Somatic Ecotherapy Training Program
About the Program
Welcome to the Somatic Ecotherapy training in partnership with Metavision Institute
This program is a love letter to embodied truth—a five-month immersion into two profoundly powerful paradigms of healing and wholeness: somatic inquiry and ecotherapy.
Whether you are here to deepen your own healing or to learn how to guide others on the land, this journey invites you into a rich, experiential exploration of the body’s wisdom in relationship with the living Earth.
Over the course of the program, you’ll gain practical, grounded skills to cultivate nature-based experiences that foster healing, connection, and growth. The journey weaves together psyche (mind), soma (body), and soil (earth), inviting a deep and experiential exploration of the synergy between somatic work and ecotherapy. Through this integration, a new way of being in relationship with nature—through the doorway of the body—is made possible.
This training also invites you into the art of deep listening: to your inner landscape, to the more-than-human world, and to the stories that flow between the two. This multidimensional attunement empowers you to hold deep, spacious presence for what is emerging in you or the people you guide.
Rooted in the spirit of deep ecology, Somatic Ecotherapy is a wild remembering: that we are not separate from the earth, but living expressions of the web of life.
In these times of disconnection, decimation, and despair, may this program offer its own kind of medicine—in service to the more-than-human world, and to consciousness herself.
Watch the intro talk
Curious to get a deeper feel for the journey? In this recorded session with Metavision Institute, I share the vision behind the Somatic Ecotherapy training and outline what you can expect. While this talk introduces both the Echidna personal renewal pathway and the Ravens professional guide training, the content covered is nearly identical—only the pace and focus differ. This is a great way to feel into the journey ahead.
Learning, Rewilded
Somatic Ecotherapy is not your typical classroom. It opens a doorway into the teaching of wild spaces, where the body is compass, and relationship with the more than human world becomes a treasury of knowing.
Whether you’re drawn to guide others or to deepen your own personal unfolding, this program invites you to slow down, awaken the senses, and remember how to be in dialogue with the land. Through immersive practices, nature-based ceremony, and the wild container of your learning cohort, you’ll open into ancestral ways of sensing, being and connecting that foster a re-enchantment with all life, and the pulse of the mystery that permeates it.
Two Pathways,
One Shared Journey
This program offers two learning pathways:
1. ECHIDNAS
For those seeking a journey of personal transformation, the Echidnas Pathway offers deep space to be in slowness, connection and a remembering of your native wholeness.
2. RAVENS
For those ready to guide others in nature-based, somatic practice, the Ravens Pathway provides practical tools, structured mentorship, and certification as a Somatic Ecotherapy Guide.
While your intention shapes your path, the journey begins together.
All participants learn side by side in a mixed cohort, moving through a sequence of 12 live Zoom classes, 3 immersive ecotherapy walks, and the foundational Five Terrains Framework—a poetic, developmental arc that weaves together body, psyche, land, and soul.
Ravens receive four additional classes on the art and ethics of guiding, along with key assignments and a practicum to develop confidence as a somatic ecotherapy guide.
Echidnas walk a parallel path—but one that is directed inward toward personal transformation, participating in 2 deep council sessions to gently catalyse their own unfoldment.
Echidnas
Personal Development
This path is for you if you long for renewal, but don’t feel called to guide others on the land. Start here if you’re called to reconnect with the wild places within, held by the inimitable wisdom of the more than human world.
You’ll learn many of the same practices as the professional stream—like interoception, sensory grounding, The Spiral, and Earth-Based Listening—but you’ll move through them on a reflective path that blends theory with lots of time on the land. You’ll learn how to cast the fishing line into the sacred well of the body, tracking its golden thread into dimensions of being where inner orphaned parts are called home, and where body and earth are felt as one.
This is a deeply practical training, where you’ll be invited to bring the tools you learn into your daily life—into your local park, garden, and the wild corners of your nervous system—where transformation can take root slowly, with reverence, held by the land.
What’s Included
12 x 2hr 15min Live Zoom Classes
Thursdays, 6:00–8:15pm AEST, together with your Raven peers
Weaving together embodied attunements, theory, group dialogue, and experiential learning rooted in the Five Terrains framework.
