Testimonials
Annie was my mentor during a sensitive, confusing, painful and very difficult part of my life’s journey, about 4 years in total. She always, without fail, helped me to reconnect and deepen my relationship with Nature, to the authentic within my own psyche, the tendrils of my own Soul. She helped me to trust myself and the world around me because she validated my own experience of what life is, my perception of how it moves through me, my emotions, my thoughts, my dreams. She was a mirror for my own Soul. How does she do this so skilfully? Annie has the rare gift of being non-judgmental. It is easy to say this, but to truly live it? Well, she does and this purity of perception sings out of the clarity of her blue eyes. Her heart is warm and loving, and you will be held tenderly throughout whatever process you are going through. Her depth of sweetness is moving and inspiring. But don’t be fooled. The first thought I have when I think of Annie, is that she is the ‘Bones of the Earth’, along with Fire and Rock. I am convinced the Earth speaks through her. She is a steadfast guide on the journey, a protector, a warrior Elder no less. I feel blessed and deeply grateful to know her in this precious life, and to me she is precious.
Danielle Quist age 35
Educator
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I was fortunate to meet Annie Bloom early on in my own trajectory of nature-based, soul-furthering learning, who in her clarity of in/sight and deep intuitive ability, offered stepping stones to me as I crossed the raging sea from a well-developed strategic and academically inclined mind toward the shores of my own soul’s purpose.
Her exquisite attunement takes nothing for granted. She is an extraordinarily deep listener who taps into her own body wisdom as she skillfully detects more of what lies beneath the river of another's words. Her honest and open questions invite the necessary amplification required to adequately heat and stir the cauldrons of wild soul. She intuitively just knows where those precise yet unmapped places of necessary risk lie buried that beg for deeper excavation and exploration. And she takes you there.
A true hand-maiden to soul, Annie fearlessly slows to look twice in res-pect of what is miraculously unfolding, she can courageously look into the eyes of what is padding softly at the corners of psyche with you, tune into and pick up on the languages of plants and trees, the syntax of sky and cloud, stars and moon, and the wild vernacular of dreams. Annie holds up a clear and heart-centred mirror reflecting back vivid imagery, ancient archetypes, and thematic threads that can help illuminate patterns of profound understanding while revealing one's own gifts. Carefully crafted nature-based assignments in between sessions helped me further my inward and outward journey, let the world and I to converse regularly, offered nature as teacher, left me often with a sense of revelation and awe.
Our mentorship was clearly one of reciprocity. It was evident to me that Annie was at all times consciously aware of and doing her own soulwork which facilitated her ability to provide authentic, clear and true guidance which is of course necessary for the integrity of the relationship if it is to be real. Never arrogant or inflated, always deeply humbled by her own apprenticeship to the wild intelligence of the universe, Annie is living out her soul’s true calling, a shining and beautiful example of the archetype of Mentor. I whole-heartedly recommend you work with Annie if you are interested in bringing yourself more alive and more fully exploring your genuine (genius) path of soul, awakening what waits inside of you to be called into service to the whole.
Dr. Hilary Leighton, age 56
Director of Individualized Studies, Royal Roads University
Ecopsychologist at True Nature Counselling & Psychotherapy
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When I reflect on the years of being mentored by Annie, the words of this poem by Beno Kennedy surface: "Do you love yourself enough to listen with the ears of your heart to the other voices of yourself speaking?
The ears of Annie's heart are profoundly rooted in a garden, long tended by her loving hands. It is there that human wisdom blooms in exquisite beauty. Feasting from the bounty of Annie's garden, I have witnessed my once disheartening story take the shape of a mytho-poetic paradise - transformed by the skillful soil preparations that only Master gardeners can repeatedly create. Annie's own steadiness of soul, like the body of the earth, have been an anchor of trust from which I have leapt and dove, into my own oceanic depths. Together, we have marveled at the gems brought back from my journeys, and watched them, one by one, form into my soul's crown jewels.
To be heard by Annie, is to be loved by her. And that ~ has been a great privilege of my life.
Deirdre Jenkins age 50
Singer / Songwriter
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Annie's ability to hold the focus on the deep and wide meaning of my life is astounding. I can often sense that events in my life are moving me in a direction of deeper learning and meaning, and it is Annie's skillful guiding that connects the pieces from the past with where I am now and where I am going. I come away from sessions with her with several things: a sense of a path that is unfolding and where my next step on that path lies, a clearer sense of myself as a sparkling woman and unfolding human, and a renewed trust in myself. I feel uplifted, challenged, and engaged in my work with Annie. I love that I have this consistent place in my life to come home to my real self, and then take that sense of myself and move through my life. Annie brings compassion, grit, love, and wisdom to my process.
Gina Kellogg Age 60
Founder of Leadership That Works
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After returning home from the first program I attended guided by Annie, I knew I would never see the world in the same way again. So much had opened up to me in just five days, as her questions, suggestions, insights, and teachings led me into a new relatedness with all of creation--past, present, and yet to come. Before, I had merely believed in such a relatedness; now, it was something I experienced. To deepen into further experiences of the holy in nature, to learn to listen to my heart's desire to love all of the world with more passion, I knew I would need ongoing support, so I asked Annie to mentor me. In our ongoing telephone conversations since then, I have been so delighted and helped by her ability to track and gather the various threads of my story into exquisite mirroring that invites me to see myself and my life purpose in new ways. Mentoring with Annie is one of the most valuable gifts I have ever given myself because of the immensity of what I have received from her.
Hugh Grant Age 48
Episcopalian Minister / LCSW
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Annie Bloom is a truly gifted guide and mentor. She knows her way equally through the earthly landscapes as well as those of the human psyche and soul. She mentors with a gentle and very confident hand, all the while leading one to greater depth, insight and action.I have had the privilege of being mentored by Annie for two years now, and I so much appreciate her grounded-ness, her wisdom, her honesty, and the way she is always doing her own work. She mirrors me in a way that I can see myself, know my purpose, and see my life as I am living it. What a gift it is to be mentored by Annie!
Michael Cohen Age 65
Psychotherapist / Life Coach
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Annie and Niles have nested into this Earth the DreamSeed of something incredibly special. It is the Seed of something for which the world yearns and cries out for—a place dreamed, brought forth, and now tended by the hands of two souls whose presence in my life, as mentors, guides, and weavers of Beauty, has initiated me into a life of planting, tending, and living into being the Seed of my soul’s truest gift to the world—a life that before being connected with them, i had only caught glimpses of from a place of immense longing and grief.
They weave a patchwork blanket of Beauty’s wholeness from the fragmented, torn, and knotted fabric of our human lives. With their loving guidance, i have been supported unto a path of re-membering my own sacred story and place amidst Holy Earth. Perhaps this, most of all, is what is to me so different and particularly special about Niles’ and Annie’s way of guiding—they are wild, holy Re-memberers. Their deep listening and deep seeing, especially during this time of such cultural dismemberment, numbness, and denigration, gifted me the opportunity to hear and see sacred Beauty reflected back and assimilated into a shawl of vision and nurturance, with which i could adorn myself as i walked amidst the complexity of birthing forth my truest soul's art and genius.
Where an industrial culture of treating life as expendable sees only fragments and shards, Niles and Annie have carefully gathered these broken pieces to craft a refuge of Beauty. Within this is a wild re-membering and re-storying not only of our human souls, but of the soul of the world.
shae keane age 24
Writer, Social Activist, Farmer