Yasei Shinrin-Yoku Guide Primary Certification - Distance Learning
contact the forest
250.547.2001
REGULAR REGISTRATION
Complete Semester Program Cost: $1900.00 (Canadian Dollars)
SPECIAL $1600.00 until September 7, 2025
- Please Note: If you would like to enroll more than one person
please send us and email in order to register.
You may register within the regular program using this secure Paypal link:
You may also register by Interac or
Wells Fargo Transfer. Send us an email and we will send you instructions.
- Camp Accommodation is Included
If you have questions please email us or call 250.547.2001
Growing your Yasei Shinrin Yoku
Guide Certification
You can grow your Guide Certification and become a Practitioner which will allow you to deliver our 12 Session Forest Therapy Program. We understand that as a Forest Therapy Guide you are challenged which trying to retain your clients for return visits. Currently the largest segment of Forest Therapy clients are those who become a “one-off client”. It’s this dynamic that has plagued ecotourism and nature-based guiding for decades. At the Wildcraft Forest School we have developed a 12 session Forest Therapy program where clients have a more enhanced opportunity to follow through with nature-based healing with your guidance.
You can now become a Practitioner and we will deduct the Distance Learning Registration Fee that you have paid, which will allow you to enroll in the Practitioner Training Program.
Wild Forest Therapy Winter Tookit
If you have been a past participant in our Guide or Practitioner Programs and you would like to receive “Wild Forest Therapy Winter Tookit” you can register today and begin the online program November 15th. The winter program will help you to continue your practice during the late autumn and winter months and includes print material, videos and question and answer sessions.
It doesn’t matter how much snow is on the ground, or how long the winter is, your Yasei Shinrin Yoku practice does not have to be put on hold.
Register now at $180 (Canadian Dollars)
Yasei Shinrin Yoku
and Spiritual Stewardship
Nature is returning as a key element within the human spiritual experience. Don Elzer talks about how Yasei Shinrin Yoku delivers a practice where-by we create a working relationship with nature through stewardship.
This calm connecting of “being” in the forest, turns into tangible results. Physicist Fritjof Capra described the process…“During (these) periods of relaxation after periods of concentrated intellectual activity, the intuitive mind seems to take over and can produce the sudden clarifying insights which give so much joy and delight.”
New research from University of Utah psychology researchers is helping prove what American authors John Muir and Henry David Thoreau tried to teach more than 150 years ago: Time spent in nature is good for the heart and soul.
At the Wildcraft Forest School we teach people to become Yasei Shinrin Yoku Guides and Practitioners and we have even developed a clinical program connected to this practice which takes a wilder approach to forest therapy but also combines with forms of Earth-based spiritually and practical applications of stewardship. Yasei is now being delivered in over 30 countries.
Our world both locally and globally is in a great transition so it becomes important to plan our lives so that we can continue to survive and thrive during these challenging times. So I would like to share with you a few important points as to why you might want to embrace this training for economic reasons.
“This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy.”
― Susan Polis Schutz
Time in nature helps older adults with improved health and purpose in life. Live long and prosper - move through space between big trees and connect your brain.
At the Wildcraft Forest School the largest percentage of our Shamanic Coaching students are coming out of the hospice work sector. Our training program is slowly being recognized by many as providing powerful tools for those who are seeking to address challenges with ageing – whether it is for themselves or for others.
Within our society we have a great number of people who have lived without any spiritual awakening and when they find themselves near the "end" they have no logical or peaceful approach to how they might be "beginning".
Our Shamanic Coaching program really helps hospice care workers and other health professionals create a connection with these folks during one of the most important times in their lives. The program also helps the coach retain their own healthy meaning and purpose within this mission which depends on a powerful connection to nature and spirit.
Research indicates that Forest Therapy can alleviate stress, uplift mood and boost cognitive and immune functions. It may also reduce blood pressure and heart rate and improve sleep quality. These results have created foundation interest from healthcare agencies to have healthcare professionals recommend and even prescribe Forest Therapy to treat some of their clients and patients.
The Wildcraft Forest School has been delivering Forest Therapy training programs for well over a decade and has incorporated a Healing Forest component within its teachings. This work provides an opportunity for faith-based, community and cultural groups to incorporate nature into programs and gatherings while at the same time strengthening those events with Forest Therapy methods.
