Ancestral Healing Teacher Training
with Daniel Foor & Shannon Willis
APPLICATIONS OPEN THROUGH JULY 31, 2025
This training is open to practitioners of Ancestral Lineage Healing (ALH) who completed their certification before September 2024.
About the Training
The training will empower you to guide three-day, in-person Ancestral Lineage Healing intensives. It will include group ritual leadership skills that enable guiding this body of practices in other group settings.
Those who complete this training will be able to plan and lead intensives on their own. Various forms of event-planning support and partnership may be available from Ancestral Medicine (depending on the success of this program), but the primary focus will be training you to be independently capable of leading all aspects of the intensives.
Learn to plan, administer, and ritually guide three-day Ancestral Lineage Healing Intensives.
Learn the nitty-gritty of location scouting, processing registrations, and hosting a group.
Refine ritual skills including singing, crafting offerings, and stewarding a group vessel.
Do skills-building to guide all the key teaching elements typically included in an intensive.
Learn how to establish cultural safety and build skills for working with challenging humans.
Training Overview
The training will unfold in three phases. See the Training Overview section for details. The structure will combine online coursework with peer-driven practice sessions and direct mentorship with Shannon Willis in tandem with hands-on facilitation experience.
The two initial phases of the training play out in a relatively spacious way over ten months. The final phase focuses on guiding intensives. Because Phase Three depends on your capacity to plan and guide these events, the timeline for completion of the training process will vary. Certification is earned upon completion of all requirements and final approval by Shannon and Daniel.
Price
Total cost is $3,750. Payment plans of 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months are available.
Planning for and carrying out the training is a substantive effort for our team. Because of this we are not able to offer cost reductions at this time. The standard cost will cover our team’s expenses, and just barely. You should be able to recover the cost of this program within two to four (of six total) intensives the training requires you to plan and guide. Once your tuition is paid, all proceeds from events you plan and guide are yours to keep.
If cost remains a barrier, you may request a deferment for up to 50% of the cost until such time as you begin to guide intensives, including those which occur during Phase Three of your training. At that point, revenues from intensives can be used as payment for your balance. The first 50% ($1875) may be paid in as many as 24 monthly installments which amounts to $79 per month. We’re committed to the training staying accessible.
Please note: 30min support sessions with Shannon are requisite before and after each intensive you guide (6x), as is one 30min completion session. These 13 sessions are the only training element not included in your tuition. The fee will be paid directly to Shannon at the time of scheduling. The cost is $60 per session totaling $780 over two years or so. These are not included in the base training cost as it’s so far in advance and each trainee will progress at their own rhythm.
Training Schedule & Requirements
PHASE ONE: FOUR MONTHS, SEP - DEC 2025
The focus is on learning and moving toward mastery of the foundational curriculum and core material while identifying areas for personal growth in your roles as a ritualist and group facilitator.
- Eight pre-recorded lessons (60-90min, every other week)
- Eight live, 90min Q&A calls (90min, every other week)
- Eight small-group practice sessions (90min, triads, every other week)
- Two total individual mentorship sessions with Shannon (30min each)
- Track growth edges through peer, mentor, and personal notes
PHASE TWO: SIX MONTHS, JAN - JUN 2026
The focus is on mastery of the various elements required to successfully lead an intensive.
- Complete 20 hour-long peer practice sessions (in pairs/dyads) to move toward mastery of the 10 content segments (2 practice sessions each for the 10 content segments).
- Complete 10 peer sessions in 90min triads (7 focus on refining cultural skills and 3 on effectively teaching songs).
- Attend (or listen after) to three 90min teachings co-led by Daniel and Shannon (e.g., difficult attendees or supporters, rowdy spirits, other forms of intensive-related chaos).
- Guide 10 ancestor circles, at least 5 of which must be in-person (each with 4-13 attendees). Some previous experience may count toward this requirement and flexibility may be extended by the AM team if local conditions don’t allow for in-person circles.
- Craft 4 substantive offerings for the spirits. At least 2 must involve 4 or more living human participants (e.g., during ancestor circles); at least 2 different approaches to offerings must be explored; and at least 1 shared about in the training discussion space.
- Complete two additional 30min mentorship sessions with Shannon (now at 4 total).
- Attend at least three of six monthly 60min group supervision sessions with Shannon.
- Continue to track learning and growth edges through peer, mentor, and personal notes.
PHASE THREE BEGINS WHEN YOU COMPLETE ALL PHASE TWO REQUIREMENTS
This phase begins on a rolling basis, as you complete your Phase Two requirements.
- Co-lead two 3-day intensives, co-leading each intensive with another teacher or teacher-in-training. Groups should be 6-18 people. Successful completion of two co-led intensives is expected before guiding solo.
- Lead two solo smaller intensives, each for a small group of 6-12 people.