3 x 2.5hr Guided Ecotherapy Walks
Together with your Raven peers, you’ll be remotely guided by Rob in three different somatic ecotherapy sessions on the land, supported by ceremony, somatic sensing, and the living presence of the more-than-human world.2 x Deep Council Sessions
Held on two Saturday mornings, these spacious circles offer a chance to voice what is deepest in you, and to have your emerging process witnessed by a council of supportive peers. Exclusive to the Echidnas stream, council is designed to deepen integration and catalyse your personal journey.Creative journaling & nature-based prompts
Cultivating a sacred thread of personal reflection throughout the program, you’ll be encouraged to keep a journal of your journey, with supportive weekly prompts offered to get you started.Optional Peer Connection Channel
An opt-in WhatsApp group and contact list for informal connection and encouragement with fellow Echidna students.Optional 4-Day Wilderness Retreat
At the end of the program: a soul-rooted gathering on sacred land to honour your path and deepen your reconnection with Earth, mind, body and the wider Self.Certificate of Completion (Personal Development Stream)
Ravens
Professional Certification
This path is for you if you’re called to be of service in this turning of the wheel; to offer crucibles of healing, growth and reconnection on the land in partnership with more than human kin.
Begin here if you feel drawn to the frontline of deep cultural repair, using tools that invite people into the healing of body and mind in partnership with the more than human world. This pathway is designed for therapists, coaches, space-holders, and facilitators, who’ll first learn and embody the tools themselves, before inviting others to benefit from them. Ravens will cultivate an embodied relationship with the living world, becoming guides at the vanguard of sacred service.
You’ll receive not only a potent training in somatic ecotherapy—but also mentorship in how to hold space with integrity, trauma sensitivity, and ecological reverence. The guiding assignments and Q&A sessions provide real-world practice and feedback, helping you embody this work in service to others.
What’s Included
12 x 2hr 15min Core Zoom Classes
Thursdays, 6:00–8:15pm AEST
Shared with the Echidnas, these sessions explore the foundational tools of somatic ecotherapy: ceremony, parts work, sensory awareness, imaginal practice, and more.4 x 2hr 15min Additional Guiding-Focused Classes
Practical, interactive sessions focused on the ethics, structure, and art of guiding. You’ll learn how to craft invitations, track group field, and hold a ceremonial container on the land.3 x 2.5hr Guided Ecotherapy Walks
Together with your Echidna peers, you’ll be guided in three somatic ecotherapy walks on the land near you, helping you experience firsthand how the tools and invitations that you’re learning weave together into a potent arc.4 x Practice Walks with Friends/Family
By the end of the course, you’ll have guided four practice somatic ecotherapy walks with friends or family, cultivating your own guiding voice and presence. You’ll submit short written reflections on each walk using a simple template for feedback and growth.4 x Live Supervision Q&A Sessions
Small-group calls with the Raven cohort where you can debrief your walks, ask questions, and learn from others’ experiences. These serve as supervision touchpoints for your certification.Optional Peer Dyads & Practice Partners
Connect informally with fellow Ravens to practice invitations, share feedback, and support each other’s growth over the 5 months.Optional 4-Day Wilderness Retreat
A powerful rite of integration and culmination—open to Echidnas and Ravens. This retreat offers a rare opportunity to gather on sacred land, deepen your connection with the Earth, and anchor the learning in ceremony, wild council, and community.Certification as a Somatic Ecotherapy Guide
Upon completion of all requirements– you’ll be certified through Metavision Institute and may begin offering your own sessions as a somatic ecotherpy guide.
A Living Framework
The course follows the Five Terrains Framework, a poetic and developmental sequence that offers tools for somatic regulation, imaginal healing, and deep ecological belonging. Over the course of the 5 months, students explore and embody the practices contained within each terrain, moving in a narrative arc from the art of wild ceremony to the art of embodied conversation with place
1. Trailhead
The beginning of the journey. Here, we cross thresholds through ceremony, intention-setting, and sacred orientation. This terrain invites you to slow down, open to mystery, and begin listening with the whole body.
