Healing the Land Begins with Healing the Farmer

Guest Blog by Sarah Robertson

Gail Fuller facilitating a workshop on farmer self healing.

One of the most powerful workshop sessions hosted by Holistic Management International at the 2025 REGENERATE Conference was led by Holistic Management practitioner and world-renowned regenerative farmer Gail Fuller.  Having farmed conventional monoculture commodity crops for decades, Fuller’s shift to regenerative, whole-system practices had a deep effect on more than just his farm.  With a unique authenticity, Fuller shared a personal journey of mental health crises and healing—a struggle that, though many farmers experience, we do not talk about enough as a community.

The workshop offered participants a time for deep self-reflection, connection with community, and an invitation to look at their own well-being as an integral piece of the “whole” that is their farm.  Fuller curated an environment that encouraged vulnerability, connection, and sharing that led to lots of participation and community-building.  As one attendee wrote in their evaluation, “This was very powerful, especially when the attendees participated in sharing about themselves.”

Many left the workshop with a new, “regenerative” perspective of self-care as well as an invigorated drive to make key adjustments in their own lives and farms.  100% of the participants completing the evaluation said they would recommend this workshop to others. 50% reported knowledge change and 100% intend to change practices as a result of this workshop.

Through identifying personal strengths and weaknesses and reflecting on what working the land truly means to us as land stewards, lessons from this workshop were that connection to community, mental health, spirituality, and diet were all key points that should be included in a farmer’s self-care.  Like Gail says, you can’t regenerate the farm without regenerating the farmer.

Read more about Gail’s story at this blog. Watch this video to find out more about Gail Fuller and his journey.

Thanks to the Thornburg Foundation for their support of this workshop.