What is Nature-based Healing?
I’d like to make something clear about my nature-based work: nature is never “used” to “heal” humans. Rather, something much more akin to remembrance happens, a restored relationship between our soul and the soul of the world, the disillusion of the idea we were ever separate. Nature-based healing, also knows as ecotherapy, recognizes the Earth and all beings as animate and acknowledges that in order for humans to be healthy and in right relationship to themselves and each other, we must primarily belong to and be in service to the web of life. To ALL of life. In its essence, nature based work addresses both the physical and psychological ailments of the modern-day condition by re-establishing a strong connection with the natural world.
You were born with the innate capacity to communicate and connect, to ritualize your life and in live with the embodied knowledge of the aliveness of the universe within and around you.
You can learn more about my nature-based work below.
Women’s Wilderness Ceremony
June 1-9 2024
Milipitas, Big Sur, CA
Questions & Inquiries: Please contact Angela here
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The Women's Wilderness Ceremony is an opportunity to be in deep connection with the land, community, and soul through 9 days in the wilderness of Big Sur, four of which are spent in a 3-day, 3-night solo journey (with a fast- see "vision fast" ceremony).
The solo journey is an opportunity to mark life change or transition, and may be treated as a severance from an old identity or way of being in the world, an honoring of who you are now, or an honoring of who you are becoming. For some, this ceremony will be a rite of passage into a new role, identity, or phase of life.
This is a time to be held by the land, listen deeply, and receive healing and transformation, all within a strong container of women.
What to Expect:
The program is divided into three sections; severance, threshold, and incorporation. The first three days are a time of ‘severance’ or separation from your daily life, leaving behind what no longer serves, and setting intentions for your solo. The ‘threshold time’ is your solo time of four days and nights in the eastern Big Sur wilderness, Milipitas. The three days following the solo time are the first days of your incorporation experience, where we will learn to incorporate the gifts from your journey into your life and community.
You may also expect:
Nature-based Ritual
Council
Medicine Walks
Embodiment Practices
Community Meals
Two Experienced Guides (WFR Cert)
A Loving Container
Tuition & Registration
Tuition:
$1250-$2000
Sliding Scale
What's Included:
• Pre-Trip Zoom Call
(e.g. physical, emotional, and spiritual prep)
• First night's dinner, dinner before solo, and breakfast after solo
• Post-Trip Zoom Integration Call
• One-on-One & Group Support
• Two Experienced Guides Supporting You Every Step of the Journey
What's Not Included:
• Travel to-and-from location
(we can help coordinate carpools)
• Meals (except the meals stated above)
• Camping gear, such as sleeping bag, pad, cooking supplies, etc.
(we can help you find any other gear that you need)
Your Guides
Deanna Renee Falge
Deanna is a passionate guide, Earth steward and dancer. She is dedicated to supporting the unfolding of people’s life journey and transformation by nurturing their emotional and spiritual connection with the Earth. Her relationship with the Earth has served as an essential anchor for navigating her life and soul's purpose, and she wants everyone to have this same opportunity.
Deanna has studied wilderness rites of passage and the art of vision fast guiding with the School of Lost Borders, Animas Valley Institute, and Earth-based Institute. She has formal education in Biological Psychology from UC Santa Barbara, and is a certified Nature-Connected Life Coach, Transformational Wilderness Guide, and Wilderness First Responder. She has years of training and experience in outdoor mentorship, nature-connection, wilderness ceremonies, ancestral skills, backpack guiding, ecotherapy, trauma-informed coaching, ritual, dance and embodiment facilitation.
Angela Vincent
Angela is a soul guide disguised in many forms. She has spent her life following the golden threads of mystery, swimming in alpine lakes and wild rivers, bathing like a lizard on hot rocks, and above all being awed by the beauty and irony of the world. She brings the gifts of humor, wildness, love, and deep witnessing to others’ unique unfoldings. Through her many experiences of deep connection to the soul of the Earth, she has formed a deep commitment to helping others remember their innate belonging and purpose.
She has studied with The School of Lost Borders, The Animas Valley Institute, and Martin Prechtel's "school," Bolad's Kitchen. Her formal education includes a Bachelor's degree in Secondary Education and a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy.
Registration:
To Register, please contact Angela through our
Contact Form or at:
angela@innerguide.earth
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Women’s Sunset & Full Moon Hike
Santa Cruz, CA
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What: A low-intensity hike in Wilder Ranch under the glow of the full moon with a pack of wildly beautiful women like yourself!
When: Monday March 25th, beginning at 7:00 pm
Where: Exact location TBA. A welcome letter with logistics including location will be sent upon registering.
