Forest Therapy Guide Training
California - Cohort 47
Enrollment Open
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.
In this training, you will learn:
- The Standard Sequence of Guided Forest Therapy Walks
- Professional standards and competencies: what a Forest Therapy Guide should know and be able to do
- The pedagogy and fundamentals of nature connection
- Nature and forest therapy research and effects on health care and well-being
- Our framework for the Way of the Guide, wisdom on the inner aspects of the art gained through decades of experience
- The leadership skills and style of the Guide archetype
- Creating space for others to find their own authentic nature connection
- Accelerating connection to deep mindfulness and bodyfulness through simple sensory invitations
- What makes a good setting for forest therapy
- How to facilitate restorative human connection through storytelling and witnessing
- Our theoretical framework of deep nature connection through embodiment, liminality, reciprocity and relationship
- Sequencing forest therapy invitations for maximum impact and benefit
- Expressive arts activities for forest therapy
- Somatic techniques for embodied awareness
- Our aim is simple: to train competent guides. However, many participants report that this training profoundly affects many aspects of their lives.
Community of the Great Commission is settled on a ridge between the forks of the American river. Offering breathtaking views of the Crystal Range mountains, CGC rests on 428 acres in the Sierra Nevada Foothills with towering pines, panoramic views all around, and wide, easy paths. The land at this venue is perfect for forest therapy and is a beautiful place to bathe in the autumnal light streaming between the branches, but is also a place of excitement, discovery, and fresh air.
Community of the Great Commission offers the Claar house, as well as camping. The Claar house boasts of beautiful natural light, a large meeting space, and a fireplace that keeps the house warm and cozy. Accommodations are humble but comfortable, and there will be a large kitchen for midnight snacks. Rooms in the Claar House will be shared, and vary from 2-4 people maximum.
Those who choose to camp will have access to the facilities at the Claar House, but will need to bring their own camping equipment.
The cost to stay 7 nights in the Claar House, with all meals paid, will be $800.
The cost to tent camp 7 nights on the property, with all meals paid, will be $425.
If you have been accepted and enrolled into our program, you can make your reservation and payment for your accommodations through admissions@natureandforesttherapy.org.
Meals will be catered, nourishing, and are included with the cost of accommodations. Community of the Great Commission is able to accommodate special dietary needs as long as they are given at least 30 days notice. All questions and dietary needs can be communicated to admissions@natureandforesttherapy.org directly.
There are also cooking facilities in the Claar House for those who would like to snack during the day or want to bring something special with them.
Community of the Great Commission is approximately an hour and twenty minutes from Sacramento International Airport. Reception isn't strong on the road to the retreat center (but the views are incredible), so we recommend writing or printing our directions beforehand if needed.
You can direct all of your questions, reservations, or tell us that you have a special diet to be accommodated at admissions@natureandforesttherapy.org.
Schedule for Live Events
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.
Apply NowTrainers
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
Ronna Schneberger has been a professional award winning naturalist, interpreter, and hiking guide in the Canadian Mountain Parks for 25 years. She is a yoga teacher of 20 years and in the last decade incorporated yoga, meditation, and coaching in nature. The results were profound. In her quest to understand why time in nature easily creates powerful experiences, she became a Forest Therapy Guide with the ANFT, one of the first in Canada. Ronna is a trainer and mentor for forest therapy guides. She is faculty with Leadership Development at the Banff Centre where she works with leaders, professionals and executives from all over the world using nature as the teacher to create powerful reflections and transformation. She is the Chair of the ANFT Canadian Council, along with her team; she looks forward to promoting Forest Therapy in Canada.
Caitlin C. Williams brings more than two decades of experience in nature mentoring, human development, wildlife tracking, wilderness survival, environmental science, and naturalist skills. She works in partnership with organizations offering deep nature experiences, skills for development of an ecological self and tools for ecological restoration. Caitlin is the Mentor Training Project Manager at Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and Adjunct Faculty at Weaving Earth: Center for Relational Education. She has been a mentor and guide with ANFT since the first training in 2014.
