PTSTea
An herbal education program that supports veterans struggling with PTSD,
post-traumatic stress disorder.
PTSTea blends herbs, mindfulness and group support to empower U.S. veterans with skills that can help them heal from trauma.
Curriculum
PTSTea’s 6-week curriculum is centered on blind tastings of herbs that reduce anxiety and promote relaxation. Blind herb tastings are a fun way for people who are new to herbs to learn about them. Each week, participants gather (online) to taste two herbs. Participants are invited to mindfully observe anything that arises, such as taste, smell, physical sensations, thoughts, emotions, pictures and memories, and then to share these observations with the group. Everything is welcomed, there is no right or wrong way to engage. Then, we unveil the name of the herb and we talk about its medicinal qualities, history of use, folklore and more. In particular we focus on the ways in which the herbs reduce anxiety and promote relaxation. In this way, participants can see how their individual and group experience weaves into the herb’s larger tradition and its phytochemistry.
The program culminates with each participant making their own unique PTSTea blend to share with the group.
Need
Many veterans struggle with PTSD. One of the hallmarks of PTSD is re-experiencing, often through unwanted memories, nightmares and flashbacks (APA, 2013). After a traumatic event, an individual's sense of terror and lack of control places them in a perpetually high state of alert, which is often expressed in hypervigilance, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and difficulty sleeping. In an attempt to cope, individuals avoid trauma-related thoughts, feelings and reminders, which leads to avoidance of internal sensations and social withdrawal. Re-experiencing thus swings individuals back and forth between states of overwhelm and numbness.
Why Herbs?
Our program is grounded in the idea that herbal medicine is a gentle, embodied therapy uniquely suited to promote balance in veterans’ experiencing. Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, writes: “If you have a comfortable connection with your inner sensations… you will feel in charge of your body, your feelings, and yourself” (2015). Several therapies have shown success in helping veterans safely re-engage their sensations, including breathwork, mindfulness, and gardening (van der Kolk, 2015; Wise, 2018). We believe that herbal medicine is another mind-body therapy that can be of great benefit to veterans, and one that is under-used. Herbs have subtle physical effects on the body, and in trauma work, this subtlety is an asset. Much like mindfulness and breathwork, tapping into gentle physical sensations can be a safe way for veterans to get back in touch with their bodies without losing contact with their emotions.
Background
PTSTea grows out of the Horticulture Therapy program at the Veteran Affairs (VA) center in White River Junction, Vermont, which Dana Ludmer launched during her Psychology doctoral residency. Edward Travis, VA chef and veteran, participated in the program, where he discovered his love of gardening and herbs. Then, a lightbulb went on for Eddie: what if veterans could learn to grow and make “PTSTea”, herb blends that could help them cope with anxiety? Stefania Patinella, who was honing a model for herbal education through blind tastings (which was the core of her Master’s thesis) was excited to join Dana and Eddie to make PTSTea a reality.
Our Team
Edward Travis, aka Chef Eddie, enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a cook on board a fast attack Los Angeles Class Nuclear Submarine. He served during the Cold War and Gulf War. He advanced to Third Class Petty Officer and Qualified in Submarines to wear the Dolphins Insignia in 1988. He was awarded Sailor of the Quarter for outstanding performance while serving as a Galley Watch Captain on board the U.S.S. Helena. Eddie is a 1994 graduate of New England Culinary Institute, and earned his bachelor’s through Keene State College and Southern New Hampshire University.
After returning to home port in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Petty Officer Travis entered the VA hospital to recover from PTSD and Alcoholism. One of the principles of the Alcohol Recovery Community is to Pass It On or Pay It Forward. The gift of Eddie's sobriety is to help others so he can stay sober himself.
Since 2001, Eddie has been a Chef in various healthcare setting, including nursing homes and hospitals. Since 2018, he has been Lead Cook at the VA Hospital in White River Junction, VT. This fulfilled a longtime goal of his to work alongside other Veterans who share his vision of healthy cooking and sober living. At the VA, Chef Eddie helped to implement "WRJ Gourmet,” a portable teaching, cooking, and fellowship program for veterans whose mission is Let Food be Thy Medicine.
