Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine
A Unique Herb School That Integrates Science and Tradition
Thomas Easley, RH
Founder and Director
Thomas is a Traditional Western Herbalist. While he loves bioregional herbalism, he use herbs from all over the world, including Ayuveda and TCM. However, he applies them in the Western tradition. You won’t hear Thomas talk much about Chi, Prana, or even Doshas. He respects other cultures' systems of medicine, but chooses to focus on the deep and rich tradition of Western Herbalism. Keeping with that approach, you will hear him talk about humoral imbalances and constitution, Eclectic and Physiomedical approaches to disease, modern Naturopathic therapies, functional blood work ranges, and even the occasional reference to Sheldon’s Somatotypes. Thomas also emphasizes foods as medicine, using intensive diets, stress reduction techniques, nutritional supplements, and exercise to help his clients achieve their health goals. In addition to herbs, diet, supplements, and lifestyle approaches, Thomas uses drop dose botanicals and occasionally homeopathic remedies or flower essences.
Thomas believes that herbal medicine has the potential to change the world. Unfortunately, much of what is taught about herbs and supplements is driven by marketing and not based in tradition or science. His approach draws on his extensive clinical experience which spans 15 years of full-time practice and over 15,000 clients.
Our Home Team: Instructors and Collaborators
Forrest Tracy Chalmers III
Forrest is a functional herbalist, massage therapist, movement therapist, and practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Originally on the road to become a medical doctor, Forrest’s interests in history and anthropology led him to the less- traveled path of herbalism and other forms of historical medicine. He began his herbal journey with a 5-year apprenticeship studying under a Traditional Chinese Herbalist in Bastrop, Texas, and then worked to complete his master’s degree in acupuncture and Chinese medicine at Texas Health And Science University in Austin. Noticing the incongruity in studying only the traditions of the East, Forrest began to seek out the traditional healing systems of the West, and this led him to the Eclectic School Of Herbal Medicine. The integration of science and tradition forms the core of Forrest’s philosophy. As a functional herbalist, this means combining the traditional philosophy and knowledge of Traditional Western Herbal medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine with the science of functional medicine, clinical nutrition, and knowledge of modern physiology. As a movement therapist, this means combining the modern study of functional movement and exercise physiology with the historical traditions of yoga, traditional Chinese movement therapy, and historical Western movement therapies. As a hands-on therapist, this means combining the traditional practice of massage, bodywork, osteopathy, acupuncture, and tui na (Chinese manual therapy) with the sciences of modern anatomy and physiology, fascial research, as well as modern integrative manual therapy techniques and concepts. When working with clients, Forrest’s focus is on using all the tools nature has provided us to assist the healing of the whole person. He utilizes herbs, whole foods, natural movements, and lifestyle modifications, as well as healing modalities like acupuncture, hands-on therapy, hydrotherapy, and other traditional healing methods.
Lindsey Feldpausch, RH
Lindsey is a clinical herbalist, avid medicine maker and a nature-based mama. Trained in the art of Traditional Western Herbalism, she believes in the healing powers of plants and our innate abilities to tap into this knowledge. Inspiring this belief in others and showing people the way of herbs is one of her life’s objectives. An instructor/medicine maker/program and clinic director at the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine, she teaches Materia Medica and medicine making.
Mel Kasting, RH
Mel is a clinical herbalist, freelance writer, and Assistant Clinic Director for the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine’s student-led free clinic. She told her mother at 8 years old, “I want to be the box car children when I grow up,” and has pretty much lived up to the task. Her passion for plant-based healing paired with an incurable wanderlust has taken her from the Columbines School of Botanical Studies in Eugene, OR, to the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine’s mountain haven in Lowgap, NC, and many places in between. She studied primarily botany, wildcrafting, plant ecology, and clinical herbalism. Mel is also the ESHM’s Botany Group Facilitator. When not living the herbal dream, she loves to hike and dance.
Jade Shutes, B.A., Dipl. AT.
