Forest Therapy Guide Training
California - Cohort 27
Registering for a training begins by completing an application which may take 20-30 minutes. This application is a way for us to get to know you and to determine if we think you will make a good forest therapy guide. Once your application is received, our admissions team will review it and, if you are accepted into the program, send an acceptance letter within three weeks. This letter will contain all the information for next steps, including a registration link to reserve your space in the training. To promote an optimal learning environment, we generally cap enrollment at 21 participants per training. Applications we receive after we have filled the training will be placed on a waitlist. If an accepted applicant drops out, we will contact the next applicant on the waitlist until the training is full again.
An amazing natural haven of 3,900 acres in Kenwood, California. Sugarloaf Ridge State Park is located northeast of Kenwood in the Mayacamas Mountains between the Sonoma and Napa valleys. A favorite park for families, Sugarloaf boasts a variety of activities with stunning vistas and amazing scenery. Key features of the park include:
Best views overlooking the North Bay with vistas to San Francisco, Napa Valley, Mt. St Helena and the Sierras on clear days!Year-round campground with 47 sites, each with a table and fire ring. Bathrooms have hot showers and separate group camping!Over 25 miles of hiking trails. From an easy 1-mile nature trail to a challenging 8.2-mile loop over Bald Mountain.Spectacular wildflower displays in the early to late spring and early summer.Robert Ferguson Observatory, which houses a 40″ telescope and offers public viewings throughout the year. It’s the largest observatory dedicated solely to public viewing and education.Great mountain biking and horseback riding accessible trails.Headwaters to Sonoma Creek, Sugarloaf boasts a 25-foot waterfall after the winter rains.Visitor Center with park historic information and a gift shop.Diverse beauty – Sugarloaf runs through gorge and canyon, across the meadow floor, beneath scenic rock outcroppings, and is surrounded at times by redwoods and ferns.Wildlife spotting – deer, gray foxes, the occasional bobcat and coyote can be seen in the park.
Accommodations: We’ll be tent camping within a campground with modern bathrooms and coin-operated showers. Participants are responsible for bringing their own camping gear. Contact us if you need information for nearby rental resources. If you have your own car, it is possible to stay off-site in hotels or bed and breakfast lodging in the towns of Kenwood, Sonoma, or Santa Rosa. We have reserved three campsites that our group will share, so ou do not need to contact Sugarloaf Ridge to make campground reservations. Sugarloaf Ridge State Park is a camping venue; campground and parking fees are not included in the registration fee. We will collect a fee of $90 from each participant who stays at the campground at the time of the training.
Schedule for Live Events
Join us on 3,900 acres of oak woodlands, Coastal Redwood groves, and more at one of the most beautiful parks in Northern California. Sugarloaf Ridge State Park is our home site for researching and leading Shinrin-Yoku and forest therapy walks We are intimately familiar with the landscape, the trails, and the bioregion. Participants will also experience Quarry Hill Botanical Gardens. Quarry Hill is one of the pre-eminent Asian botanical gardens globally, featuring one of the largest collections of documented, wild-collected Asian plants in the world. It is place of delightful discovery, with each bend in the trail bringing new surprises.
Tuition
Registering for a training begins by completing an application which may take 20-30 minutes. This application is a way for us to get to know you and to determine if we think you will make a good forest therapy guide. Once your application is received, our admissions team will review it and, if you are accepted into the program, send an acceptance letter within three weeks. This letter will contain all the information for next steps, including a registration link to reserve your space in the training. To promote an optimal learning environment, we generally cap enrollment at 21 participants per training. Applications we receive after we have filled the training will be placed on a waitlist. If an accepted applicant drops out, we will contact the next applicant on the waitlist until the training is full again.
Read MoreTrainers
Our trainers are among the most experienced guides in the world and each one undergoes a rigorous training process beyond their certification as guides. The trainers listed below are subject to change based on trainer availability. No matter which trainers you work with, you will be taught by the best in the field.
Entrenadores
Pamela is the creator of the Forest Bathing Podcast (coming in April 2020) and director of the 2019 Forest Bathing International Conference. She has been involved as an advisor with ANFT since its conception in 2011 and is a certified guide, practicum mentor and immersions facilitator.
Pamela has a background as a professional life coach and rite of passage mentor and has studied and worked for several decades in the field of human development. The journey of motherhood awakened in Pamela a passionate sense of caring for the thriving of life and with forest therapy she has found a practice which allows her to share this passion and to experience states of awe, wonder and love of life everywhere.
Ben ‘Crow’ Page is the Director of Training for the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy as well as a trainer of guides. He is the founder of Shinrin Yoku LA and has been guiding Forest Therapy walks since 2016. Since his practice began, Ben has been featured in such publications as Women’s Health, USA TODAY, Good Morning America, The Washington Post, and WebMD. Ben is also a co-founder of The Open School, Southern California’s only free democratic school. He holds a B.A. in religious studies from Carleton College and an M.A. in human development and social change from Pacific Oaks College. Ben’s primary interest is to live the question of what it feels like to be alive.
Amos Clifford is the founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs and author of the best selling Your Guide to Forest Bathing (Conari Press 2018). A student of Buddhist philosophy for over 20 years, Amos founded Sky Creek Dharma Center in Chico, California, where he emphasized the importance of meditation practice in wild places. Amos is also widely known for his work in restorative justice. He is founder of the Center for Restorative Process, where he has led the inquiry into how the principles of restorative justice can inform ways to heal the broken relationships between humans and the more-than-human world of nature. Amos holds a BS in Organization Development and an MA in Counseling from the University of San Francisco. Amos has been the primary developer of ANFT's acclaimed training programs.
