Forest Therapy Guide Training

Ottawa, Ontario - Cohort 36 (Full)

April 26, 2019
to
May 3, 2019

Fully Registered - Accepting Wait List 

Weeklong Intensive: Apr 26 - May 3 2019 | Practicum Ends: 17 November 2019
The world's most experienced forest therapy guide trainers invite you join a growing global movement and an activist community that is making a difference by rebuilding the relationships between people and all other beings.

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.

Who should attend

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.

Conveniently located just 45 minutes from Ottawa International Airport, Carp Ridge EcoWellness Centre exemplifies the vision of a forest wellness center. ​Directed by Dr. Katherine Willow, N.D.,the Centre is a hub for a vibrant community of health and wellness practitioners. In addition to our acclaimed Forest Therapy Guide Training Program, participants will have the option to book and participate in additional wellness services, such as massage, reiki, yoga, meditation, and more (note: these services available by private arrangement, not included in tuition or lodging).

Carp Ridge EcoWellness Center is set on 196 acres of land that includes forest, wetlands, the rocky Carp Ridge, a pond, and mowed lawns for leisure activities. Trails marked with blue and yellow triangles weave through the forest, offering you several kilometres of walks. Proximity of the woodland to the B&B means you can take regular dips into the natural world, which will suffuse you with the smells of earth, the sounds of birds and insects, and the serenity of this beautiful land. In the Spring, pick wild blueberries, catch frogs, or walk alongside the creek!

VENUE
Carp Ridge EcoWellness Centre
4596 Carp Road, Ottawa (Carp), K0A 1L0, Ontario, Canada
Ottawa (Carp), K0A 1L0
Canada
http://ecowellness.com
LODGING

Lodging:

There are a limited number of rooms, cabins, and tents available for rent. Camping is also available for those who bring their own equipment. All prices listed below are in CAD and include breakfast.

B&B shared rooms cost $120/day + tax

Strawbale cabins: $65/day + tax

Painted cabins: $65/day + tax

Prospector Tents: $85/day + tax (these include composting toilets)

Camping with your own gear: $45/day + tax. Staff at the centre will direct you to a spot.

The closest alternative accommodations are around 20 minutes away by car in Kanata.  ​Off-site participants are urged to adhere to the daily schedule, and to take special care to show up promptly in the morning 15 minutes before the scheduled start. Please let us know in advance if you will be staying off-site.

The B&B policies are available for review at https://ecowellness.com/accommodation-policies/

MEALS

Food:

Our meals are carefully designed to be utterly delicious and super healthy, with seasonal, local and organic ingredients, including delicacies wild-crafted from our woods and meadows.  Guests may choose from vegan and lacto-ovo vegetarian dishes for breakfast, adding in healthy meat, fish and poultry for optional lunches and dinners. We are well versed in accommodating food sensitivities, please see the registration form.

If you are coming for a healing stay, your diet will be therapeutically designed to meet your needs along with you or your referring health practitioner if you have one.

We have been feeding people healthy meals for years with delighted feedback. Repeated comments are that people didn’t know how wonderful food could be without animal products and how good it makes them feel.

Breakfasts are included in the overnight cost; lunches and dinners are available if ordered ahead.

We look forward to nourishing you — body, mind and soul!

View a sample Forest Retreat Menu

  

Breakfasts:

CREWC provides breakfast to those who are lodging with them.

Beverages: filtered well water; lemon water; an array of local, organic herbal teas (often foraged or grown on the property) as well as black and green tea; organic free-trade coffee (breakfast only); natural sweeteners (maple syrup, sucanat, honey, xylitol); dairy (raw, organic, grass-fed Jersey milk) and non-dairy milks; locally made kombucha; locally tapped maple sap

Whole grains: wheat and gluten-free breads; hot and cold cereals (oatmeal, rice cream, quinoa); home-baked muffins; buckwheat pancakes

Proteins: organic nut butters; baked beans; dried nuts and seeds; vegan and whey protein smoothies; local organic goat and cow cheeses; yogurt (dairy and non-dairy); local, organic eggs

Fats: coconut oil; organic butter; organic cream

Vegetables: grilled organic tomatoes; home-made tomato ketchup; home-grown sprouts; home-grown greens; fried potatoes; whole vegetable juices

Fruit: local, organic fruit in season; organic apple sauce; organic dried fruit; fruit salad; whole fruit smoothies

Other: dried seaweed; Herbamare salt; nutritional yeast; cumin; turmeric; cinnamon

 

Lunches:

Lunches are simple: hearty vegan soups for here or to go with sandwiches, raw veggies or salad, fruit and a small healthy sweet.  Beverages as above.

Lunch is available for $15.00/day + tax. All prices are in CAD. Both meals must be booked in advance so that the venue’s staff know how many meals to prepare.

 

Dinners:

Dinners are composed of similar ingredients with the addition of wild fish, organic poultry and grass-fed beef on occasion.

Dinner is available for $25.00/day + tax. All prices are in CAD. Both meals must be booked in advance so that the venue’s staff know how many meals to prepare.

If you have any questions about the food, please contact us.

CREWC uses mostly organic and local foods and enjoy picking vegetables from their garden in the summer months and wildcrafting in the forest.  They are able to accommodate a variety of diets, but must be told about any food allergies or preferences when people make reservations to ensure that they have adequate time to accommodate any changes.


TRANSPORTATION

Transportation:

Drive time from Ottawa to Carp Ridge EcoWellness Centre ranges from 30-45 minutes. Offsite lodging and commuting options available. 

GENERAL NOTES

Schedule for Live Events

Conveniently located just 45 minutes from Ottawa International Airport, Carp Ridge EcoWellness Centre exemplifies the vision of a forest wellness center. ​Directed by Dr. Katherine Willow, N.D.,the Centre is a hub for a vibrant community of health and wellness practitioners. In addition to our acclaimed Forest Therapy Guide Training Program, participants will have the option to book and participate in additional wellness services, such as massage, reiki, yoga, meditation, and more (note: these services available by private arrangement, not included in tuition or lodging).

Carp Ridge EcoWellness Center is set on 196 acres of land that includes forest, wetlands, the rocky Carp Ridge, a pond, and mowed lawns for leisure activities. Trails marked with blue and yellow triangles weave through the forest, offering you several kilometres of walks. Proximity of the woodland to the B&B means you can take regular dips into the natural world, which will suffuse you with the smells of earth, the sounds of birds and insects, and the serenity of this beautiful land. In the Spring, pick wild blueberries, catch frogs, or walk alongside the creek!

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 Now
Who should attend

Trainers

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.

Stana has been working for the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority (CRCA) for over twenty years as the Senior Conservation Educator.  Inspired by Earth Education, the Coyote’s Guide to Nature Connection and Forest schools, she aims to connect people with their head, heart and hands to nature. Through the CRCA, Stana brings Forest Therapy walk experiences to the community, private and public organizations and continues to pilot Forest Therapy to elementary and secondary school aged children and youth.  The CRCA was the first conservation authority in Ontario to offer Forest Therapy which is now rapidly spreading to other CAs. Stana received her BA from the University of Waterloo in 1998, in the Applied Studies Co-op program with Honours History. She earned her Bachelor of Education at Queen’s in 1999 from the Specialized Outdoor and Experiential Education Program. Her work related to Forest Therapy continues to open her heart and deepen her relationship with all beings.