- Lead two solo medium to larger intensives, each for a group of 12-24 people.
- Complete 13 total mentorship sessions with Shannon. This consists of a 30min session before and after each of the 6 required intensives plus a final 30min mentorship session to complete the training. These are $60 per session ($120/hr), totaling $780. Note: These sessions are the only training element not included in the base training cost.
- Continue to track learning and growth edges through peer, mentor, and personal notes.
- Optionally attend monthly group supervisions, available at no cost through 2026.
IMPORTANT PHASE THREE REQUIREMENTS AND POLICIES
- Pricing: During Phase Three and beyond, you keep all proceeds from your public teaching. We do however require that you adhere to the organization’s guidelines regarding how you price your intensives as it’s important to us both that our ethics around accessibility remain consistent and that the value of these gatherings remain clear. Pricing guidelines will be clearly outlined for you and may change over time. Any financial split between co-teachers and supporters will be up to you to determine.
- Feedback: We will provide feedback forms so your participants may share about their experience. You’ll be required to share this link with all participants after each intensive you guide during your training process. Responses will be viewable by you and the AM team.
- Supporters: For intensives with fewer than 12 people, supporters are welcome. For co-led intensives with 12 or more participants, we encourage including supporters. For solo intensives with 12 or more participants, the inclusion of supporters is required.
ANCESTORS AND CULTURAL HEALING COURSE
The only required course for the Teacher Training is Ancestors and Cultural Healing. If you didn’t enroll in early 2025, there will be another opportunity in early 2026. Usual accessibility options for Network members apply, and this can be completed at any point before starting Phase Three.
TRAINING COMPLETION
After completing the requirements for Phase Three, including feedback from colleagues and participants and a final meeting with Shannon, you’ll likely receive organizational backing to lead intensives solo. In some cases, further development or training may be recommended before certification. While we aim to support each trainee in completing this program, certification cannot be guaranteed. The ability to effectively lead multi-day group ritual involves many factors. Participation in this program is not a guarantee of certification.
Phase One Course Curriculum
Lesson One: Personal Motivation & Training Logistics
- Reflect on motivation for ritual leadership and public visibility
- Cover practical and unseen layers of event logistics and land etiquette
- Identify any blocks to being timely, clear, organized, and responsive
- Practice in exchanges an ancestrally guided look at personal motivation
Lesson Two: Intensive Day One | Content and Dynamics
- Consider goals, challenges, and ways to encourage Day One success
- Learn to teach the Assessment and both parts of Step Two
- Review sound principles for time management and clear teaching
- Practice in exchanges teaching to the Assessment
Lesson Three: Essential Group-Level Ritual Facilitation Skills
- Consider ritual safety, overall space tracking, and the role of offerings
- Give focus to guiding trance work, teaching songs, and group prayer
- Learn different ways to conceive of and craft the central offering
- Practice in exchanges teaching to both parts of Step Two
Lesson Four: Intensive Day Two | Content and Dynamics
- Consider how to speak to cultural wounding in mindful, welcoming ways
- Learn to guide the forgiveness practice and both parts of Step Three
- Review best practices for utilization and oversight of event supporters
- Practice in exchanges, with dialogue, teaching to forgiveness and repair
Lesson Five: Essential Group-Level Cultural Awareness Skills
- Consider how quickly an event can unravel if missing the cultural mark
- Reflect on numerous real examples of group-level cultural turbulence
- Learn foundational principles for navigating charged cultural interactions
- Practice in exchanges being gently pressed on matters of culture
Lesson Six: Intensive Day Three | Content and Dynamics
- Learn to teach to both parts of Step Four as well as Step Five
- Consider ways to weave teaching on ritual toxicity into Step Four
- Explore sequencing options for the central offering & Day Three elements
- Practice in exchanges teaching to evil, danger, and hazardous spirits
Lesson Seven: Essential Group-Level Psychological Skills
- Explore ways participants may badly affect the group, teachers, or supporters
- Learn strategies for kindly assisting and containing impactful folks in circle
- Consider ways to track for and navigate states of intense vulnerability
- Ask your ancestors to help you to explore a scenario of losing group control
Lesson Eight: Leadership Issues & Other Forms of Group ALH Ritual
- Consider psychological and ethical risks entailed in group leadership
- Explore applications of group ALH ritual beyond the 3-day intensive
- Discuss ways to dance with fear, anxiety, and flooding in the moment
- Practice in exchanges identifying your ritual leadership vulnerabilities
Apply for the Training
To apply, follow the link below and complete the application. You can expect to hear back within two weeks. Our application deadline is July 31, 2025, however, we encourage you to apply well before July if you intend to join.