2. Meadow
The terrain of gentle arrival. Through sensory grounding and body-based presence, we soothe the nervous system and learn to attune to the subtle language of the senses. This is where breath deepens and the resonance of the field of life returns.
3. Forest
The inner wilderness. In sacred partnership with the land, we meet our inner parts—those hidden, wounded, or orphaned ones that roam the silent avenues of the body. Through myth, imagination, and embodied listening, we enter sacred space to call them home.
4. Mountain
The place of belonging and ecological identity. This terrain offers deep Earth-based listening and an invitation to remember – through the body – our place within the great web of life. Here, the normative sense of who we are softens, and we awaken into a more connected, reverent, and wildly relational way of being.
5. Sky & Cave
A glimpse into the Mystery. Though lightly touched in this training, this composite terrain gestures toward deeper transpersonal ground: imaginal soul-work, sacred unknowing, and the liminal space where divine facets of Being are palpably embodied.
Together, these terrains offer a living map for embodied healing, deep listening, and sacred reconnection. Each terrain illuminates a successive obstacle on the path to wholeness, while offering somatic and nature-based tools to tend the divide and support your return to deeper integration with self, land, and life.
Rhythm of Classes
Outlined below are the 12 core classes of Somatic Ecotherapy, common to both Echidnas and Ravens. In addition to these, the Ravens study four modules specific to the art of guiding people on the land. Full details are shared following enrollment.
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Begin in sacred space. In this opening session, we gather in council to set intentions and tune into the deep threads that have gathered us together. Through story, circle, and silence, we grow our container for the months ahead.
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Explore the wide terrain of nature-based healing. This class introduces the diverse traditions of ecotherapy and the frameworks you’ll journey through—offering a map for walking into wholeness with the land as companion.
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This week, you’ll learn how to begin a walk in intentional ceremony with the more-than-human world—anchoring your practice in reverence, connection, and gratitude.
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Come home to the body. We turn to the senses, breath, and slow, grounding rituals that soothe the nervous system and deepen a sense of connection to the land. Discover the power of attuned sensory rest.
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Learn ways to reconnect to and reinhabit your body on the land. Through movement, breath, and postural awareness, we gently return to kinaesthetic and proprioceptive knowing—learning to feel ourselves as bodies in space and relationship to the wider world.
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Descend into deeper currents. This week introduces interoception and the Felt Sense—a gateway to the body’s inimitable wisdom and way of knowing. Learn to listen to the quiet language of the body and come into gentle relationship with inner parts.
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Sensing inward and outward. Discover the Spiral, a core practice of moving between inner sensing and outer awareness. Paired with the ritual of bush tea, this class helps integrate what we learn on the land into the body.
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Meet the elders of the land. This week, you’ll attune to the deeper field of wisdom carried by ancient beings and wild places. Through embodied presence and imaginal listening, you’ll learn to connect with more-than-human allies and draw strength from their grounded, enduring presence. Discover the quiet power of story—and the medicine of unconditional witnessing.
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Drawing on the inner archetypal facets of wholeness. This week invites you to explore these vast internal resources: treasuries of wisdom, fields of unconditional holding and portals into the Mystery.
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Learn how to create sacred space for inner work. We explore ceremonial containers for meeting the tender places within and learn the Wound Walk—an invitation to work with the land as mirror and discover the medicine within the wound.
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Come into living, embodied dialogue with the land. Learn how to use the Spiral to enter states of deep communion and felt relationship with the more-than-human world. A gateway into prayerful presence and embodied ecological intimacy.
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Return with what you’ve gathered. In our closing council, you’ll have the opportunity to share a creative offering from your journey. A space for reflection, celebration, and honouring the mystery that has moved through you.
The Nature Retreat
At the end of January 2026, all participants are warmly invited to gather in a 4-day wilderness retreat on Dharug & Gundungurra country in Ganbenang, NSW.
This retreat offers a powerful opportunity to come together in person—feet on the earth, hearts gathered in council around the fire. For past participants, the retreat became the soul of the journey: a visceral, embodied culmination where the teachings deepen through lived experience, shared presence, and the holding of wild land and community.
