Evaluation: (People)
1.
Review the tongue document. Read through it all. If you have any questions, send us an email.
Don’t slog through an assignment if it doesn’t help your understanding. This isn’t busy work, it’s to help you understand which remedies will work the best for the person you are helping.
2.
Using the tongue assessment sheet please review 4 tongues including your own. Sketch them on your handouts or include a picture. (Looking at your own tongue is very helpful as you’ll see it change and be able to correlate it to your experience, how you feel and your herbal and lifestyle interventions.) If you can, take a photo and attach that to your worksheet.
3.
List as best you can, from reviewing the handouts, what type of energetic you are seeing. Yes, it’s true that the energetic you are seeing may not be an imbalance in the client that you are seeing. It may only be showing up in the tongue. This is an exercise in working with the concepts, not a whole case study.
4.
Then list some herbs that you think would fit the tongue you looked at and give a brief description as to why. Don’t worry about being right. This is to get you thinking in a particular way which is from energetic to herb. Its not about being right or wrong. a.
Ie. Alteratives, and bitters/carminatives for thick coat, cooling herbs for hot tongue, hot herbs for cool tongue, etc. Adaptogens, nervines for trembling etc.
We will work on evaluation throughout the year inside of class, outside of class and even in an extracurricular class at the center. As emphasized in class, it is something that requires practice. If you learn the fundamentals then the rest will follow quickly and painlessly with practice and guidance.
Case Studies: People and Herbs
Client-specific protocols:
Review the following client presentations and write an energetically balanced formula and protocol for each client. Include diet and lifestyle considerations, possible red flag concerns.
Don’t worry if you feel uncertain about some of the answers or if you have not yet learned the constitutions. We will continue to work on this throughout the year. This assignment will help you start to consider energetics in your formulation, and will help us get a better sense for where you are and how to best tailor future assignments to this class. Again, don’t worry if you’re not sure. Do your best based on what you know and the energetics handout we sent before class started. Let us know if you don’t have that handout.
For each client, consider:
1.
Constitution-Ayurvedic, Greek, , etc. (if you have prior training in this, otherwise skip it)
2.
Energetic imbalance(s)
3.
Organ system(s) affected
4.
Primary complaint(s)
5.
Possible aggravating factors

This section can be answered in short responses. It doesn’t require full sentences or a narrative. And there are no right and wrong answer.
Client 1.
Your client is a 45-year-old woman seeking herbal support for seasonal allergies. She reports tendency to have cold hands and feet, difficulty getting going in the morning, and somewhat poor appetite as well as constipation (especially when she is stressed). She has a diagnosis of borderline hypothyroidism (not autoimmune). She works a stressful job and has 3 kids. She also experiences anxiety and difficulty falling asleep. At times her sleep is also restless. Her tongue is pale and somewhat swollen with a white coating and slightly scalloped edges.
1.
What is her chief complaint?
2.
What is her energetic imbalance (hot cold damp dry)?
3.
What organ systems seem affected by her energetic imbalance?
4.
What other issues are related to her health issues and chief complaints?
Herbal Formulation:
1.
What kind of immune herb(s) would you consider here? a.
Deep Immune stimulant b.
Immune amphoteric c.
Surface immune stimulant
2.
Why would you choose that as the appropriate primary herb(s) for her? a.
What specific medicinal activity fits this person’s presentation
3.
What organ systems do you want to support with your formula?
4.
What specific symptoms do you want your formula to address?
5.
Do you see possible combinations of energetic and organ system/organ-What we call patterns or syndromes.
6.
Create a formula with a primary herb that affects immune functioning and 2-5 supporting herbs that fit her symptom presentation and constitution.
7.
Create a diet and lifestyle regimen (recommendations) that will also support her in dealing with her chief complaint and health issues.
8.
Include any questions you have about her case or about this assignment.
Client 2.
Your client is a 50-year-old man seeking herbal support because he’s been getting “every cold and flu that’s been going around”. He’s frustrated because he can’t take any more time off of work. He is a night shift manager doing heavy physical labor and has difficulty getting enough sleep. He finds himself irritable and has trouble focusing and remembering things. Even though he does a lot of physical work he tends to feel chilly. He also reports he sweats too much, has to get up and pee a lot when he’s sleeping, and sometimes wakes up with sweaty palms. His tongue is somewhat pale, swollen, atonic, and moist.
1.
What is his chief complaint?

