PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
Ancestral Healing Practitioner Training
led by Dr. Daniel Foor
The application is open until Sept 14, 2023.
This immersive online training and professional certification program equips participants to safely and effectively guide ancestral healing practices for others.
It is rooted in the Ancestral Lineage Healing method developed over the past two decades by Dr. Daniel Foor, and enriched by the involvement of over 40 experienced ritualists. The skills gained serve as the foundation of a career in ancestral healing arts and complement many other kinds of service.
Participants will develop foundational ritual proficiencies, including: skills for working with the troubled dead, understanding for how to assist the dying and recently deceased, knowledge of psychological and cultural layers of ancestral healing, and support for clarifying and living one’s personal destiny. Participants join an international association of ritualists and healers which supports ongoing personal and professional development.
Read on to learn more and please feel welcome to view the Practitioner Training Q&A Session recordings below.
What to expect from the training
Foundational to this training is the personal transformation that results from partnering with your ancestors as mentors and colleagues. During the training you will deepen your capacity and skillfulness as a ritualist, and develop practical healership skills. In addition, you can expect:
- Focused training on how to guide practices of ancestral reconnection in ways that are ritually safe, culturally skillful, and effective at catalyzing personal and family healing.
- An immersive learning experience that utilizes a blend of self-paced teachings, live experiential practices, peer exchanges, and spaces for network-wide teachings and discussions. Teachings are rooted in an established practitioner Code of Ethics and also reflect Ancestral Medicine’s core values.
- A rigorous curriculum anchored by three Practice Intensives during which trainees both study and practice specific steps and components of the lineage healing process, with support from Daniel and ritualists in the Ancestral Healing Practitioner Network. Learning is also supported by timely communications, reliable learning environments, and responsive staff.
- Engagement throughout the training with an experienced mentor for personal support, direct observation, and feedback critical to refining ritual facilitation skills.
- Monthly Continuing Education teachings featuring guest teachers on topics of culture, history, healing, and ritual arts.
- Extensive resources including a detailed Ancestral Healing Practitioner Training Manual, access to Ancestral Medicine's three foundational courses, access to all past and future Continuing Education offerings, engagement with a diverse international network of ritualists and healers, and opportunities through Ancestral Medicine for client referrals.
Investment
The cost of this professional training and certification is $7,500 USD.
This cost reflects fair compensation for Ancestral Medicine mentors, staff, and other training supporters; allows for financial assistance to less economically advantaged applicants; and supports ongoing sustainability of the Practitioner Network.
Payment plan options for durations up to 24 months are available. There is also a $500 dollar discount for participants who are able to pay in full. Participants are required to confirm a payment plan upon acceptance into the training. All applicants will have the opportunity to indicate financial assistance needs during the application process.
Scholarships
Need-based scholarships are largely but not entirely reserved for BIPOC, LGBTQ+ folks, those who speak a language other than English, and applicants from economically disadvantaged nations or backgrounds. As our regional focus for this training cycle is Asia and Oceania (see below for details), financial assistance will be prioritized for people who meet this regional criteria; however, all interested are still encouraged to apply as we can often find a mutually agreeable solution.
Regionally Focused Training Cycle
The 2023-2024 Practitioner Training (Cohort Seven) is part of a four-year cycle in which each incoming cohort focuses on a specific geographic and cultural region for that year. The training fundamentals are always consistent, no matter which regional cycle you participate in. However, the region of focus is centered in three specific ways:
- The schedule of group meetings will be intentionally accessible for participants in that region’s time zone(s).
- Half of the training spaces and most of the available financial aid will be reserved for applicants with ancestral, geographic, and cultural ties to the region.
- Continuing Education teachings and guest speakers will feature the region of focus.
The four-year regional cycle includes:
- Cohort Five (2021-2022) - Europe, West Asia, and North Africa
- Cohort Six (2022-2023) - Africa and the Diaspora
- Cohort Seven (2023-2024) - Asia and Oceania
- Cohort Eight (2024-2025) - The Americas
The 2023-24 regional focus includes Asia; Oceania; and the Asian/Pacific Diaspora.
