These are workshops taught in-person by Michael Vertolli or Monika Ghent. For information about these workshops, please contact the applicable instructor directly. michael@livingearthschool.ca or monika@livingearthschool.ca
  • Each of us has an inherent purpose and path that we are meant to live. To not do so is the cause of much confusion and suffering. The yearning to live our vision and truth may be postponed, avoided, or stifled, but it does not and will not go away. It must be acknowledged and expressed for us to live a joyful, fulfilling life. Willow medicine transforms confusion into clarity so that we may come to know who we are and the path we need to walk.

    In this workshop, participants will directly receive Willow’s gifts of healing, wisdom, and guidance through transmission via Monika. Experiences will be shared and interpreted so that we may all learn from each other the depth and breadth of Willow’s Tree Spirit Medicine. Once you have received Willow’s medicine, it will be with you always, whenever you need it.

    Date: Saturday, February 15th, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
                and
                Sunday, March 2nd, 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM (optional).
    Attendance on March 2nd is an opportunity for those who were unable to share their Willow experience during the workshop to do so, and for all participants to reconnect.

    Location: This workshop can be attended both in person at Living Earth School in Maple, ON, and through distance via Zoom.

    Tuition: $100.00. Enrolment is limited.

    Instructor: Monika Ghent

    Questions: monika@livingearthschool.ca; 416-537-8842


    • Understanding different extraction media (menstruum).
    • Preparing different potencies.
    • Jars and equipment.
    • Using different kinds of presses.
    • Differences between using fresh and dried herbs.
    • Administration and dosages.
    • Differences between tinctures and other herbal preparations.

    This workshop will include both lectures and demonstrations of how to prepare, macerate, and press fresh and dried herb tinctures using different kinds of equipment. Students will receive samples of fresh and dried herb tinctures of the same herb prepared during the workshop to use and compare.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Required Textbooks: None.

    Scheduling: Saturday, November 16th, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
    Location: Living Earth School in Maple, Ontario.
    Instructor: Monika Ghent.

    Cost: $80.00 + $20 material fee if you are attending in-person to be paid at the workshop.

    Register: http://www.livingearthschool.ca/enroll.html

    Questions: info@livingearthschool.ca; 416-537-8842
  • The Tree Spirit Medicine workshops are a series of workshops that provide an opportunity for you to receive and experience the spirit medicine of one of our local tree species.


    The Tree Spirit Medicine of Basswood is “Surrender.” Basswood gifts us the grounding energy of deep, wide roots which create a strong foundation and sense of security, stability, safety and trust. This place of deep rootedness anchors us that we may surrender wholeheartedly and courageously into the depths the Great Mother Mystery, the source of all creation, out of which everything arises and everything returns to be transmuted and reborn. In these numinous depths of infinite potential, we are released from the constriction and resistance of limiting beliefs, traumas and indoctrination into the natural flow of the Mysterious, emptied and receptive to the voice of our own inner knowing.

    Date: Saturday, April 5th, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

    Location: This workshop can be attended both in person at Living Earth School in Maple, ON, and through distance via Zoom.

    Tuition: $100.00. Enrolment is limited.

    Instructor: Monika Ghent

    Questions: monika@livingearthschool.ca; 416-537-8842
  • Date: Saturday, April 12, 2025, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

    Location: Living Earth School in Maple, Ontario (just north of Toronto)

    Instructor: Michael Vertolli

    Prerequisite: None

    Cost: $100.00

    This is not an online course, but you may register for the workshop through PayPal. SPACE IS LIMITED.

    For inquiries: Please email Michael Vertolli directly at michael@livingearthschool.ca
  • The Tree Spirit Medicine of Wild Cherry is “Rewilding Your Heart.” Rewilding literally means to make wild once again. The rewilding of your heart through the Tree Spirit Medicine of Wild Cherry brings you to the place of knowing and living through your Heart Voice. Our heart is the core of our self: our innate wisdom and inner knowing, our connection to all there is, and the ultimate embodiment of all that we are and all that we become in our life. The guidance from our Heart is our primary connection to Divine. To live from our heart allows us to connect to and have a deeper, richer sense of self and the wonderful mystery of life.

    Date: Saturday, May 17th, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

    Location: This workshop can be attended both in person at Living Earth School in Maple, ON, and through distance via Zoom.

    Tuition: $100.00. Enrolment is limited.

    Instructor: Monika Ghent

    Questions: monika@livingearthschool.ca; 416-537-8842
  • Awakening Your Natural Capacity to Speak with the Spirits of Plants!

