Earth, Ancestors, and Mental Health
Animist Psychology
with Dr. Daniel Foor
About the Course
As we move deeper into major Earth changes, the field of psychology continues to grapple with colonialist legacies, reductionist approaches to the human psyche, and disproportionate influence from European-ancestored voices. The Earth’s other-than-white majority and those unable to afford therapy are too often excluded from what is beneficial about mental health services, and opportunities are missed for inspired cross-cultural exchange and co-creation.
This course is an offering for mental health professionals, ritualists of diverse traditions, and anyone interested in the intersections of Earth, culture, and psyche. Lessons are pragmatic, solution-oriented, and accessible, and participants can expect to more easily identify and work with psychological and cultural dynamics in your personal life and communities of practice.
Animist psychology arises at the intersection of ritual arts, psychology, cultural healing, and love of the Earth.
Curriculum
One
Lesson 1: Animism, Colonialism, and Earth-Honoring Psychologies
- Situate psychology amidst ongoing legacies of European colonialism
- Identify alignments and tensions between psychology and animism
- Explore animist epistemologies as key to a more relational psychology
- Reflect on personal experiences with psychotherapy and healing arts
- Enjoy resources from Indigenous and other animist clinicians
Two
Lesson 2: Attachment Theory, Intimacy, and Loving the Earth
- Explore parallels in relational dynamics with humans and the others
- Consider attachment theory in light of bonds with other-than-human kin
- Discuss strategies for loving amidst ongoing ecological catastrophe
- Engage in a practice of valuing and tending to bonds with extended kin
- Enjoy resources on the intersections of attachment/bonding and the Earth
Three
Lesson 3: Ancestral Healing, Trauma, and Resilience
- Expand on the common ground between "inner work" and cultural healing
- Identify cross-cultural strategies for transforming trauma into resiliency
- Reflect on acquired resilience and how animist values can inform healing
- Practice reframing individual challenges as ancestral and cultural legacies
- Enjoy resources on healing justice from somatic-oriented therapists
Four
Lesson 4: Spirit Contact, Psychosis, and Consensus Reality
- Explore seemingly incompatible versions of consensus reality
- Cultivate nuance and humility on the subject of psychosis and spirits
- Extend prayer and respect to those already lost to the deep waters
- Practice honoring limits to our nervous system and cognitive function
- Enjoy resources from spirited clinicians on acute mental illness
Five
Lesson 5: Personality, Ego Inflation, and Possession States
- Distinguish personality from disorder, healthy ego from inflation
- Clarify helpful/intentional from harmful/undesired possession states
- Explore psychological vulnerabilities as openings to archetypal forces
- Practice identifying and uncoupling from a source of possession
- Enjoy resources on archetypal possession and spiritual emergency
Six
Lesson 6: Harmful Spirits, Curses, and Cultural Troubles
- Reach for common language on harmful spirits, curses, and psychic attack
- Explore impacts of fear and cultural bias when addressing malevolence
- Consider cultural troubles as a type of interference from harmful powers
- Kindly review your life in a way that respects the reality of malevolence
- Enjoy Indigenous and animist perspectives on danger and big trouble
Seven
Lesson 7: Belonging, Ecopsychology, and Becoming a Place
- Consider the psycho-spiritual implications of home and belonging
- Explore the strengths and limits of eco-psychology as animist praxis
- Identify responsible ways for settlers to cultivate local Earth wisdoms
- Practice disrupting false human-nature and culture-nature dichotomies
- Enjoy resources on heart-aware decolonization and becoming a place
Eight
Lesson 8: Integration, Cultural Healing, and Ways to Deepen
- Explore different cultural frames for an ethic of service and relatedness
- Identify the foundations of healthy psyche in your ancestral cultures of origin
- Consider the long-term balance of critical thinking with love and kindness
- Practice identifying ways to deepen your path of personal cultivation
- Enjoy hopeful, inspiring resources from culturally encouraging clinicians
Cost
Accessibility is a core value at Ancestral Medicine. We offer several pricing tiers, and we leave it to you to select the most appropriate tier. The ranges in pricing aim to take into consideration global economic disparities, historical injustices, and personal circumstances. The system is designed for those with more to register in ways that support those with less.
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 Cost
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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.
What’s Included
- Eight recorded lessons, each 60-90 minutes in duration
- Guided, experiential practices accompanying each lesson.
- Access to dedicated community forum for those engaged in similar learning.