Themed “Coming Home,” this retreat is a spacious, off-grid immersion in nature where the Five Terrains come to life through land-based ceremony, somatic practice, wild council, and deep rest. Practices include Earth-Based Listening, inner parts walks, intuitive movement, dreamwork, and time to simply be—swimming, wandering, and reweaving connection with more-than-human kin. Whether you’re walking the professional or personal path, the retreat offers a spacious, soul-nourishing container to drop deeper into your connection with the land, each other, and the sacred mystery at the heart of this work.
Who is This Course For?
Echidnas (Personal Development Pathway)
You’re yearning to reconnect with the land, your body, and a sense of deeper belonging
You want to explore somatic and nature-based ways to self heal in a supportive community
You’re not wanting to guide others— but you want to live this work for your own personal transformation
Ravens (Personal Development Pathway)
You’re a therapist, coach, facilitator, or healer seeking nature-based tools
You want to guide others in somatic ecotherapy with confidence and depth
You’re ready to embody what you teach and step into service on the land
Program Dates
The next training runs from July 31st to December 11th, 2025.
Live online classes take place on Thursday evenings 6:00-8:15pm, and the 3 x guided ecotherapy walks occur on Saturdays 9:00-11:30am.
The 4-day in-person nature retreat will follow Jan 30th - February 2nd 2026, offering a spacious opportunity to deepen and embody what the land has been teaching you.
Meet Your Guide
This program is facilitated by Rob Engels, founder of the School of Awareness — a somatic psychotherapist, ecotherapist, meditation teacher, and men’s circle holder.
His calling as a guide to the inner wilderness began in childhood and was forged through early family of origin traumas that left him with a deep and gnawing sense of being alone in the world. As a young adult he wandered aimlessly, seemingly without purpose or any real sense of who he was, before Mystery called him to turn inwards to feel, to listen, and to heal.
His journey has spanned decades of deep inquiry, nature immersion, and soul encounter. With Animas Valley Institute, he undertook a long program of nature based work that culminated in a four-day wilderness solo and water fast in the wilds of Wollemi, where he experienced a mythopoetic initiation with soul — an encounter that restructured his entire way of being and opened him into a path of service.
Rob is a PACFA-certified psychotherapist and facilitates nature-based programs that support personal transformation and ecological belonging. He is a certified meditation teacher, a trained Kiloby Inquiries facilitator, and co-founder of the Blue Mountains Men’s Group. His work weaves trauma sensitivity with wildness, stillness, and a deep trust in the profound wisdom of the body and the alchemical power of the more than human world.
"This is a massive reconciliation for me. Thank you for this work. Transcendent. And Splendid!"
— DAYNA, NSW
Investment
Full Price: $5,520
Early Bird (by July 1): $4,968
Payment Plans: Available on request
This includes:
12 online experiential classes over five months
Peer support and reflective integration prompts
3 x live, remotely guided ecotherapy walks
Access to a private community group
The 4-day in-person nature retreat in 2026 (optional but highly recommended) is held on private wilderness land near the Coxs River in Ganbenang. This retreat is off-grid and fully self-catered. BYO food, tent, or car camping setup.
Cost for the retreat: $650, covering facilitation, land access, and all guided practices.
Ready to Begin?
Applications are now open.
Acknowledgement
We acknowledge the legacy of deep listening that was born through the dreaming of aboriginal people: the practice of listening to self, to place, to each other and to the dreaming itself. We acknowledge that Somatic Inquiry and Ecotherapy flow in the same river, and borrow much from the wisdom traditions of First Nations.
We acknowledge the privilege and rank we hold as white, western practitioners, and that this shapes our perspective on life and healing, together with our world view. What is offered in this program is drawn from practices that have deeply benefited us and we encourage you to explore whether they work for you. Your own experience is the best litmus for what is right in your life.
We acknowledge that, for aboriginal people, deep healing must also involve reconnection with land, ancestors, family, culture and community. This holds true for us as well, and we invite you to explore whether it holds true for you.