Forest Therapy Guide Training
California - Cohort 31
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.
San Damiano is a center of respite not far from the noisy bustle of the city. As a Franciscan Retreat center, San Damiano has served as a place of introspection and connection for all who look for it, no matter people’s faiths or backgrounds. The retreat center has comfortable facilities, a multitude of quiet corners in which to find peace, and fountains spread all throughout its gardens. It sits on around 55 acres of land filled with oaks and bay trees. This venue is settled into hills and has slightly more elevation changes than some of our other destinations, but offers beautiful vistas of the surrounding area.
Things to Note: San Damiano is a place for people seeking a quiet environment. For this reason, cell phone use is only permitted in designated areas and all electronics must be used with headphones. No keys will be given out for bedrooms, but your rooms can be locked from the inside.
There are double rooms and a limited number of single rooms available. The rates are $924 for a double room and $1029 for a single room for the length of the training. These rates include meals, linens, and use of the grounds
If a participant wants to commute, the fees for the use of the grounds, meeting rooms, and lunch each day are $406 for the length of the training.
Meals are served buffet style. They are able to accommodate vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free diets if requested.
San Damiano is very accessible -- around a 40 minute drive from Oakland Airport, and less than an hour from San Francisco.
Lodging:
There are double rooms and a limited number of single rooms available. The rates are $924 for a double room and $1029 for a single room for the length of the training. These rates include meals, linens, and use of the grounds.
If someone wants to commute, the fees for the use of the grounds, meeting rooms, and lunch each day are $406 for the length of the training.
Meals:
Meals are served buffet style. They are able to accommodate vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free diets if requested.
Fitness Level Requirements:
Medium-high. San Damiano Retreat is a hilly venue. While some of the walks are more leisurely, it would be best to take into consideration that there are possible elevation changes on some of the trails. This venue asks that we remain on trail, so there is less danger of hazardous animals and plants.
Transportation:
San Damiano is very accessible -- around a 40 minute drive from Oakland Airport, and less than an hour from San Francisco.
Schedule for Live Events
San Damiano is a center of respite set apart from the noisy bustle of the city, but easily accessible from it. As a Franciscan Retreat center, San Damiano has served as a place of introspection and connection for all those seeking it, no matter people’s faiths or backgrounds. The retreat center has comfortable facilities, a multitude of quiet corners in which to find peace, and fountains spread all throughout its gardens. It sits on around 55 acres of land filled with oaks and bay trees. This venue is settled into hills and has slightly more elevation changes than some of our other destinations, but offers beautiful vistas of the surrounding area.
Things to Note: San Damiano is a place for people seeking a quiet environment. For this reason, cell phone use is only permitted in designated areas and all electronics must be used with headphones. No keys will be given out for bedrooms, but your rooms can be locked from the inside.
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
Carolynne Crawley is a Mi'kmaw woman with mixed ancestry from the EastCoast. She is dedicated to social and environmental justice and supportingIndigenous led community work related to food sovereignty and food security.She has worked with one of Canada’s largest food security organizations for thepast decade as the Indigenous Food Access Manager, increasing access to affordableand healthy foods, developing a cross cultural youth program focusing upon theIndigenous way of being in relationship with land, and organizing a provincewide Indigenous Food Sovereignty Gathering. She has also built school foodgardens, created and facilitated curriculum -linked food literacy programs forboth students and teachers. Carolynne is passionate about connecting peoplewith the land, themselves, and with each other. She leads workshops inrelationship building to develop and strengthen healthy, reciprocalrelationships based upon Indigenous teachings that decolonize existinginteractions with the land.
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.
