We have found the training process to be most effective with a blend of personal sessions, small group meetings, peer exchanges, optional peer interaction, and full-cohort or full-network teaching spaces.

During the three retreats, we spend substantive time each day, sometimes over half of the time, in small group break-out spaces. When in small groups the ratio is typically one practitioner/supporter for every three trainees; this facilitates small-group exchanges and personalized feedback.

Trainees engage between retreats in three personal 1:1 mentorship sessions (30min each), three group mentorship meetings with approximately 6-10 other trainees (90min each), at least 10 one-to-one peer session exchanges (often more), and one observations session with their mentor (60min). Other required training elements are in the space of the full cohort with options for some Q&A and discussion.

When trainees begin their certification process, typically after the second retreat, this includes two additional 1:1 mentorship sessions (30min each), a direct observation session (90min), and active participation in at least four group supervisions.

Cohort Five (2021-22) will complete in July 2022 with nearly 80 trainees following the ratios above. We have found that connective ratios, a clearly defined and organized training structure, and excellent support from AM Staff throughout the training helps participants to feel well met in their process.

Trainees are welcome to be as involved as they wish in Network affinity groups, meet-ups, and other Ancestral Medicine offerings.

Each retreat will be held over two consecutive weeks. Retreat days are six hours total – three 90-minute sessions with 90 minutes of break time throughout the day.

• Retreat 1 is three days each week, Thursday-Saturday, October 13-15 & 20-22, 2022
• Retreat 2 is two days each week, Friday-Saturday, March 17-18 & 24-25, 2023 
• Retreat 3 is two days each week, Friday-Saturday, July 7-8 & 14-15, 2023

Retreat times are intended to stay accessible to participants in Africa and the Diaspora (especially Europe and the Americas). This will shift in future years to center the region of focus. We’re truly sorry for the impact of the timing of this cycle for applicants from Oceania and most of Asia. In 2023-2024 (Cohort Seven) our team is committed to making the timing work for you, and in the meantime, we welcome you to apply and prepare for the odd hours and/or listen to recordings for credit when needed.

All scheduling is based on Eastern/New York City time and all retreat days are from 9am-3pm Eastern. Please check the actual dates to notice time regional time changes.

We staff each of the online retreats with supporters from the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network and include small break-out groups with ratios of three trainees per practitioner-supporter. This allows for direct, personalized instruction in live time from qualified practitioners who bring a diversity of skills and life experiences, and as such live attendance at the retreats is a critical component of the training.

That said, life happens and at times there are irreconcilable demands. In those situations we arrange for make-up sessions also guided by practitioners to allow trainees to still complete all aspects of the training, as all three retreats are required to complete the training. Please only apply if you have both intent and reasonable expectation to attend in full. Applicants in Asia and Oceania are warmly welcome to apply this year. If you require reasonable hours to participate, Cohort 7 (2023-2024) is planned with you in mind. 

Not exactly. 

There are elements that require your live participation but you schedule a time that works for you with another person (e.g., sessions exchanges, personal mentorship, observations) and therefore you have flexibility as to when they occur. 

There are both required live teachings (e.g., monthly conferences with Daniel, Continuing Education offerings); however, these are recorded and made available for playback in a way that can also fulfill the attendance requirement if needed.

The only requirement that could pose a scheduling challenge are the three small-group mentorship sessions over the nine-month training as trainees are required to do their very best to join live (and to make up the time if not). The times and dates for these will be arranged well in advance with your assigned mentor and those in your mentorship pod.

Each of the 14 total days of the training spent in online “retreat” (see schedule above) consist of six total hours: four and a half spent in three 90-minute teachings and 90 minutes spaced throughout for self-care and a break from screen time.

In addition to the retreat days, the various requirements over the nine-month arc of the training take a minimum of two hours per week to fulfill; however, trainees are encouraged to allow for at least three to four hours per week to make the most of the training, cohort experience, optional learning, and practice opportunities.

After completion of the second retreat (March 2023), trainees who have met all requirements are welcome to begin the certification phase. This includes seeing clients from the public while also engaging in regular supervision. Trainees are required to document 40 client sessions and related supervision sessions, and may complete this requirement by the end of third retreat (July 2023). Late July is the earliest one can complete certification through Cohort Six.

Conversely, life is unpredictable and some may take two years or more to complete their certification. Starting one year from the end of the third retreat, those not yet certified will be asked to participate in a modest Renewal of Trainee Status process. However, there is no upper limit on how long it can take to complete certification.

