Little-Known Indigenous Herbal Allies

Description: In this presentation by a clinical herbalist in practice for 27 years, you will learn about the amazing healing potential of little-known, locally-sourced medicinal plants that are not typically available on the market. The speaker will share information on how to identify these plants (aided by color photos he has taken that will be projected as slides), where to find them, and how to harvest and prepare them for use. He will also relate experiences of how he has implemented these plants to help people to heal. Detailed descriptions, historical uses, and scientific studies on these plants are further available in the speaker’s three books on herbal medicine, (1) Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants of the Midwest, 3rd edition of 2020, (2) 300 Herbs: A Materia Medica & A Repertory, 2nd ed of 2020, and (3) Diary of a Country Herbalist, 2017. Matthew will have copies of these books available for signing and purchase after the presentation.

Speaker Bio: Matthew Alfs, MH, RH (AHG) is a clinical herbalist who has been in practice since 1997.  He obtained his Master-Herbalist (M.H.) diploma from Wild Rose College of Natural Healing (Calgary, Ontario) and followed that up with training in Traditional Chinese Medicine at the American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in MN. In 2002, he was awarded a peer-reviewed, Registered-Herbalist (RH) credential by the American Herbalists Guild for educational and clinical excellence, a status currently held by less than 300 persons in the entire country. After having practiced at the first integrative clinic on a medical campus, the Natural Care Center at Woodwinds, from 2001-2003, he founded an integrative-therapies clinic in 2004 (www.midwestherbsandhealing.com) that he directs to this day. Altogether, Matthew has seen almost 10,000 different clients, compassionately helping them along the way to vibrant health. He has also delivered over 300 lectures to a wide variety of institutions and associations (including many hospitals) and has taught herbal medicine at two different universities and two different colleges. In 2003, he founded his own school of herbal studies, Midwest School of Herbal Studies (www.midwestherbalstudies.com), an AHG Member School and a Partner in Education with United Plant Savers, based upon a 1500-page curriculum and two large books on herbal medicine (300 Herbs and Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants of the Midwest) that he wrote. He has also been featured on television and radio and has been published in over a dozen different journals and magazines, including Medical Herbalism, Journal of the American Herbalists Guild, Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation, Herb Quarterly, Natural Products Review, and Journal of the American Chiropractic Association. 

Matthew Alfs