Embodying the Way of the Guide - Cohort 5

4th September - 13th November, 2024 (Wednesdays, 8am PST)

Who is this Course For?

This course is open to any Forest Therapy Guide that wants to explore embodiment and movement as a resource for presence and authenticity and how to bring these tools effectively to our guiding practice. It is a journey to an embodied understanding and exploration of The Way of the Guide.

Forest Therapy Guides in Training: that are wanting to develop an embodiment practice in support of their learning journey to become Forest Therapy guides. This course will provide tools and resources to navigate the Forest Therapy Guide Training with presence and embodied resilience as well as a somatic understanding and practice of The Way of the Guide.

Certified Forest Therapy Guides: seeking to deepen their embodiment practice as part of their professional development as Forest Therapy Guide. Learn and experience new embodiment tools and embodied resources that will support presence and awareness for guiding and for life and a deepening into the Way of the Guide.

Trainers, Apprentice Trainers and Mentors of Guides: that are wanting to deepen their own journey with embodiment and explore embodied resources and tools to support their work as facilitators and their own guiding practice.

Explore and Discover Embodied Resources to Support your work as a Guide: (Video) 

 


What is Included in this Live Experiential 11-week Course:

  • Weekly Live Zoom Sessions: We will have a weekly 1.5 hour live session where we will meet as a cohort and explore embodiment practices together, have an opportunity to share about our home embodiment practices and learn from each other.

  • Video Guided Embodiment Explorations: Each module includes an introductory video to the course and a series of guided movement exploration videos that will support your own movement practice and deepening exploration with embodiment.

  • Audio Guided Invitations: Each module offers audio invitations to bring the embodiment explorations outside into the More than Human World to support integration of the embodiment practices within the context of Forest Therapy.

  • Home Explorations: A series of invitations and explorations to support your home practice of the embodied resources discovered in the experiential lesson.

  • Theoretical Framework Modules: Each module includes a written chapter that supports the cognitive learning and understanding of the content offered in the experiential lessons.



What You Will Learn:

This course is an experiential journey to discover and practice embodied resources for presence and awareness and fully embodying the Way of the Guide.

  • Movement practices and explorations offering a non-cognitive experience of the body and the present moment.
  • Embodying the Way of the Guide
  • Embodied communication.
  • Three fundamental orientations for presence: Earth, Space, and Breath
  • How different anatomical body systems offer different qualities and resources for each element of the Standard Sequence and for Life.
  • Embodied and authentic creation of a field of presence that supports your guiding practice.


This 11-week Course Covers:

  1. Introduction to the Course
  2. Establishing Nowness
  3. Breath of Life and Reciprocity
  4. Embodying Way of the Guide
  5. Alignment and Clarity and the Introduction to a Forest Therapy Walk
  6. Sensory Perception of the World and POP
  7. Yielding and WIM
  8. Embodied Play and Resources for Vitality and Partnership Invitations
  9. Embodied Listening and the Art of Witnessing
  10. Tone and Fluidity - Edges and Headroom
  11. Authentic Embodied Communication
  12. Integration and Tea


About Embodiment and Forest Therapy

 

Our bodies are present from the moment we draw our first breath to the moment we draw the last one. As we develop and grow from babies into adults we become conditioned and progressively lose our embodied sense of presence and beingness. We learn how to interpret ourselves and the body through the lens of our cognitive and rational minds moving away from the language of the body that is simply the non-cognitive language of movement. 

 

The Forest exists in the present moment. One of the crucial aspects of being a guide is to attune to this frequency of the forest, in each moment, so as to be able to “open the doors” for the forest to be able to be seen and experienced by participants in this present moment. Another important aspect of our work as guides is to understand and practice Way of the Guide. By becoming more aware of our bodies and how to consciously develop resources for presence and witnessing, we are able to have more clarity on what it is that we need to be aware of to remain in Way of the Guide.

 

In this 11-module course, we will go on an experiential journey of embodiment and movement exploring different body systems and the resources they offer for our journey in life and as Forest Therapy Guides. Each module of the course relates to the Standard Sequence and to different key elements of being a guide like Way of the Guide, Language of Invitation, Deep Listening and Edges and Headroom.


FAQ

  • How much time should I expect to put in to this experience?

    The embodiment journey is unique and unfolding and will be different for everyone. The more time and space you dedicate to your embodiment practice, the more you build vocabulary and resilience in the somatic language and expression of your body. The course is cohort based with a weekly 1.5 hour live session for group practice and witnessing, sharing and questions.

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

    Yes. Certified Guide or in Training. This course is designed around the ANFT Standard Sequence of a Forest Therapy Walk.

  • Do I have to attend all the calls?

    You do not have to attend all the live sessions. They are intended to build community around embodiment for forest therapy guides and they are a space for sharing and witnessing.

  • What do I need to participate in the live calls

    All the live sessions will be guided movement explorations. We strongly recommend that you create a space at home that is comfortable for you to move freely around the space and on the floor. You might consider the following: - Create a comfortable space where you can move freely around the room and on the floor. - Having a yoga mat, blankets and pillows and any other props you need for comfort. - Drawing materials that include A3 blank drawing paper and any colouring materials that you lie to work with like crayons, pencils and colouring markers. - A journal - Water bottle and any other drinks like warm tea. - Speaker or sound system to connect to your computer or digital device through which you will connect to the live session

What Guides are Saying about this Course

Elisabeth Wahlgren

It will deepen your understanding of what the "bodyfulness" experience of FT is and what it feels like. You will get a lot more headroom around this. You will have fun and have heartwarming connection with other FT guides. Your body will love it, and you might even love your body more.

Ken Macleod

If you wish to enrich and deepen your personal experience of forest therapy enabling you to be more fully present for the guiding of others, to understand more of the science and anatomy of the body, it's woven relationship with the MTHW, this is the course to take. It's personal enrichment for you will radiate to others.

Nadine Mazzola

This is a great course/workshop to connect with, deepen in, and build headroom in being authentically embodied while guiding. The methods also support ways to connect with ourselves when we meet challenging situations or we encounter our own nerves. And, it was just plane fun and well as opened new doorways to sensing my own embodiment.

Monika Stelzl

This course helped me to deepen my skills and practice as a guide. It also facilitated joyful and creative exploration of the connection within my body and with the forest. Geeta and Stana are perfect to teach this course!

Lori Rynke

The possibilities for experiencing peace, joy and healing increase exponentially with embodiment. You, your clients, your family and friends will all benefit if you take this course.

Jean Hammond

This is a personal practise that will deepen access to the animal body , your body , bringing alive exquisite moments to your partIcipants.

Anne Kristin

I would say that it is a great deepening course, which will certainly improve my practice, and which made me see things in the nature and forest therapy more clearly and more practical.

Tom Larkin

Be open and be prepared to deepen the FT experience therapy process

Shelley

Being in touch with your body lends support to your practice and can help you when you encounter edges.

Instructors

Mentor, Trainer

Geeta Stilwell

Geeta is a certified Forest Therapy Guide based in Portugal and the founder of the company Renature where she creates and facilitates restorative programs that promote wellbeing and health through Forest Therapy, nature connection practices, clean eating and self-care. She works all over the world with various populations that range from the general public, corporate senior and junior teams, schools, families, mental health populations and individuals recovering from situations of excess stress and resulting depression and anxiety. Her passion is to bring human beings back to nature and support the reconnection to the restorative potency of the natural world. She is trained in Forest Therapy, Embodied Mindfulness and Conscious Resting, Council and Active Meditation Techniques, and in the field of Healthcare as a Pharmacist. She holds a Masters in Business Management and is fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French.

Price