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Eco-Spiritual Facilitation Training

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A five month training for people on a spiritual journey who feel called to guide others. You’ll grow your confidence as a facilitator while exploring your own spirituality and deepening your connection to earth. ​
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Facilitators: Irene Elle Bailey and Dr. Heather Burns

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5 month training November 2025- March 2026

Live, virtual & interactive-1 Saturday afternoon and 2 evenings a month 

In-person orientation retreat in November

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Open to all identities

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Forest bathing

 

You will leave this training with…  

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  • More capacity to trust yourself and live from your values so that you can guide from a more authentic and confident place
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  • Toolkit of earth-based practices and rituals that strengthen your connection to earth and spirit and support your personal journey 
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  • More confidence, clarity, and ease in yourself and in your  facilitation style so that you can design and guide meaningful workshops, retreats, and other sacred group experiences 
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  • A greater capacity for mindful awareness and loving presence, so that you can meet these times with greater stability and compassion
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  • New facilitation skills and resources that will support your eco-spiritual facilitation so that you feel effective and confident
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  • Supportive community of peers and mentors doing the work alongside you to enrich your journey going forward
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  • Eco-spiritual facilitation certificate to add your resume and website 
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In today’s world, where uncertainty and disconnection have become pervasive,  the need for wise and compassionate guides has never been greater. As individuals and communities grapple with unknowns, anxiety, and a sense of isolation, we can cultivate steadiness and resilience.  

 

Guides—whether we are coaches, healers, teachers, nature-based guides, spiritual leaders, or care givers—serve as beacons of wisdom who can support re-connection to ourselves, each other, and the larger web of Life. 

 

Facilitating sacred space is not the work of a few; it is an invitation for all of us. Through intentional eco-spiritual facilitation, we can create spaces where people feel seen, heard, and empowered to step into their own capacity for healing and belonging. 

 

Whether you are a long time facilitator or just beginning, you can gain confidence and learn new tools for holding space, fostering deep listening, and creating earth and spirit-based invitations that support healing.

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Are you ready to build the skills and confidence to hold space for healing and re-connection?

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You could stay on the sidelines, thinking you don’t have enough to offer, or not trusting that you have valuable gifts to share. You could continue to question whether you are worthy or really have the confidence to guide others. You could put off stepping fully into what is yours to do, thinking you don’t have the time or energy right now, that you’ll do it at some point, later. 

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Or you can listen to that whisper and tug inside you to step into a deeper connection to earth and spirit. You can learn new tools and develop the confidence and courage to effectively guide others sooner, rather than later. You can become a grounded and resourced facilitator through eco-spiritual practices and spiritual growth.

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In this training you will learn....

 

  • How to commit to personal practices that expand your connection to spirit and anchor you in trust

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  • How to weave contemplative practices, storytelling, ceremony, and micro-rituals into your facilitation style

 

  • How to use your intuition to respond to participants when facilitating, how to hold space for the emotional needs of a group, and to guide with a trauma-informed lens 

 

  • How to facilitate with spaciousness, wisdom, and presence, knowing how to accept paradox and non-closure, and how to guide with a light touch

 

  • How to create and offer meaningful invitations that are aligned with your unique facilitation style  

 

  • How to align your values with your practice as a facilitator, and how to build confidence and clarity in your work

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Core Tenets

 

These tenets are foundational to our work and will be integrated into our learning throughout the training.

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  1. Relationship & Interbeing: Our learning and lives are rooted in interconnected relationships. We can learn to trust that when our path is rooted in interbeing, we have access to intuition, earth wisdom, and deeper knowing. We are committed to creating inclusive relational spaces rooted in healing justice.

  2. Mindful & Compassionate Awareness: Our approach to our work and ourselves recognizes the need for our loving attention, presence, and compassion in a distracted and overwhelmed world. 

  3. Ecological Wisdom: We work in partnership with the earth and access wisdom directly from the natural world. Emergent ecological design, ritual, and seasonal connection are tools in this unfolding relationship.

  4. Transformative & Experiential Learning: The learning we guide is participatory, intuitive, emergent, and holds possibility for transformative change.  We use tools such as invitation, reflection, and embodied & sensory experience to enhance learning.

