Now Booking: Transformative Tools for Uncertainty Class Nov 13
Alderroot Healing & Renewal
Eco-Spiritual Facilitation Training
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A 4 Class Seasonal Learning Series for Facilitators and Leaders who care deeply about the people they serve and want to create spaces of belonging and wisdom in relationship with the natural world
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Become a steadier and more intuitive facilitator and leader. Move from second-guessing yourself to leading with confidence, trusting your own wisdom and practices, and skillfully creating meaningful experiences that connect people more deeply with the living Earth. Learn to confidently hold space for people to navigate uncertainty, grief, joy, transition, and the complexities of being human in a changing world.
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Facilitators: Irene Elle Bailey and Dr. Heather Burns
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A 4 class seasonal training series
Register for the classes that call to you depending on your interests and needs, or join us for all four classes to complete the full Eco-Spiritual Facilitation Training.
Online Together
(learn experientially and in community)
Open to all identities
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2027 Eco-spiritual Facilitation Training
A 4 class seasonal series
This training is crafted so that each class compliments the others, while also standing alone as a meaningful learning experience.
Winter: Essential Eco-spiritual Practices for Facilitation & Leadership
Spring: The Craft of Intuitive Leadership & Earth-based Facilitation
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Summer: Ecological Design for Facilitators & Leaders
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Fall: The Art of Facilitating Ceremony & Contemplative Eco-spiritual Practices
Winter
Essential Eco-spiritual Practices for Facilitation & Leadership
This class is an invitation to explore eco-spiritual facilitation and leadership through the essential practices of embodied presence, trusting yourSelf, and listening to the land. Together, we’ll explore what it means to cultivate the inner resources that allow us to guide others with presence and confidence, drawing on our soul’s wisdom, in partnership with the natural world. We’ll honor how Winter offers space for rest, reflection, and listening.
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We’ll turn toward these questions: How can eco-spiritual facilitation support my work as a leader or guide? What practices and commitments help us become trustworthy guides? How do we develop gentle rhythms and rituals that keep us rooted over time? How can I recognize and trust my own wisdom? And how can I collaborate with the living world to guide others?
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In this class we’ll work with specific practices including:
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Nervous system awareness and embodied presence: practicing regulation and presence in your body, listening to and trusting how your body responds when facilitating others, learning eco-somatic practices for grounding and calm
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Cultivating Self-leadership: learning how to cultivate an inner life led by your calm, compassionate, courageous, and wise Self; learning how to meet your parts who get scared or feel like imposters with understanding and compassion
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Micro-rituals for Self trust: developing simple earth-based micro-rituals that build confidence and steadiness
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Listening to the land: asking to partner with the land and trusting the wisdom that emerges through your intentional relationship with other earth beings.​
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Spring
The Craft of Intuitive Leadership & Earth-based Facilitation
This class is an invitation to explore wise leadership and caring facilitation as practices of guiding from clear intuition, seeking guidance from the land and ancestors, and holding space that invites authentic participation. Together, we’ll explore how to trust and clarify our intuition when facilitating, and to develop our capacity for receiving guidance from the more-than-human world and our ancestors. We’ll practice creating meaningful openings, closings, and invitations so that we can hold space that honors participants’ whole selves and relationships with one another and the living earth. We’ll honor how Spring offers space for creativity and wonder to emerge.
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We’ll turn toward the questions: How do I cultivate clear inner knowing so that I can lead and facilitate with more confidence? What practices help me receive guidance from the more-than-human world? What risks can I take in my facilitation that offer possibilities for profound shifts? How can I create openings, closings, and invitations that welcome authentic participation from others and reflect my unique facilitation style?