Jade holds a Diploma in Holistic Aromatherapy, Holistic Massage, Anatomy and Physiology, and Reflexology from the Raworth College of Natural Medicine in Dorking, UK, and a Diploma in Aromatherapy from the International Therapist Examining board (ITEC). She has studied with Jan Kusmirek of Fragrant Studies and has completed Part One of the Purdue University Advanced Studies of Essential Oils. She has also completed a certificate program for Herbal Medicine with Master Herbalist Erin Groh and a certificate program for Spa Bodywork with Anne Williams. Jade has been practicing and studying forms of natural healing for over two decades, and was one of the vanguard of professionals who helped introduce aromatherapy to the US. She has been an aromatherapy educator for over 25 years. She has designed and taught aromatherapy courses for massage and bodywork therapists, estheticians, social workers, nurses, and other healthcare providers. Jade has taught at Bastyr University (Adjunct Faculty), Duke University (Continuing Education), Ashmead College, San Diego Hospice, and at various locations throughout the United States and Canada. She has traveled extensively throughout Canada, the United States, England, and Japan exploring aromatherapy practices and businesses. Jade has played an active role in the setting of standards for aromatherapy education in North America and was the creator of ‘Synergia 97,' a conference devoted to raising educational standards in North America. Jade is currently completing her Masters of Science in Therapeutic Herbalism at the Maryland University of Integrative Health. She is the Director of Education for The School for Aromatic Studies. www.theida.com / www.aromaticstudies.com
Our Guest Instructors
Dr. Elizabeth Busetto, ND,DC,IBCLC
Dr. Busetto practices as a Naturopath, Chiropractor, and Lactation Consultant at Rose Natural Health in Portland, OR. Her goal is to provide you with compassionate, unhurried, evidence-based care. She is passionate about empowering new mamas, nurturing their sweet babies, and watching families grow and thrive through the years.
Vilde Chaya Fenster-Ehrlich
Vilde Chaya Fenster-Ehrlich is a community herbalist committed to accessible, inclusive herbal practice and education. She has been involved with organizing free multi-modality clinics in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Arizona since 2010, and is presently a clinical herbalist and educator at Stonefruit Community Herbalists and co-director of the Lake Effect Free Alternative Health Clinic. Before working as an herbalist, she spent a decade as a standardized patient, educating medical students about competent, anti-oppressive care. She sought out herbal medicine as an ally to support community organizers, activists, queer folks, and others harmed and underserved by racism, capitalism, and patriarchy. In her experience, healing work is intimately interconnected with understanding, coping with, and resisting systemic violence and oppression. www.wildcherries.org
Erika Galentin, MNIMH, RH
Erika Galentin is a Medical Herbalist and an ITEC-certified Clinical Aromatherapist. She holds a degree in Herbal Medicine from the University of Wales, Cardiff, UK and Scottish School of Herbal Medicine, Glasgow, UK. She is a professional member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (UK) and Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society in Horticulture (USA). Several years of clinical practice in Glasgow, Scotland provided the platform for a deep and influential understanding of the efficacy of medicinal plants within a clinical environment. Erika returned to the United States in 2008 to evolve her career as to also encompass a focus on horticulture and native medicinal plant conservation and ecology. Erika is also deeply passionate about the history of botanical medicine in the United States as depicted by the American Botanical Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and has built her clinical philosophy around the principles and practice of Physiomedical and Eclectic traditions. With her dedication to medicinal plants native to Ohio and the Greater Appalachian region, Erika teaches, lectures and writes on native medicinal plant conservation and applied ecology, propagation, herbalism, and clinical efficacy.
Guido Masé
Guido Masé RH(AHG) is a clinician and educator in the Western herbal tradition. He spent his childhood in Italy and has been living in Vermont since 1996. His practice interweaves clinical experience, mythology, and science. He is chief herbalist at Urban Moonshine, clinician at the Burlington Herb Clinic, faculty member and clinical supervisor at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, teacher in herbal medicine at the University of Vermont, and author of The Wild Medicine Solution and DIY Bitters. He is developing the Integrative Phytotherapy department at Wasso Hospital in Loliondo, Tanzania.
jim mcdonald
jim mcdonald is an herbalist in southeast Michigan (that cool state that looks like a mitten you can see from space) where he teaches, sees clients, wildharvests, and concocts herbal formulas. His approach to herbalism is a blend of traditional folk and indigenous influences mixed up with a bit of 19th century Eclectic and physiomedical vitalism, which he tries to blend with a bit of humor and discretionary irreverence so as not to appear to be too serious about life! jim hosts the website www.herbcraft.org which lists his offerings and conveys his thoughts on plants and herbalism. And if you’ve ever wondered, the lack of capitalization is an homage to e.e. cummings! jim teaches energetics, humoral theory and foot jenga at ESHM.
