany Renee is a Medicine Woman: a clinical herbalist, ordained lightworker, and writer focused on helping you heal in mind, body, and spirit. She combines East Asian Herbalism, Western Herbalism, Medicinal Food Therapy, and Energywork to address Women’s Health, the Postpartum Mother, Autoimmune Diseases, and Anxiety and Stress. Tiffany combines her graduate education and research of TCM meridian/organ theories, chakras, and physiology to evolve the medicine woman archetype into a modern-day practice. Connect with Tiffany Renee Website: www.MahoganyPoint.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiffanyrenee_urbmedicinewoman/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mahoganypointhealth/ Where to connect with Andrea Instagram- instagram.com/andreaclaassen21 Facebook- facebook.com/andreaclaassen21 Website- andreaclaassen.com Facebook Group- facebook.com/groups/peacefulpower

Today's episode I'm talking about an upcoming event here in my hometown, Eugene, OR.  New Orleans based herbalist Jen Stovall is on a west coast teaching tour and she'll be making a stop here next Saturday, September 30th, 2017. She'll be teaching the six hour intensive "Tools for Working with Addiction". If you've ever wanted to study with her, this event is not to be missed!  REGISTER CLASS DESCRIPTION Substance use and addiction are pervasive in our culture. As herbalists we need as many tools as possible to address the needs of clients struggling with these issues. This daylong class offers you three practical tools you can use when treating substance use and addiction: herbs, supplements, & ear beads. In this class, we will explore ways to provide support to clients who want to quit, as well as those who choose to keep using, review the way specific drugs affect certain body systems, and explore how herbs can mitigate these patterns of imbalance. We will focus primarily on the effects and treatment of opiates, alcohol, pharmaceutical sedatives and pain reliever use but will also touch on stimulants. You’ll learn about the history and benefits of the NADA Ear Acupuncture Detoxification Protocol as well as how to use ear beads to stimulate one of the points in lieu of acupuncture needles. Throughout the class, you’ll be introduced to the basic concepts of harm reduction and trauma informed care as we consider how these models can improve our quality of care. Used together these modalities provide a powerful approach that may be used to support your clients, friends, family, and wider community when addiction is a factor in restoring balance. The true cost of this class is $60 but we are offering a sliding scale of $45-75 with a $20discount for OM volunteers. Wondering where you might fit along this scale? Read below for some ideas! OM volunteers, contact Mason or Tree for a discount code. ••••••••••••• Sliding Scale Info: We leave this up to you, but here are some helpful hints. You might pay near the high end of the sliding scale if: ~ you have a job with dependable hours and have no dependents ~ you regularly (once a year or more) pay for airline travel for recreation ~ you pay to eat at restaurants (ie not fast food) regularly (once a month or more) ~ you pay to drink at a bar on the regular (once a week or more) You might pay near the low end of the sliding scale if: ~ you are currently unemployed ~ you have a job but care for many dependents and doing so is a strain on your budget ~ you are a full-time student ~ you are a full-time organizer/activist (this list has been adapted from bearteachesyoga.com, thanks, Bear!) BIO Jen Stovall works as a Community Herbalist & Health Educator, using a blend of Southern Folk Medicine, Western Herbalism, and harm reduction in her classes and with her clients. She is co-owner of Maypop Community Herb Shop in New Orleans and has a BSN-RN & a NADA Ear Acupuncture Detox Specialist & Trainer license, both of which inform her herbal practice. She has found herbalism to be both a potent tool for pursuing social justice in the world, and a powerful manifestation of the ethical and ideological path she walks in her personal life. She believes that health care should be accessible to everyone and that the most powerful strategy for this is educating and empowering people to choose their own path to health. She is constantly renewed and inspired by witnessing the magic spark that occurs when people are introduced to plant allies through consultations, herb walks, medicine making, & health education.