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In this class we’ll work with specific practices including:
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Cultivating intuition: practicing medicine walks to learn how to listen to our inner wisdom in partnership with the land, noticing how the season offers opportunities to partner with creativity and wonder
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Working with wise and well ancestors and earth guides: Identifying and exploring how these “friends” can be sources of wisdom and guidance
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Creating meaningful openings and closings: Understanding the importance of strong openings and closings and how to create them intuitively, in your unique style
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Language of invitation: Creating and sharing open ended prompts that are creatively appropriate for the situation and offer the greatest support in a specific setting
Summer
Ecological Design for Facilitators & Leaders
This class is an invitation to learn how to use an ecological design process to design or re-design an offering (class, retreat, workshop) rooted in eco-spiritual values and practice.
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Instead of immediately jumping into planning mode, we’ll step back and explore what it means to design from slow observation, a clear and creative vision, and partnership with the land. We’ll notice what emerges from this process and how it takes a new shape in the form of something we will offer and facilitate. We’ll honor how Summer offers space for creative and aligned action.
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We’ll turn toward the questions: How do we slow down enough to deeply observe what is needed and what is possible? How can imagination and clear vision play a role in creating something new? How can we partner with the emergent energy of Life to create a design we can trust? How can we design in ways that enhance relationships and well being?
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In this class we’ll work with specific practices including:
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Deep observation: observing what already exists, what is needed, what parts of you are showing up in this process, and your deepest intentions for the design
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Imagining and envisioning: Imagining what could be possible, envisioning what the offering will feel like for yourself and for those who participate, inviting your vision to be clear, playful, and bold
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Shaping what emerges: noticing what is emerging from our observations and visions and how we can confidently trust what is taking shape
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Creating patterns and practices: honoring interpersonal and interspecies relationships as central to eco-spiritual design, creating openings, closings, and other invitations and practices that support the design
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Inviting others in: sharing your design with others and inviting them to participate
Fall
The Art of Facilitating Ceremony & Contemplative Eco-spiritual Practices
This class is an invitation to explore how ceremony and other contemplative eco-spiritual practices can support open-hearted wellbeing, groundedness, and loving kindness amidst all the grief and uncertainty that is unfolding.
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Together, we’ll learn how to create and facilitate meaningful ceremonies for gatherings and how to integrate a variety of contemplative practices that feel most aligned with your style. We’ll turn towards what it means to let go of the need to control specific outcomes and how to hold the reins more loosely and confidently when facilitating. We’ll honor how Autumn offers space for reflective practice and the possibility of letting go.
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We’ll turn toward the questions: How do we create meaningful ceremonies that offer our participants a deeper sense of belonging to and gratitude for the living world? Which contemplative eco-spiritual practices can I authentically integrate into my work? How can we hold our facilitation practice more spaciously, but with intention and trust?
In this class we’ll work with specific practices including:
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Creating ceremony in partnership with the natural world: offering gratitude to the living world, honoring grief and possibility
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Contemplative eco-spiritual practices: exploring the tree of contemplative practices and learning about practices like meditation, visualization, journaling, reflection, song, storytelling, embodied movement, and loving kindness
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Holding space loosely: setting clear intentions for what we are facilitating, letting go of controlling specific outcomes, and responding intuitively to participants’ experiences
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This Eco-spiritual Facilitation Training is for...
Professionals and practitioners who are on a spiritual path and want to skillfully bring greater depth, presence, and earth-based wisdom to the spaces you hold.
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You may already have years of experience holding space for others. Or you may be growing into a new expression of your work. We will meet you where you are and support you as you grow your facilitation skills.
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This training may be for you if you notice some of these familiar struggles in your own facilitation:
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You want to be able to trust yourself, to listen, stay present, and respond to what is unfolding in a group–you don't want to be the one who has all the answers
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You often feel overly responsible for making sure everyone has a meaningful experience and you want to develop more trust that each person is receiving what they need
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You sometimes leave a gathering replaying a moment when you weren't sure what to say or do, and being hard on yourself for that
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You sometimes feel like an imposter, especially when you're leading people through spiritual or contemplative experiences that matter deeply
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You believe in our interconnection with the Earth, yet your workshops, classes, or leadership practices don't always reflect that relationship as fully as you'd like
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You feel the weight of the grief, conflict, and uncertainty unfolding in the world. You want to create spaces that help people meet these realities with presence, care, and courage
Imagine facilitating from a different place...
