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Ancestral, Folk, & Herbalism School


Stepping into the medicine path

In-Person Summer Program June 1st - September 7 2023

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Welcome to Native Roots

Native Roots is an ancestral folk and herbal medicine school based in Taos, New Mexico that was created to honor elders and to hold space for all peoples to reclaim and reconnect to their own ancestral roots. Teachers focus on sharing healing modalities from the tradition that they come from on self care and community health. Native Roots teachers are dedicated practitioners, leaders and are highly involved in medicine traditions within their respective communities.
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Ancestral, Folk, & Herbalism School

 

Native Roots School offers both a 6-month online program and a 3-month in-depth, in-person curriculum.

Our 3-month in-person curriculum includes 6 hours of an in-depth work-study side-by-side with one of our teachers. Immersion trips including field excursions, camping trips, and clinical practice at a free clinic

 

 6-Month Online Class

May 1 – October 23, 2023

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3-month Ancestral & Herbal 

Medicine Intensive Training  In-Person 

June 1st – September 7th 2023

Monday-Friday 11-4:30pm 

Register by March 31st
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On This Opportunity to Learn

Our school features medicine workers and elders working across a spectrum of the healing arts. Students have an opportunity to study medicine in the context it is relevant to and classes are often taught in a nonacademic way. Several of the teachers have written books, and may have a masters or PhD but this is not our focus. We value the grandma healers, and the ones who carry the knowledge of many generations of their elders doing the same thing, the people who are actively working with their community and being in touch with their roots.

 

Click below to read each teacher’s bio and program topics…

 

Karen Waconda

Dr. Pepper Hernandez

Joseph Brophey Toledo

Malia Roe

Morgaine Witriol

Miriam Foronda

Tiffany Freeman

About you

Who this program is designed for…

The person who has felt the calling to honor their own healing process and wants to be of service to their community. This is for people who are ready to create their own unique practice of holistic health and medicine. Those who feel in their hearts and spirits and every cell of their body the call towards creating relationship within and without – with the elements, with the plant and stone people, with all of nature and life itself. The ones who want to awaken the cellular and ancestral memory, who honor reverence and humility in the presence of medicine and the medicine keepers.

 

We have had doctors, nurses, lawyers, homesteaders, massage therapists, journalists, clinical and beginner herbalists, therapists, travelers, wanderers, farmers, native, non-native. We’ve had students at their quarterlife, midlife and ¾ life transitory points, who feel ready to honor their true life calling. Those who have felt disempowered, ready to really do the work, shed the trauma, face the intergenerational wounds, reclaim their roots.

 

What form will your future take?

Comprehensive Curriculum

What students will learn and gain through this program:

  • A strong foundation in herbal materia medica, organ systems and history taking
  • An introduction to tongue diagnosis
  • Self healing, shadow work and integration
  • Plant identification and safety through medicinal plant walks and medicine making
  • Heal ancestral trauma and wounds
  • Community building, with emphasis on community health
  • Creating Relationship with the elements (fire, earth, water, air)
  • Learning to honor our innate rhythms and cycles through prayer, ritual, and ceremony
  • Bodywork and intuitive body mapping practice on self and others

