WELCOME TO FOREST MEDICINE RETREATS

We are located in the ancestral homelands of the First Nations of Treaty 1 signed in August 1871. The lands located by Camp Morton and Gimli, Manitoba are located on the ancestral lands of the Peguis First Nation (see also Selkirk Treaty signed in 1817).

Join us and further your investment in your herbal medicine journey and healing study at our Forest Medicine Retreats.

The Forest Medicine Retreats is our own personal journey to preserve the Forest and its herbal medicines - and why we decided to host students of Hollow Reed School of the Healing Arts to learn and study - and its a community journey to wonder, awe, observe and study the Forest. So it is always here to help us be grounded in the medicines and our community. Twice a year in summer, we believe the retreats provide the educational and inspirational foundation for a better future grounded in herbal medicines.

Immersed in nature in the boreal forest at the Little Retreat in the Forest (littleretreatintheforest.com) in Manitoba’s Interlake just north of Gimli, Manitoba where we study while we take in the healing and calming energies of the spruce and poplar trees for a full learning weekend.

We are thrilled that we will study with Master Herbalist Chad Cornell of Hollow Reed School of the Healing Arts. Let me pass on what I know about Chad - I have known Chad for decades, he has wonderful teaching abilities and tremendous knowledge of the healing energies of our human bodies.

The classroom is (literally) the Forest - and the Dome, a 30 foot outdoor nature dome (mostly) away from the elements and the Forest’s creatures and insects. You’ll learn about nature's medicines, how plant medicine helps us and how we can use those medicines for our own personal healing journeys. Add some yoga, meditation instruction, plant identification walks, and some time to visit the local Arnes farmers market or go into beautiful Gimli and support local businesses there you go!

Like you, we have years of learning about herbal medicines and use them for our healing in one form or another, knowing that herbal medicines can help our human bodies in restoring themselves. We have designed different levels of retreat options depending upon where you are at in your learning journey. I have been learning from Chad for many years before I embarked on our own herbal medicine journeys and our path to preserving and nurturing the medicine diversity in the Forest. We are also experienced hosts, hosting guests who stay year round in the cabin at this special place in the Forest.

At the retreats you will study a breadth of curriculum taught by a skilled master herbalist and teacher and cover the subject of the healing properties of the plants of our world, and the non-linear ways we can learn about plants that the Western World seems to be missing. See below and in our Retreat Shop for the Retreats we offer. Both are open to all levels of study in herbalism, from beginner to advanced.

Please this is an alcohol and drug free gathering. Breathing in the Forest phytochemicals and spirit is all we need. Oh maybe a sense of wonder and awe!!

TEACHING FUNDAMENTALS:

The retreats each include a balance of teachings including the following:

• fundamentals of herbalism and its practices going back thousands of years and across cultures

• basics of wild food harvesting and uses

• deepen your understanding of creating your own personal medicine chest for these unique times we live in

• learn the process of making remedies, creating formulas, and assessing which plants to use

• explore legendary and essential local plants, mushrooms, and tree medicines

• develop a deep and genuine relationship with each of your plant allies, your "familiars"

• explore non-linear ways of knowing and learning such as dream yoga, lucid dreaming, shamanic journeying, creative visualization, meditation, and herbs specifically used for empowering one's ability to dream well, in the setting of the forest and the trees.    

Non-instructional optional activities we have added to supplement and synthesize the Hollow Reed teachings include sensory plant walks, forest bathing (shinrin yoku), soundscapes, getting your toes in the soil, communal fires, sharing time, meditation guidance, morning yoga and a little bit of adventure and fun!

Each retreat has limited registration - up to a maximum of 20 people.

We are on site and participating in the gatherings and available to provide anything you need or answer your questions.

Please STAY IN TOUCH WITH US!

As we get closer, we will send you our E-BOOK with details of the Retreat like recommendations on what to bring (like your camp chair and other things!) with more information and about the Land we call “the Forest”, and also the WAIVER that has to be signed (basic outdoor nature education waiver for legal reasons!)

Michael and Colette