Adults Only
Duvall, WA and other PNW Locations
Early Bird Price: $3,595
before October 31st, 2025
In-person:
Session 1: April 19-25, 2026
Session 2: July 19-25, 2026
Session 3: September 16-23, 2026
Virtual:
5/26/26 (6pm-8pm PST)
6/30/26 (6pm-8pm PST)
8/18/26 (6pm-8pm PST)
9/22/26 (6pm-8pm PST)
Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest,
breathing
like the ones
in the old stories,
who could cross
a shimmering bed of leaves
without a sound,
you come to a place
whose only task
is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests,
conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.
Requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and
to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,
questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,
questions
that have patiently
waited for you,
questions
that have no right
to go away.
“Sometimes”
By David Whyte
Building a relationship with wildness demands real vulnerability and a willingness to let go of many of the ways we keep ourselves aloof and safe. It is only when we show up in nature with a spirit of deep listening that the sentience of wild things becomes unignorable and our egos begin to quell. In the ensuing space we discover something far more precious than individual ambition or recognition: a sense of kinship and responsibility toward the living world that arises not out of some heady notion of “doing good”, but one grounded in the dirt under our fingernails, the moss beneath our cheeks, and the call of the saw-whet owl at midnight.
Shadowcraft is an adult rite of passage in three parts that invites you to remember your belonging, especially in the midst of what is unseen, unknown or unsavory. For those seeking to meet life’s uncertainty with courage and clarity, this intensive offers an opportunity for deep practice grounded in direct relationship with nature.
At the heart of the course are not answers, but a series of sacred questions:
- How do we celebrate and connect with the wild beauty of this world while accepting fear and grief as steadfast companions?
- How do we remember our relatedness and forge enduring bonds of kinship with each other and the earth even in the face of change, death, and loss?
- How do we as a community ritualize the moments of transformation that call our unique gifts into greater expression for the benefit of the “village”?
Shadowcraft is woven directly from these threads of inquiry. Participants can expect to meet parts of themselves they may have never encountered before, and come away with a fortified sense of personal agency and deeper trust in the web of support and connection that is always available – in ourselves, each other, nature, and beyond.
A Note of Caution
This course is a significant undertaking, and will ask hard questions of you: who are you in the midst of fear and challenge? How do you tap into courage when it matters most? What are you willing to let go of in order to more fully meet this moment in your life and on the planet? Participants should be in generally good physical and mental health, have awareness of their own trauma and triggers, hold a strong sense of self-responsibility, and be ready to engage in a transformative experience with a significant degree of uncertainty and mystery.
Course Overview
We will use awareness exercises, archetypal embodiment, community ritual, stealth and camouflage, movement, and time in darkness as tools for accessing new edges and inner resources. Connection with nature and the night will serve as a primary source of both refuge and challenge, a doorway through which to explore what it means to be a steward and protector of that which you care about most, even when you cannot see what lies beyond the next bend in the trail. Ultimately, Shadowcraft offers an invitation to examine how we show up with life and death, and what it means to belong to the wild.
In-person Sessions
This intensive consists of three in-person overnight sessions in April, July, and September 2026. These sessions are at the heart of the Shadowcraft experience, and provide the opportunity to learn and practice key skills and core routines in a beautiful setting while strengthening culture and connection within the group. Dinners are provided for all in-person sessions. Participants will camp on Wilderness Awareness School land during sessions one and two, while session three will take place on another beautiful piece of land in the Pacific Northwest.
Core Routines
Individual at-home practice of the core routines is an essential part of the Shadowcraft course. These routines include sit-spot (returning to a spot in nature on a regular basis), fox-walking, gratitude, and tuning into one’s surroundings with intentional awareness. These routines serve to deepen connection, calm the nervous system, and turn surface level learning into embodied knowing. They become indispensable tools as the course progresses, providing an anchor and grounding point that participants can readily return to whenever needed.