Testimonials

“This is the real deal. Native Roots uses their intuitive knowledge and learned organizational skills to bring to the forefront those who carry the history and deep knowledge yet lack the ability to enter into the mainstream. She is a woman on Las Fronteras who uses her privilege and deep respect to bring us all to a higher place. “
Gina Perez-Baron MD
"I found the class to be a refreshing organized effort of ancient productive healing modalities and traditions brought into this modern time when the entire world needs a universal balm of rich loving warm healing and growth. The teacher's collective wisdom, knowledge, humility and goodness are taught in a way that reflects what has kept ancient indigenous people going and can keep up going as well when we apply these ideals in our lives. I am in deep gratitude for their time and efforts and look forward to more classes."
Umma Amina
"I have been asked to examine my relationship with the natural world, including myself, on a deeper and more spiritual level. I am learning how to live in harmony and respect with mother Earth, her plants and animals, not just use them for medicine."
Stephanie
Native roots has created a community of love, healing, and re-remembering that gives to all. It is truly a gift to be able to share such wisdom, stories, and ancient truths with beautiful people. I am forever grateful for all that the online course has given me, and know these are the tools I will carry with me and continue to pass on. It is hard for me to sum up all I have learned thus far... however I feel I have grown a deeper and more connected sense of True self and through looking at the land around me and the ancestors with me. It is so wonderful to have such beautiful and likeminded people sharing the same knowing of deep importance for all that we discuss. I have learned better journeying techniques, better meditation techniques, ways to connect deeper with the land around me and the people with me.
Michelle Roide
"The reflection and introspection in relation to understanding, strengthening, and deepening my relationship with plants has been a wonderful foundation and beginning to the exploration of herbal medicine. The teachings of tradition have also added integrity, authenticity, meaning, and connection to this course. I'm excited to join class each lesson and am always presently surprised and thankful for what I learn externally and internally."
Corinne
"This 6-month course has already blown my expectations out of the water. I love having different teachers rooted in different disciplines to share their experiences and help us go deeper into our own selves. I did not expect to connect so deeply to the subject matter, the other students, and myself, all at the same time. The synergy created has been truly magical."
Lindsay Oliver
“Native Roots called to me from across the Country when I was longing for something more in my existence. Answering the call forever altered the course of my reality as I sat with teachers, healers, and elders. The truths I gained from sitting in the presence of such deeply connected people, people that carried traditions and ways of being that both the Earth and our bodies remember, nourished me as my entire being remembered these indigenous ways – these ways humans have lived since the beginning of time. Each teacher is able to tune into the students and deliver what is needed, making each class feel sacred and fully customized. Most classes take place in Taos, New Mexico which feels integral to the entire experience. Many people have tried to put into words what it is that makes Taos so magical. It’s something I think about frequently, and ultimately surrender my thinking to the unknown, because it’s not something that is tangible or something that can be named. It’s more of a feeling — an energy. You’ll feel it when you’re in the mountains: almost as if the plants are speaking louder. It’s hard to say if this is true of if the remoteness of the area allows for clearer transmissions. Either way – there is an abundance of plant life in this area and the teachers of Native Roots give them a proper introduction to ensure you’ll remember them and can share their medicine with the generations to come. Taos is steeped in culture and Native Roots offers the unique opportunity to understand and appreciate its history and its people in an intimate way. Prior to finding Native Roots I was searching for truth and occasionally finding it in podcasts or from strangers on the internet— often feeling like an outsider to most of society. That hasn’t entirely gone away but I’ve gained the confidence to trust in my innate wisdom and in my remembering. My connection to myself and the Earth feels stronger. I am able to honor and share my intuitive gifts more freely. Native Roots was invaluable in forging that confidence.”
Carissa Ervine
“I chose to participate in NR classes because, having taken herbal medicine courses and received a certificate from very mainstream American/white teachers, something was missing. That missing part was The Sacred. And I sought out my own "Return to Sacred" through NR's classes. Participating as a student has been a huge, deep in-breath of life and connection and community that I have found at NR. These aren't just "classes," for me - they are tutorials in how to live life as a fully authentic human being. I am also grateful that NR provides free participation to indigenous/native people for the classes as this is how I believe it should be (NO financial barriers to participation so we all can sit together in circle as equals) and I have gained so much knowledge also from my fellow students, who truly do represent a full spectrum of diverse backgrounds and unique, individual insights into not only herbs, but also in a very real, wise and organic way of meeting all of life's challenges with integrity and a spiritual focus, even under difficult circumstances. I do, indeed, plan my own schedule of time off from my own work in my own healing community to attend these classes - so full of relaxation, learning and renewal. Thank you so much for what you do to give us these classes/gifts, NR, and to the teachers willing to impart their wisdom to us.”
Amelia FreeMSW, LMT

Online Program

Online Program

6-Months

96 hours of educational time

May 1 – October 23, 2023

Mondays + Wednesdays 5:30 – 7:30pm

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 Sliding Scale Cost: $1,690-$3,800*

 

By donation to tribally affiliated members of New Mexico

 

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Registration

Program Pricing & Payment

We try to make classes affordable to everyone as well as economically viable for teachers.

*Our programs are offered on a sliding scale, and we ask that you pay within a spectrum of what you can afford. The lower end of the scale applies to people on the lower income tier. We trust that you will honor our sliding scale policy and make the decision based on your personal ability to offer the proper exchange for your program.