The intention of this rotation is to support international access to training opportunities and ancestral healing services; to deepen historical and cultural knowledge among the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network; and to enact a vision of global ancestral healing, synergy, and cooperation.
This regional focus does not mean that all training participants will be from that specific region. For context, in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 cohorts, around 40-50% of training participants met the regional criteria. There is no need to meet the regional criteria for Cohort Seven – or for any other year – to apply for the training.
Training Structure & Schedule
Our training is designed to support an international cohort and includes a combination of self-paced and live teachings
The nine-month training is anchored by three Practice Intensives which run for four-to-six weeks each, followed by a lighter schedule of required teachings in the periods between the Practice Intensives. This format provides trainees with space to effectively study and practice each element of the training.
Completion of the training includes engagement with all required teachings, active collaboration with mentors and supervisors, and providing documentation for 40 public client sessions, offered by the trainee. These 40 sessions do not all have to be completed during the nine-month training period.
Overview of Interim Period Teachings
Between Practice Intensives, a variety of required trainings, demonstrations, and continuing education teachings will be offered to deepen learning. Participants will also meet in small groups with their mentors and mentorship pods. After the second Practice Intensive, participants who are caught up with study and prepared to proceed will further develop their skills through supervised ancestral healing sessions with clients. This happens in the form of individual mentorship, live observation, and group supervision. During interim periods, participants should expect to dedicate at least three hours to training and practice.
Overview of Practice Intensives
During each Practice Intensive period, pre-recorded teachings and demonstrations are released weekly and explored through interactive practice exchanges, as well as live discussions led by either Daniel or Shannon Willis, Ancestral Medicine’s Ritual Director. Participants should expect to dedicate at least six hours per week during Practice Intensives for study, practice, and discussion. A number of time slots for practice exchanges will be available to accommodate participant schedules.
Training Schedule
An overview of Cohort Seven is provided below and a detailed training schedule is available here.
- October 3 & 10, 2023: Orientation sessions for Cohort Seven.
- October 27 - December 8, 2023: Practice Intensive One – Ancestral Lineage Healing
- December 11, 2023 - April 15, 2024: Interim One – Teachings for Expanding into the Method
- April 19 - May 10, 2024: Practice Intensive Two – Cultural Layers and Client Challenges
- May 27 - July 1, 2024: Interim Two – Public Practice and Supervision
- July 5 - July 26, 2024: Practice Intensive Three – Deepening with Ancestral Healing Practices
Who can apply?
We ask applicants to be grounded in psychological and spiritual well-being prior to application. While the training includes personal and ancestral healing, the focus is learning to guide ancestral healing for others. We value in applicants:
- Ongoing commitment to personal healing and wellness
- Vocational calling to serve others through ritual arts and spiritual practice
- Experience with ancestral reverence and ritual
- Commitment to cultural equity
- Established practice in some kind of healing art or work for cultural change
- Historical and cultural literacy
- Earth reverence and ecological awareness
- Openness to learning and being part of an international community
Examples of the backgrounds from some in the first six cohorts include: holistic healers, psychotherapists, activists and community leaders, midwives and hospice workers, artists, diviners, genealogists, practitioners of traditional and/or Western medicines, and priests of diverse traditions. Even if none of those describe you, if you feel called to support others in their ancestral healing, we encourage you to apply.
Prerequisites
- Completion of our Ancestral Lineage Healing course. This requirement may be fulfilled by participation in previous cycles of the course or through enrollment in either the June or August 2023 course.
- Completion of four Ancestral Lineage Healing sessions by September 30, 2023. We require that applicants experience the work they will be training to do themselves, from the client perspective, by completing at least four sessions with a member of the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network (low-income sessions are available).