Donation: Asking a $5-$20 donation
Registration:
To register, please contact me here: Contact Form or at:
angela@innerguide.earth
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Inner Guidance Walks
1:1:1 mentoring between you, me, and Nature
The practice of an Inner Nature Walk, known widely as a Medicine Walk, is an ancient one, belonging to all humans from many cultures throughout all of time. In its essence, an Inner Nature Walk is an opportunity to connect deeply with self, the Sacred Other, and to be witnessed by community. Inner Nature Walks allow you to connect to your own sources of guidance and support during life transitions and any time in which you find yourself “seeking.” It is a way for you to find and integrate your personal Medicine.
Medicine Walks have been apart of my self-care, healing and transformational process for many years. I have found them to be one of the most precious gifts I have given myself, and my passion is to share this gift with you.
To do an Inner Guidance Walk all you need is the desire to go out and wander with a question tickling your soul. This wander can be in nature, a wild space, or a park, a city block, or your backyard! They can truly be done anywhere and create a profound experience because of the intention you carry makes it so. While you are out on your wander you will carry a question with you as you let your heart and body guide your meanderings.
Inner Guidance Walks help provide answers to the basic questions of a life-transition: where am I going?, what must I leave behind?, what do I need to learn now?, and what will I have to offer from the next phase of my life? It may also be used as part of a healing or renewal, offering answers to questions such as what do I need to see about my life now? what parts of my inner self do I need to reclaim?, what will help me move toward greater wholeness?
Medicine here refers to your unique gifts for the world. Your Medicine is your presence, power, and human potential, what you need in order to be whole, and what you have to offer others. Your medicine is both a gift from outside and a quality of your inner nature. (thanks to John Davis for his wonderful synthesis of the Medicine Walk journey).
Everyone deserves to give themselves the essential gift of solitary, intentional and precious time in Nature to reconnect with self, the sacred Other, and return to their community feeling more belonging, wholeness and inspiration.
A word on cultural appropriation. It is absolutely imperative that we be mindful when working with any type of ritual, earth-based or otherwise. Although the concept and practice of a Medicine Walk does not belong to one particular culture or people, it is oft associated with Native American spiritual tradition. I am using the term Medicine Walk because to me it is the most direct and accurate way to describe it- we walk in nature to explore questions and receive our own personal medicine (healing) from the land. We acknowledge the land we stand on, respectfully engaging in conversation, reciprocity and curiosity for the benefit of all beings.
Here’s How
1 hr pre-walk: We will meet together in person or over Zoom to discuss your intentions for the walk. This will be a time for you to share your story and to distill your intention for your ceremonial wander. I will listen, ask questions, and share reflections to help guide the conversation and come to a solid heart-felt intention.
You’ll go on a solo wander in nature. We will discuss the details of where, when, and how during our first meeting.
1 hr post-walk: After your walk we will meet again, this time you will share the story from your wander and I will hold space, mirror/reflect, and be a sacred, present, and loving witness to your process.
You will leave this experience with a deeper sense of belonging and connection to the natural world, a renewed understanding of your unique gifts and purpose, and kinship with others on their unique soul journeys.
You will be guided every step of the way by me and your own Inner Guide.
Sliding scale $125-$175
EcoTherapy Sessions
Cultivating an authentic relationship to the natural world is a not only a prerequisite for a healthy state of mind, but it is also your birthright as a human being. We evolved with alongside nature and the more-than-human world, and modern society’s unfortunate separation from what we ultimately belong to and what we are essentially made of creates much mental and emotional distress.
No matter how far you may have drifted or how disconnected you may feel, nature is here awaiting your return.
Ecotherapy sessions can help repair your relationship with the natural world, your inner and outer landscapes, and bring meaning, connection, belonging, and joy into your life.
EcoTherapy tools include but are not limited to:
working with the elements (earth, air, fire, water)
practicing gratitude
self generated ceremony to mark transitions, grieve, claim new beginnings
journaling
wandering & medicine walks
dream work
mindfulness and body awareness
sensory exploration
music, art, movement
ancestral skills
discovering nature allies and kin
walk and talks
solo time
full moon hikes
sit-spot
and more…
Sessions are customized to each client. They can be a one-off, or ongoing.
Here’s how:
We’ll start with a 1 hr phone or Zoom consultation to explore your needs & desires and to design a session
EcoTherapy session 1.5 hours on the land
Financial contribution:
Consultation + Ecotherapy Session: $210
Subsequent 1 hr sessions: $100/hr.
“Nature, too, supports our personal blossoming (if we have any quiet exposure to her) through her spontaneities, through her beauty, power, and mirroring, through her dazzling variety of species and habitats, and by way of the wind, Moon, Sun, stars, and galaxies.”
― Bill Plotkin, Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World
“Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise.”
― Annie Dillard