Frequently Asked Questions

We understand that people have other commitments in their lives. This training is designed with some 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. We except participants to attend live for most gatherings.

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, please review the training schedule (see above) to consider whether you’ll be available during these 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 2025); however, most trainees will still have outstanding requirements to fulfill by this time.

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 automatically acknowledges receipt of your application.

See the “How to Apply” section above for an overview of the application process. You can also reach out to info@ancestralmedicine.org with 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 favor scholarship applicants who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and/or speak languages other than English. And 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 focus for Cohort Eight is Decolonization, Indigeneity, and Belonging which means that Indigenous peoples worldwide will receive maximum scholarship priority this cycle. And just help us to know what you need, and we’ll do our best.

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, 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 are accessible to the entire network, including incoming trainees (meaning that all trainees get access to teachings from previous years). Please see the next FAQ for how we are holding the Decolonization, Indigeneity, & Belonging focus of Cohort Eight.

Regionally Focused Training Cycle: Decolonization, Indigeneity, and Belonging

The 2024-2025 Practitioner Training (Cohort Eight) is the last in a four-year cycle focusing each year on a specific geographic and cultural region. The intention has been 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 and cooperation. After three cycles; it’s working! Ancestral lineage healing sessions are now available in over 20 languages and as many nations.

With respect to these regional cycles, the training fundamentals are always consistent, no matter the regional focus of that cycle. What does change is the following: 

• The timing of group meetings will be accessible for participants in the region.
• 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 of focus.
• Continuing Education teachings and guest speakers feature the region of focus.

The four-year regional cycle as originally envisioned is as follows:

• Cohort Five (2021-2022) – Europe, West Asia, and North Africa (complete)
• Cohort Six (2022-2023) – Africa and the Diaspora (complete)
• Cohort Seven (2023-2024) – Asia and Oceania (underway)
• Cohort Eight (2024-2025) – The Americas

When preparing for this fourth and final cycle in the series, what became clear to me (Daniel) is that the pattern needed to be adjusted. Rather than focus only on the Americas (and specifically the Indigenous peoples of the Americas), the 2024-25 regional focus will be “Decolonization, Indigeneity, and Belonging.” This recognizes the depth of the ongoing harm of European colonization (ongoing) of the Americas but also the shared concerns of Indigenous peoples worldwide and the larger dynamics of colonialism, empire, and cultural supremacies.

Many guest presenters for the Continuing Education series will be Indigenous peoples, including Indigenous representatives from Mapuche lands to Nunavut, Hawai’i to Borikén (a.k.a. “the Americas”). And the choice to expand the focus to decolonization more broadly recognizes the deep solidarity worldwide among those surviving and thriving, often on traditional lands, despite the ongoing pressures of colonialism.

With respect to meeting the requirements for available scholarship funds, Ancestral Medicine has no desire to gatekeep who is Indigenous or compare who is suffering more from the impacts of colonialism. We know that the vast majority of our scholarship resources will be reserved for Indigenous peoples and others directly living the oppression of colonialism and occupation of traditional lands (e.g., Tibetans, Palestinians). Our team will apply a pragmatic, common sense discernment process for applicants claiming regional criteria that includes: lived experience, degree of long-term investment in the well-being of Indigenous and allied communities, and personal ancestries and identities.  

This regional focus does not mean all training participants will be from that region or of that background. For context, in the 2021-24 cohorts, around 35-50% of training participants met the regional criteria in any given year. There is no need to meet the regional criteria for Cohort Eight to apply for this training cycle. Trainees able to pay the standard training amount both benefit from the training both and also make possible the generous scholarship reductions for those who do meet the regional criteria.

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 Indigenous practitioners 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.