About the Instructors
Shannon Willis
Shannon is a dedicated ritualist working at the intersection of dream midwifery, psychopomp, ancestral and oracular practices. She holds a Masters in Leadership and Professional Counseling and has more than four decades of experience leading individuals, groups, and organizations through consultation and ritual. She is an initiate of Ọbàtálá and Ọ̀ṣun in the lineage of Olúwo Fálolú Adésànyà Awoyadé, a devoted student of Jhankri shamanism through the 27th generational lineage of Bhola Nath Banstola, and Ancestral Medicine’s Ritual Director. She is a descendant of settler-colonists from the British Isles, Belgium, France, freed peoples of West Africa, and indigenous Cherokee and Kaskaskia/Illini nations.
Daniel Foor
Daniel is a doctor of psychology, experienced ritualist, and the author of Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing. He is an initiate in the Òrìṣà tradition of Yoruba-speaking West Africa and has learned from teachers of Mahayana Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and the older ways of his English and German ancestors. Daniel is passionate about training aspiring leaders and change makers in the intersections of cultural healing, animist ethics, and applied ritual arts. He lives with his wife and two daughters near Granada, Spain in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Frequently Asked Questions
Phase One lasts for 16 weeks from September 1st until mid-December 2025. In addition to 8 pre-recorded lessons, for each of the 16 weeks there is one 90-minute scheduled meet-up (8 practice exchanges + 8 live teaching and discussion calls):
- Fri, Aug 22 – First four pre-recorded lessons are released
- Week of Mon, Sept 1 – Practice exchanges for Lesson One
- Wed, Sept 10, 3pm New York – Live 90min Lesson One call
- Week of Mon, Sept 15 – Practices exchanges for Lesson Two
- Wed, Sept 24, 3pm New York – Live 90min Lesson Two call
- Week of Mon, Sept 29 – Practice exchanges for Lesson Three
- Wed, Oct 8, 3pm New York – Live 90min Lesson Three call
- Fri, Oct 10 – Second four pre-recorded lessons are released
- Week of Mon, Oct 13 – Practices exchanges for Lesson Four
- Wed, Oct 22, 3pm New York – Live 90min Lesson Four call
- Week of Mon, Oct 27 – Practice exchanges for Lesson Five
- Wed, Nov 5, 3pm New York – Live 90min Lesson Five call
- Week of Mon, Nov 10 – Practices exchanges for Lesson Six
- Wed, Nov 19, 3pm New York – Live 90min Lesson Six call
- Week of Mon, Nov 24 – Practice exchanges for Lesson Seven
- Wed, Dec 3, 3pm New York – Live 90min Lesson Seven call
- Week of Mon, Dec 8 – Practices exchanges for Lesson Eight
- Wed, Dec 17, 3pm New York – Live 90min Lesson Eight call
Live call times will tend to favor participants in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. If participants from Asia and Oceania time zones join this cycle of the training, we will proactively find ways for you to be able to join the main live calls at least sometimes which means that while these dates are stable, these proposed call times on those dates will not be finalized until July 2025.
Practice exchanges will include options to meet for one of three possible times during the week (one favorable for Asia/Oceania, three for the Americas, and two for Europe/Africa). This scheduling process will be clear, organized, and dialed in well in advance of September; however we will wait to see who joins the training before confirming final timing options.
The eight live 90min calls will be co-taught by both Shannon and Daniel. The only other meetings during Phase One are Two 30min individual mentoring sessions with Shannon, and these are scheduled directly with her.
Phase Two runs from January to June 2026 and most of the elements are asynchronous, meaning that you’ll schedule them with peers or with Shannon as your schedules permit. The three 90min teachings co-led by Daniel and Shannon will tend to favor the 3pm New York, 9pm Madrid start time, but we need to confirm who joins the training first. The monthly group supervision sessions will also flex to support time zone inclusivity and they will be recorded.
Phase Three is asynchronous in that it depends completely on your ability to organize, in some cases with others, and then carry out the six required intensives and related supervision.
If you miss a live call, you’ll need to make it up by listening to the recording and then posting a reflection in the Connection Space area dedicated for this training. We will try our best to schedule calls at times that allow for participants from diverse time zones to join live at least some of the time, and when this is not possible, we’ll have lots of grace about needing to miss. Otherwise, live attendance is expected.
If you miss any practice exchange sessions during Phase One of the training, you’ll need to proactively make these up before proceeding to Phase Two of the training. Likewise, you’ll need to complete Phase Two requirements before guiding intensives.
Our default understanding of this is that teachers and teachers-in-training are 100% responsible for carrying out all aspects of the intensives they guide, period.
That said, we are in active questioning about different possible ways that Ancestral Medicine could promote or possibly produce (meaning also handle registration) for some intensives. In any of those scenarios, participation in this system would be entirely optional for teachers or teachers-in-training and there would be clear agreements on the nature of the reciprocity with Ancestral Medicine. And we wish to be very clear that we are not able to promise either form of involvement (marketing or event production) which means that any potential applicant should anticipate being fully responsible for reaching new audiences and handling all aspects of event production.
