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Gretchen (Grae) Gerlach

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Gretchen (Grae) Gerlach (she/her) grew up in rural Montana,
where she was raised as much by the wilderness as by her nature loving
parents. With the Rocky Mountains, glacier fed rivers, ancient forests,
creatures of her homeland and a horse ranching community as
inspiration she declared her life purpose early on in life (6 years old); “I
will work with the nature in people!”

Having worked as a Wilderness Therapy Guide since 2015, Grae
was drawn to The School of Lost Borders with hopes of finding
community and opportunities that would resonate and support her life’s
intention. It was a discovery that felt like a remembrance! Since then,
she incorporates Ceremony into her work with youth and adults in rehab
and recovery with passionate emphasis on Rites of Passage for women
and ceremonies for the practice of living and dying. In addition to her
participation within the School, Grae has guided for Rites of Passage
Journeys, and Crone Collective, as well as creating her own business
Naetura Cara, where she focuses on integrating a Rites of Passage
perspective combined with Somatic Embodiment into diverse
communities.

Grae’s style is to create a simple foundation and a center of gravity
where individuals' internal natures, as rich and wild as the environments
that hold them, can come together, can remember reciprocity, can heal,
and can mark a place of belonging in the long lineage before and after
them. She approaches her work from a place of love, humble
responsibility, and gratitude for the wisdom she has inherited from her
Mother (Mama and Nature!) as well as the lineage of learning that her
mentors have shared.

Email: [email protected]
Website: naeturacara.com

 

GUIDE'S UPCOMING PROGRAMS

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AZ Mirroring the Four Shields of Human Nature: The Art of Storytelling and Listening

This Program is an invitation to all humans who are willing to share stories and experience the gift of mirroring stories of empowerment and wholeness. This program is also specifically appropriate for direct care professionals such as: wilderness guides, counselors, coaches, and teachers to name...

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Young Adults Nature Based Rite of Passage

  You are a young person in this world, with childhood behind you, no longer a teenager, you have aged into the phase of young adulthood.  Are you an adult? How? When? Why?  What does being an adult mean to you? Who are you at your…

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CA Summer Vision Fast

The modern day vision quest is a border crossing practice, an opportunity to reclaim our true place in the natural world. When one steps across the threshold and into the unknown wilderness, boundaries begin to dissolve and our vision begins to expand. The threshold place…

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The Four Shields of Wholeness for Women

Patrilinear hierarchical systems have pushed life on earth to the raw edge of social and ecological collapse. Many of us feel the global crisis reverberating acutely in our own bodies, in the rawness of our personal lives, and in the torn fabric of our communities. Finding…

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Finding Purpose and Meaning through the Practice of Living and Dying

Life is the primal impulse towards a never ending search for vitality and also the struggle to survive. Without death the life force could not exist. It has been said we come into the world with death beside us. And in the end our physical...

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CA Fall Vision Fast

The twelve day immersion ceremony involves four days of preparation, four days and nights of fasting alone, and four days of incorporation in Death Valley.  (Payahüünadü), at Baker Creek Campground, and the solo threshold phase of the ceremony will take place in Death Valley...

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