Programs
Earth Awareness Teacher Training
In Partnership with the BESS Family Foundation
Introduction
At this time of accelerating climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and growing environmental injustice, we are called to a profound cultural and spiritual transformation that supports action and well-being. The Earth Awareness Teacher Training responds to this need by supporting mindfulness and meditation teachers to deepen their connection and guide others into deeper connection with the living Earth.
This 8-month program will equip you with the tools, knowledge, and inner resources to cultivate ecological literacy, embodied presence, and a sense of sacred reciprocity with the natural world. With a pedagogy rooted in relationality, mindfulness, and justice, teachers will strengthen their capacity in addressing both the outer and inner dimensions of socio-ecological loss and resilience.
This program is fully funded through the generosity of the BESS Family Foundation in partnership with Sky Mind Retreats, and is offered free of charge to participants.
This intensive program will begin October 2025 and run through May of 2026. Each month, you will meet with a small cohort facilitated by one of our experienced eco-dharma mentors, a peer-led group, and a whole-group session featuring guest speakers
Who is the Earth Awareness Teacher Training For?
The Earth Awareness Teacher Training is for mindfulness and meditation teachers who are passionate about integrating mindfulness and meditation with a deep connection to the Earth and who aim to build capacity for spiritual and psychological resilience in the face of environmental and climate crises. The ideal participants include both new and experienced meditation and mindfulness teachers who seek to expand their practices beyond traditional frameworks by embracing ecological awareness, environmental justice, and Indigenous wisdom. We particularly welcome applicants with historically marginalized identities such as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Transgender, Asexual, etc. (LGBTQA+).
Prequisites:
- Certified to teach mindfulness or meditation by an accredited and known teacher training program, for example, Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction teacher certification, Graduate of a Community Dharma Leader Program, Awake in the Wild Teacher Training.
- Dedicated practitioners with a consistent practice and silent retreat experience
- Actively teaching: taught at least one class in 2024 or plan to teach at least one class in 2025
- Interested in engaging with earth based practices within the context of mindfulness and meditation
- Interested in engaging with environmental justice issues.
- Available to attend at least 7 out of 8 monthly mentor group sessions
Important Dates:
The program will begin October 2025 and run through May of 2026. All sessions will be held online except for the optional retreat.
- Opening session October 5th, 2025 4:00-6:00 PM PST
- Regular monthly sessions with guest speakers on the first Sunday of each month (November-April) 4-5:30pm PST
- Monthly mentor sessions, date and time to be determined by each mentor
- Monthly sessions with peers, date and time to be determined by each group
- Closing session May 3rd, 2026 4:00-6:00 PM PST
- Optional weeklong retreat in 2026 (exact dates and location TBD)
The Earth Awareness Teacher Training will support you to:
- Cultivate emotional and spiritual resilience in the face of ecological loss and the climate crisis
- Increase capacity to hold space for students navigating the climate crisis
- Enhance earth-based connection and practices
- Incorporate earth-based practices into teaching curricula
- Enhance recognition of and sensitivity to the long-term impacts of colonization on dominant western worldviews
- Develop greater awareness of issues of environmental justice and Indigenous appreciation
- Develop and initiate land-based ceremony and ritual
Teachers who complete this pilot training may be offered an opportunity to access scholarships for additional training with partner organizations.
Training Components:
- 8 monthly units
- A dedicated platform to engage in discussion and exploration of the training content
- Weekly readings/audio/video assignments
- Meditations and exercises for practice between sessions
- Journaling prompts for reflection for small group meetings
- Monthly mentor group meetings with an experienced eco-dharma mentor
- Monthly peer-led meetings
- Monthly whole group sessions with guest teachers
- Optional week-long retreat
It is expected that participants will attend at least 7 out of 8 monthly mentor small group and peer-led sessions. Attendance at whole group sessions with guest teachers is not mandatory, but highly encouraged. These sessions will be recorded and participants are expected to watch the recording if they do not make it to the live session.
Curriculum Overview
Month 1: Foundations of Resilience – Embracing Rupture and Emergence
Month 2: Earth-Based Connection and Practices – Beyond Human Centered Listening
Month 3: Grief, anxiety, fear and anger – Ecological Emotions as Portals
Month 4: Working with Our Students
Month 5: Rituals and Ceremony for Land-Based Connection
Month 6: Environmental Justice & Equity – Embracing Complexity and Tensions
Month 7: Incorporating Earth-Based Practices in Teaching
Month 8: Integration and Empowerment – – Becoming Response-Able
Faculty
Kirsten Rudestam
Kirsten works as a meditation teacher, environmental educator and wilderness guide. She believes that practices of (re)connection are vital for cultivating the resilience needed to face ecological loss and embrace our inherent interdependence. She holds a PhD in environmental sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she focused on water policy and environmental justice. She is a trained vision fast guide through the School of Lost Borders, a facilitator of Joanna Macy’s “Work That Reconnects” and has been teaching in colleges and universities, environmental field courses, and nature-based meditation programs since 2002.
A dedicated meditation practitioner since 1997, Kirsten has been authorized and trained to teach in the Theravadan tradition by her mentors, Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella. She co-founded and co-teaches the Sati Center’s Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy Training Program, supporting others in responding to the challenges of our time with compassion and wisdom.
Susie Harrington
Susie Harrington teaches meditation nationwide and is the guiding teacher for Desert Dharma, which serves many communities in the Southwest near her home in Moab, Utah. She has trained in the Insight tradition since 1989, and in 2005 was invited into teaching by Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Guy Armstrong. She has also received teachings from many others, including Tory Capron, Adyashanti, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. She often offers retreats outside, believing nature to be a profound teacher, and a gateway to our true self. Her teaching is deeply grounded in the body and often emphasizes the expression of mindfulness in speech and daily life. Susie brings the skills of inquiry, relational dharma, and the psychological/spiritual interface to her teaching, informed by her ongoing study of the Diamond Approach by A.H.Almaas and as a graduate of Hakomi Therapy (a somatic psychotherapy modality). Read more…
Yong Oh
Yong is a core meditation and Dharma teacher at the Durango Dharma Center and for Sacred Mountain Sangha, and is a visiting teacher for other community centers across North America. He teaches retreats at the Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Big Bear Retreat Center, and Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center, and others.
Yong is also a retired acupuncturist, is passionate about Nature and Dharma – practicing with and in nature – and has particular interests in devotional expression, supporting caregivers, and offering teachings to communities of color in the Dharma. You can find his teaching schedule at www.yongoh.com
Nico Cary
Nico Cary is a dharma teacher, writer, and interdisciplinary artist-educator. He received his BA from UC Berkeley’s Interdisciplinary Studies Field School, specializing in cognitive linguistics. Currently, he is in Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership training program, and sits on the board for Back to Earth – a youth wilderness immersion program based in California. He is also a Garrison Institute Fellow, and his multimedia installations on climate grief have been featured at the Smithsonian and as a part of The Healing Project at Yerba Center for the Arts in San Francisco. While engaged in a deeply fulfilling artistic career, Nico also proudly serves as a dharma teacher for various spiritual organizations and nonprofits, including InsightLA and MindfulUSC. He is interested in the many different vocabularies of healing and the holding capacity of mindfulness, particularly as it relates to embodied activism and creative ecosystems.
Application
APPLICATION opens July 1st. Early application deadline is August 15th, after which we’ll continue with rolling admissions until the cohort is filled. Applications received by August 15th will receive priority review and acceptance notifications will be sent out in early September or within 2 weeks of your application if you apply after August 15th.
