Ancestral Healing for Beginners
A primer for skeptics, seekers, and the ancestor-curious
A two-part series with Dr. Amber McZeal
Two Thursdays | July 31 & August 7 | 90 minutes each
9am Oakland | 5pm London | 9pm Mumbai
About the Course
Are you ancestor-curious? Ancestor-bothered? Dreaming of dead relatives? Maybe you’re up to your neck in holistic teachings and modalities, but still drawn to understand the influence of the dead on our lives here. Maybe you’ve been on a path, and you’re encountering work that feels hollow or leaves you yearning for something more grounded. We’ve designed this super accessible, beginner-friendly, two-part series specifically for you.
Doctor of depth psychology, Ancestral Healing Practitioner, and cultural change artist, Amber McZeal, will break down the basics of ancestral healing (the general concept) and Ancestral Lineage Healing (the method we teach). The gathering will be very “why, how, what”—a true primer on the nature of the work, what you stand to gain if you venture in, what’s required of you, and how it’s different (or not) from what you think it is.
Gain a practical understanding of why people engage in diverse ancestral healing practices and the impact of such work
Learn more about what Ancestral Lineage Healing is, how to begin, and what it’ll look like once you’re engaged
Leave with tangible skills to implement the basics of ritual safety and boundary-setting in your spiritual practice
This offering is for you, if...
- You’re a smarty-pants skeptic who craves a richer spiritual life, but you have a hard time suspending disbelief.
- You’re metaphysically curious, but struggle to take certain practices seriously.
- You believe the challenges we face are not just our own—they may also be inherited.
- You believe personal healing may be incomplete without an accompanying ethic of cultural healing that works to transform racism, sexism, colonialism, etc.
- The “good vibes only” crowd aren’t your people; “light and love” alone leave you wondering…what about the rest of life’s complexities?
- You’re seeking psychologically, culturally, and spiritually grounded teachers who can transmit effective skills without being cultish or weird about it.
- Much to your chagrin, you have a sense that you’re being impacted or influenced by generational patterns and you’re not sure what to do about it.
- You wonder if some parts of the Great Unknowable may be less than benevolent, and you’d like to know more about ritual safety, boundary setting, and ways to temper your inherent porousness while figuring out a spiritual practice.
This offering is not for you if: you’re currently experiencing acute psychological distress or you’re unwilling to engage in introspective work.
2 live teaching calls led by Dr. Amber McZeal
Guided experiential practices
Lifetime access to materials
Access to a dedicated community discussion space with free events
What to Expect
Both gatherings will include 60 minutes of teaching, plenty of time for live Q&A, and guided, experiential practice to honor diverse ways of knowing. We’ll also affirm ritual safety (we’ll explain what that means, if you’re not sure) and attune to what is safe and supportive from your ancestors.
Gathering #1
The first session will cover ancestral healing as a methodology, why people do this, and how it can be beneficial.
- We'll discuss foundational assumptions about the relationship between the living and the dead, and why one might embark on a journey of ancestral healing.
- We'll cover how engaging with well ancestors can transform intergenerational traumas into blessings and lead to greater wholeness and real belonging.
- We'll speak to ritual safety: what it means to make contact with the non-ordinary, ways to protect yourself from harmful energies, and how to step into the work with confidence.
- We'll chat about why this work has the potential to tap into aspects of self that may be harder to access through Euro-centric and Western approaches to healing alone.
Gathering #2
The second session will describe in greater detail what it actually looks and feels like to engage in the practice of Ancestral Lineage Healing (ALH), the method developed by Dr. Daniel Foor, which is what we teach here at Ancestral Medicine.
- Building on the first gathering, we'll introduce the five-step ALH framework for safely partnering with wise and loving lineage ancestors for personal and family healing.
- We'll describe how the process unfolds in our online course, private one-on-one sessions, and in-person intensives; the main ways, along with the book, that people engage the work.
- We’ll consider cultural trauma and will explore ancestral healing as an important piece of greater work for cultural healing and systemic change.
- We’ll hear how the process might actually feel from the first day you sink into practice, to the point when multiple lineages are in a healed and vibrant state, and beyond.
Register for Ancestral Healing for Beginners
3 and 6 month payment plans available at checkout at 0% interest.
Supporter
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This rate helps us make our work accessible to those with modest means and applies if you have investments, a retirement plan, and/or access to economic abundance.
