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.