- Two or more healed lineages by September 30, 2023. Applicants are requested to have carried out ancestral healing work – through any combination of personal sessions, online coursework, in-person intensives, or personal ritual work – along at least two blood lineages in ways that result in healing for any among the dead who are still in need. This criteria establishes a baseline of ancestral wellness within the training vessel and creates a foundation for training to guide others in their healing. At least four foundational lineages must be in a healed condition before seeing public clients (as early as May 2024).
Logistical Requirements for Participation
- Access and comfort being online. The training is held online using Ancestral Medicine’s course portal, connection space, and tools like Zoom for live teachings. Applicants need a reliable internet connection, a relatively quiet space during teachings and practice sessions, the ability to use and/or install applications for accessing documents and recordings, and an openness to engage in online spaces.
- Availability for scheduled group exchanges. The weekly exchanges during Practice Intensive weeks and group mentorship meetings are important to attend live. Multiple options for scheduling will be provided. The schedule for additional required teachings rotates to support international accessibility. Trainees are encouraged to attend teachings live as much as possible – recordings of all teachings are also provided.
- Time commitment. The three Practice Intensives are four-to-six weeks each and require at least six hours per week. The training requirements during the interim periods between intensives will require a minimum of three hours each week.
How to Apply
Application period is now closed.
The application itself is somewhat extensive, but don’t let that discourage you from applying. Just reach out if anything is unclear, and please register with the email address you check most frequently and wish to use for primary communications with Ancestral Medicine.
Frequently Asked Questions
We understand that people have other commitments in their lives. This training is designed with many self-paced elements that trainees can complete on their own schedules, and all required teaching calls held over Zoom will be recorded. We also provide ample scheduling options for international participants.
That being said, there are many group and one-on-one training elements which require live participation. These include session exchanges with your peers, personal and group mentorship, live observations, and group supervisions.
In the event of unavoidable scheduling conflicts, we expect trainees to communicate with us in a timely way to arrange for a solution. Before applying to this program, please review the training schedule for Cohort Seven to consider whether you’ll have relatively stable availability during these listed dates.
The time to complete certification will vary from person to person. In general, we hope to see all trainees meet certification requirements within a year of the final Practice Intensive. It is possible for trainees to complete all training and certification requirements by the end of Practice Intensive Three (early August 2024). Most trainees will still have outstanding requirements to fulfill by this time, though, and this is very normal.
There is no upper limit on how long a trainee can take to complete certification. However, after one year has passed from the end of their final Practice Intensive, those not yet certified will be asked to participate in a Renewal of Trainee Status process, which involves meeting modest Continuing Education requirements. There is no additional cost associated with this Continuing Education; it’s only to keep one’s training engagement current.
We track all applications on a rolling basis and active applicants can expect to hear from Ancestral Medicine staff directly. Please note that our system does automatically acknowledge receipt of your application, even if you don’t hear from us personally right away.
See the “How to Apply” section above for an overview of the application process. Active applicants are also welcome to reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org with specific questions.
Please apply even if cost is a strong determining factor. Accessibility is a core value at Ancestral Medicine, and we are committed to evaluating applicants based on their merits and doing our best to find mutually agreeable financial arrangements when other factors favor participation.
In addition to payment plans of up to 24 months, we plan for a certain number of partial scholarships, and also oversee a Professional Development Fund for Ancestral Healing Practitioners that we may draw upon to assist applicants.
Our practice of centering equity as much as possible means that we tend to favor scholarship applicants who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and/or speak languages other than English. However, we may elect to help any applicant with financial need. In each training cycle we also give priority to applicants who meet the regional criteria. The regional focus for this training cycle is Asia and Oceania.
There is no need to have any connection to the region of focus to apply.
The intent is to support international access to training opportunities and ancestral healing services, as well as to deepen historical and cultural knowledge among the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network.
Although half of the spaces will be reserved for qualified applicants from the region of focus (Asia and Oceania this cycle), the remaining spaces are open to applicants from any background or geography, and the fundamentals of the training will be the same each year.