Traci Picard
Traci Picard is a community medicine-maker, forager, and writer from Providence, RI who currently works in Communications. Traci is raising 3 teens, a Passionflower forest, and a Catahoula Leopard Dog. She is trained in the Question Formulation Technique and loves thinking about thinking. She also edits whenever possible, maintains 3 blogs including fellowworkersfarm.com, and often teaches communications and critical thinking at herbal events.
Hayden Stebbins
Hayden's Harvest Founder Hayden Stebbins graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors of Science in Science of Natural and Environmental Systems and earned his Masters of Science from Schumacher College in England in Sustainable Horticulture and Food Production. He has shadowed ethnobotanist Marc Williams (Director of botanyeveryday.com and Plants and Healers International, and editor of Botany in a Day) in Asheville, NC, and taught about edible and medicinal plants and mushrooms up and down the Eastern seaboard. He has completed the full-time clinical herbalism program at the Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine. Hayden has been fortunate to be able to study around the world. He traveled to India, Tanzania, New Zealand, and Mexico with a program called Rethinking Globalization. He also taught Human Ecology and Sustainable Food Systems at The Island School in The Bahamas, biked across Europe using ancient trees as his way points, and traveled to Bhutan with the Gross National Happiness Centre. He makes frequent appearances at ESHM.
Robert Rogers
Robert Dale Rogers has been an herbalist for over forty years, and is a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild. He earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Alberta, where he is presently an assistant clinical professor in Family Medicine. He teaches plant medicine, including plant and mushroom medicine, aromatherapy, and flower essences in the Earth Spirit Medicine faculty at the Northern Star College in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Robert is past chair of the Alberta Natural Health Agricultural Network and Community Health Council of Capital Health. He is a Fellow of the International College of Nutrition, past chair of the Medicinal Mushroom Committee of the North American Mycological Association, and on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms and Discovery Phytomedicine. He is the author of over 40 books on medicinal plants and fungi of the boreal forest, including The Fungal Pharmacy: The Complete Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms and Lichens of North America, A Cree Healer and his Medicine Bundle, and Mushroom Essences: Vibrational Healing from the Kingdom Fungi. Robert joined our 2016 program for a weekend intensive on medicinal mushrooms. He will be making more frequent appearances in upcoming years.
Marc N. Williams
Marc Williams is an ethnobiologist. He has studied the people, plant, mushroom, and microbe interconnection intensively while learning to employ the different kingdoms of biology for food, medicine, and beauty. His training includes a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies concentrating in Sustainable Agriculture with a minor in Business from Warren Wilson College, and a Master’s degree in Appalachian Studies concentrating in Sustainable Development with a minor in Geography and Planning from Appalachian State University. He has spent over 15 years working at a multitude of restaurants and various farms. His travels include adventures through 24 countries in North/Central America and Europe and all 50 of the United States. Marc has visited over 150 botanical gardens and research institutions during this process while taking tens of thousands of pictures of representative plants. He is also Executive Director of Plants and Healers International (www.plantsandhealers.org) and on the Board of Directors of the Appalachian Institute for Mountain Studies. He has taught hundreds of classes and thousands of people about the marvelous world of plants, people, and their interface while working with over 60 organizations in the last few years and online at the website www.botanyeveryday.com. Marc's greatest hope is that his efforts may help improve our current challenging global ecological situation. [email protected]
Matthew Wood, RH
Matthew Wood, RH (AHG) has been a practicing herbalist since 1982. In a period when many authors and lecturers are merely "arm chair herbalists" who offer theories and opinions based on book learning, and others have turned to the traditions of India or China, he has been an active practitioner of Traditional Western Herbalism. He has helped tens of thousands of clients over the years, many with difficult health problems. While Matthew believes in the virtue of many other healing modalities, he has always been inspired to learn, preserve, and practice the tradition of herbal medicine passed down to us from our European, American, and Native American heritage. He is a member of the American Herbalists Guild (RN) and has earned his Masters of Science degree from the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine (accredited by the University of Wales). Matthew was a full-time instructor in our 2016 program, and will be joining us for extended guest teachings in coming years.