The program teaches a series of empathy exercises in order to help individuals develop and strengthen their ability to understand and share the feelings of others. These exercises range from active listening to more creative activities like role-playing and fiction reading, all aimed at fostering a greater understanding of different perspectives.
Similarly the programs mindfulness exercises involve focusing on the present moment without judgment, helping to reduce stress and improve focus. These exercises can be simple and can be incorporated into daily routines. Some examples include mindful breathing, body scans, and mindful walking.
A special emphasis is placed on understanding the ecology found within your Healing Forest and how to engage the public in stewardship projects that will help the forest and the reconciliation process. Additional emphasis is placed on how to recruit indigenous engagement that will help support the forest and its efforts as well as community specialists who will also support elements of stewardship and reconciliation.
The training moves through the 5-Session Program which provides practitioners with various themes by which they can engage with individuals and groups in a Sanctuary Forest and on an ongoing basis.
Details
Section 1
- Exploring a Sanctuary Forest and Reconciliation
- Understanding How to Create a Relationship with a Forest and Nature
- Introduction to the Yasei Shinrin Yoku Session Program and Practitioner Training
- Therapeutic Journaling Methods for Rewilding
- Applied Wild and Indigenous Sciences
- Plants and Ecology Studies, Biosemiotics, Microbe Studies
- Mother Tree and Stewardship Studies
Section 2
- Discipleship and Nature
- Yasei Shinrin Yoku Meditation and Activity Exercises
- Individual Sessions
- Group Sessions
- Energy Work and Nature Communication
- Intuition and Cognitive Skill Exercises
- Storytelling
Section 3
- Creating a Sanctuary Forest as a Faith-based Centre
- Stewardship and Rewilding Methodologies
- Kinships: Plant and Tree Identification Activities
- Empathy and Mindfulness Exercises
- The Indigenous Presence in the Landscape
- Understanding Biodiversity
Section 4
- Trail and Park Design, safety features and individual and group dynamics.
- Partnership and Project Development
- Sanctuary Forest Planning
- Recruiting Diverse Community Support
This program is delivered through our Semester Program which represents a yearlong training and mentorship process that includes two 3-day in-person camps, online lessons and live student conferences. Participants can also do the entire program online. Each camp retreat is 3 days in length. Camp accommodation in a working forest is included. Airport shuttle is also available.
The online sections of the program begin in November 2025 and camp scheduling is determined with the participants as a group beginning in the spring of 2026, with the program being completed in October 2026.
- The Complete Semester Program is available for $1900 (Canadian Dollars) per person or $3325 (Canadian Dollars) for two people.
- Please note that customized scheduling is available for a minimum group size of four people.
Wildcraft Forest School - Camp Programs
Forest Discipleship:
Sanctuary Forest Practitioners Training
A Forest Therapy 5-Session Program that engages nature for strengthening mindfulness, discipleship and reconciliation within people in faith-based communities
This training is delivered within both an online training option and an in-person option. Training is delivered from a series of Sanctuary Forests and successful participants will receive certification as Yasei Shinrin Yoku Practitioners and specializing in Healing and Sanctuary Forests. This series was prepared as a leadership program to help communities, spiritual retreats, churches, temples, and other faith-based centres imagine how nature can be incorporated into their work and how nature can serve as a means to strengthen acts of empathy, mindfulness, reconciliation and discipleship.
Within this training Practitioners learn to deliver a 5-Session Sanctuary Forest Program which helps individuals and groups engage with nature in order to explore aspects of healing, meaning and purpose which helps to strengthen their sense of empathy, mindfulness discipleship and stewardship which can then support conflict resolution on the way to building stronger relationships, particularly in the context of reconciliation efforts between people and nature. Practitioners learn how to facilitate conversations, promote understanding, and guide individuals through the process of reconciliation utilizing the forest as a platform for sharing and learning.
Training introduces the practices of spiritual ecology that should be considered all-inclusive and pan-spiritual and pan-religious. It focuses on sharing the spiritual attributes found in nature that can be used factually or metaphorically to support any belief. This training also includes the science and results connected to Forest Therapy and other nature-based activities that provide opportunities for bringing faith-based and cultural groups outside and into a Sanctuary Forest.
This training includes a number of features but one of the more popular modalities is Forest Therapy popularly known as Forest Bathing or Shinrin Yoku. The practice was developed in Japan during the 1980s and has since become a building block for preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. Researchers primarily in Japan and South Korea have established an extensive body of scientific literature on the health benefits of spending time under the canopy of a living forest.
