Can’t Sleep, Can’t Think, Can’t Cope: Herbs and Strategies for Insomnia, Anxiety, and Burnout

A 16 hour series co-taught with Jim McDonald. $400, or 4 monthly payments of $106.

jim and Thomas are teaming up for a brand new 16 hour, 8-part class series on anxiety, insomnia, and burnout and it’s going to be a blast!

Most of the people who come to our practices for sleep also can’t relax. Most of the people who come for anxiety aren’t sleeping. Most of the people who can’t stop pushing are running on a nervous system that stopped truly recovering somewhere back in 2019.

These three issues form a feedback loop that sustains itself. Treating them in isolation often means missing the underlying pattern holding the whole thing together, and we decided to cover them all together.

This series is for practitioners, clinical students, and the folks who love a good deep dive. We’ll be exploring how we work with these patterns clinically, including physiology, formulation strategy, case considerations, nervous system patterns, and the herbs we reach for, using case examples to show you how we choose them for different patterns.

If you’ve ever felt frustrated trying to separate sleep, stress, exhaustion, depletion, hypervigilance, and nervous system dysregulation into neat little categories… this class is for you.

Here’s what we cover:

Class 1: The Triangle

Anxiety, insomnia, and burnout create, intensify, and mask each other in clinical practice. We’ll use just enough HPA axis physiology and predictive regulation to anchor the series, then look at key differential rule-outs so practitioners recognize when “anxiety” may be thyroid, blood sugar, medication effects, or something else.

Class 2: Foundations of Nervous System Regulation

This class explores what regulation actually means and how recovery happens in a body that has been under sustained stress. We’ll look at active and passive recovery, including the physiotherapy angle most herbalists rarely encounter, and discuss nervine tonics as long-term support for resilience.

Class 3: Sleep

This class focuses on sleep architecture, common patterns of disruption, and Jim’s “why aren’t you sleeping?” decision tree as a clinical workhorse. We’ll discuss valerian, hops, kava, and California poppy, including the patterns that help us choose well and the reasons common sleep hygiene advice often fails the people who need support most.

Class 4: Anxiety, Pattern One

This class explores the kind of anxiety that shows up as frustration, irritation, agitation, and a body pushing against the world. We’ll compare skullcap, vervain, chamomile, and catnip through the actual clinical distinctions that help practitioners choose between them.

Class 5: Anxiety, Pattern Two

This class focuses on the looping, overprocessing, mice-in-the-brain version of anxiety. We’ll work with passionflower, betonica, and valerian as cognitive and nervous system herbs, and we’ll look at cyclical insomnia as its own distinct presentation.

Class 6: Burnout, Part One

This class explores burnout stages and patterns, including depleted, wired-tired, and closed-off presentations. We’ll discuss hawthorn, ashwagandha, shatavari, black cohosh, and milky oats as foundational support, with an honest look at where adaptogens help and where they complicate the picture.

Class 7: Burnout, Part Two

This class focuses on why the body needs scheduled recovery and how to build health when someone is already burned out. We’ll work through the real objections practitioners hear in practice, including “I don’t have time” and “I already tried that.”

Class 8: Integration

The final class brings everything together through mini-cases, clinical reasoning, and group discussion. You’ll make the calls, we’ll talk through the reasoning, and we’ll cover formulation basics, medication interactions, and referral considerations.

Enroll Now!

FAQs

Pay for Course in Full - $400

Payment Plan - 4 payments of $106

Where will class take place?

Class will take place live on Zoom.

What are the class dates?

Class will be held on:

June 3
June 17
July 1
July 14
July 29
August 12
August 26
September 8

What time is class?

6:30-8:30 eastern.

Will a replay be available?

Yes, class replays will be available!

Meet Your Instructors

Thomas Easley, RH

Thomas Easley, RH (AHG), is a Clinical Herbalist and the founder of the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine. With a passion for herbal medicine ignited in 1996, Thomas has dedicated his life to helping others through a unique approach that integrates Traditional Western Herbalism, Clinical Nutrition, and modern medical sciences.

Since opening his practice in 2001, Thomas has provided guidance and support to tens of thousands of clients. In 2010, he founded the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine, which offers comprehensive clinical training. As a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild, Thomas continues to refine his clinical expertise by reviewing cases for his school’s free clinic and maintaining an active private practice.

Thomas is the co-author of The Modern Herbal Dispensatory: A Medicine Making Guide and Modern Herbal Medicine. He firmly believes in the power of herbal medicine to transform lives and promote vibrant health. His approach emphasizes the importance of food as medicine and incorporates tailored diets, stress reduction techniques, nutritional supplements, and exercise to help clients achieve their health goals.

As a champion for evidence-based practices, Thomas strives to ensure that his teachings and methods are rooted in tradition, clinical practice, and sound scientific principles. He draws inspiration from the Eclectic and Physiomedical physicians of the 19th century, combining their wisdom with modern medical sciences to create a comprehensive and systematic approach to health and healing.

jim mcdonald

In 1994, jim mcdonald’s life changed when he drank tea from a wild plant he harvested from the land he lived upon. Since those first sips of strange tea, his life in the woods and meadows of southeast michigan has been centered on the plants & ecosystems of that land, and how he might share their virtues to restore wellness with those around him.

jim’s approach to herbcraft is deeply rooted in the land he lives upon, and blends traditional european influences with 19th century eclectic and physiomedical vitalism, which he conveys with story, experience, humour, common sense and lore to students, clients, random passersby and readers of his website www.herbcraft.org.