What you will be able to do

What this course guides you to be able to do confidently

  • Hold space for every voice in the circle, including the ones that pass

  • Use silence, body language, and your own energetic presence as part of how you hold

  • Meet grief in circle, and release it rather than carry it home

  • Know what to do when someone talks too much — or when no one talks at all

Price

Secure checkout. Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal accepted, in USD. Wilderness First Aid certification is arranged and paid separately.

Instructor

Mentor, Trainer

Nadine Mazzola

Nadine Mazzola (she/her) is a senior ANFT trainer, certified forest therapy guide, and founder of New England Nature and Forest Therapy Consulting. Trained with ANFT in 2015, she became a guide following her 2013 breast cancer diagnosis, a turning point shaping her teaching and mentoring ever since. Her work integrates forest therapy, expressive arts, somatics, and embodied leadership. She authored the award-winning "Forest Bathing with Your Dog" and brings lived experience to work with cancer-affected populations across wellness, education, and healthcare settings. Featured on PBS, ABC's Chronicle, and in the Boston Globe, Nadine stays grounded in current research while teaching. A former professional billiards player on the WBBA tour, she brings discipline, strategy, and heart to training the next generation of guides.
  • Collage of three photos of people in nature, in circle

What to Expect

What taking this course will actually be like

  • Three Modules, 1 Hour 9 Minutes

    Short video lessons across three modules, taken at whatever pace suits you.

  • The Subtle Craft, Not the Format

    Most training teaches the shape of circle. This course attends to what happens inside it, the pause before you speak, where your hands are, whether to say thank you, how a group settles or doesn't.

  • Return to It Before a Walk

    Come back to a module when you know a particular group will ask something particular of you.

Course Curriculum

What you will learn as you move through the course

Module 1 — Weaving the Container of Your Circle: Logistics and Hospitality (25 min)

You'll start with what holds a circle before anyone speaks: the logistics and the hospitality you offer. Covers where the introduction circle sits in the arc of the walk, leaning into silence while you wait for people to share, different ways of sharing and passing, and the pitfalls of saying thank you after someone shares — plus what Nadine has learned from her own mistakes.

Module 2 — Dealing with Grief (19 min)

Grief arrives in circles, and this module is about meeting it. You'll learn to allow grief and find ease while witnessing it, think through whether to acknowledge someone who shares it, and work with the stance that "it's all welcome here." Includes releasing the grief you witness rather than carrying it, and making space in your own life for grief as the way you build this capacity.

Module 3 — Body Language and Nonverbal Communication (24 min)

You'll learn how your body participates in holding a circle, and what to do in the moments guides find hardest: when someone passes and doesn't share, when a participant talks too much, when the group as a whole shares very little, and how much a guide should share. Includes turning up your energetic presence and turning down gutturals.


Total video runtime: approximately 1 hour 9 minutes.

What participants are saying

Very Helpful

Laura

This was very helpful to watch you and your demeanor, your calm, your body language reminders, and also points about talking too much, etc. Thanks!

FAQ

  • Do I have to be a Forest Therapy guide to take this course?

    The course is designed for Forest Therapy and Forest Bathing guides who want to cultivate their facilitation of circle. There is no certification requirement to enroll.

  • I already facilitate circle regularly. Is there anything here for me?

    This course is aimed at exactly that. It assumes you know the form and goes after the subtleties — the silence, the nonverbal, the moments that don't go to plan. If you've ever had a circle where one person filled the whole space, or where nobody spoke, that's what Module 3 is about.

  • Does the course cover difficult moments, or only grief?

    Both. Module 2 is devoted to grief. Module 3 covers the practical difficulties — a participant who talks too much, someone who passes, a group that shares very little, and how much of yourself to put into the circle.

  • Does this course address trauma?

    Module 7 includes two conversations with practitioners on grief, trauma, and other specialized areas. The course as a whole takes a broader view of somatics — as a way of knowing ourselves and being in our full aliveness — rather than treating it primarily as trauma work. It is not a trauma treatment qualification.