  5. Inherent Wholeness: We believe everyone is inherently whole and deserves to uncover and remember wholeness. We cultivate experiences that deepen relationships, honor grief, and invite joy, playfulness, curiosity, and creativity.​


 

This training is for you if you are longing to...

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  • Expand your capacity to trust yourself, allowing intuition and wisdom to guide you and your work

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  • Make a commitment to your personal well-being through eco-spiritual practices

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  • Hold sacred spaces for others, with skill and confidence

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  • Learn practical and proven methods for facilitating eco-spiritual learning

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  • Integrate more self-reflection and spiritual growth into your life

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  • Move beyond our dominant cultural norms, dismantle systems of oppression, and live and work with more ease, confidence, and creativity

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  • Be in a supportive community with others who are exploring their spiritual paths

"Thank you, A million times thank you, thank you. Each class was so personal for me but also just as special in the community building. I feel connected to the land, I feel connected to these people, and I feel connected to myself. Thank you for fostering so much growth."
-Skyler

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"Heather shows up so authentically and vulnerably to every class, it is infectious. Her teaching not only helps you see and understand the world better but helps you see and understand yourself better."
-Camilla

This training is rooted in recent research and wisdom from adult learning theories such as contemplative, experiential, and transformative learning, and is strongly informed by an understanding of Spiritual Ecology, New Science, Ecopsychology, Critical Theory, Relational Forest Therapy, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Ceremony, and Rites of Passage work. Additionally, our decades of practical experience as transformative educators and facilitators inform and guide this training.

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This facilitation training not only offers new concepts and relationships but models eco-spiritual facilitation, providing a clear experience of what it feels like and looks like to be an eco-spiritual facilitator. You will also receive a toolkit of practices and have opportunities to practice what you are learning. This training will be small enough to provide the space to build supportive relationships and deep connections within our learning community. 

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Gain clarity and confidence in your ability to hold space for others, knowing that you have the tools and skills to be an intuitive and impactful facilitator of shared sacred spaces.

“Thank you for creating this shared learning experience that touched me deeply and constantly transforms my understanding of life and what our relationship with this earth could look like."
-Noppawan

  • What is the 2025-2026 training schedule?
    3 night In-person Orientation Retreat: (Yachats, Oregon) November 7-10 We will be staying in ocean-side cottages and enjoying retreat time together at Temenos Forest Sanctuary, a private, beautiful, and sacred 5-acre forested property near Yachats. It is truly a spectacular place to explore, offering deep nourishment and calm. Monthly Learning Workshops: Explore foundational concepts and practices Saturdays, December-March (1:00-4:00 PST / 4:00-7:00 EST) 12/13, 1/10, 2/14, 3/14 Monthly Toolkit Sessions: Learn specific tools for eco-spiritual facilitation Wednesdays, November-March (5:00-7:00 PST / 8:00-10:00 EST) 11/19, 12/17, 1/21, 2/25 Monthly Practice Sessions: Practice what you are learning Wednesdays, November-March (5:00-6:00 PST / 8:00-9:00 EST) 12/3, 1/7, 2/4, 3/4 1-1 Coaching Sessions: Get individualized support for your journey You'll have the opportunity to meet with Heather or Irene for 1-1 coaching sessions in November or early December as you begin the training, and again in late February or March as we wrap up.
  • What do we mean by Eco-Spiritual?
    An approach to life rooted in relationships, interconnectedness, reverence, and wholeness. A deep awareness of ourselves as ecological and spiritual beings. A reverence for the magic and mystery of spiritual experience rooted in earth connection. A trust in process and unknowns, in the unfolding of life. Eco-Spirituality has been part of the human experience since the beginning of time. An Eco-Spiritual lens offers a healing response to the climate crisis and other challenges we currently face together.
  • What do we mean by Facilitator?
    A facilitator is someone who eases the way for others, who supports a growth or healing process. The word facilitate comes from the Latin facilis, for "easy." It means to make something easier or more likely to happen. A facilitator may serve in the role of guide, teacher, mentor, coach, healer, or anyone who creates and supports spaces of ease and possibility for others.
  • Who is the Eco-Spiritual Facilitation Training & Certification for?
    This training welcomes people from all spiritual backgrounds. You may attend virtually from anywhere. You will need to make arrangements to attend the in-person retreat. Specifically we invite: Mindfulness and Meditation Teachers Forest Therapy and other nature guides Life and Creative Coaches Yoga and Qigong teachers Somatic Practitioners Plant medicine guides Artists Energy Workers Herbalists Doulas Social justice & climate activists Conservation and restoration leaders Spiritual leaders Therapists Anyone that wants to bring an eco-spiritual approach to their facilitation work (in any organizational setting including government and corporate)
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This training is for you if you are...