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Imagine preparing to lead a group and knowing that you have body & earth-based practices you can return to when you feel nervous or uncertain.
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Over time, your facilitation begins to feel less like performing the role of a spiritual guide and more like inhabiting your own way of leading and being.
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When a difficult moment arises during facilitation, you can pause, breathe, and listen with care instead of rushing to respond.
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When you create a workshop or retreat, you have a process for moving from your initial inspiration to a thoughtful design that reflects your values and the needs of your participants.
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You create meaningful openings, closings, rituals, and contemplative practices to draw on, while still leaving room for participants’ unique experiences to unfold.
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You can guide people through experiences of grief, reflection, wonder, and connection without needing to control the outcome.
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You have practices for helping people slow down and pay attention. You know how to invite observation, reflection, gratitude, and curiosity.
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Your relationship with the living world becomes part of your stability in facilitating. Through your own nature-connection practices you develop a relationship with the living world that becomes a meaningful source of inspiration and guidance.
"This training was insightful, empowering, and a real confidence boost. I'm very excited to take what I have learned, to broaden and grow my own personal practice as well as my facilitation practice."
-2025 participant
How we learn facilitation together:
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As a participant in this training, we'll invite you into a welcoming and gentle small-group learning circle and we'll meet you just where you are.
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This training models eco-spiritual facilitation, providing a clear experience of what it feels like and looks like to be an eco-spiritual facilitator. This training will be small enough to provide the space to build supportive relationships and deep connections within our learning circle.
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We facilitate engaging virtual learning circles that are:
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Participatory~ We all have lived-experience to share and we invite your insights and wisdom
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Experiential~We learn best by practicing and trying new things
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Relational~ We learn better when we know and care about each other
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Reflective~We offer guidance and space for reflecting deeply on what we are learning
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Place-based~ We offer practices so that you can connect with the land where you live, cultivating a personal connection with the earth
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Practice oriented~We invite you to practice eco-spiritual facilitation in your community and to bring your reflections and questions back to the learning group
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Invitational~We offer invitations to develop regular personal eco-spiritual practices at home that will ground you in earth-partnership and support your confidence
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In this training you will learn a variety of
eco-spiritual tools including:
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How to cultivate and commit to eco-spiritual practices that expand your connection to spirit and anchor you in earth-trust
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How to weave tools like contemplative practices, storytelling, ceremony, and micro-rituals into your facilitation
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How to use your intuition to respond to participants when facilitating, how to hold space for the emotional needs of a group, and how to guide with a trauma-informed lens (welcome, safety, choice, connection)
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How to facilitate with spaciousness, wisdom, and presence, knowing how to accept paradox and non-closure, and how to guide with a light touch
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How to create meaningful openings, closings, and invitations that are aligned with who you are and your unique facilitation style
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How to cultivate confidence in yourself as a facilitator so that you can design and guide meaningful workshops, retreats, and other sacred group experiences
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How to work with anxious or imposter parts of yourself and how to deepen internal Self leadership (calm, confidence, courage, compassion)
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How to spend intentional time on the land listening. This may take the form of a medicine walk or simple rituals
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How to cultivate embodied presence and nervous system regulation
"Through everyday rituals, interconnected presence, and surrendering to the art of slowing down, I have been able to be more present in my professional and personal life. I have learned simple, tangible skills with big returns - such as learning to listen when asking the land (and ourselves) for guidance."
-2025 Participant
Core Tenets
These tenets are foundational to our work and will be integrated into our learning throughout the training.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.​
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The lineage of this training is rooted in research and wisdom from adult learning theories such as contemplative, experiential, and transformative learning. It is strongly informed by an understanding of Spiritual Ecology, New Science, Indigenous Education, 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.
