Bill Plotkin, Ph.D.
Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute in 1981, he has guided thousands of women and men through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision fast. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. In 1979, on a solo winter ascent of an Adirondack peak, Bill experienced a call to adventure, leading him to abandon academia in search of his true calling. Bill is the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche (an experiential guidebook), Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World (a nature-based stage model of human development through the entire lifespan), Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche (an ecocentric map of the psyche — for healing, growing whole, and cultural transformation), and The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries (an experiential guidebook for the descent to soul). He has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Events with Bill Plotkin, Ph.D.
Sweet Darkness – November 2024, New ZealandNovember 13 - 17, 2024
SWEET DARKNESS: The Initiatory Gifts of the Shadow, Projections, Subpersonalities, and the Sacred Wound is Animas Valley Institute’s most intense five-day immersion. Accordingly, we require that people have participated in previous Animas programs before applying to Sweet Darkness. During Sweet Darkness, we will do some Core Wound work but first we will gather our four facets of wholeness — internal resources that support us in traveling effectively into uncharted territory. Then we will experientially enter the realm of our greatest vulnerabilities and our core sensitivities. Through experiential practices, we will explore how our Core Wound may be re-mythologized into a Sacred Wound. (Sweet Darkness is not recommended if you are in a time of…
Deep Imagination, Soulcraft, and the Reanimation of the World – November 2024, New ZealandNovember 20 - 24, 2024
A shifting, leafy canopy casts green shadows on the forest floor. A creature appears: tall and upright, hair braided, body draped in earth fibers and verdant silks, human-like but not tame. She turns your way and perhaps you shudder, recognizing that she may know you better than you do. The trees lean in, listening. The exuberant, inter-species conversations that animate our planet are nearby – very near – as is the mysterious terrain of soul, where we might encounter strange, alluring, cryptic, unbidden images, creatures, or impressions. Deep imagination is a portal to the terra mysterium of soul and to…
REGISTRATION for Nature & the Human Soul: An Experiential Training in the Soulcentric Developmental Wheel Online - January, 2025January 9 - February 20, 2025
Important note: This intensive is a training program designed for people with a professional or personal interest specifically in the Soulcentric Developmental Wheel. The training is anchored in experiential exercises as well as lectures and discussions, but this program is not a good choice for people primarily seeking an introduction to the work of Animas or an experiential dive into our Wild Mind work or into the journey of soul initiation. For the latter purposes, any of our Animas immersions that are not trainings would be much better choices. This training is designed primarily for those we call professional human development guides (PHDGs) and for PHDGs…
Nature & the Human Soul: An Experiential Training in the Soulcentric Developmental Wheel Online - January, 2025January 9 - February 20, 2025
Important note: This intensive is a training program designed for people with a professional or personal interest specifically in the Soulcentric Developmental Wheel. The training is anchored in experiential exercises as well as lectures and discussions, but this program is not a good choice for people primarily seeking an introduction to the work of Animas or an experiential dive into our Wild Mind work or into the journey of soul initiation. For the latter purposes, any of our Animas immersions that are not trainings would be much better choices. This training is designed primarily for those we call professional human development guides (PHDGs) and for PHDGs…