Practitioner Training
Becoming a Spiritual Healing Practitioner Level I: The Essentials
A Year-Long Professional Training and Initiation
A note from Julie
Dear friends,
I was twenty-five years old when a series of synchronicities compelled me to move to Cortes Island, B.C., and begin working at the front desk at Hollyhock. During that formative time, two passions became ignited for me: partnering with helping spirits, and spiritual evolution by way of long-term trainings.
Twenty-five years later, I’ve come full circle. I’m overjoyed to invite you to the inaugural year-long blended learning spiritual practitioner training consisting of two residential retreats at Hollyhock, the seeds for which were planted there over two decades ago.
By way of further context, you may be familiar with my three-year practitioner training, The Art and Practice of Shamanic Healing: A Three-Year Professional Training and Initiation, which has now been completed by three cohorts of beautiful practitioners. My guidance has simply been to divide the “3Y,” as it’s come to be known, into a year-long training and a two-year advanced training. The extensive 3Y curriculum will remain the same; it’s simply being offered in a reimagined format in order to make the foundational teachings that form the basis of the first year accessible to a wider circle.
To that end, the first cohort of Becoming a Spiritual Healing Practitioner Level I: The Essentials will begin with a glorious six-night retreat at Hollyhock in September 2024. Please have a gander below in order to learn about the program design in more depth.
The invitation to lead my trainings at Hollyhock came by way of another series of synchronicities, once again resulting in my leaping at the chance to spend this precious time at Hollyhock, just like I did in 1999.
Leading an immersive spiritual training at Hollyhock is truly a dream come true for me. I so look forward to the chance to share my heart’s home with you.
With love,
Overview
Once you have completed the introductory three-day workshop, “Partnering with Compassionate Spirits: Activating Your Medicine Council,” you are invited to explore this year-long professional training and initiation.
This blended learning professional training is designed for individuals who are called to facilitate spiritual healing and tend to the spiritual well-being of others. Those who feel drawn to working exclusively as spiritual healing practitioners, as well as those who feel drawn to offering spiritual healing in concert with one or more complementary healing modalities (such as Western, Eastern, Functional or Integrative Medicine; psychiatry, psychology, or psychotherapy; hands-on bodywork modalities, etc.), are equally welcome to apply.
The arc of the curriculum unfolds with increasing complexity over time, affording participants the chance to gather and cultivate their unique medicine gradually throughout the year. Thus, during the course of this comprehensive training, participants can expect to develop a wide array of skills; clarify and refine their areas of particular affinity as spiritual healing practitioners; and receive transformative spiritual initiations and empowerments—all within the embrace of a trustworthy, strong, and consistent practice container.
What's Included
The unique learning arc consists of:
- Two six-night in-person residential retreats at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, B.C., Canada in September 2024 and September 2025
- Eleven monthly day-long virtual practice days in between the residential retreats, taking place on Sundays
- Wednesday evening Zoom gatherings every other week to provide you with your at-home curriculum fieldwork assignments
- Practice pods that you meet with monthly (either in person or remotely) for a half-day of intimate small group practice
- A private, dedicated online forum
- A community spiritual healing clinic for the Hollyhock and Cortes Island communities providing participants with a meaningful way to share what they’ve learned and celebrating the completion of the training
the circle
This circle was called into being by the helping spirits and has already been cast in the invisible realms. It is a radiant circle of luminous heartlights who are evolutionary companions for one another.
Because the circle already exists in a subtler dimension of reality, it has a gravitational pull that you may already be drawn to by way of signs, synchronicities and/or guidance from your helping spirits. If this circle is meant to help you become potentiated as a spiritual healing practitioner, you will feel a clear, strong resonance with it.
As a circle, you will bear witness to one another’s spiritual unfolding, including the incremental and colossal shifts as well as the wobbly moments. You will companion one another across the thresholds of initiation. The circle will be animated, enriched, and enlivened by each person’s unique individual medicine. Lifelong spiritual friendships and collegiate relationships will be forged. The circle will consist of people at different stages of life with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences, who are united by the sacred call you share to facilitate spiritual healing on behalf of others.
