How Food Affects Your Mood: The Ayurvedic Approach to Anxiety & Depression with Todd Caldecott

Todd Caldecott is a Medical Herbalist and practitioner of Ayurvedic Medicine, who has been in private practice since 1995. He is the Executive Director of the Dogwood School of Botanical Medicine and author/editor of three books including Ayurveda: The Divine Science of Life, Food As Medicine: The Theory and Practice of Food, and Ayurveda In Nepal.

Todd is a creator and/or contributor to Traditional Ayurvedic Medicine (Introduction & Materia Medica), Applied Phytotherapeutics (1 & 2), History of Herbal Medicine, Essentials of Pathology, Western Materia Medica (1 & 2) with Wild Rose College.

Todd began training as a clinician in herbal medicine in 1992 during a search to resolve a chronic digestive disorder acquired while travelling in India. After meeting Ayurvedic physician Dr T. Sukumaran who helped him resolve his condition, Todd took a career change to train as a medical herbalist.

He studied Ayurveda in India, and later became the Clinical Director of Wild Rose College of Natural Healing and published a textbook in Ayurveda. He has been in clinical practice since 1995.

Todd has been in mentorship since 2004 with Vaidya Madhu Bajra Bajracharya, Piyushabarshi Aushadhalaya, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Vaidya Madhu represents an unbroken lineage of hereditary physicians since the 13th century CE.

With mental health issues on the rise, Todd highlights some of the contributing factors to this such as the disconnection from people and communities, the impact of trauma and the pace of life itself. He shares his thoughts on treating anxiety and depression whilst being guided by Ayurdevic principles and practices to better understand what is happening to us.

Todd talks on:

• Anxiety & depression from an Ayurvedic perspective.
• Diet as a neuro-stable influence on improving mental health.
• The importance of physical exercise for grounding effects and balancing neurotransmitter levels.
• Releasing creative tension to restore energy flow.
• Favourite thymolectic (happy) herbal interventions. 
• Healing childhood trauma and grief to treat anxiety and depression.
• Treating the ego state with psychedelic mushrooms

Todd is the Executive Director for The Dogwood School of Botanical Medicine. To find out more about its learning programs visit the website: https://dogwoodbotanical.com/

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