Virtual Sessions
In addition to in-person sessions, the course includes several group calls to reinforce key aspects of the curriculum and nourish connection during our time apart. Participants will also have peer-to-peer check-in calls to share stories and further cultivate the core routines and awareness practices they are learning.
Schedule and Curriculum
Session One: Foundations and Awareness
April 19th to April 25th (2026) – Duvall, WA
Discover the fundamental arts of stealth, awareness, and archetypal exploration while building the skills and community bonds needed for the path ahead.
Session Two: Practice and Embodiment
July 19th to July 25th (2026) – Duvall, WA
Strengthen your skills through progressive challenges while exploring the energetic and archetypal dimensions of your personal journey.
Session Three: Culmination and Transformation
September 16th to 23rd (2026) – Other Location, WA
Face your edges and perceived limitations in this 8-day culminating experience designed to call forward your courage and deepen your relationship with the wild.
Who Should Apply
The Shadowcraft course is a significant undertaking, and isn’t for everybody. The course is the best fit for those who:
- Feel a longing to touch wildness and strengthen their relationship with the earth.
- Are able to identify a significant transition or transformation already occurring in their lives, something they wish to lend energy and momentum to.
- Value community, vulnerability, and group process.
- Are comfortable with hiking, camping, and other basic outdoor activities, and know how to take care of their own needs in the outdoors.
- Have a high degree of emotional capacity and self-responsibility.
- Have worked with their trauma in the past and hold strong awareness of their own sensitivities and triggers.
- Are ready to invest time into practicing the routines of nature connection on their own outside of in-person sessions.
Payment Options and Financial Aid
The Early Bird Price: is $3,595 if registered by 10/31/25. After November 1st, the price is $3,995. After February 1st, the price is $4,495.
A 25% non-refundable deposit is due upon course registration. Payment plans and/or financial aid are available to help bring the course within reach for those who otherwise might not be able to participate. The financial aid application is included in the Shadowcraft course application.
Questions?
Please contact Carlin Gettliffe at [email protected] for any questions or clarifications about this program and the application process.
Meet Your Core Instructors
Carlin Gettliffe
Carlin is a somatic coach, fungiphile, and rite of passage facilitator. His experiences in the tops of apple trees and sneaking around in the dark as a child led to a deep and lasting trust in the power of nature to invite our truest selves forward. As a synthesizer and edge-walker he has dabbled in many worlds, spending time as a business founder, science fiction writer, bartender, physics researcher, and hitchhiking vagabond. He weaves multiple complementary elements into his facilitation, including perspectives from somatic trauma therapy, gender reconciliation work, poetry and myth, archetypal embodiment, and the Light Dark Institute. Carlin is a graduate of the Immersion and Nature Instructor Training at the Wilderness Awareness School.
Brooke Nelson
Brooke grew up exploring the woodlands, sagebrush steppe and salty shores of the Pacific Northwest. After graduating from the University of Washington, she developed a passion for the sea and spent years working for marine conservation organizations. When her attention shifted to life on land, she attended and taught at Alderleaf Wilderness College where she earned certificates in Wilderness Skills Education and Ecology, Wildlife Track & Sign (Level III), and Permaculture Design. In 2019, Brooke attended the Nature Connected Coaching program at Earth Based Institute. At Wilderness Awareness School, she graduated from the Nature Instructor Training program and worked as the admissions coordinator and Immersion Year Two core instructor. She loves wandering the wilds with people who marvel at the same things she does – animal tracks, native plants, bird calls – and sharing curiosity about all we find.
Chris Laliberte
Chris spent 20 years at Wilderness Awareness School, where he founded the Community School program, instructed and coordinated The Immersion, and also held several Program Director and leadership positions. In addition to being passionately committed to transformative nature connection, Chris is a Storyteller and long-time student of Myth and the power of stories to shape our perceptions, our worldview, and our communities. He completed a Master’s in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and has studied with Michael Meade and other leaders in the movement to understand and re-shape the myths we are living as individuals and communities.