What's in the eco-spiritual toolkit? (specific tools you'll learn for eco-spiritual facilitation)
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Micro rituals
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Facilitation structure: Openings (helping people feel welcome, grounded and present) and Closings (making meaning together)
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Storytelling & deep listening
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Ceremony
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Contemplative practices
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Medicine walks & how to listen to the land for guidance and wisdom
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The language of invitation & how to create invitations
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Intuitive responses and holding spaciousness while facilitating​
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Nervous system regulation
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Ecological design process for designing successful gatherings
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"This Eco-Spiritual Facilitation Training opens a foundation of skills for those who are passionate about creating inclusive spaces that forge greater trust in ourselves and are led by the guiding wisdom of Nature. The skills learned can and will apply to your personal lives as well, instilling you with a priceless toolkit of learnings that will forge a greater relationship with the land, presence in your relationships, and intimate depth to your
life experience."
-2025 Participant
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What do we mean by eco-spiritual facilitator?
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​A facilitator is someone who eases the way for others, who supports a growth or learning process. The word facilitate comes from the Latin facilis, for "easy." It means to make something easier or more likely to happen.
An eco-spiritual approach to facilitation is 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 Facilitation lens offers a healing response to the climate crisis and other challenges we currently face together.
“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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Winter, spring, and fall classes include 5 sessions for learning key concepts and skills (on Zoom). There will also be 1 Saturday land-based practice session per class (meeting on screen with invitations to go outside/off screen and come back later to share). The summer class is an intensive format that takes place over one weekend.
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Register for the classes that call to you depending on your interests and needs, or join us for all four classes to complete the full Eco-Spiritual Facilitation Training.
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Winter Class: Essential Eco-spiritual Practices for Facilitation & Leadership
Wednesdays 4:30-6:00pm(PST)
Jan 20, Feb 3 & 17, March 3 & 17 + on the land Saturday March 6, 10:00-12:00 (PST). Recorded in case you can't make it to all sessions.
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Spring Class: The Craft of Intuitive Leadership & Earth-based Facilitation
Wednesdays 4:30-6:00pm(PST)
April 14 & 28, May 12 & 26, June 2 + on the land Saturday May 15, 10:00-12:00 (PST).
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Summer Class: Ecological Design for Facilitators & Leaders
Friday & Saturday July 16-17
Friday July 16 4:30-6:00pm (PST) + Saturday July 17 9:00am-4:00pm (PST) with breaks
Includes one hour of 1-1 design coaching after the class
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Fall Class: The Art of Facilitating Ceremony & Contemplative Eco-spiritual Practices
Wednesdays 4:30-6:00pm(PST)
Sept 22, Oct 6 & Oct 20, Nov 3 & Nov 17 + on the land Saturday Oct 9, 10:00-12:00 (PST).
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We invite you to participate as fully as possible and also understand that you may need to miss some sessions. We will record all group sessions and share the recordings.
Our virtual learning circles are designed to be participatory, meaningful, and relational. These sessions will include check-ins, contemplative practices, earth connection practices, small group activities, somatic practices, reflective journaling, discussion, and more.
"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
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.
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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.
Cost:
$397 per class
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or 3 classes for $1,070 (save $121)
or take the full 4-class training series for $1,297 (save $291)
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Included for winter, spring, and fall classes:
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5 learning sessions (90 mins, virtual) Recorded
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1 guided Saturday eco-spiritual practice session (Virtual+outside) Recorded
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Eco-spiritual practice recommendations to guide your learning between sessions
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Practice guidebook for eco-spiritual facilitation
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Included for Summer Class:
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Weekend intensive learning session (with outside practice) Friday evening & Saturday
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Ecological Design Workbook (written by Dr. Burns)
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1 hour personalized 1-1 coaching session to work on your design after the class
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.
Please reach out for a payment plan option. We offer payment plans for no extra charge.
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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. Cancellation received 30 or more days before training start date: Full refund minus $50 administrative fee. Cancellation received 30 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.
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.
FAQs