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  • A values-based practitioner or guide who would like to feel more confident facilitating groups 

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  • Wanting to deepen your connection to yourself and the earth, and learn how to skillfully facilitate learning and healing in partnership with the earth

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  • Curious about  how to facilitate transformative adult learning that inspires meaning and invites change

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  • Needing the flexibility of virtual learning. You are able to commit to a relational learning process with fixed meeting times and an in-person orientation retreat

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  • Looking for ways to commit time and space to your personal learning and growth

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  • Wanting to connect with like-hearted others in a learning process that is emergent, supportive, and deeply relational

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  • A nature or forest therapy guide, an organizational facilitator, a garden-based or wilderness guide, an outdoor educator, a healer, a coach, a teacher, or someone on a spiritual path

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“One of the most nourishing, peaceful, reflective, and connected experiences I’ve had in years. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I am so thankful for the wisdom of the teachers, the opportunity to practice being vulnerable, to slow down, and to connect with the land.”
-Steph

 

Format and Timing:

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This 5 month training begins with a 3 night retreat Novermber 7-10 2025 (on the Oregon Coast) and culminates in March. Each month from November to March there will be 3 participatory virtual sessions; one 3 hour Saturday workshop session, one 2 hour Wednesday toolkit session, and one 1 hour Wednesday practice session per month (see below for specific dates). We expect people to participate as fully as possible and understand that you may need to miss a session. Due to the participatory nature of the sessions, we will record as much as possible.

 

Virtual sessions are designed to be participatory, meaningful, and relational. These sessions will include check-ins, contemplative practices, earth connection practices (on screen and with invitations to go off screen and come back), small group activities, reflective journaling, and more. Practice sessions will offer the opportunity to apply your learning and to practice facilitating short sessions for your peers.

 

Each month we focus on a specific theme with content that aligns with the season and guides us into deeper knowing and ability in our eco-spiritual facilitation practice. Every month you will receive new facilitation tools, resources, and reflective and contemplative practices to support your learning and add to your toolkit. 

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Themes:

Nov: Rooting in relationship and opening to trust 

Dec: Cultivating intuition & wisdom 

Jan: Discovering confidence & authenticity 

Feb: Holding spaciousness & invitation

March: Integrating imagination & reflection- moving forward with intention

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Irene has a great way of making a gathering feel warm, welcoming and easy. I feel connected to myself, to others, and to nature....the perfect reset and check-in with myself, to notice how I am feeling, and where my energies are being spent.”
-Amy

 

Meet your Facilitators:

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Dr. Heather Burns (she/her) has been a scholar and facilitator of eco-spiritual learning for over 20+ years as a university professor and through her business, Alderroot Healing & Renewal. She holds space for transformative healing and wholeness rooted in relationships and interbeing. She has extensive experience teaching others how to design and facilitate eco-spiritual and sustainability learning, and she is an experienced designer and facilitator of participatory, experiential, contemplative, and transformative learning experiences. Over the years, she has deepened her intuitive facilitation skills through guiding retreats, forest therapy experiences, courses in spirituality and deep ecology, and 1-1 coaching & mentorship. 

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Heather holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership in Sustainability, an MA in Women Studies and Adult Education, and a BA in Psychology. She was a tenured professor and the director of the Leadership for Sustainability Education graduate program for 15 years. She has published dozens of articles on transformative and eco-spiritual learning and is the author of the book Transformative Sustainability Pedagogy: Designing and Facilitating Eco-Spiritual Learning.

