About The FERN Model The Network Become a Facilitator The Nest

 

Regenerating Roots was born as a vision long before it became a project.

 

In 2015, Gaby Portilla and Koru Zebley began asking a question that would quietly reorganize the course of their lives: what would need to change for humans to truly heal? Not just individually, but collectively, beyond symptom management, beyond systems that perpetuate disconnection, and into ways of living that restore coherence between people, community, and the Earth.

 

That question led them into years of exploration. They immersed themselves in shamanism, ecospirituality, and deep inquiry into the human condition, questioning inherited paradigms around education, parenting, health, and what it means to be in right relationship with life. The work of Bill Plotkin and Joanna Macy became important anchors during this time, offering a language for transformation that included both psyche and planet.

 

In 2016, a key piece of the puzzle emerged when they met their friend Ruben Alvarado in Mexico. Through one of his offerings, they were introduced to the world of self-directed education, not as an alternative method, but as a fundamentally different way of understanding learning, autonomy, and human development. Something clicked. It wasn’t a new idea to adopt, but a recognition of something deeply true.

 

Years later, life brought the most transformative initiation of all: becoming parents to a neurosensitive, neurodivergent child. This experience dismantled any remaining illusions of control and forced a full-body confrontation with everything that doesn’t work in conventional parenting, education, and societal structures. What they thought would be a family plan became instead a profound journey of expansion, into regulation, humility, and a much deeper relationship with truth.

 

Regenerating Roots emerged from that lived integration.

 

It is not a single modality or framework, but a cohesive ecosystem shaped by over 40 years of combined experience, study, and direct practice. It weaves together disciplines such as evolutionary psychology, developmental trauma, somatics and trauma-informed care, resilience-focused therapy, child development, and self-directed education, alongside deep ecology, ecospirituality, ethology, ancestral healing, shamanic practices, and vibrational medicine.

 

At its core, Regenerating Roots exists to restore coherence, within individuals, within families, and within the systems we are part of. It recognizes that learning, healing, and development are not separate processes, but expressions of the same living system.

 

Today, this vision comes to life through projects such as Family Sensitive, Dog Sensitive, the FERN Model, facilitator training pathways, one on one sessions, and immersive retreats. Across these spaces, we guide processes of transformation, embodiment of our true humanity, and decolonization through a wide range of themes and experiences. Each of these initiatives functions as a living laboratory, places where these principles are not simply taught, but fully lived and embodied.

 

Regenerating Roots is, ultimately, an invitation: to move from fragmentation to integration, from control to trust, and from surviving inherited systems to actively participating in the creation of new ones.

 

Regenerating Roots was born as a vision long before it became a project.

 

In 2015, Gaby Portilla and Koru Zebley began asking a question that would quietly reorganize the course of their lives: what would need to change for humans to truly heal? Not just individually, but collectively, beyond symptom management, beyond systems that perpetuate disconnection, and into ways of living that restore coherence between people, community, and the Earth.

 

That question led them into years of exploration. They immersed themselves in shamanism, ecospirituality, and deep inquiry into the human condition, questioning inherited paradigms around education, parenting, health, and what it means to be in right relationship with life. The work of Bill Plotkin and Joanna Macy became important anchors during this time, offering a language for transformation that included both psyche and planet.

 

In 2016, a key piece of the puzzle emerged when they met their friend Ruben Alvarado in Mexico. Through one of his offerings, they were introduced to the world of self-directed education, not as an alternative method, but as a fundamentally different way of understanding learning, autonomy, and human development. Something clicked. It wasn’t a new idea to adopt, but a recognition of something deeply true.

 

Years later, life brought the most transformative initiation of all: becoming parents to a neurosensitive, neurodivergent child. This experience dismantled any remaining illusions of control and forced a full-body confrontation with everything that doesn’t work in conventional parenting, education, and societal structures. What they thought would be a family plan became instead a profound journey of expansion, into regulation, humility, and a much deeper relationship with truth.

 

Regenerating Roots emerged from that lived integration.

 

It is not a single modality or framework, but a cohesive ecosystem shaped by over 40 years of combined experience, study, and direct practice. It weaves together disciplines such as evolutionary psychology, developmental trauma, somatics and trauma-informed care, resilience-focused therapy, child development, and self-directed education, alongside deep ecology, ecospirituality, ethology, ancestral healing, shamanic practices, and vibrational medicine.

 

At its core, Regenerating Roots exists to restore coherence, within individuals, within families, and within the systems we are part of. It recognizes that learning, healing, and development are not separate processes, but expressions of the same living system.

 

Today, this vision comes to life through projects such as Family Sensitive, Dog Sensitive, the FERN Model, facilitator training pathways, one on one sessions, and immersive retreats. Across these spaces, we guide processes of transformation, embodiment of our true humanity, and decolonization through a wide range of themes and experiences. Each of these initiatives functions as a living laboratory, places where these principles are not simply taught, but fully lived and embodied.

 

Regenerating Roots is, ultimately, an invitation: to move from fragmentation to integration, from control to trust, and from surviving inherited systems to actively participating in the creation of new ones.