Navigating Depression as a Tool for Transformation

The causes of depression are almost as varied as those who present with this heartbreaking challenge. While hormones and neurotransmitters are a definite part of the puzzle, Chinese Medicine provides us with an amazing way to view our mental health through the seasons. This class will travel through the five seasons and look to how different organ systems and emotions related to each other, can play a significant role in anxiety as well as depression. Plant medicine has so much to offer us through deeply challenging times. No previous herbal knowledge is required.

Kathleen Maier: Kat is the founder and director of Sacred Plant Traditions, a center for herbal studies in Charlottesville, Virginia. One of her greatest accomplishments has been to train many clinical herbalists who have gone onto to begin other schools, apothecaries or open practices. In clinical practice for over 30 years, Kat teaches internationally at universities, conferences, and herbal schools. She is a founding member of Botanica Mobile Clinic, a nonprofit dedicated to providing accessible herbal medicine to local communities. This grew out of her school’s free clinic which was one of the first on the east coast and went on to be a template for other schools. She began her study of plants as a Peace Corps volunteer, and her training as a Physician’s Assistant allows her to weave the language of biomedicine into her practice of traditional energetic herbalism. She is coauthor of Bush Medicine of San Salvador Island, Bahamas. As a passionate steward of the plants, Kat also served as president of United Plant Savers and was the recipient of the organization’s first Medicinal Plant Conservation Award.