Reconnecting with Our Roots:

Ancestral Lineage Healing Circle

Asheville, North Carolina — Cherokee Land | March and April 2026

Our ancestors live within us. None of us would be here without their life-force, courage and intelligence. For each one of us, it is possible to access their love and wisdom. Connecting with our ancestors is relearning an essential human skill. Much like cooking or making art, all human cultures honored relationships with their living elders and with their ancestors. As we reconnect to ancestral wisdom, we can find a renewed sense of belonging, purpose and compassion.

We live in times of profound social, political and ecological unraveling. We cannot avoid the influence of previous generations on our lives and societies. Our ancestors carry wounds from oppression, war, migration and other collective traumas. We can see this on every scale, from persistent family “traits” (i.e. inherited traumatic patterning) to the continuation of collective patterns of harm, such as policing and ICE violence as legacies of slave patrols and institutionalized white supremacy in what is now the U.S. Reckoning with ancestral burdens and reclaiming ancestral gifts is as vital as ever to help create the world we dream of.

In this 6-week experiential circle, we will facilitate connection with our wise ancestors and initiate healing with one of your lineages. The practices are safe and accessible. The work is held in an anti-supremacist, earth-honoring way. People of all cultural and spiritual backgrounds and identities are warmly welcome. No knowledge of your ancestry and no prior experience are required, though a background in ritual and personal healing can be supportive. Together, we will co-create a culturally aware, welcoming and trauma-informed container to hold us in this sacred healing practice.

Session Dates & Info

Sessions will be held on Wednesday evenings (with one exception, see below) from 6:30-8:30pm on:

March 4, 11, 18, 25, 30 (note: March 30 is a Monday evening due to Passover starting that week) and April 8

As this practice is cumulative and in order to support a strong group container, I ask that you plan to attend all 6 sessions. Please reach out directly if you are interested in joining but not available for all sessions.

Payment

$108-324 total ($18-54 per session)

I am committed to this circle being financially accessible. If you are interested in joining but the low end of the sliding scale is not accessible, please reach out directly. I don’t want cost to be a barrier to participation.

To account for the impact of colonization and racism, Cherokee people, people of African-heritage and undocumented people are welcome to participate at no cost.

Payment options: Total payment made before the course starts or two payments each of half the total fee. If you need a different payment plan, please contact me directly.

About our location, Conspire Studio

Address: 181 Charlotte St, Ste #200, Asheville, NC 28801 (near downtown Asheville)

Entry to Conspire Studio is up one flight of stairs.

Conspire Studio is a community gathering space that offers guided group creative practice and one-on-one coaching to encourage resilient, soulful ways of being in times of change. Explore their offerings here.

Register for the Circle Here

Facilitator

Elah Zakarin is devoted to healing personal, ancestral and collective wounds and helping create a more just, beautiful world. He offers ancestral lineage healing and Internal Family Systems (IFS) sessions for clients around the world. Elah has been an ancestral lineage healing practitioner for over 5 years and is a lead teacher with Ancestral Medicine. He is currently training to lead 3-day ancestral lineage healing intensives and is in Judaism Unbound’s unique model of transformative Jewish leadership. Elah’s grounded, dynamic and heart-centered approach rests on a fundamental trust in our innate wholeness and draws from somatics, earth-based Jewish spirituality, Buddhist training, energy work and a commitment to collective social change. He believes both that collective transformation begins with personal transformation — we create what we are — and that individuals can never fully heal without widespread social change and an end to harmful systems — we become what we have created. His beloved ancestors are Ashkenazi Jews most recently from Poland, Russia and France and his heart most sings while walking in the forest alongside running water. Read more about Elah here.

Feel free to contact me with any questions here.

Additional Resources on Ancestral Lineage Healing:

  1. Ancestral Wisdom: Sacred Stories of Contact, Healing and Care. Written in 2022, my essay in this anthology tells my story of immersing in Zen Buddhist practice, returning to my ancestral Jewish traditions, navigating complex ancestral contact and finding healing.

  2. “Held in a field of love: Connecting with the ancestors & living world” by Elah Zakarin, Parts & Self Magazine, 2023. This short article explores ancestral lineage healing and Internal Family Systems (IFS) as complementary healing practices.

  3. The ancestral lineage healing method was developed by Ancestral Medicine and Daniel Foor. If you would like to learn about this method in more depth, consider the introductory talk linked on this page.

While this practice is trauma-informed and often therapeutic, this circle is not intended as group psychotherapy. This practice can bring up complex personal, family and cultural challenges. I encourage participants to seek out additional support as needed, through 1-1 sessions with me or other practitioners.

This course is not a training in how to offer individual or group ancestral healing sessions. It is intended only for educational and self-growth purposes.