Golden Drum is pleased to announce the launch of ARA Healing Arts School, guided by community members Brooke Hamre Gillespie and Nicole Adriana Casanova. ARA Healing Arts honors and integrates the sacred traditions of humanity that support awakening, consciousness, and holistic healing. Brooke and Nicole bring over twenty years each of dedicated study and practice in traditional healing arts and spiritual lineages.
This year-long, 150-hour training program supports personal healing and awakening, while also addressing interpersonal and planetary healing across all levels of relationship—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. To launch in late April 2026, the course is designed to cultivate awareness, balance, and responsibility in how we relate to ourselves, others, and the world.
ARA Healing Arts School Apprenticeship is open to participants of all experience levels. Throughout the year, students will be introduced to a wide range of healing modalities and practices, including breath, dance, sound, sacred art making, lightwork, astrology, yoga, Reiki, tarot, earth-based traditions, elemental work, Ayurveda, and other complementary healing techniques. Our training also illuminates friendship and good relationships as crucial for ongoing growth and well-being in our lives.
This extended format allows for a deep and holistic exploration of the healing arts, providing sustained support for each participant’s inner journey. Unlike short-term or weekend-based training, this year-long container offers the time, continuity, and personal guidance necessary to develop a grounded, foundational, and integrated healing practice. The program is intentionally designed to support long-term growth, self-awareness, and embodiment, fostering expanded consciousness, heightened sensitivity, and open-hearted presence.
The first year of ARA Healing Arts School focuses on self-discovery as the foundation of healing work. Participants will explore energetic anatomy, including the chakras and subtle bodies, as well as sound, frequency, astrology, embodiment practices, energetic hygiene, and the unique modalities that resonate with each individual’s healing path. As the year progresses, participants will also begin learning how to work with others, with an emphasis on ethical practice, self-awareness, and continual personal healing.
Guest teachers will be invited throughout the year to share their specialized knowledge and lived experience with participants. In addition, students will have the opportunity to participate in two immersive retreats: one held in Upstate New York in August 2026, and a second retreat offered in Winter 2026 or Spring of 2027.
Through a combination of online and in-person workshops, activations, and experiential learning, participants are guided through a heart-centered journey designed to bring the mind, body, heart, and spirit into deeper alignment—with the self, the Earth, the cosmos, and all relations.
To join this life-affirming apprenticeship program FILL OUT THIS FORM and Brooke and Nicole will set up an interview with you.
INVESTMENT:
Early Bird (Prior to Feb 25th) $2799 (payment plans available)
Regular (Post Feb 25th) $3299 (payment plans available)
ARA HA Full Year-Long Schedule with Module Descriptions*
All weekday modules are from 7pm to 10pm - half are online on Zoom, and half are in-person at Golden Drum.
The Reiki Level 1 & 2 Initiations are from 12pm to 8pm
Some modules will be available for à la carte individual registration, and they will be posted online as individual events.
Only some of the modules will be available to people attending à la carte.
None of the Reiki initiation modules will be offered à la carte.
Module 1: Opening ARA HA| The Path of Healing - Tuesday, March 24th - In-Person
Module 2: Intertribal Healing Practices - Tuesday, March 31st - Online
Module 3: The Power of Intention - Tuesday, April 7th - In-Person
Module 4: The Reiki Tradition - Tuesday, April 14th - Online
Module 5: 4 Elements & The 7 Directions - Tuesday, May 12th - Online
Module 6: Intro to Energetic Hygiene | Psychic Space - Tuesday, May 19th - In-Person
Module 7 : Reiki Level 1 Initiation - Sunday, May 30th - In-Person
Module 8 : Study of the 7 Chakras | The Energy Body - Tuesday, June 9th - In-Person
Module 9 : Personal Astrology - Tuesday, June 16th - Online
Module 10 : Psychology & Numerology - Tuesday, July 7th - In-Person
Module 11 : Healing Archetypes & Tarot - Tuesday, July 28th - Online
Upstate New York Healing Retreat: August 1st - 6th - In-Person
Module 12 : Ayurveda and healthy lifestyle - September 1st - Online
Module 13: True Voice - Vocal Opening & Exploration - September 15th - In-Person
Module 14: Reiki Level 2 Preparation Tuesday, October 6th - Online
Module 15: Reiki Level 2 Initiation - Sunday, October 25th - In-Person
Module 16: Reiki Mantras, Symbols, Long Distance Healing - Tuesday, November 3rd - Online
Module 17: Working with Crystals and Crystal Spreads - Thursday, November 19th - In-Person
Module 18: Sound Meditation & Healing Art - Tuesday, January 12th - Online
Module 19: Habits & Addictive Behaviours - Tuesday, January 26th - In-Person
Module 20: Herbal Medicine - Tuesday, February 2nd - In-Person
Module 21: Lunar Knowledge - Tuesday, February 23rd - Online
Module 22: Shamanic Western Medicine & The Medical System Tuesday, March 9th - Online
Module 23: Community Reiki Practice Closing Celebration - Tuesday, March 23rd - In-Person
*This programming may change to include the presence of elders and guests staying at the Golden Drum.
** The ARA HA Healing Immersion Retreat is an optional yet deeply nourishing extension of the training program we have designed to support your personal healing journey. While not required for program completion, this retreat is an invitation to slow down, reconnect, and tend to yourself as both student and healer.
Throughout the retreat, you will be guided through immersive self-care and ceremonial practices, including the creation of a shamanic drum or rattle, cacao and fire ceremonies, personal healing sessions, sacred art-making, and water-based therapies. You will be nourished by high-vibration vegetarian meals and held by the natural beauty of upstate New York, with time to rest, reflect, and enjoy its waterfalls and forests.
Offered at an additional cost to the program tuition, the ARA HA Healing Immersion Retreat is intended to deepen and embody the teachings explored throughout the training. It provides a safe, supportive container for personal exploration, integration, and profound healing. Participants enrolled in the year-long program will receive a discounted rate for the retreat.
All registered participants in the ARA Healing Arts apprenticeship program will be able to attend at a significant discount.
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Brooke Hamre Gillespie is a peace weaver, devoted to supporting humanity’s awakening to peace and self-realization through healing, sound, yoga, astrology, music, education, sacred arts, and earth-based wisdom practices. A student of Maestro Manuel Rufino, she has spent the past sixteen years traveling and learning with him, exploring many healing modalities in service of cultivating a global community rooted in peace, love, and universal wisdom. Brooke is a member of the Golden Drum, a cultural center for consciousness, and a member of the Universal Initiatic College, an initiatory path weaving together the sacred traditions of humanity. Brooke is a founder of Dream Seed, a sound-healing collective that brings together sounds and music from cultures around the world as well as original compositions. She is married and is the mother of two beautiful boys. She has over 25 years of experience with learning, studying, and sharing the healing arts, and is a student of life, continuously learning and expanding her knowledge and understanding.
Nicole Adriana Casanova is of Taino descent and a devoted student of Maestro Manuel Rufino, the Universal Initiatic College and the Intertribal Altar. She is a servant to the Earth, the Great Spirit and Humanity. Nicole has been studying, practicing and teaching different traditional health, wisdom, and healing modalities for over 20 years, offering transformational workshops, training, corporate wellness programs, and retreats all over the world.