CO Two Week Training
Sep 6th, 2025 - Sep 21st, 2025 | Wild Mountain, Colorado | Ruth “Roo” Wharton, Angelo Joseph Lazenka, Kelly McClelland
In these times of change and uncertainty, it is crucial that we show up for our community in ways that truly serve. The world is calling us to listen in new and old ways to connect with the land and each other for personal and collective healing. We are being called to show up in our communities as initiated, guides, adults, and elders and to remember the value of rites of passage.
This training gives you an experiential immersion in the vision fast ceremony, a modern day rite of passage, including the skills involved in leading the vision fast and an understanding of how the principles of the vision fast can be applied to a profession, community, or client. You will be encouraged to learn the form, the process, and then to give it your own unique expression within life and work. This training model creates a profound learning and healing experience and includes instruction on the following topics:
- Council and creating a safer container
- The four shields of human-nature
- Addressing cultural appropriation
- Screening and preparation of participants
- Shaping and working with intention
- Self-generated ceremony
- 4 day vision fast solo
- Practice of deep listening and mirroring stories
- Incorporation and applications into your work and life
Program Overview: During the two weeks, we will meet most mornings and afternoons with personal time on the land interwoven throughout the training. You will also experience your own four day vision fast ceremony (with an option to fast.) Throughout the two weeks, you will be challenged to wear two hats: one is the hat of the person training in the ways of the vision fast guide and the other is the hat of the person learning experientially what it is like to actually go out on the land as a participant.
Prerequisite: Participation in at least one facilitated vision fast or solo experience.
Program Questions Contact: Kelly McClelland at [email protected].
Submit Waitlist form
This program is full; however, you may add your name to the Waitlist by clicking the Waitlist button below.
Submit enrollment form
Please fill out and submit the enrollment form and then pay the program deposit below. Before you pay the deposit, please read deposit section below, all deposits are non-refundable and non-transferable. After your enrollment form is complete, please submit all health and liability forms.
Pay program deposit
Deposits: This deposit signifies your commitment to the program and is deducted from the tuition balance. All deposits are non-refundable and non-transferable. They cover the work of the specific course you signed up for, including all communication involved as well as the fee that guides pay to the school administration for the course accounting.
Additional Deposit: Some programs require a second deposit to help us affirm commitments. Last minute cancellations make it hard to fill openings and incur a loss of income to the School and the guides.
Tuition Balance: Balance of tuition can be paid before or upon arrival. Simply deduct any deposits made from the amount you’ve chosen on the sliding scale.
Additional course details & Materials
Please plan to arrive at Wild Mountain at 4pm on the late afternoon of September 6th, our first meeting will be at 9:30am on Sept 7th. We will end by mid-afternoon on September 21st. More logistical information will be sent when you register for the program. ADDITIONAL FEES: $150 Camping Fee to be collected at or before the time of the program.
You will be responsible for bringing your own food and equipment, though we can provide some gear if needed. We ask everyone to come prepared to live self-sufficiently. You will need to bring shelter and clothing suitable for a full range of inclement weather.
All participants must submit the required health questionnaire and liability form.
If you have questions about the enrollment process contact us at [email protected] or call 760-938-3333.
Required reading for this training includes The Trail to the Sacred Mountain: A Vision Fast Handbook for Adults, which contains information on flora, fauna, weather, emergency procedures as well as suggestions for preparing for the vision fast. We also recommend The Love Story, about the lineage of this work. Also, highly recommended is The Roaring of the Sacred River, a training manual for “field eco-therapy”. All publications are available at Lost Borders Press.
Wild Mountain is land of the Tabeguache Ute people and other Indigenous tribes who traveled through this area of the Colorado Rockies. The Ute lived and hunted in this abundant land of elk, buffalo, deer, and bear before white settlers came and forced them onto reservations in southwest Colorado and Utah.
To learn more about our commitment to regenerative relationships please visit Cultural Relations.