- Extensive additional resources featuring ancestrally diverse voices
- Responsive and helpful support, if needed, from Ancestral Medicine staff
- Lifetime access to course resources
"People practicing healing arts of any kind are wise to include this course in our education/training. It illuminates and honors absolutely necessary perspectives that are underrepresented in many practices (perhaps especially psychology). What is also incredibly impressive, and what really underlies and carries all the material (which is in itself invaluable) is the integrity with which Daniel teaches, creates space, and carefully invites us to participate in our own personal way(s)."
– Tecoya R., North Bonneville, Washington, USA
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
There’s no need for any psychological training or prior experience with animist, earth-honoring ritual to benefit from this course. Course recordings and resources are accessible and make connections across disciplines and cultures. The material aims to serve practitioners of ritual arts, mental health professionals, and anyone interested in the intersections of psychology, the sacred, and love of the Earth.
This course is designed to explore mental health and ritual topics through an animist lens, and participants may find themselves reflecting on tender or vulnerable topics like trauma, bonding, psychosis, and belonging. The course is not a replacement for direct, living support and/or professional medical advice, and enrollment does automatically include access to our Community Forum—an online discussion group of students past and present, including supportive members from Ancestral Medicine’s Practitioner Network and Ancestral Medicine staff. Sharing experiences, reflecting on practices, and making connections in this private online community can provide one form of support.
Ancestral Medicine offerings are rooted in feminist, decolonizing, anti-racist, LGBTQI-friendly, class-aware, international, Earth-honoring ethics and a heart-aware and non-dogmatic spirit that seeks to honor each participant’s unique life experiences and ancestral storylines. Resources included with each lesson favor ancestrally and geographically diverse voices both within and outside the field of psychology, and the online Community Forum includes BIPOC and LGBTQ-only discussion spaces.
All of our lesson videos have closed captioning, as well as a full transcript and 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.
“This course was exactly what I needed at this point in my life, intellectual, heartfelt, in-depth and provocative. So much was covered, and even though I did manage to keep up, I could probably redo it multiple times and always find something new requiring further digestion. It was truly unique and very engaging, managing a very tricky balance of content from what sometimes seemed like irreconcilable ways of thinking. Thank you.”
– Jim L., Melbourne, Australia
“This is an engaging and potentially challenging course that will take you deeper into the intersection of New Animism and the mental health field. I’d recommend this course for anyone in a helping profession as well as any and all unrepentant psychology nerds out there.”
– Caitlin M., Whiting, Indiana, USA
“As far as content, people practicing healing arts of any kind are wise to include this course in our education/training. It illuminates and honors absolutely necessary perspectives that are underrepresented in many practices (perhaps especially psychology). What is also incredibly impressive, and what really underlies and carries all the material (which is in itself invaluable) is the integrity with which Daniel teaches, creates space, and carefully invites us to participate in our own personal way(s). As well, his knowledge and experience provide a depth of understanding and variety of perspective that feels deeply grounded while still holding all the appropriate doors open for what is still to be explored.”
– Tecoya R., North Bonneville, Washington, USA
“This course has provided me with so much. Not just a way to bridge the gap between psychology and spirituality but the course also helped me in my own personal life. The content is easily digestible and both rich enough for a professional to find value, yet personable enough that someone without a background in psychology can understand the topics. I’m so happy I took this course and I will be taking more in the future.”
– Kaytea L., Aurora, Colorado, USA
“Daniel is one of the most powerful teachers I have ever had the opportunity to learn from. I have three degrees, including two Master’s Degrees (one in Social Work), and I learned concepts, practices and ways of understanding from Daniel about people, the earth and life than I ever did in academia. Daniel blends his knowledge and lived experiences of both the clinical and non-clinical perspectives in this course, and teaches ways to connect with yourself and others from an animist perspective. He delves into Psychology, mental health and how the Western perspective is one limited way to approach life and working with others. His teachings are from an intersectional, inclusive, trauma-informed and respectful approach that helps people across all ages, genders, socio-economic situations, faiths, abilities, and ethno-cultural groups expand their knowledge to find a deeper meaning in life. This course makes space to explore tough issues such as colonialism in a dignified way, so all participants can work through it collectively while building a community of informed and compassionate people with resiliency. This course is one of a kind, and I highly recommend it for mental health providers, as well as anyone who is looking to deeply understand themselves, and the world better.”
– Phoenix R., Kitchener, Ontario, CA
If you have general questions about our organization, offerings, or values, you may enjoy our Frequently Asked Questions page. If there’s something else, we’d be happy to help! Reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org and someone from our team will be in touch, usually within 1-2 business days.
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