The application period is now open (see link here to apply). Our system will automatically acknowledge receipt of your application. Please assume the best if you receive the auto-response but don’t hear from us.

We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis and aim to reply to each applicant within 2-3 weeks. If more than three weeks have passed during any part of the application period, feel welcome to reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org.

Please still apply if the training cost is the primary concern. Accessibility is one of our core values as an organization, and this very much includes financial accessibility. We are committed to evaluating applicants based on their merits and to doing our very 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 in how we run the training and also oversee a Professional Development Fund for Ancestral Healing Practitioners that we may draw upon to assist any given applicant.

As modest correctives to racism, colonialism, gender discrimination, and U.S. imperialism, 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. This training cycle we will strongly favor Africans and those of African ancestries in the Diaspora.

No, there is truly no need to have any connection to the region of focus to apply.

The cycle of four practitioner trainings, each with a regional focus, began with the 2021-2022 cohort. 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, the remaining spaces are open to applicants from any background or geography and the fundamentals of the training will be the same each year. If there are not enough qualified applicants from the region of focus to account for half of the spaces, they may go to other qualified applicants. In the 2021-22 training cycle roughly 40% of applicants had substantial connections to Europe, West Asia, or North Africa.

If you are interested in a regional focus beyond 2022-23, note that the regionally focused Continuing Education teachings that accompany each training will be accessible to the entire network. For example, if you are of Asian ancestries or geographies and you apply in 2022-2023, you will still access to the Asia-focused teachings in the following cycle.

Identity, culture, and belonging are complex, and we consider three interrelated factors:

Geography. Irrespective of your specific ancestry and family history, are you currently living in Africa? Do you envision continuing to live there in ways that lead to an investment in the well-being of those lands and peoples?

Ancestry. Irrespective of where you reside, are your ancestral roots entirely or substantially African? If so, to what degree does this also translate into an active affinity for the cultures, traditions, languages, and living peoples of Africa and/or the African Diaspora? 

Culture. Irrespective of your ancestry or place of residence, do you have a sustained professional or personal investment in one or more of the cultures from the region of focus? Are you working in meaningful ways for the well-being of African lands and peoples?

We do not hold 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. In a pragmatic sense this matters only because our scholarships will lean heavily toward folks who meet the criteria this training cycle.

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 then call for resourcing outside the training with whatever forms of support nourish you.

Depth ritual work carried out in partnership with the ancestors inevitably will 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.

The more psychologically whole and worked through you are before the training starts the better as the focus will begin and remain on acquiring and embody ritual facilitation skills. In other words, it’s decisively a professional training in ritual arts with an eye toward everyone feeling personally supported in a kind and caring ritual vessel.

The training is held in a multi-cultural vessel that includes session exchanges between people of ancestrally diverse backgrounds (sometimes when there has been historical or present-day systemic injustice). Cohort Five (2021-22) includes trainees from 20 nations, at least a third of whom are BIPOC, and the possibilities for cultural friction, misunderstanding, micro-aggressions, and activation are myriad.

One way we hold this is a shared understanding that it’s not going to be perfect, that it’s welcome to speak in the moment (or after) to whatever needs to be addressed, and that cultural healing is inseparable from ancestral healing. Within this we agree to hold an ethic of humility, curiosity and giving one another the benefit of the doubt when tougher moments need to be navigated.

Another is that we have an ethic of bringing what’s happening in the moment to our ancestors. They are the holding and container for the larger working, including for teachers and staff, so we slow down, resource with them and listen in together when the waters are fraught or when cultural pain is present.

A third way is that we have some affinity groups to support folks in being well resourced. For example in Cohort Five the affinity-based mentorship pods include: Black/African-ancestors, Asian/Asian-ancestors, Spanish-speakers, German-speakers, etc. Anytime there is an opportunity to be in an affinity space, trainees always have choice and there were mentees in other pods who were Black, Asian, Spanish-speaking, and/or German-speaking. There are also nearly 20 affinity groups in the online connection space for the Practitioner Network.

Although Daniel Foor is the senior teacher, the training model regularly includes the voices and perspectives of people of diverse ancestries, genders, nationalities, and life experiences. Shared values, a mixture of different kinds of spaces, an ethic of kindness, and ancestral representation among the mentors and supporters, in combination, 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. 

You can always reach out directly to those in the Practitioner Directory, especially if you feel someone 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?”), ask our team at: info@ancestralmedicine.org and we may be able to make a connection.

For testimonials of practitioners from each year of the training, see this testimonials link.