2.
Is the chief complaint a.
Acute b.
Chronic c.
Both
3.
What is his energetic imbalance (hot cold damp dry) or a mix?___________
4.
What organ systems seem affected by his energetic imbalance?
5.
What other issues are related to his health issues?
Herbal Formulation:
1.
What kind of immune herb(s) would you consider the best fit with this client? a.
Deep Immune stimulant b.
Immune amphoteric c.
Surface immune stimulant
2.
Why would you choose that as the appropriate primary herb(s) for him? a.
What specific medicinal activity fits this person’s presentation?
3.
What organ systems do you want to support with your formula?
4.
What specific symptoms do you want your formula to address?
5.
Create a formula with a primary herb that affects immune functioning and 2-5 supporting herbs that fit her symptom presentation and constitution.
6.
Create a diet and lifestyle regimen (recommendations) that will also support him in dealing with his chief complaint and health issues.
7.
Include any questions you have about his case or about this assignment.
General Questions:
1. Explain, as you would explain it to a client: a. What are flavonoids and proanthocyanidins: b. How you can recognize them in herbs, vegetables, berries, and fruits c. How they are important in helping the body deal with allergens
2. What does the term antihistaminic mean in terms of how cells are affected by anti-histiminic constituents in plants?
3. Give 2 examples each of: a. Stimulating immune amphoterics b. Relaxing immune amphoterics c. Moistening or almost yin-promoting immune amphoterics

d. Drying or ‘dampness transforming’ immune amphoterics
4. Explain the difference between immune amphoterics and anti-inflammatories.
5. Give an example of five foods that are anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and help support capillary integrity.
6. Give three examples of herbs that are mast cell stabilizing.
7. Describe the primary properties of Gotu Kola, and what kind of person you would recommend this herb to.
8. What is the difference between how stimulating nervines and relaxing nervines affect the body in terms of increasing someone’s sense of energy and vitality?
9. What is reflective listening and how does it help in client interviews?
10. Describe what you would want to remind yourself of as a practitioner in responding to a client that comes back for a follow-up having done almost nothing of what you recommended to them three weeks ago.
11. Creating an Herbal Practitioner Mini Mission Statement: Write a few sentences defining who you are or want to be as an herbalist at this particular time on your path, with all of the specific details of your life being exactly as they are at this moment. Try to avoid any judgmental “I should” statements, and rather tune into and connect with what you feel in your gut or in your heart.
Physiology:
Physiology for Next Class
This assignment can be done closer to the date of class so its fresh in your mind
Remember: Advanced physiology is not essential for practicing herbalism but a certain amount is very helpful.
Our next instructor is the very accomplished herbalist Paul Bergner. He is teaching on the GI system, food allergies/sensitivity and intestinal hyperpermeability/leaky gut.
In order to get the most from his class, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of the GI system.
Here is a brief step by step tutorial on the GI system: http://www.le.ac.uk/pa/teach/va/anatomy/case6/frmst6.html
Please familiarize yourself with the following organs, their secretions that we put in parenthesis, and
their role in digestion: Again, we will keep physiology basic and it is only enough for our intents and

purposes. If you want to go further with it, then feel free but we’d like you to study the following for homework.
Parts In descending order
Mouth
Esophagus
Lower Esophageal sphincter
Stomach-(stomach acid, pepsin, intrinsic factor)
Pyloric Sphincter
Liver/Gallbladder (bile)
Pancreas (proteases, lipases, amylases, bicarbonate) http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/pancreas/exocrine.html
Small Intestine-Duodenum, jejunum, ileum
Appendix (as a possible probiotic receptacle)
Large Intestine
Colon
Systems and Processes: There is a lot of info here. Try to get the rough ideas, don’t be concerned with learning the intricate details.
Absorption: http://tarungulyanidavggn.pbworks.com/w/page/53811870/Ishita%20Mallik and watch video at bottom of page.
Understand the concept of tight junctions
Hepatic Portal System: From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatic_portal_system
Let us know if you have any questions.
Greenly
C and H