 

Heather is also a certified forest therapy guide with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy, a Reiki master, and a certified permaculture designer. Heather believes that we all need mindful support and inclusive spaces of gentle care and guidance as we struggle in these times of climate crisis and crumbling social systems. She knows healing is supported by remembering our connection to the living earth and by truly feeling our sense of belonging in this wise beautiful world. She supports finding renewal and joy in learning to listen to our bodies, and in direct re-connection to our spirits, the more than human world, and each other. 

 

Heather calls Portland, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest her home. She finds joy in her daily contemplative practices, tending her large polyculture garden, forest wandering, and ocean and river swimming. She is also an avid reader, writer, and creative designer of eco-spiritual experiences.

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Irene Elle Bailey (she/her) is a designer and facilitator of nature connection and mindfulness offerings that support the remembering that we are intimately and inseparably connected to all life. As a creator of spaces for cultivating trust, courage, intuition, and wisdom, Irene has supported hundreds on their path to living a more connected, authentic, and joyful life. Over the past 20 years, she has worked with numerous environmental and sustainability education programs. She is the founder and director of Temenos Rising where she shares retreats, workshops, forest bathing walks, and mentorship, all held in deep relationship with the natural world. 

 

Irene holds an MS in Leadership for Sustainability Education from Portland State University and is a certified Forest Therapy Guide with the Association for Nature and Forest Therapy. She has trained with the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies as a Buddhist Eco-Chaplain and continues to train in ceremony and rites of passage work with the School of Lost Borders. 

 

Irene believes wholeheartedly in the transformation and deep healing that is possible when we allow the more than human world to be a wise teacher and cultivate a felt sense of interbeing. Irene supports the creation of safer spaces in the natural world so that others can get the healing and nourishment they deserve to live well.

 

Irene calls the Oregon coast home where she enjoys hiking, hanging out with big trees, surfing, practicing meditation, foraging for mushrooms and seaweed, and taking romps with her partner and pup. She brings her whole self to this work for the benefit of all beings.

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Facilitating

Cost:

 

$3295- $4795 (Sliding Scale)

Payment plans available, please let us know if you'd like one.

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Included in this Training:

  • A 4 day/3 night in-person orientation retreat on the Oregon Coast

  • 4  guided Saturday workshop sessions (Virtual-1pm-4pm PST)

  • 4  guided Wednesday toolkit sessions (Virtual 5-7pm PST)

  • 4 guided Wednesday practice sessions (Virtual 5-6pm PST)

  • 2  individual coaching sessions (Virtual)

  • What’s App community for connection between session

  • Suggested monthly practices to guide your learning

  • A library of resources to support your learning including an ecological design workbook

 

Some of our past participants have used professional development funding from their employers for this training. We are happy to provide receipts to use for reimbursement. 

 
$500 deposit with registration

This deposit is applied towards the total cost.

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Payment, Refund & Cancellation Policy: ​ To honor the time and effort dedicated to this training, we’ve established the following cancellation policy. Full payment is due 60 days before the training start date or at the time of registration if the training will start in less than 60 days (unless you set up a payment plan). Cancellation received 60 or more days before training start date: Full refund minus $250 administrative fee. Cancellation received 59 days or less before training start date: We will not be able to offer any refund. * There are no refunds available once the training program starts. Payment Plans: We offer payment plans for no extra charge. You can choose a 3 month or 6 month payment plan. All payment plans must be completed by the end of the training.

 

Inclusivity:

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We ask that our participants be committed to the ongoing learning and awareness of how white supremacy negatively impacts all life, especially Black and Brown people. In an effort to support an inclusive space, we know this work, this dismantling of systemic oppression, is essential to sharing healing spaces and to supporting the collective liberation for all beings. 

