Building Health: A 12-Month Lifestyle, Nutrition & Herbal Series
This series focuses on how health is built over time through daily practices, small adjustments, and systems that support one another. We will look at how sleep affects mood and food choices, how digestion influences energy and immunity, how stress shapes the body, and how simple, repeatable practices can create meaningful change.
Herbs are woven throughout the series as practical tools that help support healthy function when used alongside daily habits like sleep, food, movement, and rest. You’ll learn herbal categories (such as bitters, nervines, carminatives, and tonics), how and when they’re useful, and how to use them in a way that fits into real life.
In order to make this content accessible to everyone, the series is donation-based, with a suggested range of $0–$25 per class, depending on your financial situation. Each class can be attended on its own, but the series is intentionally sequenced. Attending (or watching) all of the classes will give you a much deeper understanding of how different aspects of health connect, reinforce one another, and build toward long-term resilience.
These classes focus on parts and physiological processes rather than gender, and are taught with the expectation of respect and care so that the space is as safe and welcoming as possible for everyone who chooses to attend.
Class 3 - Building Digestive Vitality
Healthy digestion is important for the assimilation of nutrients and the removal of waste in the body. In this class, we’ll explore how digestion works, what commonly disrupts it, and how to support digestive comfort with herbs and everyday practices.
Topics include meal habits, stress and digestion, and simple ways to support gut function. We’ll also discuss herbal categories like carminatives and bitters, focusing on how they can gently support digestion when paired with realistic lifestyle changes.
This class is part of the Building Health series, though it can be attended on its own. Classes are donation-based, with a suggested range of $0–$25 depending on your financial situation. If you’re able, you’re welcome to pay it forward by donating more to help keep the series accessible.
Your Instructors
Thomas Easley, RH (AHG)
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.
Mel Kasting, RH (AHG)
Mel’s passion lies in both serving clients and empowering students to develop the essential relational health and clinical skills required to excel as herbal practitioners. Through her clinic work, art and class facilitation, she explores the intersections of herbalism, botany, society, and somatic experiencing to support plant-centered botanical medicine and celebrate the teeming diversity life has to offer.
In her private practice, she blends traditional western herbalism and clinical nutrition with somatic herbal practices. She recognizes the significance of addressing personal and societal traumas as an integral part of the healing journey. This profound understanding shapes her approach, as she guides individuals toward greater well-being and helps them navigate the complexities of their own healing processes.