Through the VA Horticulture program, Eddie was first introduced to gardening, and took to it right away. Since the pandemic, he has led "Operation Greenhouse,” recruiting interested workers from the kitchen to help plant gardens for harvest. During these stressful times, Operation Greenhouse was a game changer to boost morale and confidence at the VA. Eddie loves using the fresh vegetables and herbs from the VA’s horticulture therapy program within the WRJ Gourmet operation, and is working to expand the garden-to-plate program for the VA’s inpatient dining menu.
Eddie is very excited to launch PTSTea to support veterans who are struggling with PTSD with medicinal herbs. His first PTSTea recipe consists of Tulsi, Lemon Balm and Chamomile. He is ready to harvest and blend his first batch of this tea made by and for veterans, and looks forward to expanding the program with Dana and Stefania so more vets can benefit, as he has.
Edward Travis lives in Claremont, NH with his wife Suany and their two beautiful German Shepherd Dogs, Queen and Joe. He was so motivated by his time in the VA garden that he has even started his own raised garden beds at home. Amazingly, he has had a great harvest of vegetables and herbs, and is looking forward to sharing these in his community as a symbol of generosity in these difficult times. He is also trying his luck at composting! This is, he says, "all a gift of sobriety.”
Dana Ludmer is completing the last year of her Doctorate in Psychology (PsyD) at Antioch University, where her doctoral dissertation centers around the use of horticulture therapy to support mental health during the pandemic era.
Dana’s mental health experience includes providing outpatient and inpatient services to veterans with psychiatric diagnoses at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont. She has also worked at Antioch’s Psychological Services Center to provide the surrounding rural community with psychotherapy and neuropsychological assessment. In May 2020, Dana recieved the Graduate Psychology Education grant, a federal award given to doctoral psychology students working to integrate psychological services into primary health settings. Dana is originally from Katonah, NY, and completed her undergraduate studies at McGill University.
Dana is interested in the intersection between mental health, gardening and herbal medicine. During her time working at the VA, Dana identified the underused greenhouse as a potential healing space for veterans. She received VA funding to renovate the greenhouse, and launched a horticulture therapy program for veterans in the Recovery Center. Her program was “growth focused”, seeking to generate not only food, but also hope, community, and collective imagination. The program interweaves mindfulness and gardening, and produces organic produce for both the VA farmer’s market and inpatient food services. She is now thrilled to work with her colleagues Eddie and Stefania to expand that program, and launch PTSTea to support veterans struggling with trauma.
Dana was introduced to herbal medicine during her doula certification through Montreal Birth Companions. She received herbal certification through Farmacy Herb Shop in Rhode Island and was a 2015 intern at Herb Pharm in Oregon. She also spent the last five years living on a community farm in southern Vermont. She loves tending herb gardens, and restocking the kitchen shelves with homegrown tea.
Stefania Patinella is a clinical herbalist, chef, teacher and author. Through her integrative wellness coaching business, Seed to Table, she helps people use food and herbs to address chronic illnesses at the intersection of the gut, nervous system and immune system.
Stefania has studied clinical herbal medicine since 2015, through internships (at Herb Pharm and United Plant Savers), apprenticeships with clinical herbalists, and at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism. Her Master’s thesis, A Taste-Forward Approach to Nutrition and Health: How Plants Use Taste as a Mechanism of Chemical Communication, centered on a research project that used blind herb tastings as a path to mindfully connect to sensation and emotion.
Stefania has an M.A. in Health from Goddard College, and a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She has held multiple teaching positions, including at Columbia University, The New School and City University of New York. Stefania is also proud to have launched and led two successful non-profit food, nutrition and gardening programs, including at The Children’s Aid Society and Healing Kitchens Institute.
Stefania is very excited to turn her attention to her newest venture, PTSTea, in partnership with her friend Dana and fellow chef and inspiring veteran, Eddie. Learn more about Stefania here.