This circle is a sacred chalice for transformation and evolution that already is—and will continue to be—held within the fiercely loving embrace of our combined helping spirits. As with every circle of this kind, it is unprecedented, precious, and at once timely and timeless.
the Curriculum
What you'll have the opportunity to learn
Here are the specific shamanic healing techniques and practices that you are taught during the training:
- Establishing and collaborating with a Medicine Council
- Psychopomp
- Merging
- Transfiguration
- Cord cutting
- Divination
- Altar creation and tending
- Healing journeys
- Dismemberment and rememberment
- Guided journeys
- Standing-in journeys
- Power animal retrieval
- Mediumship
- Ritual creation and execution, both inside and outside of journey space
THE AT-HOME CURRICULUM
Here's how the at-home curriculum is structured:
One of the features that distinguishes this training is the combination of two residential retreats with an in-depth curriculum that participants follow from home. The at-home curriculum consists of an engaging variety of daily and weekly rituals and practices intended to further enrich the participants’ learning. To that end, the daily and weekly “Fieldwork” is delivered by way of live Zoom gatherings every other week. Participants are expected to remain current with their Fieldwork throughout the program, as the curriculum is progressive and builds upon itself over time. This also ensures that each participant is properly prepared for their monthly pod meetings.
Before the conclusion of the first residential retreat, the circle will be divided into small group practice pods consisting of three or four participants. The pods are self-organized and meet monthly, either in person, via Zoom, or some combination thereof depending on where each pod member lives. The at-home curriculum includes Fieldwork that is designed to be undertaken during the monthly pod meetings.
the purpose of the training
By successfully completing the program, to goal is for you to be qualified to establish a private practice as a professional spiritual healing practitioner, providing shamanic medicine for paying clients.
Residential retreat schedule
Our circle will begin and conclude with two six-night residential retreats at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, B.C.
Here is when the two residential retreats will take place:
Thursday, September 12–Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Thursday, September 11–Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Each of the residential retreats will follow the same basic schedule (see right). Please note that this is an approximate schedule.
Arrival Day
Check-in: 2pm–5pm
Dinner: 6:30pm
Opening Session: 8pm–9:30pm
Full Session Days
Breakfast: 8am
Morning Session: 9:30am–12:15pm
Lunch: 12:30pm
Afternoon Session: 2pm–6:15pm
Dinner: 6:30pm
Evening Session: 7:45pm–9:15pm
Departure Day
Breakfast: 8am
Closing Session: 9:30am–12:15pm
Lunch: 12:30pm
Please be advised that you must vacate your room prior to joining the morning session on the departure day.
Prerequisite
The prerequisite for this training is the completion of Julie’s three-day introductory workshop: Partnering with Compassionate Spirits: Activating Your Medicine Council. There are several opportunities to attend this workshop before the training begins in September 2024.
Application and registration process
Please ensure that you have completed the prerequisite before submitting your application. The early-bird application deadline is Friday, June 7, 2024. The second and final application deadline is Friday, August 16, 2024.
If you are invited to join the training, you will be asked to provide a $500 nonrefundable deposit to hold your spot. Please note that your deposit will be deducted from your tuition. The balance of your tuition will be due by Monday, September 2, 2024.
Step One: Attend an introductory workshop with Julie in order to fulfill the prerequisite.
Step Two: Complete the application.
Step Three: Applicants who are being considered for the training will be invited to schedule a dialogue with Julie via Zoom.
Step Four: Successful applicants will be welcomed into the training and asked to provide a $500 non-refundable deposit to secure their place.
Step Five: Contact Hollyhock directly to reserve your choice of room for the September 2024 retreat.
Step Six: Your tuition balance will be due by Monday, September 2, 2024.
Program Tuition
Final Application Deadline:
Friday, August 23
$5300 CAD or $3900 USD + applicable taxes
The final application deadline is Friday, August 23. A $675 CAD or $500 USD nonrefundable deposit is due upon your acceptance into the training to hold your space. Your remaining balance of $4625 CAD or $3400 USD is due by Monday, September 2, 2024.
FAQs:
Yes, a limited number of tuition scholarships are available. If you would like to apply for a tuition scholarship, please email Julie to inquire further.
No. Once the training begins on September 11, 2024, the circle will be closed.
No. If you withdraw from the training and you would like to join a future cohort, you will be asked to begin the application process anew.
Once the training begins, the cohort is fixed for the duration of the year. Therefore, if anyone leaves the program, their place can’t be filled by another qualified participant. Given that, partial tuition refunds will only be issued when a participant is faced with a personal medical emergency or a death in their immediate family necessitating that they withdraw from the training. In those unforeseeable instances, a partial refund will be calculated and issued based on the date of withdrawal.
