Workshops taught by Atava Garcia Swiecicki


What Atava offers are time-tested, natural alternatives to an increasingly synthetic world. Herbs are an important part of our heritage, things our own ancestors knew and used with great success. I appreciate the wisdom embodied by this course. I sincerely hope others will be able to take advantage of the opportunity- we can all use this information.


Roberto Paez

School of Medicine

UC Davis

Visit this page regularly for an updated schedule of Atava's upcoming classes.

flower essence

Making a chaparral flower essence

Atava regularly teaches classes throughout Northern California. Her classes include An Introduction to Herbal Medicine, Flower Essence Therapy, Herbal Medicine Making, Indigenous Science, Dreams as Mythic Metaphor, and Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Healing. Her teaching venues include UC Berkeley, Naropa University Oakland, the Northern California Women's Herbal Symposium, the Bay Area Herbal Symposium, and The Ohlone Center for Herbal Studies. Atava always welcomes new teaching opportunities. Please contact her if you are interested in having her teach at your school or university.



Upcoming Classes


Emotional Healing with Herbal Medicine

Date: 2 Saturdays, May 26th and June 9th

Time: 1 pm- 6 pm

Location: 3798 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA

Medicinal plants & flowers, given to us with love from Mother Earth/Tonantzin can be important allies on our path of emotional healing. They can help us to recognize, release, transform & heal our emotions.

In this class we will each create our own healing herbal/flower essence remedy for ourselves. In the time between sessions, we will work with our remedies and document our healing process.
In this class we will discuss the thirteen aires (emotional airs/states) and herbs that can be used to address them. Some of the aires we will discuss are susto (shock, fright), coraje (anger), tristesa (sadness), and verguenza (shame).

You will learn simple, practical ways to incorporate herbal medicine into your life to assist you in your healing path.

Afterwards, Atava will be available for mini herbal consultations to help create for you a personalized herbal formula to support your own healing.

Cost: $225

To Register: $100 deposit required to save your space. Balance due at first class.

The Curandera/o's Toolkit

Date: Mondays, February 13- March 26

Time: 10:00 am- 12:30 pm

Location: 3798 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA


Ancient cultural healing systems like curanderismo have much wisdom to offer us on our healing paths. In this class, you will learn the basics of holistic healing from the perspective of Mexican curanderismo.

We will explore the basic concepts of health and illness and how it impacts our body, mind & spirit. We will work with the healing energy of the sacred elements, with an emphasis on herbal medicine.

Class time includes a local herb walk so you can get to know how to recognize and use our local medicinal plants. In class you will also have a chance to make and take home many different herbal medicine preparations.

Cost: $250

To Register: $100 deposit required to save you space. Balance due at first class.

Dreaming into 2012: Prophecy, Guidance & Healing

Date: 8 Thursdays, February 23- April 19

Time: 9:30 am- 11:30 am

Location: 3798 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA

This is a dream group facilitated by Atava Garcia Swiecicki.

This dreamgroup is dedicated to remembering our indigenous ways of knowing through community dream work. The focus of this dream group will be on receiving and sharing the important messages from the spiritual world in this prophetic year of 2012. We will work with ritual, art, tarot, guided meditation, and plant spirit medicine to enhance the dreamwork process.

Cost: $325

To Register: Application required and $100 to save your space in this group. Payment in full required at the time of the first session. Email atava@ancestralapothecary.com for application.

Slavic Ancestral Remembrance & Healing Circles: Oakland workshop

Date: 3/2, 4/6, 5/4, 6/1 and 6/16

Time: time

Location: 3798 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA

These circles are a space for exploring and remembering the indigenous mind of our Slavic ancestors. Class time will include prayer, ritual, dreamwork, genealogical work and other methods of indigenous science to help to activate our remembrance process.

This work is based on my studies and training in the Indigenous Mind Program and the pioneering work of my mentor Dr. Apela Colorado, founder of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network.

As a Master's degree student, I deeply explored my Polish ancestral roots and wrote about my process in my thesis entitled: Journey Into My Polish Indigenous Mind.

Cost: $375

To Register: Application required and $100 deposit to secure your space. Please email atava@ancestralapothecary.com for an application.

Slavic Ancestral Remembrance & Healing Circles: Teleseminar

Date: April 2012 and June 16th, 2012

Time: time

Location: Telephone or internet

See description for Oakland class.
For those of you who don't live in the Bay Area, I will be starting teleseminar in April. Please contact me if you're interested. I will try to pick a time that works for people in multiple time zones.

Teleclass students will be welcome to join us in person on the June 16th class.

Cost: TBA

To Register: Email atava@ancestralapothecary.com.

plant meditation

Meditation with plants in the desert

teaching in poland

Atava teaching Slavic Ancestral Rememberance in Poland

making essence

Finishing our flower essences

circle in Poland

Workshops at Klub Gaja in Poland