Forest Therapy Guide Training
Colorado - Cohort 46
Fully Registered - Accepting Wait List
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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.
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Shadowcliff is a down to earth, non-profit mountain sanctuary and retreat center that fosters connection not only between different people, but allows people to connect with both themselves and the environment as well. Described as being reminiscent of a comfortable, grown up summer camp, Shadowcliff offers incredible views of the surrounding mountains and Grand Lake, which is less than a ten minute walk away. This retreat center offers trainees a chance to explore the nearby lake, streams, and multitude of trails that wind up into Rocky Mountain National Park with the knowledge that they have a comfortable, joy-filled, and warm lodge to return to. The land surrounding Shadowcliff is described as majestic and awe-inspiring, and with the fall colors of September, should be a wonderful location for forest therapy.--
Participants will be staying in the lodges at Shadowcliff, which offer triple, double, and single rooms. There are a limited number of single rooms dependent on the number of participants, and so will not be available until a closer date to the training.
Prices are as follows, and include meals:
$75 for a shared triple room
$90 for a shared double room
$120 for a private single room
Rooms at Shadowcliff are rustic, but comfortable. Both the Cliffside Lodge and Rempel Lodge offer lounges and fireplaces, as well as spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. The Rempel Lodge, where the majority of people will be staying, is a chalet-style alpine lodge that sits between the mountains and lake, and right above the North Inlet Stream, which murmurs throughout the day, and also offers a library for downtime. Most rooms have a queen sized bed and then one or two bunk beds. Rooms will be allocated so that no one will be sleeping on the top bunk of any bed.
There are also cabins available, which cost $120 a night and do not include meals. It’s possible that, if you arrange it with other participants directly, these cabins could be shared.
Linens and towels will be provided at no additional cost. There is wi-fi on site, as well as games, fireplaces, and firepits available.
Food prices are built into the prices of accommodations, listed above. There are also fully equipped kitchens available to the participants in both of the lodges. Shadowcliff will also provide tea and coffee at no extra charge.
Meals are mostly vegetarian, but meat will be served every other day or so. Additional meat dishes can be bought at an extra charge. Shadowcliff tries to source seasonal, local, organic food when possible. They will typically require two volunteers to help clean up per meal. Extra hot breakfasts cost $5 per person, per meal. Extra meat to meals costs $5 per person, per meal.
For day use guests, daily meal passes cost $40.
All dietary restrictions and activity requests must be made 14 days before the event start date. Shadowcliff will try to accommodate any late requests, but cannot guarantee that they will be able to.
Denver is a 2.5-3 hour drive away and Boulder is a 2.5 hour drive away. There are shuttles available that go to Grand Lake, CO, which is a 3-minute drive from the lodge, as well as Greyhounds that stop at a city around 20 minutes away. There are taxi services available in Grand Lake as well.
Lodging:
ANFT is handling reservations. Please contact admissions@natureandforesttherapy.org for your reservation.
Participants will be staying in the lodges at Shadowcliff, which offer triple, double, and single rooms. There are a limited number of single rooms dependent on the number of participants, and so will not be available until a closer date to the training.
Prices are as follows, and include meals:
$75 for a shared triple room
$90 for a shared double room
$120 for a private single room
Rooms at Shadowcliff are rustic, but comfortable. Both the Cliffside Lodge and Rempel Lodge offer lounges and fireplaces, as well as spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. The Rempel Lodge, where the majority of people will be staying, is a chalet-style alpine lodge that sits between the mountains and lake, and right above the North Inlet Stream, which murmurs throughout the day, and also offers a library for downtime. Most rooms have a queen sized bed and then one or two bunk beds. Rooms will be allocated so that no one will be sleeping on the top bunk of any bed.
There are also cabins available, which cost $120 a night and do not include meals. It’s possible that, if you arrange it with other participants directly, these cabins could be shared.
Linens and towels will be provided at no additional cost. There is wi-fi on site, as well as games, fireplaces, and firepits available.
Meals:
Food prices are built into the prices of accommodations, listed above. There are also fully equipped kitchens available to the participants in both of the lodges. Shadowcliff will also provide tea and coffee at no extra charge.
Meals are mostly vegetarian, but meat will be served every other day or so. Additional meat dishes can be bought at an extra charge. Shadowcliff tries to source seasonal, local, organic food when possible. They will typically require two volunteers to help clean up per meal. Extra hot breakfasts cost $5 per person, per meal. Extra meat to meals costs $5 per person, per meal.
For day use guests, daily meal passes cost $40.
All dietary restrictions and activity requests must be made 14 days before the event start date. Shadowcliff will try to accommodate any late requests, but cannot guarantee that they will be able to.
Transportation:
Denver is a 2.5-3 hour drive away and Boulder is a 2.5 hour drive away. There are shuttles available that go to Grand Lake, CO, which is a 3-minute drive from the lodge, as well as Greyhounds that stop at a city around 20 minutes away. There are taxi services available in Grand Lake as well.
Fitness Requirements:
This training is taking place at a high altitude (around 8400 ft), which people should take into consideration not only when they book this training, but in their travel arrangements as well. Participants should be able to comfortably go up stairs and be aware that there may be elevation changes in the nearby trails.
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
Jackie is a trainer and business consultant with the Association of Nature and ForestTherapy Guides and Programs. She’s a certified forest therapy guide trained in 2017 at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, and has been guiding regularly in her community ever since. She’s one of the first guides to pioneer guiding walks remotely via Zoom when the pandemic made guiding in-person unsafe for many months in 2020. Born and raised in China, Jackie came to the United States in 1990 to pursue her PhD in American Literature. She has had a diverse background in various fields such as teaching, translating, marketing, and practicing as a Certified Public Accountant. One of her greatest joys in guiding is witnessing the positive impact on participants’ well-being, including that of her own autistic son.
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.
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.