Tribally Affiliated people of NM may pay on a donation basis and a 10% NM Heritage discount is offered.

Please follow the link below and fill out the registration form. If for any reason you are not accepted to the program your deposit will be returned to you.

 

 

Please reach out to in**@****************ng.com if you desire to set up a payment plan. For payment plans all payments are set up to complete 1 week before class starts.  Payments are not refundable or transferable.

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Reserve Your Spot

Join us for this exlusive, once-in a lifetime experience.
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Online Program

6-Months

96 hours of educational time

May 1 – October 23, 2023

Mondays + Wednesdays 5:30 – 7:30pm

Learn more

 

 Sliding Scale Cost: $1,690-$3,800*

 

By donation to tribally affiliated members of New Mexico

 

In-Person Intensive Training Program

309 hours of educational time

6 hours of personal coaching/healing sessions

12 hours of Volunteering in a Traditional Medicine Circle or Ceremony Space

June 1-September 7th 2023

Mondays-Fridays 11am – 4:30pm

 

Sliding Scale Cost: $5,800-7,000

By donation to tribally affiliated members of New Mexico

New Mexican Heritage Discount 10%

Morgaine Witriol

Bio:

Morgaine Witriol is founder of the Native Roots School of Ancestral, Folk & Herbal Medicine in Taos, NM, a collective of 10 different teachers that teach each about their own ancestral healing modalities.  Morgaine is a clinical herbalist, wild crafter, gardener, medicine maker and intuitive being in service to the plant and fungal folk.  At her private practice in Taos, NM people can recieve a combination of clinical, spiritual and medical intuitive treatments including bodywork, herbal consults, somatic trauma release, repatterning and reconditioning intergenerational and ancestral wounds, lymphatic drainage, abdominal massage, and sound healing.  Morgaine’s focus in her practice aside from trauma work is focused working with people that were diagnosed with cancer, diabetes, arthritis, depression or hard to treat chronic disease that western medicine is stumped by.  At Native Roots, Morgaine teaches about reclaiming one’s own ancestral traditions as a displaced person, Jewish Folk Medicine, SW Materia Medica, Herbal Allies for Trauma & Grief, Ethics, Cultural Appropriation, Plant Energetics, Energywork, Clinical Herbalism, Flower Essences, Medicine Making and leads several multi-day field trips doing medicinal plant walks.   Really she feels she teaches how to come into relationship with elemental, plant and fungal medicine, and then the indigenous science from all cultures of listening to the body and its layers of epigenetic, ancestral, childhood, organ, and energy center imbalances.  Morgaine developed and ran educational programs accredited through the University of NM, has taught at the American Herbalist guild conference twice, UNM Albuquerque and is now teaching at Northern University on herbalism for the nursing department.  Her favorite people to teach are doctors, nurses, children and teachers.  She has led plant and mushroom walks for the New Mexico Association of Osteopathic Medicine, Flower Hill Institute, presented for Native Plant Society, and taught wellness through plant and mushroom medicine for Taos Municipal Schools Employees. 

 

In 2010 Morgaine lived in Belize and had the opportunity to apprentice tropical medicine with one of the most revered medicine men in the country the late Don Heriberto Cocom for 1.5 years and with his good friend Don Reginaldo Chayeux in Guatemala.  She brought groups down to study Mayan medicine, herbalism and abdominal massage with him for 7 years until creator called him home.  She collaborated for 10 years with his Nonprofit Association to support the protection of the fully Mayan run rainforest Reserve Bio Itza and brings groups of students to study with him. Morgaine has recognized the importance of honoring healing modalities of all cultures and especially the ones of our own tradition even if they have been forgotten by a few generations.  

 

Morgaine studied at the Northwest School for Botanical Studies, The Dandelion Center, California School for Herbal Studies, The Dhyanna Center, Blue Otter School, Acutonics Institute for Integrative Medicine, Ethnic Studies and Anthropology at the University of Colorado. She often attends herbal and mushroom conferences.

 

 She grew up with an immigrant community and found herself easily honoring the elders that still remembered their own language, their own healing modalities and traditions from that community. It was a journey of many years before she started to look deeper into reclaiming the healing practices of the ancestral traditions that she came from and hopes to share with all people of European descent to remember to honor their own ancestors, to connect to the land and the people that are currently practicing and keeping the context of European tribal healing traditions alive today. She hopes to create a safe space to bridge the intergenerational gap of knowledge, cultural similarities and healing tools to encourage self healing and community healing. 