    Plants are fully aware beings that have intelligence and spirit as well as a great deal of wisdom that they are willing to share with us, we need only learn how to hear them. In this workshop, participants will learn how to not only speak to plants but to speak with them through an easy and effective method called ‘dream journeying’. Dream journeying is a two-stage process of getting to know the nature of a plant and then dreaming in an intentional way while still awake to meet and commune with their spirit. This way of dream learning from plants is available to everybody. You do not need years of specialized training to awaken this gift inherent within you. By dream journeying to the plant people, you will develop an intimate, two-way relationship with them and learn directly from them of their wisdom, blessings, messages and medicines.

    Date: Saturday, June 7th, 2025

    Time: 10:30am - 5:30pm

    Location: You can attend either workshop in person at Living Earth School of Herbalism in Vaughan, Ontario, or through Zoom if you are unable to attend in person.

    Fee: $100

    Instructor: Monika Ghent
  • In this fun and informative virtual workshop, you will learn the art of making your own effective, natural sunblocks, SPF lip balms and after sun care products with no toxic compromises using only 100% natural and organic ingredients.

    What you will learn in this workshop:

    What is SPF?
    An introduction to many different natural products such as base oils, essential oils, butters, teas, etc. that have natural SPF.
    How to make light sunblocks for everyday use and stronger sunblocks for more intense sun exposure.
    How to make SPF lip balms.
    After sun care: how to heal your skin when you’ve gotten too much sun.
    Facial repair serums: what natural substances can be used to reverse sun damage.
    Equipment, storage and preservation.

    This workshop will include both lectures and demonstrations. Participants will informative, detailed handouts including lots of recipes and the recording of the product-making demonstration.

    Date:  Saturday June 21st 10 am to 5 pm.

    Location:  Available in-person in Maple, ON and on Zoom.

    Tuition:$100.

    Instructor:  Monika Ghent

    Questions: monika@livingearthschool.ca; 416-537-8842
  • The Spirit of Herbs is a six day intensive workshop/retreat that focuses on an energetic and intuitive approach to working with healing plants that will help you to expand and deepen your connection to plants and Living World. The ability to connect and communicate with the many beings with whom we share the Earth—including plants—has long been considered one of the most important attributes of traditional healers. Through a variety of meditation and attunement exercises, you will experience a greater awareness of and connection with all aspects of the natural world and develop your ability to communicate with the plant people. This workshop provides the theoretical background and guidelines to help you integrate this knowledge and experience into your daily life. The Spirit of Herbs will help you on your own personal healing journey and to live in deeper relationship with yourself and the world. Whether you are called to work with plant medicines on a professional or purely personal level, you will find this workshop to be a life-changing and healing experience.

    Prerequisite: None.

    Required textbooks: None.

    Scheduling: The next offering of this workshop will be Saturday July 5th to Thursday July 10th 2025.

    Location: The Seed Lodge (formerly Maple Sweet), Rocklyn, Ontario.
    The fee for the workshop includes the cost of meals and accommodations. The meals are mostly vegetarian and organic as much as possible. Indoor accommodations consist of shared rooms that sleep two persons. Occasionally single rooms are available. Tenting is also an option.

    Tuition: $1,100.

    All inquiries regarding the SOH workshop must be made to Michael Vertolli.
    Instructor: Michael Vertolli.

  • The Tree Spirit Medicine of Oak is “Resilience and Adaptation.” Healthy resilience and adaptation are essential to withstand and navigate adversity and hardship. They support our innate capacity to extract from these experiences the potential blessings they contain so that they may be enfolded into our spirit as wisdom. Just as the Mighty Oak is shaped by years and weather, we too are shaped by our interactions with the world and the unique circumstances of our lives. Knowing we will not be toppled by storms, but will emerge instead hardier, wiser and more capable at their passing, engenders deep self-trust and nourishes that indomitable seed of potential within each of us to grow into our truest expression of self.




    Date: Saturday, July 19th, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

    Location: This workshop can be attended both in person at Living Earth School in Maple, ON, and through distance via Zoom.

    Tuition: $100.00. Enrolment is limited.

    Instructor: Monika Ghent

    Questions: monika@livingearthschool.ca; 416-537-8842
  • The Tree Spirit Medicine of American Elm is “Illumination from Above.” Elm connects us to our Higher Self, our higher power – that loving, all-knowing, wise and liberated aspect of our spiritual being that provides guidance about our higher path and purpose. Our Higher Self is our true expression beyond ego, conditioning, limiting beliefs, fears and trauma; beyond the illusion of dualism. It is that divine aspect of ourselves that holds the blueprint of our life purpose, our passion and joy. Having conscious connection with our Higher Self enables us to remember that we are a divine spark, interconnected and one with all of Creation. It also helps us to remember that the Earth is a living spiritual being and we have an important part to play in this divine mystery.

    Date: Saturday, September 20th, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

    Location: This workshop can be attended both in person at Living Earth School in Maple, ON, and through distance via Zoom.

    Tuition: $100.00. Enrolment is limited.

    Instructor: Monika Ghent

    Questions: monika@livingearthschool.ca; 416-537-8842