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  • What is the 2025-2026 training schedule?
    3 night In-person Orientation Retreat: (Yachats, Oregon) November 7-10 We will be staying in ocean-side cottages and enjoying retreat time together at Temenos Forest Sanctuary, a private, beautiful, and sacred 5-acre forested property near Yachats. It is truly a spectacular place to explore, offering deep nourishment and calm. Monthly Learning Workshops: Explore foundational concepts and practices Saturdays, December-March (1:00-4:00 PST / 4:00-7:00 EST) 12/13, 1/10, 2/14, 3/14 Monthly Toolkit Sessions: Learn specific tools for eco-spiritual facilitation Wednesdays, November-March (5:00-7:00 PST / 8:00-10:00 EST) 11/19, 12/17, 1/21, 2/25 Monthly Practice Sessions: Practice what you are learning Wednesdays, November-March (5:00-6:00 PST / 8:00-9:00 EST) 12/3, 1/7, 2/4, 3/4 1-1 Coaching Sessions: Get individualized support for your journey You'll have the opportunity to meet with Heather or Irene for 1-1 coaching sessions in November or early December as you begin the training, and again in late February or March as we wrap up.
  • What do we mean by Eco-Spiritual?
    An approach to life rooted in relationships, interconnectedness, reverence, and wholeness. A deep awareness of ourselves as ecological and spiritual beings. A reverence for the magic and mystery of spiritual experience rooted in earth connection. A trust in process and unknowns, in the unfolding of life. Eco-Spirituality has been part of the human experience since the beginning of time. An Eco-Spiritual lens offers a healing response to the climate crisis and other challenges we currently face together.
  • What do we mean by Facilitator?
    A facilitator is someone who eases the way for others, who supports a growth or healing process. The word facilitate comes from the Latin facilis, for "easy." It means to make something easier or more likely to happen. A facilitator may serve in the role of guide, teacher, mentor, coach, healer, or anyone who creates and supports spaces of ease and possibility for others.
  • Who is the Eco-Spiritual Facilitation Training & Certification for?
    This training welcomes people from all spiritual backgrounds. You may attend virtually from anywhere. You will need to make arrangements to attend the in-person retreat. Specifically we invite: Mindfulness and Meditation Teachers Forest Therapy and other nature guides Life and Creative Coaches Yoga and Qigong teachers Somatic Practitioners Plant medicine guides Artists Energy Workers Herbalists Doulas Social justice & climate activists Conservation and restoration leaders Spiritual leaders Therapists Anyone that wants to bring an eco-spiritual approach to their facilitation work (in any organizational setting including government and corporate)
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“Call upon the help of those who love you. These helpers may take many forms: Animal, element, bird, angel, saint, stone, or ancestor…”
 
-Joy Harjo

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In-Person Retreat Details

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Dates: November 7-10, 2025

Location: Overleaf Cottages Yachats, Oregon 


Together we will gather for an in-person orientation retreat where we will build our supportive learning community and begin to explore how to become confident and impactful eco-spiritual facilitators. With deep time in the forest and by the ocean, this retreat will offer intentional space to nourish our eco-spiritual selves and our connections with each other so that we start this journey from a place of groundedness and inspiration. The retreat offers a sacred space to cultivate trust in ourselves and in this process while also inviting playfulness, wonder, and curiosity to be part of the journey. This orientation retreat will help us ground into our shared experience, while also offering specific skills that will contribute to our eco-spiritual toolkit including micro-rituals, trust practices, earth-connection invitations, and ceremony. 

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We will be staying in the charming Overleaf Cottages in Yachats. We will spend our days on the land nearby at Temenos Forest Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is a private, beautiful, and sacred 5-acre forested property located 1 mile from the cottages. It is truly a spectacular place to explore for a few days. The ocean is a 15 minute walk, mostly through the forest, and there are various creeks to enjoy on and around the property. This space offers itself for deep nourishment and calm. You will likely go home having the land and its inhabitants wedged deeply into your heart.

 

What is included:

  • 3 nights accommodation in an oceanside cottage where you can relax

  • Nourishing meals to support an easeful and rejuvenating experience

  • Opportunities for deep connection to self, community, & the natural world so that you return refreshed, inspired, and excited

  • Time and space to build relationships with others in this learning community so that you’ll feel supported and connected throughout the learning experience

  • Private forest location to explore and wander during the day to be immersed in nature and to learn in an experiential way

  • Sound & energy healing session to amplify your connection to spirit and earth 

  • Opportunity to observe and practice eco-spiritual facilitation so that you can begin to build your eco-spiritual toolkit

  • Overview of the training themes, schedules, expectations, and Q & A

 

What is not included:

  • Travel to and from the retreat (Central Oregon Coast)

  • One dinner at a restaurant in Yachats--all other meals included

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