Immersion
Way of the Guide | California
Event Full - Registration Closed
The Council of Waters and Trees is a Forest Therapy Immersion that incorporates Restorative Practices to heal our relationships with nature. In this four-day program, we enter the liminal space of renewed possibility for deepening our connection with the more-than-human world through Forest Therapy and The Way of Council.
This workshop will be guided by FTI founder M. Amos Clifford. It weaves together the strands of Forest Therapy, Restorative Dialogue, and Council into a powerful practice for deepening connection to nature, others, and self.
Besides being an immersion in forest therapy experience, this event includes an in-depth exploration of the Guide archetype. To be a guide is to embody unique ways of working in partnership with the-more-than-human world. The Guide archetype, which has always been present in human society, is now powerfully emerging in these times. Learn why this is so, and why Guides have an essential role in supporting healing processes. We will demonstrate and discuss how guides facilitate liminal journeys in which humans encounter mirrors of their souls, and deepen their memory of relatedness to all beings. The guide archetype does not work alone, but requires partnerships with other human archetypes such as mentor, healer, and teacher; as well as with process archetypes such as the Journey, and archetypes of place. In this immersion, we will define some of the key differences that distinguish these archetypes. With this understanding, our work as guides becomes more focused, clear, and powerful.
Tuition
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RegisterDancing Deer
Dancing Deer is a stunning property of 40 acres, surrounded by a further 40 acres of land filled with oaks, hills, and meandering paths. There are two large houses where participants stay. Each is a spacious hilltop home with plenty of room to relax and unwind after a day of training. The nearby meadows and woodlands serve as a home to wildlife and invite people to wander through the quiet of the property. There is a medicine wheel mandala on the top of the small hill in the main meadow. The Salinas River in nearby Paso Robles is a destination for some of the training days; the water in the river varies greatly according to the season, and by late fall it may be reduced to a small creek. Regardless of flow, the river hosts much wildlife. Of all the training venues used by ANFT, Dancing Deer is one of the most ideal for observing birds. Caution: there is poison oak in almost all of the oak woodlands in this region. Because of this forest therapy experiences tend to take place along the ecologically rich margins of the woodlands, where they meet the meadows.
Shared rooms are $65/night per person. The total five night cost is $325. Shared rooms may have 2, 3, or 4 beds.
Private rooms are $90/night per person. The total five night cost is $450. We have reserved four rooms as private rooms.
There are common spaces and outdoor spaces for gathering or solitude during downtime.
We will prepare our own meals. It will be up to the group to decide if meals will be prepared individually, in small groups (for example, vegans banding together), or as a whole group. There is plenty of space for participants to cook. Kitchens have large refrigerators, expansive counter tops, a commercial stove, and a BBQ outside.
Trader Joe’s grocery store is a 6-minute drive away. We encourage communal cooking and the sharing of meals, but do not arrange for this.
Approximate Drive Times from airports:
San Luis Obispo (SBP): 35 minutes
Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT): 2.5 hours
San Jose International Airport (SYC): 3 hours
San Francisco (SFO) or Oakland (OAK): 3.5 hours
Los Angeles (LAX): 4 Hours
Trainers
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.
Christy trained with Cohort 6 in 2016 in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. She is a facilitator of ANFT immersions, trainer and mentor. She was born and raised in the farmlands of Indiana, where she now resides with her 4 children and husband. She is a violinist, vocalist and teacher by training and vocation. She administers a music school in her small town through the local YMCA. Christy lives amongst the fields of corn, wheat, soybeans and wooded lots on a small hobby farm where she has planted vegetable gardens, berries, fruit trees, and the many memories of her children’s lives. Her work with ANFT has been life-changing and the source of so much of her energy and vitality. She is currently finishing a degree in Environmental Science and Religious Studies, which is in part the result of her training and also a source for even more love and connection to her forest therapy practice.