Note that the regionally focused Continuing Education teachings that accompany each cycle are accessible to the entire network, in any year. For example, if you are of Asian ancestries or geographies and you apply in 2024-2025, you will still have access to the Asia-focused teachings that take place during the 2023-24 cycle.
Identity, culture, and belonging are complex, and we consider three interrelated factors:
Geography. Are you currently living in Asia or Oceania, regardless of your specific ancestry or family history? Do you envision continuing to live there in ways that lead to an investment in the well-being of those lands and peoples?
Ancestry. Are your ancestral roots entirely or substantially Asian or Pacific Islander, no matter where you happen to be residing now? If so, to what degree does this also translate into an active affinity for the cultures, traditions, languages, and living peoples of Asia, Oceania, and the Asian and Pacific Diaspora?
Culture. Do you have a sustained professional or personal investment in one or more of the cultures from the region of focus, irrespective of your ancestry or place of residence? Are you working in meaningful ways for the well-being of the lands and peoples of Asia and Oceania?
We do not qualify these categories in rigid ways. Please be at ease in the application process, share what you feel is best, and remember that half of the spaces each year will also be open to people of any background.
This is a professional training for ritualists, healers, therapists, and other kinds of cultural repair folks who feel called to guide ancestral healing work for others. This means that the material may be challenging and activating in ways that call for resourcing outside the training with whatever forms of support nourish you.
The more psychologically whole and resourced you are before the training starts, the better – as the focus will begin and remain on acquiring and embody ritual facilitation skills for the benefit of others. In other words, it’s decisively a professional training in ritual arts, with an eye toward trainees feeling personally supported in a kind and caring ritual vessel.
Deep ritual work carried out in partnership with the ancestors will inevitably surface material for healing and personal growth; this is fantastic and to be expected. In this practice, we tend to take this to our ancestors directly and also to the space of ancestral healing sessions, which can be scheduled in abundance at no cost with kind and trusted colleagues in the training.
In every cohort, we are not only looking for individuals with promise as ritualists of skill and integrity, but also those who represent diverse places, peoples, and life-experiences – including backgrounds affected by conflict or systemic injustice. We navigate this in four intentional ways:
1) We invite a lot of space for cultural-level dialogue and holding a shared understanding that it’s not going to be perfect, but we can be kind. We encourage trainees to speak to whatever dynamic may need to be addressed, and that cultural healing is inseparable from ancestral healing. Within this, we agree to hold an ethic of humility, curiosity, kindness, and giving one another the benefit of the doubt when tougher moments need to be navigated.
2) We also practice bringing what’s happening to our ancestors. They are the container for the larger working, including for teachers and staff. We slow down, resource with them and listen in together when the waters are fraught or when cultural pain is present. In this way, we balance modern day political frameworks and analyses with the sometimes surprising wisdom of our ancestors.
3) We provide affinity-based discussion groups in our online connection space to support folks in being well-resourced and connected to peers of similar backgrounds. Trainees are also welcome to self-organize gatherings, and our team is caring and responsive to concerns that arise.
4) Finally, although Daniel is the senior teacher, the training model regularly includes the voices and perspectives of people of diverse ancestries, genders, nationalities, and life experiences. This includes guest teachers and experienced network practitioners.
The combination of these shared values – an ethic of kindness, direct ancestral dialogue, a mixture of different kinds of spaces, and diverse representation among the mentors and supporters – lead to good outcomes most of the time. And when it’s hard, we show up for the process and ask our ancestors to hold us through it all.
Visit this testimonials page to hear from practitioners who have participated in the training.
You may also reach out directly to those listed in the Practitioner Directory, especially if you feel someone there would be able to speak to your specific concerns. This directory does not include all of those in the Network as not all practitioners-in-training are featured there. So if you have a question you wish to direct to someone of a certain background (e.g., “Are there practitioners of South Asian ancestries I could speak with?”), you can message our team at info@ancestralmedicine.org and we may be able to make a connection for you if what you’re seeking is not available in the public-facing directory.