We are passionate, dedicated, experienced environmental leaders trained academically and experientially in the fields of ecopsychology, ecotherapy, clinical and Jungian psychology, wilderness guiding, nature awareness and connection, ecological sciences, experiential environmental education, holistic healing, rites of passage and ceremonial and ritual facilitation.
Our mission is to bridge humans with the infinite wisdom of the more-than-human world for the collective healing of the Earth;
to be of service to the more-than-human world who has little voice in our industrialized civilization; and train people to shift towards regeneration and repair of our precious ecological systems and ecological consciousness.
We lead holistically and interdisciplinarily from the heart, mind, body and spirit with the utmost respect, gratitude, humility to the international community of teachers, elders, and mentors—human & more~than~human—who guide us in this sacred work.
We hold the ethics, wisdom, strength and power of the Divine Feminine:
integrity, creativity, receptivity, transformation & love.
Our mission is to bridge humans with the infinite wisdom of the more-than-human world for the collective healing of the Earth;
to be of service to the more-than-human world who has little voice in our industrialized civilization; and train people to shift towards regeneration and repair of our precious ecological systems and ecological consciousness.
We lead holistically and interdisciplinarily from the heart, mind, body and spirit with the utmost respect, gratitude, humility to the international community of teachers, elders, and mentors—human & more~than~human—who guide us in this sacred work.
We hold the ethics, wisdom, strength and power of the Divine Feminine:
integrity, creativity, receptivity, transformation & love.
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Julianne Skai Arbor, MA, MS
Program Director and Teacher
Forest Ecology, Forest Therapy, Multi-Sensory Awareness, Ritual Facilitation & Leadership + Julianne has extensive experience with forests all over world from being in full sensory contact with over 80 species of trees, as an award-winning author and photographer. It was from her healing rebonding with wild nature that led her to realize that she had been engaging in self-initiated, multi-sensory forest bathing for 25 years.
Her passion for weaving art, ecology, ecopsychology and experiential education led her to pioneer and the very first academic program in Environmental Arts, and teach interdisciplinarily for 10 years in higher education. She has since been certified as an arborist through the International Society of Arboriculture and as a California Naturalist through the University of California, trained as a facilitator in Joanna Macy's ecopsychologically-based Work That Reconnects, advanced shamanic healing, and as a rites of passage facilitator with Rites of Passage, Inc. As the former Co-Director of Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFTG), Julianne co-led the first Forest Therapy Guide certificate training in the US in 2014. She spent a month researching Forest Therapy and sacred Shinto trees in Japan and is certified in Forest Therapy by the research-based International Society of Nature and Forest Medicine (INFOM). Julianne is the co-representative, along with Dr. Tina Fields, of the US Chapter of the International Ecopsychology Society. She currently lives in Sonoma County, CA. Raven Gray, MSc
Teacher
Ancestral Technology, Bushcraft, Ethnobotany Raven Gray is a seasoned practitioner of primitive skills, rewilding, and ancestral lifeways. With an MSc in Culture and Ecology, and over 25 years’ training and experience in wilderness living, permaculture and regenerative design land-based practices, she is committed to shifting the cultural paradigm from industrial instability to wild resilience. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Experimental Archeology at Exeter University, in the UK.
A founding pioneer of the resilient community movement, Transition Towns, and the founder of the national hub, Transition US, Raven previously taught sustainable living skills in the UK and Asia. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and Elle magazine, and she has appeared on national television and radio, and presented at conferences and events on both sides of the Atlantic. Raven has traveled extensively on five different continents, learning from indigenous people and studying with many of the world’s top survival and primitive skills instructors. She is dedicated to honoring this lineage and keeping the old ways alive through teaching, writing, and speaking. She believes that primitive skills and ancestral traditions are vital pathways of ecoliteracy that can lead to personal and planetary health. A mother devoted to rewilding her child, Raven frequently writes and speaks about raising a nature-connected wild child, and what it means to be a primal parent in today’s world. Raven and her son, Zack, follow a paleo lifestyle in diet, movement, and mindfulness. They regularly attend primitive skills gatherings and ancestral health events to hone their knowledge and ability. Raven is particularly fascinated by prehistoric clothing technologies and how material culture connects us to the natural world. She loves to make her own clothes from the skins and fibers of the land around her. A passionate wildlife tracker, bird language whizz, and certified California Naturalist, Raven lives with her son on occupied Coast Miwok lands, in the protected wildlands of the Point Reyes National Seashore, Northern California. |
Andrea Marais, PhD
Teacher
Psychology, Ecopsychology Andrea's career started off as a reporter, after completing her BA degree in Journalism and HON Psychology (CUM) at University of Johannesburg in South Africa. She subsequently completed my MA degree in Research Psychology (CUM) and started working as a consumer psychologist registered with the American Association of Consumer Psychologists. She has worked on research projects in South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Sudan, Angola and Ethiopia.
After becoming Vegan and reading The Voice of the Earth by Theordore Roszak Andrea experienced a significant existential crisis which led me to pursue her PhD in Psychology focusing on Ecopsychology at University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, which I was awarded in 2020. Her Thesis was: "Developing typologies to use as an ecopsychological framework for understanding the relationship that people have with the biosphere in South Africa" . Andrea was awarded a scholarship by the Southern African Systems Analysis Centre which is funded by government and that works in association with IIASA, Austria. She does volunteer work with children and nature, and also volunteers to save the local endangered Western Leopard Toad and sits as a committee member on her local environmental action group. She is a passionate activist for animal rights. Andrea is the South Africa Representative for the International Ecopsychology Society, and lives with her partner and two dogs in Cape Town, South Africa. View Andrea's website here: https://www.drnaturenexus.com/ |
Yannick Dubois
Guest Teacher
Celtic Tree Traditions Yannick is a forest school kindergarten teacher and social worker, self-taught artist and nature-inspired illustrator. He is committed to lifelong learning from Nature and ancient wisdom traditions, such as Druidry, bushcraft and shamanism. He trained with the Druid College and the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids after experiencing direct intuitive initiations from the forest throughout his childhood and early adolescence.
Since January 2019, he has been working on a series of pictures to illustrate the Celtic Tree Ogham, offering his eyes and hands to the trees he is working with, asking them to show him how they want to be represented on his Tree Wisdom Banners. As a workshop leader, Yannick offers ancient tools for connection in a modern form. His workshops combine elements of sensory awareness practices, intuitive drawing and writing, ritual and ceremony, tree – herb- and animal-lore, depths psychology, shamanic techniques as well as prayer and meditation. Originally from Belgium, he now lives in a yurt in a forest on the edge of Dartmoor nature reserve in the South-West of England. View Yannick's website here: http://yannickdubois.com/ 
View Yannick's Celtic Art here on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ForestheartCelticArt?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=928014480
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