About Us
Root and Bloom Institute is a project of Vision Walkers Collective, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating access to somatic and expanded states training with those with the maturity and passion to be practitioners. VWC is a small but mighty core team of collaborators that will be expanding as we further develop Root and Bloom Institute into service.
“Therapy using expanded states needs to be more broadly available, accessible, and disseminated, in ethical and holistic ways, by a diversity of practitioners. We hold faith in the long view, that the collective will benefit most if we provide training to those who are mature and ready, whether trained in traditional psychotherapy, earth based wisdom practices, or other relevant healing practices.”
-Jo Wunderly, Founder
Jo Wunderly
FOUNDER, executive co-directoR, BOard President
Jo, is an artist and designer of spaces and experiences. She is a somatic therapy practitioner and a land steward. She is also the mother of two grown sons. She lives on unceded Nisenan land in Nevada City, California.
Jo follows in the footsteps of her Swiss great-grandmother, Nanny Wunderly-Volkart who devoted her life to creating safe and beautiful spaces for the incubation of creativity. Nanny provided a retreat and friendship to mystic and poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
Jo has trained in mind/body practices ranging from Hakomi to Circling; from the Tamura Method to The Work of Byron Katie. She has studied and practiced classical disciplines such as Dzogchen and Zen. In addition to various medicine lineages, she has led embodiment retreats for nearly two decades. Her retreats weave together shadow inquiry, empathetic communication, zen koan meditation, Continuum movement, vision questing, and permaculture stewardship.
Grounded in somatic practices and informed by expanded states, Jo has developed her own ways of practicing and teaching communion with the mystery. Her passion is guiding individuals and groups toward an awakened life. She believes that when people are able to resolve traumas, integrate personal shadow, and embody connection skills, they naturally work together with warmth and respect and become able to receive earth’s gifts.
When Jo is not leading individual or group retreats, she can be found planning her next foray into the high country.
Rachel Berry
Executive Co-director
Rachel brings over 20 years of experience developing structures and programs for non-profits in the health and environmental sectors. In addition to her non-profit work, her passions have led her to Mexico to research indigenous health care choices in Chiapas, to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff where she received a Masters in Health Psychology, taught in the Women’s Studies Program, and managed county health promotion programs for women and children.
Rachel enjoys a deep connection to the plant world, teaching herbal classes at Esalen for nearly 10 years and more recently participating in ceremonial plant medicine for health and healing.
Rachel’s home base is in Nevada City, where she raises a teenage daughter, delights in the Yuba River, and enjoys the wildness and interconnectivity of her local community.
Lori Ashcraft
Board Treasurer
After a full career of creating, developing and managing programs designed to promote healing and recovery from mental health and substance related challenges, Lori now focuses on training and consulting with behavioral health agencies to help develop strength-based services that encourage self-determination and personal growth. She is an author of several books and published articles and continues to write about recovery and program design. She enjoys hosting a podcast, Viva La Evolution, featuring guests who tell their personal stories of recovery and also includes other experts in the field.
Lori more recently became interested in the use of sacred medicine to help herself and others gain a deeper understanding of our human potential and our ability to heal from trauma. She is a firm believer in the probability of Post Traumatic Growth and has seen how the medicine can help reveal the blind spots that keep us from reaching a better understanding of ourselves and our purpose when administered in a therapeutic setting that supports personal growth. She feels fortunate to have connected with Vision Walkers Collective and have found a community dedicated to healing trauma and promoting positive ways of healing the earth.
Kate Flore
Board secretary
Kate Flore is a bodyworker, movement therapist, and Gestalt facilitator. She lives and practices at Moss Village where Vision Walkers Collective was conceived in Nevada City, CA. She is inspired by people and the many paths we take and is engaged in supporting, connecting, and creating learning communities for practitioner skill development.
She has masters’ degrees in public health and occupational therapy, worked in public health policy for a decade, is trained in the Gyrotonic and Feldenkrais Methods, Pilates, and is a certified Esalen massage therapist. In addition to serving as board secretary for Vision Walkers Collective, she teaches at the Esalen Institute, and is developing a student community clinic for low-cost bodywork. She is also in long-term study of Gestalt Relational Therapy with Dorothy Charles and Chris Price. Learn more about Kate here.