Standard
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Our standard rate allows us to sustain our work. This typically applies if you’re employed in the Global North, and you’re able to provide for your needs in a consistent way.
Reduced
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This rate applies if you’re relatively less economically advantaged in the ways listed under “standard rate” or that cost is simply out of reach for you financially.
About the Instructor
Amber McZeal
DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND ANCESTRAL HEALING PRACTITIONER
Writer, vocalist, & sacred scholar Amber McZeal utilizes sound therapy and guided somatic imagery to engage the knowledge of the body within an interactive and liberatory arts practice. Amber weaves somatic praxis with social justice and spirituality, in an approach that centers the psyche as foundational in movements to end oppression and create more humane social & cultural relationships. She holds an M.A. in Somatic Depth psychology and a Ph.D. in Depth psychology with a specialization in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Ecological psychologies. Her ancestors are from Louisiana, with roots in Haiti, Cameroon, Congo, Nigeria, Benin, France, Spain, and Indigenous North America. Amber lives on the Indigenous lands of the Ohlone people in Oakland, CA.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ancestral healing starts with a simple truth: the past isn’t really past. Ancestral influences shape our lives in ways that are personal and collective, messy and beautiful. By tending to our relationships with the dead, we can break old patterns, reclaim lost wisdom, and invite transformation that’s as collective as it is personal.
Ancestral healing takes many forms across cultures around the world, each with its own intent. It may mend our sense of disconnection from ancestors, affording a sense of comfort or belonging. Our work may support healing among the dead, which in turn may benefit healing in our lives, families, or in the greater culture. We may call on ancestral wisdom for communal concerns, or restore cultural wholeness by situating us within a larger generational and ancestral context.
Ancestral Lineage Healing is a specific modality developed by Daniel Foor over the past two decades. It aims to safely and effectively bring about transformation and repair along one’s blood lineages for the purposes of personal, family, and cultural healing. Although Ancestral Lineage Healing as a body of teachings and practices has diverse applications, the approach is especially effective at enacting ancestral healing and reconnection in cultural environments where such approaches and practices have been lost or become fragmented.
Animism is an ethic or set of values rooted in the recognition of profound relationality. It acknowledges that humans are deeply interconnected with the natural world, ancestral forces, and unseen energies. Rather than centering the human experience, animism emphasizes reciprocity, honoring the inherent intelligence, agency, and vitality of all beings or other-than-human people—seen and unseen—in an interconnected web. Although many Indigenous cultures live from animist ethics to some degree or another, many among the non-Indigenous majority also embody animist, Earth-honoring values.
Ancestral healing and psychotherapy both address inherited patterns and trauma. Therapy often focuses on the individual, while ancestral healing may extend to our relationships with the dead and how these patterns manifest in our lives today.
Ancestral Lineage Healing (ALH), developed by Daniel Foor, integrates psychology and trauma-informed practice. Both he and Amber, your teacher for this two-session offering, hold PhDs in psychology and both are also strongly invested in cultural care. ALH is particularly grounded in psychology and trauma-informed practice, ensuring that the work is resourcing, client-paced, ritually safe, and effective. Daniel has spent decades integrating spiritual and psychological perspectives in his work.
If you’re drawn to the notion of bridging the worlds of psychotherapy and ritual, our on-demand course, Animist Psychology, might hold appeal. The course provides a framework for understanding the psyche beyond the individual, emphasizing relationality and interconnection with ancestral, ecological, and unseen forces. It invites a more expansive view of healing, one that acknowledges both personal and collective dimensions of suffering and repair. While therapy can help us navigate personal challenges, ancestral healing offers a pathway for addressing inherited wounds, reclaiming lost wisdom, and cultivating a deep and pervasive healing that can extend to family, culture, and the rest of life.
All live teaching calls will be recorded. And all recordings will be made available within the course portal 48 hours later to watch and listen to at your leisure, with access in perpetuity.
All of our lesson videos have auto-generated closed captioning, as well additional downloadable audio-only versions. If you have needs not met here, please feel free to reach out to us with suggestions at info@ancestralmedicine.org.
Should you wish to withdraw from an offering or shift your registration to a future iteration, please contact us at info@ancestralmedicine.org to request a full refund within the refund window of that specific course. For this two-call introduction, you can request before the first call.
We’d be happy to help with any additional questions! Reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org with your question and someone from our team will be in touch usually within two business days.
Have a question that’s not answered here?