 

Morgaine worked for Teambuilders counseling Services in 2008 in Taos, New Mexico as a Comprehensive Community Support Specialist teaching “life skills” including communication, stress and anger management, and parenting skills and offering social work opportunities for children and their parents. Later she worked at nonprofit Rocky Mountain Youth Corps with “at risk youth” doing hands-on experiential learning in nature focusing on useful life skills and training once a week for teens. Afterwards she ventured to Guatemala to volunteer at an orphanage and was responsible for 30 girls ages 10-17 as their live in caretaker and teacher for 5 months. in 2011 Morgaine found herself homebound and endured hurricane Sandy’s destruction leaving 13 million people on the East coast without electricity. She coordinated one thousand volunteers a day in Staten Island, New York and spent months doing grass roots disaster recovery with Feeding Family including immediate needs donations and distribution of water, food, respiratory masks, clothing, tho food, medications and animal rehoming, demolition, and later therapeutic urban gardening in elevated community garden beds, fundraising, and more demolition, raw sewage clean up and mold control.

Israel Lopez Jaro

  • Intuitive Coaching & Counsel, Life Coach, and Ceremonial Mentorship
  •  Art Therapy
  • Community Reconnections and Healthy Relations
  • Coyote Teachings for Repatterning Old and Unhealthy Habits
  • Self Healing Techniques and Tools
  • Reaching Sobriety and Coping Mechanisms For Addiction
  • Coping With Death, Grief and Loss
  • Shadow work: Dive into Shadow with Compassion

Miriam Foronda

  • Elder’s Counsel: Intuitive & Spiritual Guidance
  • Energetic Cleansings/ Limpias
  • Heart Healing and Healing Through Hands
 

NM Heritage Discount Applied

 

Rates:

$225-375 sling scale for 1.5 hours, $300-500 for 2 hours

 

Miram’s sessions are intuitive. Her body and words are a vessel for divine healing and often she channels intuitively the heart medicine that supports one to create and develop their own healing. Miriam awakens the self worth, self value and realignment with ones higher self.

 

 

Morgaine Witriol

A combination of these services is provided in one session. Distance sessions and in person.

$150 deposit is quired in advance

Rates:

$225-375 sling scale for 1.5 hours, $300-500 for 2 hours

By-donation for all New Mexican heritage peoples

  • Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Trauma Release: Physical and emotional trauma release with energetic work. This may include repatterining of old habits that no longer serve a person, healing intergenerational and ancestral wounds, somatic healing of childhood or past trauma and emotional traumatic events held in different parts of the body.
  • Sound Therapy: Tuning forks and Tibetan Singing Bowls are used as tools to assist in alleviating chronic pain, trauma, stress, emotional and physical ailments, and in the release of negative energies
  • Herbal Consult:  Available by phone or in person.  An evaluation and assessment of the whole person will be made and a custom formula will be recommended based on clinical knowledge. 
  • Energetic Herbal Assessment:  Let the herbs choose you.  An energetic assessment will be made to see which medicines want to work with your body, mind and spirit.  
  • Custom Clinical Herbal Formula: Tinctures, teas, oils, salves and flower essences are available for purchase without assessment or consult.
  • Spirit Recall & Alignment with higher self, grounding and energetic alignment. Removal of energies .
  • Healing Ancestral and Intergenerational Wounds for past, present and future generations
  • Soul Purpose Alignment
  • Shedding of Illness on an Energetic Level: Often times the root cause or source of an illness is at a spiritual and emotional level. This session will be to address the root cause, and have you the patient work through and transform and shift the body of the illness into health. This could be a physical pain body, emotional or spiritual pain body.
  • Lymphatic Drainage: Warm oil with Guasha and Cupping techniques applied to help with scar tissue, toothaches, stagnation in body, trapped heat, and release of deep toxins
  • Castor Oil Packs: Hot oil packs applied to the body.  Castor oil can help break up scar tissue, cysts, and tumors, relieve arthritis and pain in joints and muscles, boost immune function and the lymphatic system, and clear acne and other skin issues, and constipation