As stated above, producing this training at a level of quality that we feel is warranted is a demanding undertaking, and we don’t anticipate making money on the process. We’re doing it because it’s needed and the right next step for the growth of the work.
With payment plans and the option to defer up to half of payment until guiding intensives, we’re able to reduce the monthly investment to as low as $79/month. If that still results in the training being inaccessible, speak with us directly and we’ll see what may be possible.
Applicants who led or co-led intensives before the pandemic (2018-2019) or in various ways since may petition for their prior experience to apply to certain elements of the training, and we’ll evaluate this on a case by case basis. We’re hopeful this more thorough and structured training will be received as an encouragement to refine ritual skills and mastery of the material in a connective, collegial atmosphere.
We’re excited about this approach! Basically, during the training process your notes will be visible to others in the training and you’ll also be contributing actively to the notes for others. Of course this will require kindness and maturity, but it’s a teacher training, we’re all adults, and these qualities are expected.
With this approach, our aim is also to recognize that others in the training are a valuable source of perspective, wisdom, and refinement. Of course we recognize that being supportively critiqued by peers may feel vulnerable, and we believe the outcome will be stronger, more confident teachers.
We will make full effort from our side to resolve these challenges in reasonable ways while still staying true to the spirit of the training. In certain cases, especially when there is only one teacher-in-training of any given language, we understand that we will need to make accommodations in the training structure (e.g., relying less on co-led intensives, making adjustments around supporter ratios). We will address these concerns as they arise in reasonable ways through dialogue with trainees, and we encourage applicants to address any anticipated concerns early in the application process.
This training really does center the three-day Ancestral Lineage Healing Intensive format as it’s well-established, field tested, and effective. That said, examples of variations could include guiding the work in a somewhat longer (e.g., five day) residential retreat format; weaving the intensive with a higher degree of movement, song, and creative expression; including elements of nature reconnection; and offering the intensive for specific groups only (e.g., women only, BIPOC only). As with the Practitioner Training, the general guideline is to first learn to guide the intensive as taught (meaning to complete one’s certification), and if moved to consider adaptations, at that point to then be in dialogue with Ancestral Medicine leadership.
This training does not enable you to teach or train other practitioners of Ancestral Lineage Healing to guide intensives, nor does it allow you to train people to become practitioners of Ancestral Lineage Healing. In the framework of the three roles of practitioner (already well established), teacher (what this training is about), and trainer, the important distinction here is that you are not becoming a trainer.
Trainers, when this role is fleshed out, will be the people who train both new teachers and practitioners. As of 2025 the two trainers are Daniel and Shannon. Eventually the people who complete this training and become experienced teachers will be those that Ancestral Medicine will consider looking to to guide things like the Ancestral Healing Practitioner Training or this Teacher Training, but that will take time to gradually develop. We are excited to finally be ready to systematically develop the “teacher” role.
Serving as a teacher of Ancestral Lineage Healing hinges upon also being a practitioner, so you’ll need to do all the usual things to maintain your practitioner certification (every-two-year renewal, following ethical guidelines).
You’ll need to sign the agreements form for the Teacher Training (available by late April) and to honor the guidelines there. Expect all that to be very similar in spirit to the agreements form for the Practitioner Training.
There will be a training manual for teachers that will include some additional ethical guidelines distinct to guiding group ritual and to teaching this work. At least the ethical guidelines part, if not the complete manual, will be available before August 1, 2025, and if you don’t feel in alignment with anything there, we can discuss. And if we don’t arrive at resolution, we can simply offer a full refund before the training begins.
Because teachers are unlikely to complete certification before 2027, we haven’t addressed the topic of Continuing Education in detail, but the likely form this will take is an additional section to complete on the every-two-years renewal form and also to attend (or listen afterward to) a 90minutes discussion among teachers every two years to make sure that lines of communication stay open. The rough time expectation of all that will be not more than an average of two hours per year.
Yes, it’s possible. We see this basically like our ethical guidelines for practitioners. If there are concerns that arise that can’t be easily addressed, Ancestral Medicine can create an Action Plan which will either result in concerns being addressed or us parting ways. Since Cohort Four, with well over 200 new practitioners, we’ve had two Action Plans; one led to resolution and one led to parting ways. Which is to say that it’s not common that this comes up, but we have a well articulated process for it. While waiting for us to pull together the Teachers Manual, you can review the Conflict and Resolution section of the Practitioner Training Manual.
Before the first lessons are released on August 22, we’re happy to process a full refund minus a $150 administrative fee. For the first 30 days after the first lessons are released, we can process a refund minus $400. After the first month of the training, we are not obligated to refund payment made toward the training, and, per usual, we’re going to be reasonable people if you decide not to continue. See our Terms & Conditions and the training agreements form for granular details.
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